Creative Ways to Find Music To Use For A Celebration of Life

Music. Where to begin?

Music can be used to evoke the right tone, emotion, and feeling for your event.
Do you want to start your event off in a celebratory mood or with a more reserved and reflective tone? How do you want guests to leave before it’s over?

To highlight my point, consider the differences between starting an event with Bruno Mars’ Uptown Funk and Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You.

Now consider ending your event with either of these songs as the final song in a slideshow.

Different, right?

I often wonder about what kind of music I would have playing at my memorial service and just couldn’t narrow it down to a few songs. On that note I really do hope my family will be able to do it! Music has the power to tell the dynamic story of a person (and I hope my family goes beyond the Spotify playlist to curate a selection that best fits me.

If you find yourself planning a Memorial or a Celebration of Life, you may feel lost and unsure where to start when it comes to music selection.
The fog of grief can impact your memory and make it a difficult process to select the songs you’ll be using for the service.
Here are a few places to look for inspiration:

Look At A Previously Created Playlist

A playlist is a collection of songs that may have once been full of meaning at a particular moment in time. Sometimes these playlists are adequately named for the season of life this person was in (ie. Optimistic Mornings) or more aptly named as a My Favourite Songs list. Whether you use this playlist or not for the actual event, it could be a great place to begin to collect ideas and jog your memories for other genres, songs, or artists that are in the same ‘world’ as those songs.

New Narrative ProTip:

Playlists can come in many forms. Look out for Spotify accounts, Apple Music or iTunes accounts, Google Play playlists, YouTube playlist collections, or search the computer’s Music folder for any personalized collections.

Search Through CDs, Tapes, Albums, or 8-Track tapes

If you’re having difficulty looking for music inspiration, take a look at the physical music this person collected.

What kinds of albums or artists can you find in their collection? Did your person have copies of music in their car, their computer, their workspace? Was there a special shelf with music most often played? Music played while at home can be a great place to begin looking.

Ask Friends And Family

Sometimes having a conversation with other family, friends, and colleagues can help you come up with appropriate selections for music. As mentioned earlier, the fog of grief can leave you forgetting memories, old favourites or leave you feeling uncreative. Take advantage of your community to talk about your person’s favourite tunes. Sometimes you never know what will jog your memory. We suggest creating a Google Doc or a collaborative spreadsheet to include your musical selections.

New Narrative ProTip:

If there are lots of people on your planning team, consider creating a collaborative spreadsheet where you can include your name, the song, and include a reason for the selection. ie. “My Way” by Limp Bizkit, submitted by Nick because Carlo loved listening to this song when he was in his car

Use Pictures as Slideshow Music Inspiration

If your family is looking for musical inspiration for a slideshow, you might consider a song or two which was popular around the same time as the photos were taken. Matching the music to the photos can be an appropriate and fitting tribute to the person we’re honouring.

Ask Your Funeral Director or Event Planner

Luckily, we’ve started a comprehensive (yet not exhaustive) list of songs that you can access here!

This one feels like a no-brainer to us as Event Planners, but don’t underestimate that team you’re working with just yet. Chances are, your Director or Planner has worked with many a family with a wide range of music tastes and can help guide you to pick the songs that would best suit the event you’re trying to plan. We love giving examples of how some of our families have chosen to embrace their event music, whether it’s ending with Happy by Pharell Williams or beginning the event with Jeff Beck’s cover of Nessun Dorma.

By the way, if you have never heard Jeff Beck cover Nessun Dorma, click here.

One Final Note

As important as music selection is, don’t forget that you can always edit the recorded video with other musical selections at a later date :)