No Song Unsung Blog

Last night I had the pleasure of doing my first BlogTalkRadio segment and the guest was my good friend, Rob Cooke of WeeklySongCast.com and PowerBookStudio.com.  He’s also known as “The Boy at Heart”.  Rob and I have known each other for over a year and although Rob and I have never actually talked on the phone, we’ve exchanged numerous emails, comments via our blogs, and exchanged thoughts over at Twitter and Facebook.  Rob was so kind to produce the music for my virtual vision board video over at YouTube.

So it was pretty exciting to finally place a voice to his face   In my interview with Rob we get to know more about his musical background, how he markets his music online, and his philosophies about life and creativity.  Click here to listen to the interview at BlogTalkRadio.

Rob is originally from the UK, but he recently moved to Thailand where he now lives with the love of his life.  Every week he posts a new song over at his blog, The Weekly Songcast, and shares the philosophy or the story behind the song. 

For a limited time you can get Rob’s debut album for free which is due to release in October.  Get more details about this great offer!  I just downloaded the Weekly Songcast Volume 2 so I can listen to “Wealth Abundance Joy” everyday.  Looking forward to the release!

You can find The Boy at Heart online at:

Again, here’s the link to listen to the interview.

“I don’t always like to talk about it in great detail, but music saved my life literally. Writing songs and singing is so therapeutic for me.” — Mariah Carey

The sweet melody of a love song, the soothing sound of chords on the piano - music certainly has a way of touching the innermost corners of our souls. I don’t know about you, but all I need to make a day brighter is to turn on some happy tunes. I’m not a songwriter, but all the poetry I wrote back in my college days - which could actually be turned into songs - really helped me get through some rough times, so I definitely can relate to what Mariah Carey is saying here.

Music is definitely better than medicine!

Photo Credit: Rossina Bossio Bossa

“If you love it, don’t stop ever, ever, ever….”

That’s the advice Neil Diamond gave to the last five contestants of American Idol as they awaited their fate during tonight’s show.

I think I still have yet to meet any artist who doesn’t have a passion for their craft. It’s something about art or creating music that conjures up feelings of bliss. Unless you let your ego listen to naysayers, you continue to produce pieces that come from the heart and soul. You keep creating music because you love it - no matter if you’re paid or not.

And that, my friends, is the secret to longevity in the music business!

Photo Credit: a DELL

Many of us use music as a way of expressing ourselves while others use music as a therapeutic tool to heal the soul. I know I feel my spirit soar when I sing a song I feel emotionally connected to!

Then there are others who use music as a platform to give back. Simon Cowell, the producer of American Idol, has used the power that the show has had to do good by putting on the “Idol Gives Back” special every year. It’s a show full of guest performances by some of the hottest names in the industry - all coming together to bring awareness to the people who are less fortunate than us.

I had no idea who was going to be performing, so I was pleasantly surprised to see Gloria Estefan with Sheila E! My favorite performance of the night was by Mariah Carey who’ve I’ve admired ever since her career started.

Let’s rewind a little to last night when Idol contestants sang inspirational songs. I’ve been teetering between David Cooke and David Archuleta as the winner, but regardless I think all of them will go far in the business.

Here’s David Cooke performing the song, “Innocent”…

Make a contribution and save a life! Visit: AmericanIdol.com Check out my thoughts about the 2007 Idol Gives Back show…

One of my favorite shows to watch is Ellen Degeneres and lately she’s been having some phenomenal musical artists come on to perform. Once in awhile Ellen will bring on a child prodigy who plays piano. Here’s an example of a piano genius named Chelsea…

Watching this video has truly inspired me and makes me want to take up piano lessons again! I recently purchased a CD to reacquaint myself with classical music and the sound of the piano. I even went on a hunt for free piano lessons…Don’t have a piano yet, but will start practicing on my boyfriend’s keyboard

Here’s a great piano blog: The Collaborative Piano Blog

One of my “secret” dreams in life is to be a singer. I’ve never taken singing lessons, but I’ve put it on the list of things to do in 2008.

Today I played an old Mariah Carey song, Hero, and visualized myself singing in front of a huge crowd…

It’s a very inspiring song and after singing it I felt so much better…so relaxed…and therapeutic.

Read more about how singing heals the body and soul.

The other day I bought a CD that has a mix of classical piano music and listened to it while I did my work. Usually it’s hard for me to write while music is playing, but this piano music actually helped my writing instead of hindering it. It was as if I was writing the words to the music and I could just feel the creative energy flowing through me.

I came across this interesting study on first graders in a New York City school. They wanted to know the effects of listening to slow tempo classical music on the children’s on-task performance. What they found was that when the music was played during writing time, the children’s on-task behavior increased by 7.7%. There was also a decrease in the overall classroom noise level. Read the document from the study here.

I noticed that I, too, am able to stay on-task while I listened to this piano music. I tend to get ADD while I’m writing — stopping to take a break every ten minutes to check my website stats or email. However, I’m more focused now during writing because I listen to this classical piano music.

Read about another writer, J.L. Murphey, who uses music to help her be more productive during writing…

Related Post:
Listen to Music to Increase Productivity
>>>Buy classical mp3 music at Amazon.com