Masked musician Griffin Moyer strummed a rendition of the 1910 classic “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” Friday morning at LIFE Butler County’s assisted living home in Butler. Then he invited his audience to turn the song on its head.

“What’s something you do during Halloween?” he asked. “Trick or treat? Anything else?”

“You can say, ‘Let me call you scarecrow,” said Anna Hansel, one of the residents at Butler LIFE Senior Center. “That probably wouldn’t be very nice.”

“Oh! ‘Let me call you scarecrow!’” said Moyer. “OK!”

Residents laughed as Moyer worked an array of Halloween-inspired verses into the group’s parody. “Let me hear you whisper that you love me too” became “Ghosts and goblins scare me, but hopefully not you, too,” and “Keep the love-light glowing” became “Keep the Jack-O-Lantern glowing.”

Hansel remarked that the new creation was turning out like a Weird Al Yankovic song.

Moyer, who studies music therapy through Slippery Rock University, spends an hour each week teaching seniors to jam in ways all their own during the sessions. His program aims to improve exercise and socialization, while warding off the specters of depression, anxiety and pain.

He enjoys the chance to improvise and hone musical skills in a relaxed, spontaneous environment.

“So, as a student, we’re supposed to have session plans, where we have ideas of what we’re going to do during the session,” he said. “I’m a senior now, and sophomore year and junior year I was very strict with following my session plans, but with how comfortable that is in in the session, I don’t really follow what I have down anymore.”

“I’m reading the room more,” he said. “It’s more like, this is where we are; match the energy — not necessarily change or destroy the energy, or, like, break it.”

Ingrid Tallarico, who oversees the LIFE Butler County music therapy program, refers to seniors who attend the program as “participants” instead of as “clients.”

“I really like the fact that you’re able to help other people find their potential,” said Tallarico, a licensed music therapist. “A lot of people are unaware that they are incapable of producing music in one way or another. It allows people to kind of come out of their comfort zone a little bit easier. It fosters more of a comfortable setting, a fun setting.”

“Predominantly when people come out of sessions they’re feeling better,” said Tallarico. “They feel that there has been a benefit, and not only that. If you’re keeping clinical evidence, there is evidence that the music therapy is working.”

Music therapy as we know it has actually been around since the 1940s, she said.

“But it’s becoming more and more accepted,” she said. “More people are hearing about it. It’s just that it provides people with a different avenue. Sometimes people will react better to music therapy, because it’s kind of a different way to go about trying to achieve goals.”

People with an interest in music therapy, or its benefits, can find research on this at the American Music Therapy Association website.

There is a difference, however, between music therapy and therapeutic music, she said. Music as entertainment is more of a service, but music therapy is intentional and follows a procedure.

Music therapists require degrees to perform their services professionally. While board certification is not required, per se, music therapists should also keep up to date with this in order to retain credibility in their field.

“With music therapy, you have to be familiar with all genres of music,” she said. “You need to be familiar with all the different instruments, and the training does provide that. You have to have good communication skills. You need to be empathetic with the participants. ... You have to be good at just reading what’s going on in the situation, because during those sessions, you have to be flexible and willing to go with the clients where they are going.”

“What are your thoughts on the weather so far, the weather changing?” Moyer asked Hansel and Barb Chaffins, his two pupils Friday morning.

“I enjoy the changing of the coloring of the leaves,” said Hansel. “When the sun shines, you can see the reds and the yellows and leaves during the fall when it’s cooler nights and shorter days, which — not crazy about death, but I love the fall season and Halloween. It’s just may favorite time of the year.”

He turned to Chaffins and asked her how she felt about it.

“I like autumn because it gets cooler,” said Chaffins. “And when I had my dog, we used to go sit out. He loved the cooler weather, and so did I.”

Their shared visualization would take the group through harvest moons, rainfall, a live rendition of “Monster Mash,” and talk about Thanksgiving and a guided meditation.

Before leaving, Hansel thanked Moyer, telling him these gatherings were especially helpful for the anxiety she manages.

“A lot of people think that we just try to play music, it’s almost like a walking jukebox,” Moyer said. “But I think something that’s overlooked is that it’s much deeper than that.”