Professional drummer Claudia Paige, who once played with the likes of Frank Zappa and Jerry Garcia, is helping seniors stay active and find their rhythm with her nonprofit, Octopus RhythmWorks, a yoga ball drumming group. 

Paige started Octopus RhythmWorks after the COVID-19 pandemic when she saw seniors living in isolation without the ability to go out alone like the younger generations could. After watching Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory, a documentary about the effect of music on seniors with memory disorders, Paige says she saw the healing power music has and decided to do something to help. 

“Music provides neurological benefits,” Paige says. “It’s an opportunity for creativity and bonding.” 

Paige calls her program “rhythm healing” and uses music not just to teach self-healing, but also provide some physical exertion. Yoga ball drumming is exactly what it sounds like: hitting yoga balls with drum sticks. Paige gathers seniors in a circle, placing large yoga balls inside plastic tubs. For each session, Paige brings her yoga balls, tubs and drumsticks in her minivan. While she sets up, she often encourages seniors in the area to join if they haven’t before.

She says she chose yoga balls inside plastic tubs as it’s not as loud, which she says could have a negative impact on the seniors she works with. 

“When I’ve seen yoga ball drumming on YouTube, I should say it looks more like a spin class,” she says. “I wanted to do it differently, I wanted to be more relational.” 

John Green, a former resident of Esther at Riverbend Assisted Living who now lives in Washington, says he started joining the sessions with a friend. “This really gets the energy going in me every time they come, I just really enjoy it,” he says. Green says he believes the music helps him maintain his cognitive abilities and stay active. “You get pretty sedentary in an assisted care place, so I wanted to get some action going.” Paige says she has one resident at the Esther who is 104 and is “absolutely amazing.” 

In her groups, Paige says she’s seen the power music can have firsthand, like when she hosted a session at a memory care facility and seniors who were previously nonverbal began singing to old songs as the group bounced their yoga balls to the beat. “It’s super fun and everybody is learning how to work together,” she says. “It’s really about reactivating memories.” 

Paige recently went through a certification program with the New York Institute for Music and Neurologic Function to better her skills in working with seniors experiencing memory issues. “It added more tools to my tool belt,” she says.  

Octopus RhythmWorks started in 2022 and since then, it’s grown to serve over 25 senior communities and host around four to six classes each week. She also partnered with the city of Eugene Recreation to host weekly classes at the Petersen Barn Community Center, starting in September. “It’s to get a little more independent seniors to come out, but I get folks of all ages,” Paige says. “My youngest person [at the barn] right now is in her mid 20s and my oldest person is 86.” Octopus RhythmWorks will continue with the city of Eugene through December.

Paige says she fine tunes her program to each community, choosing music that the seniors know well. “I try to do a mix, and not just old, tiny Frank Sinatra old-time music,” Paige says. “I do a mix of older music like that, to Patsy Cline, to Aretha Franklin, to Elvis, to just a little bit of everything.” 

For more information, visit OctopusRhythmWorks.Org.