That’s an African, that’s one of the songs that I wrote, “Opus Africa.” And I’m playing with one hand.

And then it goes… And with both hands, it would be…

Halo and welcome, vibrant viewers. Today we are pleased to introduce a wonderful pianist Mr. Charles Segal, award-winning legendary composer, recording artist, publisher, and music teacher.

When I am playing, if I am enjoying it, the whole world is loving it.

Loved the world over, Mr. Charles Segal is one of the most accomplished musicians on Earth! He has produced an amazingly large volume of original works – over 1,500 songs and musical pieces! Mr. Segal is also the featured artist on more than 200 albums.

My mother was a mandolin player. And you know what a mandolin is like? A violin. And she instilled music into me. And they used to call me “Pint of Musica.”

And I learned music and I loved it so much. Even now, I mean, I’m absolutely crazy about it.

Born in Lithuania, Charles Segal was raised in South Africa, where he became a celebrity pianist. As early as 1973, he became the winner of the South Africa Record Industry (SARI) Award, a prestige equivalent to the US-based Grammy Award. He moved to the United States in 1980s and remains to be a most recorded pianist till the present. Continuously renewing his artistry for over half a century, Mr. Segal is an extremely versatile musician with a breadth and depth as rich as his life experiences.

I started off by playing syncopation like this.

That was a… a very bland way of playing. That’s how it started off, then it became into jazz, the blues There’s my bass player.

And then to play different styles, there is called Swing, the Benny Goodman era, which they played – there is your bass player.

From an early age, Mr. Segal started musical training in classical piano performance and composition. Growing up in the northern province of the Transvaal, South Africa, he was also fascinated by the indigenous drum music in his neighborhood. The result has been an ongoing dialogue between styles and traditions.

I did a lot of African songs. I did this:

“Oh yes, oh yes, that’s the way I want to be in Africa Hear those tom-toms, as they beat hauntingly” Now that’s more of a calypso. It’s like a calypso, is one of these things. And then there came about the different pianists, like Oscar Peterson, great technique. He used to play like this.

All technical side. Then there came about boogie woogie. Boogie woogie was a lovely happy song, it’s like this.

That was a happy type of a feeling. Then there was another pianist by the name of Erroll Garner. That’s why I came to America, because I wanted to know, why are the American pianists better than me? And I found it’s in the rhythm. Now this guy was Erroll Garner, who played like this.

And that’s called “Play Some Good Old Fashioned Music,” one that I wrote. But he was a happy pianist.

When we return, Mr. Charles Segal shares more about his secret to improvisation and his love of sharing the joy of music with others. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

And that’s one of my songs called “Opus Africa” and I wrote this quite a few years ago, and it became quite a big hit.

Welcome back to Enlightening Entertainment as we get to know the internationally loved pianist, composer, and music teacher Mr. Charles Segal. His compositions unfold along a colorful spectrum of styles and cultures, ranging from classical, jazz, contemporary, solo piano, piano and orchestra, Jewish, African, pop and new age music.

As with his piano compositions, in Mr. Segal’s songs, there flows a zest for life.

It’s just that

Don’t need proper words to say

Singing a happy song You can chase your blues away
Join in a happy song You’ll smile while you’re singing along

Throughout his decades-long musical career, Mr. Segal has met many great musicians. They include American jazz musicians such as Oscar Peterson, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, Duke Ellington, Lennie Tristano, and Dave Brubeck. They inspired him to develop his own scintillating compositions. He also performed in events that allowed him to meet and befriend many other celebrity artists, including singer and actor Frank Sinatra, and actor and producer Dick Van Dyke, to name just a few.

I met Elvis Presley and all these other people, Marilyn Monroe I met, all people with souls. Marilyn Monroe is the most delightful human being, and I met her in a restaurant.

But Mr. Segal is most cherished in his native South Africa, where he has been a household name since the 1960s. He was seen in weekly presentations on television and was heard daily on radio. Charles Segal is also a gifted teacher and music publisher, having authored multiple easy-to-follow tutorial books that are widely used. Charles Segal is a master of improvisation, creating something new every time. He gives his students the ability to discover their own creativity and love for music.

When you play, it seems like you go into your bubble or your inner world. How do you describe it?

You leave your… You leave your body, and our fingers are the medium. It’s a media with which you strike the keys. Then the keys, the way you strike it, is a feeling, and you don’t think of anything, practicing… you just feel that that beautiful sound, soft and loud. So when you are thinking, you cannot do it. And when you stop thinking, then something takes over.

Something beautiful takes over. Your expression, you just feel. If you’re enjoying it, everybody’s enjoying it. Like when you are playing tennis, if you’ve got to do a stroke, you’ll do it in a different way. Your left foot may not be there, your right foot. So you’ve got to know something subconsciously.

You see in the olden days, the great pianists and composers like Beethoven, Mozart, they had no instruments that we’ve got. We’ve got instrument that record… I’ve got instruments that record me all the time. And a composer, a composer has to write out everything that he thinks of. Whereas if you are improvising, you’re getting the purest form of music. There’s nothing better than when you’re playing for the first time, nobody can copy you. I would have liked to know, I wonder how Beethoven would have done, just playing, I would have loved to have heard him.

I’m making this up as I go along.

There are still so much to know about Mr. Charles Segal, so please join us next Tuesday, August 17 for the second and final part of our program, where we learn the basics of music making in a lesson with the lauded teacher himself.

I get inspiration from anything nice. From reading, look at this, this is made by human beings, we should appreciate it. And instead of fighting wars, we could fight music, get better, and let’s concentrate on that.

Charles Segal’s music CDs are available at

Thank you for your company today. Up next is Words of Wisdom, after Noteworthy News, on Supreme Master Television. May your life be filled with laughter and happiness.

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