Music Fosters Brain Health and Creative Expression...

 “Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.” – Plato Within the realm of music lies a certain kind of magic. It has the ability to transport you into another time, to relive beautiful moments from the past, to lift your spirits, and, most importantly, it allows you to connect to something greater than yourself. In the second half of life, cognitive engagement and brain health become a vital part of your well-being. Music has been proven to strengthen brain activity, and studies are showing that it may help ward off dementia. If you let it, music can bring a positive energy force into your life. There are also many ways that enjoying music can become part of enhancing your social connections. Below are ten ways that music can help improve your way of life. 1. Strengthen Your Memory The medial pre-frontal cortex, the part of your brain that sits just behind your forehead, uses music to trigger powerful memories. A recent study using brain scans showed that music linked to a strong memory created an extraordinary amount of activity in the pre-frontal cortex. Since the front part of the brain is the part that endures, this could explain why Alzheimer patients will often remember music from their past, even when all other memories have disappeared. 2. Awaken Your Creative Spirit An upbeat song is great for a motivated work out, but when you feel like you’re in a creative rut, loud music may not be all that helpful. According to a study done by the Journal of Consumer Research, moderate ambient noise is best for creative endeavors. High...

My Second Act: Writing My First Musical...

This editor hopes to pursue his passion all the way to Broadway For my second act, I’m in the process of writing my first musical, with dreams of taking it to Broadway. Let me tell you how this has happened and my hopes for it — and for me. The course was charted long ago: when I was in fourth grade in Cincinnati, Ohio, my parents took me to see the national touring company of The Sound of Music and it was love at first sight. From that moment on, I spent hours listening to Broadway cast albums and reading the published scripts of plays and musicals my parents received monthly from the Fireside Theater Book Club. While other nine-year-olds memorized baseball stats, I memorized song lyrics. Turning a Pipe Dream into a Project For 50 years, the love affair continued. Every so often, I’d imagine what it would be like to someday write a musical, but I thought it was nothing more than a pipe dream. Since I also loved writing poetry and reading, I’d pursued a career in publishing, editing dozens of books running the gamut from Johnny Cash’s memoir to a new translation of The Dead Sea Scrolls. Then, about two years ago, at a friend’s birthday party I met a talented singer-songwriter named Jay Jacques, who played a few songs on his guitar. A few days later I wrote Jay, suggesting that I’d be happy to write lyrics if he ever needed a songwriting partner. He took me up on the offer and we wrote a few pop songs, including a fun bossa nova. One day, as Jay glanced at the posters and books in my apartment, a veritable shrine to musical theater, he asked:...

The 15 Songs That Defined the Boomer Generation...

Weigh in on which of these meant the most in your youth We each have our own life soundtrack, especially those of us who grew up in the heyday of rock ‘n’ roll. Mine is heavily influenced by growing up in 1950s Philadelphia with an older brother (not a boomer) who sang with street-corner doo-wop groups and danced on American Bandstand. Individual soundtracks pull from a combination of ingredients, including when you were born, where you lived and which radio stations you listened to. But there were some songs that became part of a collective, generational playlist. Back then, radio was our Internet, and the songs the DJs spun connected us to our world and to one another. Here, in chronological order, are the 15 songs that this boomer ranks among the best that spoke to and defined our generation. Yes, my list tilts more East Coast, urban, R&B and late ’50s and ’60s. And I realize that, like every time one person tries to represent the millions of individuals who make up the baby boom, there will be discussion. In fact, I’m looking forward to comparing notes. Tell Next Avenue which songs you would put on a list of music that made us who we are, in the comments section below. Jailhouse Rock – Elvis Presley (1957) Why I loved it: “Elvis the Pelvis” had been around a few years already and was huge with my older brother and his crowd. This song was when I jumped on that bandwagon. It seemed really cool to have a hit song from a film with the same name — one of Elvis’ better flicks — and the song’s two-chord riff is among rock’s most unforgettable moments. Memorable lyric snippet: Bugsy...