My Thanksgiving Healing Music Special for you

Hope you've had a fantastic Thanksgiving Holiday and enjoyed singing all of your favorite Thanksgiving songs like:

• Come Ye Thankful People Come
• Over the River and Through the Woods
• We Gather Together
• Now Thank We all Our God

For me, singing is as important at Thanksgiving as eating, and a lot healthier! Because I have four fantastic new products that I want you to enjoy and benefit from, I am offering them to you at a huge discount...would you believe 50%??!! Please don't miss this opportunity...it will be gone in another day!

Click HERE to get the fantastic cornucopia of music healing programs and products!

Fun Music Activities with Golden Agers

With the graying of the babyboomers, assisted living ommunities are booming, along with adult daycare centers, and nursing homes. These places have come a along way from when I was a child in the 50's, visiting great-aunts and grandmothers who needed more care. The place where my mother is in S.C. is a beautiful facility with lots of fun, stimulating activities and lots of music.

One of my favorite games to place with folks in their golden years (60-99) is a song title completion game. Some of the favorites are: 1. In the good old....

1. Let me call you ....
2. In my merry....
3. We were sailing along....
4. Nothing could be finer than....
5. When the red, red, robin comes....
6. Tip-toe through the ....
7. Ain't she ....
8. You must have been a beautiful....
9. Down by the ....

There are hundreds of songs that can be tapped. The key is to figure out when people were in their "courting years" and find out the popular songs of that day. Of course you can also do this with hymns, fight songs from college, nursery rhymes...most anything!

Have fun and enjoy this activity!

Singing and Dancing in the Golden Years

I have loads of friends who are in their Golden Years. It makes me want to get there in a hurry because these delightful people are full of energy, enthusisam. I have a dear, dear friend with whom I have coffee every Saturday morning. She has more energy and joie de vivre than I do and I have a lot! Anyway, this dear lady knows the lyrics to thousands of songs as well as operatic arias. She lives and breathes music and every Thursday (or most Thursdays) she and her "beau" go dancing to an afternoon tea dance. She is such an inspiration to me and she firmly believes that music keeps her young! How about you??

Dr. Cash performs at Eden Terrace

After my big speech at Clemson University on Thursday night, I stayed in Clemson for the Clemson football game on Saturday. Then on Saturday night I went over to Spartanburg, S.C. to visit my sister and mother. This morning we had a great time sitting around the piano and singing some old songs, including gospel songs and some Christmas carols! My mother is second from the right in the picture above. To see a video we made this morning, go to www.youtube.com/chantdoc and click on the most recent video. Enjoy and let me know what you think! Alice

Italian Opera Legend Will be Remembered

The world lost a fantastic operatic tenor this week; a tenor that is probably as well-known in the U.S. as any movie star or rock star. Luciano Pavarotti, beloved Italian tenor and one of the famous "Three Tenors" died at his home in Modena, Italy of pancreatic cancer. According to

Forbes.com, "The 71-year-old was considered one of the greatest voices of his generation, and achieved success well beyond the ranks of classical music enthusiasts. He won first prize in a competition in 1961 and was rewarded with the role of Rodolphe in Puccini's 'La Boheme' in nearby Reggio Emilia. Despite his success, he never fully learned to read music, preferring to memorise his roles. In 1996 he left his wife Adua after 35 years of marriage and three grown-up daughters for his secretary Nicoletta Mantovani, whom he married in 2003, they had one child. The singer's weight caused him increasing health problems in his later years, and he also ran into trouble with the Italian tax authorities, with whom he reportedly reached a settlement for the payment of arrears amounting to millions of euros. At the time of his death he had been suffering from ill-health, having undergone surgery for pancreatic cancer in July 2006 followed by chemotherapy, and a series of farewell concerts had been postponed."

Music from Golden Years talks of the Sea

I've been listening recently to my CD, Music for Memory Care. On this CD I am playing instrumental versions of some of the most popular songs from the 1900-1940's. I was struck by how many of these songs talk about the sea: Moonlight Bay, By the Sea, by the sea by the beautiful sea, and lots more that I didn't record on this CD but intend to on the next!

As someone who also loves the ocean, the beach, and palm trees of any type, I think I'll start choosing my next CD's content based on this theme! What do you think?

Benefits of Music in the Golden Years

If you're here reading my blog then there's a good chance that either you're in your Golden Years or you have Golden Years friends. At the risk of making some rather broad generalizations, let me say that golden agers tend to have a little more leisure time. Another generalization might be that their health isn't quite as robust as it was in previous decades. Are you still with me? OK. Another supposition might be that with more leisure time and less physical stamina and energy, golden agers are looking for fun, every-changing, and free or affordable activities on a regular basis. Music can fill the bill every time. Even thought I'm "only" 59 I have noticed myself reminiscing far more than ever before. Music is always one of the triggers for my trips down memory lane.

My dearest friend is a woman who is 79! We are a generation apart and yet we know and love much of the same music. She has taught me tunes and I have taught her things about music. The point is, the musical repertoire is so vast, we could all probably sing 100 different songs every day for the rest of our lives and not repeat one!

So what are the benefits? When we sing songs we love, we breathe deeply and our blood becomes more oxygenated. Our brains get sharper and we feel better. Endorphins and serotonin floods our bodies and we eat better, sleep better and get along with our friends better.

My friend goes dancing with her 85 y.o. "beau" every Thursday and thoroughly enjoys it. I believe that this is happily extending the life of each of them. Soooo, are YOU listening to lots of music each day? Are you singing and dancing your way through your golden years? I sure intend to!