💡 What Makes Play It Forward Unique

1. Open and Inclusive for All Skill Levels
   – Anyone — from a high school saxophonist to a retired pianist — can take part.
   – No auditions, certifications, or fees required to start.
   – Encourages amateur musicianship as service, not as performance perfection.
2. Education + Empowerment Model
   – Most organizations book performances. Play It Forward teaches people to create their own.
   – Offers free/low-cost online training, outreach templates, song guides, and communication scripts.
3. Dual Focus: Individuals and Teachers
   – Unique emphasis on music teachers and ensembles — giving them tools to lead student trips into nursing homes.
   – Creates intergenerational benefits: young performers learn empathy and confidence while brightening others’ days.
4. Volunteerism and Joy, Not Professionalism or Therapy
   – Accessible without needing therapy credentials or a polished stage act.
   – Keeps the barrier low — just heart, music, and a willingness to share.
5. Scalable, Network-Based Approach
   – Encourages a global or national movement through local chapters, school clubs, and partner groups.
   – Easy to replicate anywhere: rural towns, suburbs, cities.
6. Community Recognition System
   – “Play It Forward Certified Musician” and “Community Music Partner” badges give a sense of belonging and pride.
   – Simple recognition replaces the need for formal credentials.
7. Low Cost, High Heart
   – Unlike therapeutic or booking programs, this can sustain itself through modest memberships, small grants, and grassroots donations.
   – Perfectly aligns with community arts and aging grants that look for scalable, volunteer-driven programs.

About Play it Forward

  

Our Goal
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​The goal of Play it Forward is to train, inspire, and support amateur musicians and music teachers to share live music with nursing homes and memory care. We want to help them discover how to perform, connect, and make a difference through their service and songs.
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How We Help
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1. Free and Open to All – For hobbyists, students, retirees, music teachers, choirs—no auditions or fees.
2. Education + Empowerment – Free online training, toolkits, and scripts that teach how to plan and deliver a show.  
3. Dual Focus – Supports both individual musicians and music teachers.​
4. Scalable Movement – Easy to replicate online or in any town. We'll help you give all the materials you'd need to do your own workshops in your own hometown​

​How This Started

My name's Brian, and during COVID my mom faded away in a memory care unit back in Iowa. After that, my 13-year old daughter and I started to experiment with playing a few shaky songs in memory care units in honor of her.  Two surprising things happened. 

​1. We improved as musicians and especially as entertainers.
2. We learned connecting with them was more important than being perfect.  
​

​Since then, dozens of local musicians have asked us how to do this, and both the North American Saxophone Academy (NASA), the New York State Council for the Arts (NYSCA), and Community Arts Partnership (CAP) of Tompkins County gave us grants to put together two workshops to teach musicians how to start playing in nursing homes.  

At that time, to break the stereotype that nursing home music would have to be boring, we called our three-hour workshops "Rock the Nursing Home." During them we would teach hesitant musicians how to create set lists, what equipment to bring, how to interact with residents, and so on.  Workshops culminated with optional Ride-along performances where, at a later date, we would take them to a memory care unit to play a couple songs in one of our shows if they wanted.

To make this available nationally, we changed the name to Play it Forward, and we created  videos, handouts, letter templates, posters, checklists, and guides to help all musicians.

In late 2025, the New York State Student Music Association (NYSSMA) awarded us a grant to adapt this program to make it available to secondary music choral, band, and orchestra music teachers and their students. Together with Dr. Elise Sobol (NYU), Jonathan Allentoff (Eastman), and Katherine Howell (Lansing, NY High School) we are expanding this to help music educators and students Play it Forward in student combos.

Please let us know any suggestions you have about how we could help you get started.

Here are some great groups with a related focus:

Special Audiences & Musicians (SAM) Local concert presentations in NYC.
(Play it Forward is national and teachable: we equip anyone, anywhere, to create their own community performances.)

Jazz Foundation of America -- Professional jazz/blues shows in care facilities
(Play it Forward is genre-free and inclusive: folk, country, pop, choir, student bands—everyone’s welcome.)

National Association of Therapeutic Musicians (NATM) -- Certified therapeutic practitioners in healthcare 
(Play it Forward is meant to be accessible to all: no certifications—just heart, music, and guidance.)

Play It for Seniors is a marketplace for paid entertainers
 (Play it Forward is more  focused giving, not gigging.)

Creative Aging, Music & Memory, etc. have a credible, academic healthcare focus
​(Play it Forward is a grassroots movement any musician can join.)

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