Music

When I was in my early 20s, I rented a room in a sprawling mansion-turned-rooming-house that was in a beautiful part of Vancouver, Canada. Lots of tall, old trees lined the sidewalks. The area had a luxuriant park-like atmosphere…

The music of my youth was more than melody and words. It was a kind of guidance into adult life, a soundtrack for thoughts and feelings that I didn’t know how to reach on my own but were given to me by the likes of Carole King, Joni Mitchell…

To shed some light on this question, let me offer the story of my good friend, Claire Duchesneau, a hearing-impaired singer. When she was a young woman, Claire was able to hear normally. She played the guitar. She wrote and sang songs…

Many, perhaps most of us, are moved to sing. I know this from my numerous years of giving concerts. Often, I hear from audience members that they had “always wanted to sing.” “I don’t have a good voice, but I really…

I was recently talking with a friend in her 60s who told me that she was considering auditioning to join a choir. She explained to me, “My voice is getting weak. I just don’t have the power I used to have. Do you think that singing in a choir…

The first soldiers killed in battle are the musicians, for music’s power to inspire. It can change a person’s mood in minutes. It can give form to otherwise incoherent, nascent feelings. Music can take years off a world-weary spirit…

It was a damp Seattle evening in May, as I settled into my seat at Benaroya Hall to hear the Seattle Symphony. I was attending an event with a friend, and it was our “pre Mother’s Day treat” to ourselves…

Learning to play a musical instrument is something that many of us have considered doing at some point. As well as being fun and providing a great sense of achievement, there are many health benefits of playing an instrument…

My mom died when I was 35 years old. She was only 58. She’s been gone a long time now and sadly, memories do have a way of fading. Here’s one memory I do have. And it comes to me whenever I hear a certain song. Let me explain…

I’ve played piano to entertain myself since I was a kid. Until my 60s, I didn’t realize how good it is for my mind. When I found out reading and playing music staves off memory deterioration, I was all in. Alzheimer’s Disease lurks in my family tree…