Music is powerful. It can unite people from different backgrounds, provoke powerful reactions, stir up memories, and be therapeutic for stress or depression. Charles says producing music is not only therapeutic, but also adds to the fulfillment of life.
People fill their lives with variety of experience, intellect, and passion unique to their own character. Many seem to be searching for a Fountain of Youth elixir; no one wants life to run out without first experiencing everything they can. Charles feels he’s found the solution: More music!
Music affects nearly every sense in the body. It is physical in that the beats create a desire to dance and move. It is emotional in that it can provoke memories and feelings. Music is healing and can help people overcome obstacles in their lives, or simply relax. For example, Charles’ music has been used to treat cancer patients, premature babies, and Alzheimer’s patients. Music has the ability to improve cognitive abilities and relieve tension throughout the body.
Though music can be used as a healing tool for people dealing with illness, it is also an important stress reliever for people who need to let loose. The positive effects of music can be felt with listening or playing music, but Charles says there is nothing quite the same as playing one’s own music. “Improvisation is a moment in time,” says Segal. “Music is ageless.”
At 82 years old, Charles has dedicated his long life to perfecting his art on the piano keys. He says music has given him immense knowledge and discipline all while teaching him lessons about love, loss, and strength. Charles attributes his character to the life struggles and accomplishments he has experienced. In all that he has been through, his music has remained constant in his life and his heart, acting as a testament to his experiences.
Music is ideal in treating stress, but is also relatively easy to start. All a person needs to succeed in playing music is drive to start and the passion to keep going. Many people may feel intimidated when beginning to play a new instrument, but “People shouldn’t be afraid of the piano, it is more than just white and black keys,” says Segal.
Though Charles is a talented pianist and songwriter, he is also a lover of people and things. This love for life can be heard in his recordings, and musicians of any level or expertise can learn how to have the same appreciation for their art.
Charles Segal: Inspiring Passion in Music Through the Ages
A Lost Gem of Music in a Loud World
Monday, July 15, 2013
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Getting High On Life
Getting High On Life
While
some people turn to drugs and alcohol to escape the realities of their lives,
Charles Segal only needs his music and people to make him “high” . Rather than
escape actuality, Charles embraces it. He chooses the chills he gets from music
over the numbness caused by substances.
Though
Charles was always too consumed with his art to ever allow drugs to overtake
him, he recounts a time in his life when he was exposed to the temptation when
he was prescribed a potent sleep aid to help him get through a messy divorce
and custody battle. As an answer to his despair, his doctor gave him two Mandrax
tablets, but, after experiencing the effects of the first one, he vowed to
never take drugs again.
Upon
taking the tablet, Charles says he felt invincible. “I felt like Superman… like
I could have flown off the balcony if I had wanted to.” However uninhibited the
drug made him feel, Charles was acutely aware of a sense of darkness within himself.
“I knew this wasn’t right,” says Segal. He put the second pill in his wallet,
where it stayed for an entire year, only coming out after a musician friend offered
to pay Charles $1,000 for it. Charles was amazed at the value someone would put
on the chance to get chemically high! Of
course, he flushed the tablet and returned to his black and white keys for
solace.
Charles
has relied on the black and white of his piano as therapy in troubled times in the same way he fought the
dark in his life through producing light in his music. He wrote, “My Children,
My Wife,” in wake of his devastating divorce and custody loss, and won a
coveted SARI Award (South African equivalent to a Grammy) for Song of the Year
in 1973. (This song is attached to this
blog.) It is the burden of an artist to
allow their pain to be translucent to the world, but one cannot feel utter
happiness without also feeling true sadness. Charles acknowledges his pain was
a gift in that it allowed him to produce music that touched the lives of those
who heard it.
Charles’s
advice for those struggling with boredom, loneliness or other sadness, is to take
responsibility for finding the light in their lives. He
feels one should seek something they can be passionate about, to be with them
through both hardships and good experiences. Passion may present itself in many
forms, but as Charles says, “Find something you like to do, and try to be the
best at it. If you want to be Tarzan… go and be Tarzan. Swing from the vines
and talk to the monkeys. But try to be the best.”
Though
love and passion came to Charles at a young age in the form of music, anyone
can look to him as a testament to how age does not affect the philosophy by
which one lives; and a fulfilled life is not dependent on external things. Charles
began playing music as a child when he was inspired by his mother’s mandolin
playing. As a teenager, he decided to become a pianist when he saw girls
surrounding his piano-playing cousin.
Now
an octogenarian, Charles continues to live his life through his fervor for
music and love for people. He continues to have fun. Whether one is striving to
find happiness, or attempting to overcome addiction, passion can allow people
to feel stronger and motivated in every aspect of their lives, and to stay away
from unhealthy and dangerous alternatives.
Charles
recently sat down at his piano and began to improvise, allowing his emotions to
shoot out of his fingers and onto the keys. His eyes were closed, his hands
moved swiftly and delicately, and his left foot was dancing to the beat. He
played a variety of songs, scales, and genres on a whim. Whatever was in his
heart at the time is what revealed itself as melodies in the air. He moved from
high notes to low notes; and from adagio to allegro. When he had finished
playing, he took a deep breath, smiled, and exclaimed, “I feel so high!”
By: Tori Youngblood
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Exposing Yourself to the piano
This lesson will be just familiarize you with the
piano. When you look at a
keyboard, don’t be intimidated by the seemingly disorganized jumble of black
and white keys confronting you.
You will learn that the keyboard is actually organized brilliantly,
making it so much simpler than it looks at first glance. The black keys are very important,
because without them, you wouldn’t be able to find your way around the
instrument. Looking at the
groupings of 2’s and 3’s of the black keys allows you to identify the position
of your hand, as you are moving along the keyboard. This can be done without looking down at the keyboard simply
by feeling along the keys.

White keys: For
this exercise only your thumb will be touching the white keys.

Your left hand will be a mirror image of what your right
hand did. Put your middle finger
on the first of the two black keys.
Then your index finger. Put
your thumb on F. Roll your ring
finger over to the next set of black keys and play them with your three
fingers, hit C with your thumb and rest on the next black note with your middle
finger. Learnt to go up and down
the keyboard like the right hand.
After you have finished all of that, you should then try to play with
both hands at the same time.
Friday, February 1, 2013
Two Unlikely Meetings, and Lost Opportunities
Hal Shaper
Hal
and Charles first met on the Muizenberg beach in Cape Town 1954. Hal was a lawyer and Charles introduced
him to song-writing, encouraging him to try write lyrics for some of Charles’s
melodies. Charles introduced Hal to his original lyricist, Anton De Waal, who wrote
the lyrics for and published their first song. There were many more Segal-Shaper collaborations to come,
but the relationship between Charles and Harold was always dynamic, with Hal’s tendency
to be controlling of every aspect of their professional relationship and
friendship.
Hal
enjoyed the life of a lyric writer so much that he devoted more and more time
to doing that and eventually moved to London and joined a music publishing
company. Hal’s big hit was “Softly
as I Leave You,” for which he translated the lyrics of a popular Italian
song. Hal’s version was recorded
by top artists, such as Frank Sinatra, Elvis and Matt Monro.
Charles
and Hal kept in touch over the years, collaborating on more songs such as
“Michelle Meets Mark”, “Reeve’s Song” and “Melanie,” which was recorded with Charles when visitng Hal in London.
Herbert Kretzmer
In
an equally unlikely meeting, Charles sat next to South African journalist, Herbert
Kretzmer, on a plane traveling to Israel and they talked nonstop throughout the
trip. There was a genuine
connection between the two of them and Charles came away from the trip with a real
friend.

The
lesson that Charles took away from this incident is that one should always be
nice to people you meet, whether you perceive them as important or just
ordinary. You never know what life
may bring and how important that person may become in the future.
Friday, January 25, 2013
Necessary Business

Thursday, January 24, 2013
Born into a World of Fire
Charles Segal’s father, Morris, also referred to be the family as “Mash,” met his mother Riva in a play called “Tevia Der Milchaker.” This was the original play inspiring the musical we know today as “The Fiddler on the Roof.” Around 1924 they married and moved to Joniškis Lithuania. Louis, Charles’s older brother was born in 1925. Charles Segal was born in Joniškis Lithuania in June 15th 1929. Three months latter, the soviets had invaded Lithuania.
The atmosphere was very depressing. To the east they had the Soviets, and to the southwest there was Germany, where Hitler was biding his time for supremacy. Being held by the soviets was enough already, but in all honesty there was more fear of Hitler than anything else. Being Jewish in Lithuania was even worse, Jews were hated by Lithuanians and the Bolsheviks alike because of their perceived wealth.
Bolsheviks would commonly go on progroms (riots) targeting the destruction of Jewish stores, and individual Jews were selected and murdered by the Bolsheviks. Since most Lithuanians were poor, they were quicker to steal from their “wealthy” Jewish neighbors than their own kin. Morris sought to find a way to get his family out of Lithuania. It didn’t matter where it was they were going, they just needed to get out. But the soviets were not letting anyone out unless they had family on the outside. So for the time being, the family had to wait it out.
Can one CD save America $63.2 billion? (How to fight sleep deprivation)
In the Wallstreet journal article: “Decoding the Science of
Sleep,” http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443866404577565781327694346.html
It has been found that sleep
deprivation is costing American businesses $63.2 billion of work
productivity. While it raises many
factors that contribute to sleep deprivation, it poses only a few realistic
ideas to ease the individual into a sleep state. The old saying, “How do you sleep at night?” has some wisdom
to it, in that stress literally keeps you up at night. Even after you’ve gotten home from long
hours of work, you’re mind frequently is still focused on one thing, work. Lying in the dark void leaves your mind
the freedom to wonder and to worry.
My solution: Listen
to light relaxing music when going to sleep.
Doctors have been
using our music for years to ease patients into surgery. Like the lullaby, the mind focuses on
the music, instead of life. Yet
the music is subtle enough so as to not overwhelm the mind, allowing the user
to naturally ease into sleep.
Use this relaxing CD called: “Relax to the music of Charles Segal”
To learn more about our relaxing series of music go to:
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