- April 24, 2024
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‘It gives the patients great relief and comfort’
After learning to play the piano as a boy, Marvin Sherzer, of Ormond Beach, didn’t play again for 46 years.
He said recently that he thinks it was his way of rebelling.
“My mother wanted me to play piano, while I wanted to go out and play baseball,” he said.
He was able to quit piano when he was a teen, and concentrate on baseball. He became good enough to play in the minor league for the San Diego Padres for a couple of years, beginning in 1969.
He never thought about playing again until one day in 2008. It was the day his mother died. He said he walked over to a piano and began to play.
Sherzer is playing piano a lot these days. He is the therapeutic musician for patients at Florida Hospital Peninsula Rehabilitation, located at Florida Hospital Oceanside.
He said he came to realize the benefits of music when both of his parents were in hospice care before they passed away. He remembers how soothing it was for his dad when a harpist played.
A 29-year resident of Ormond Beach, Sherzer recently became certified in therapeutic music after taking a two-year course in Tampa. He is semi-retired from the insurance business.
He started work at the rehab center last month. Lindsay Rew, media manager for Florida Hospital, said he is the only therapeutic musician to be employed at any of their hospitals in Volusia and Flagler counties.
Sherzer got the job after volunteering to work as an intern and demonstrating the effectiveness of the music.
“Patients have loved having him here,” said Charlie Brown, inpatient rehabilitation services manager. “While Marvin plays, the patients find great relief and comfort. It gives them a break from the normal push of therapy.”
Brown remembers one particular patient, a young stroke victim that had been very unresponsive to any kind of therapy.
“After five minutes of music, he lit up,” Brown said.
Brown also said he noticed that music helps with pain management.
Merzer said he plays an “arrhythmic” type of music for pain, which captures the attention of the patient, and takes their mind away from the pain.
To help stabilize a patient, he plays music at a certain rhythm to regulate the heartbeat.
“It like sitting by the ocean,” he said. “You hear the waves and you become more relaxed.”
For patients with dementia, he plays familiar music.
“In a nutshell, I play different types of music depending on the condition of the patient so that a healing environment can occur,” he said. “It’s based on the science of sound.”
Sherzer plays a lot of classical music, because there are a lot of notes, unlike modern, popular music.
It’s also important that music be played live, rather than on a radio or CD, Sherzer said. The vibration of the live music has a strong effect on the body.
“Music can regulate the body,” he said. “It’s the science of resonance.”
Also, he can vary the music as the need of the patient changes.
“We bring the human touch,” he said. “We bring them comfort, enrichment and distraction. It lulls people to sleep and that’s my greatest compliment.”
He said he remembers playing for a patient with terminal cancer. As he was playing “Stranger in Paradise,” she began to hold hands with her husband.
Another time, he was playing music for a stroke patient who had been totally unresponsive in therapy and wouldn’t move her hands. While he was playing, she began to move her hands in time with the music.
Helene Iacoviello of New Smyrna Beach, a current patient at Peninsula Rehabilitation, said the music is wonderful, especially after being in therapy all day.
“I love music,” she said. “It’s beautiful.”
Her son Lou, of Los Angeles, agreed.
“It puts a smile on her face,” he said.
