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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Halo and welcome, music-loving viewers. Today, we will continue our feature interview with Mr. Charles Segal, an internationally renowned pianist, composer, recording artist, publisher, and music teacher. A prolific recording artist, Mr. Segal has composed of over 1,000 songs and musical pieces. He is also the featured artist on more than 200 albums. He has won the South Africa Record Industry (SARI) Award, a prestige equivalent to the US-based Grammy Award.

I have spent my last 12 years recording, I think I’m the most recorded artist in the world. I’ve got my own studios in Boston, and I sit and play and then I listen to it back, and people have asked me to play it again, and I can’t.

Often with no written scores, Mr. Segal’s music has made him best known as an amazing intuitive musician and a master of improvisation.

When I am playing, I’m not thinking anymore of scales, I’m just, what’s running through my mind I’m going to play, I don’t know what note I want to start, you can tell me to start at any note. Okay, now I’ll tell you how I feel as I am playing.

I touch a very dissonant note, now, my body leaves me, my arms, everything is going. I’m not thinking anymore.

I started off as a classical pianist, learning the rules like a doctor does his work. The most important thing in music is not reading but having a feel for it, and listening with your ears, because you can’t really see music, you can only hear music. So when I sit down, I do not want to play what I am seeing, because the purest form in life is just doing for the first time. So, it always works, but you’ve got to have a certain amount of knowledge, and then break it.

When you teach to someone, do you teach them improvisation right away or they have to learn the techniques first, and then…?

It’s a good question. (they can improvise?) That is good. I used to teach the old way from music. It’s important, but that’s made up. And when I came to America, I heard Oscar Peterson, and he was not using music – just use yourself! And the most important part of life, anything, anything in the world, is timing. Two words: timing, position. It is life. If your timing is right, your position is right, you will make millions.

You use this foot and you knock. Now, if I don’t have a beat and I play it, I do this: look how bad this is. Is this nice? (It’s not nice.) Rubbish! Now, one! You can play the piano, just do this.

Mr. Charles Segal, though famed for his improvisational piano and compositions, is also renowned for being a rare and outstanding teacher. His music school attracts students of all ages and backgrounds who wish to learn to express themselves through music.

I’ve taught thousand of people. I went back to South Africa and they did a show for me and I had to play, and I said how many people came to see me? And guess what, I am not telling you a bit of a lie, 2,000 people. I got so nervous and they were all… I said how many came to see me, and a lot put up their hands. I said how many pupils? All of them had something to do with me. And that made me feel like a million dollars.

Through his unique techniques, the gifted teacher Charles Segal has made it easy and enjoyable for anyone to learn to make music.

I think it is so beautiful to see, because I can feel that you enjoy it so much.

You love it so much and you share it.

Yes. I am in another world when I am talking music. When I am sitting on the plane and I’ve got to sit, say from Boston to Cape Town, I have fun. And I get hold of a person next door, I say, “For 14 hours, can I teach you to play the piano?” She says, “I’d love to. I’ve never played.”

But to be a good pianist, you have to know, I always tell my pupils, “I don’t want you to play scales. I want you to play wrong notes. And I don’t want you to practice.” Oh, they say, “Yay, yay, yay!

That’s unusual.) And then when they start, the wrong notes become the right notes. See, there’s no wrong notes on a piano. Did you know that? (Wow!) Some notes sound better than others.

When we return, Mr. Charles Segal gives us a beginner’s lesson on the piano. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

In 20 minutes you’ll be playing lots of songs.

Welcome back to Enlightening Entertainment as we get to know the internationally loved pianist, composer, and music teacher Mr. Charles Segal.

I am so excited, I am going to have a lesson with Charles Segal.

Oh, thank you darling.

(This is a true honor.)

Okay. All right. Now you’re going to put… Don’t be frightened when you see use two black notes, three black notes, two black notes, three. (Okay.) It’s two black notes, three black notes, two black notes. (Okay.) What I teach is you put these two fingers on these two and that these three on that.

And then you’ve got the whole keyboard, nobody teaches this way. They always start on the white keys. Because without the black keys nobody would know what the white, what this is. Do you agree with me? (That’s right.) So you’ve got to do this, look.

In five minutes, you will already be playing something around the five fingers. Okay, so now you’re going to do 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 3, 5 and a chord, you’ve got a full mixed bag.

And a chord. Now keep your position, have you ever played, “When the Saints Go Marching In”?

Have you ever played it? Now I’m going to give you the numbers. 1, 3, 4, 5, hold, hold, hold, hold. 1, 3, 4, 5, hold, hold, hold, hold. You just played, “Oh When the Saints…” Now she’s going to do “Jingle Bells.”

The piano has sounds, loud and soft. And if I'm playing softly, so what makes you get a nice feeling? Is the sound of soft and loud, and also with a rhythm. So you'll say, if I'm playing… If I'm going... It's not nice. But if I'm going, I met Oprah at Sun City, and before I met her I was listening to a girl playing.

Have you heard of Sun City? It’s like Las Vegas, and this girl was playing the piano, she’s beautiful, and I went up to her. I said, “You know, I am in love with your playing. You’ve got such a beautiful touch.” She says, “Thank you Charles, I was with you for eight years.” And I could not believe it. And she’s a top pianist and I taught her what feeling is. Nobody knows about it.

A feeling comes from there, anything played from your arm or from your mouth, from your feeling, comes out.

Hear that? Now I’m making this up, and I’m feeling it. See… I’ve got a cold shudder. I’m answering that. I could have never written that out. I’m inspired. But I’m not recording that. That’s Beethoven. Look, I’m sitting so funny, see?

The water, the waterfall. There’s a waterfall, we were watching the water. (That’s beautiful!) Something has come across – oh something mysterious! Spooky! Breathing space. Now jazz picks up. There’s my bass. Rock. Oscar Peterson.

What I do is I just touch notes. And I hear those notes. And I will play something and it will inspire me and then I get a theme. And the most important thing in the world is rhythm. So rhythm and it is the rhythm, the heart beats on rhythm. Life is rhythm. If you could only just believe in yourself you’ve got something to live for. I do believe every person on this Earth must have a passion.

I am into life, I love people. I love everybody, no matter what their color is, everybody is related. And I’ve just written a song, “Give the World a Chance.” It’s the most beautiful song. I am writing songs from the heart.

Mr. Segal’s “Give the World a Chance” expresses his noble wish to save and protect the Earth, as well as every life form on it.

I’ll tell you my feelings. We were not supposed to eat meat. I’ve got lots of dogs, I mean, animals to me are the purest human beings, they are more human than we are. Human beings are not nice people, not nice people. They can kill, you must always know, before one kills, there’s something in you that just says, “No! No!” Always you can get out of it, it’s not only in the Bible. When you see these animals, an animal has got a life and feeling. An animal has got a soul.

We now conclude our program with this excerpt from “Give the World a Chance,” with music and lyrics by Mr. Charles Segal and vocals by Ms. Barbara Brilliant.

Give the world a chance Surround the Earth with love
Give the world a chance Embrace the skies above forevermore and Give the world a chance
For creatures large and small Give the world a chance
Yes, we can have it all again once more
I Rrace ahead in years See children without fears
The old, they have dignity Skies are clear once more
Applauding eagles soar From sea to shining sea
We gave gifts to future generations Stopped warring nations
And made the world what God intended it to be
Come take my hand It can be done
If we lose the Earth What have we won?

To Mr. Charles Segal, thank you for sharing your time and introducing us to the joyful world of music and music making. May the beautiful feelings evoked by music such as yours awaken evermore hearts and souls around the world.

Charles Segal’s music CDs are available at

Thank you for your pleasant company today. Coming up next is Words of Wisdom after Noteworthy News. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television. May your life be always filled with love and music.

Join us in the land where Lord Krishna was born and spent his youth over five millennia ago.

Now we are at Radha Kund and Shyama Kund. It is a very spiritual place and there is some spiritual game which is going on with Radha and Krishna. We are going around all the special spiritual places and we can have some special benefits from that.

You’re invited on a pilgrimage to India’s Mathura & Vrindavan, Sunday, August 22 on Supreme Master Television’s The World Around Us.