When Itzhak Perlman, the world-class master violinist, came on stage to give this long-awaited concert at Lincoln Center in New York City, just getting on stage was no small achievement for him…

Itzhak was stricken with polio as a child. He wears massive braces on both legs and walks with the aid of two crutches. And geez, to see him walk across the stage, one step at a time, painfully and slowly, is an unforgettable sight. He walks painfully, yet majestically, until he reaches his chair. Then he sits down, slowly, puts his crutches on the floor, undoes the clasps on his legs, tucks one foot back and extends the other foot forward. Then he bends down and picks up the violin, puts it under his chin, nods to the conductor and proceeds to play.

By now, the audience is used to this ritual. They sit quietly while he makes his way across the stage to his chair. They remain reverently silent while he undoes the clasps on his legs. They wait until he is ready to play…

But this time, something went wrong. Just as he finished the first few bars, one of the strings on his violin broke. You could hear it snap - it went off like gunfire across the room. There was no mistaking what that sound meant. There was no mistaking what he had to do. People who were there that night thought to themselves: “We figured that he would have to get up, put on the clasps again, pick up the crutches and limp his way off stage - to either find another violin or else find another string for this one.”

But he didn’t. Instead, he waited a moment, closed his eyes and then signaled the conductor to begin again. The orchestra began, and he played from where he had left off. And he played with such passion and such power and such purity as they had never heard before. Of course, anyone knows that it is impossible to play a symphonic work with just three strings. I know that, and you know that, but that night Itzhak Perlman refused to know that. You could see him modulating, changing, recomposing the piece in his head. At one point, it sounded like he was de-tuning the strings to get new sounds from them that they had never made before.

When he finished, there was an awesome silence in the room. And then people rose and cheered. There was an extraordinary outburst of applause from every corner of the auditorium. We were all on our feet, screaming and cheering, doing everything we could to show how much we appreciated what he had done.

He smiled, wiped the sweat from this brow, raised his bow to quiet us, and then he said, not boastfully, but in a quiet, pensive, reverent tone, “You know, sometimes it is the artist’s task to find out how much music you can still make with whatever you have left.”

What a powerful line that is. It has stayed in my mind ever since I heard it. And who knows? Perhaps this is the way of life - not just for artists but for all of us.

So, perhaps in the shaky, fast-changing, bewildering world in which we live, our task is to perform in our own unique way, at first with all that we have, and then, when that is no longer possible, to GIVE OUR ALL with all we have left. This is true for Kimberly and I at least, and I hope you can see your way clear to support us in our quest for new friends with whom we can share music, stories life skills and online tips.

So please feel free to join our personal email list for free music downloads, web updates, good humor and more inspiring stories:

And please do spread the word about your experience with us, once you opt-in with a small donation to help us stay afloat:

Thank you in advance,
- Clay

The ability to anticipate forthcoming events has clear evolutionary advantages, and predictive successes or failures often entail significant psychological and physiological consequences. In music perception, the confirmation and violation of expectations are critical to the communication of emotion and aesthetic effects of a composition.

Scientists recently measured the brain waves of a twenty subjects while they listened to various hymns. It turned out that unexpected notes - pitches that violated the previous melodic pattern - triggered an interesting sequence of neural events and a spike in brain activity.

There are two interesting takeaways from the experiment. The first is that music hijacks some very fundamental neural mechanisms. The brain is designed to learn by association: if this, then that. Music works by subtly toying with our expected associations, enticing us to make predictions about what note will come next, and then confronting us with our prediction errors. In other words, every melody manipulates the same essential mechanisms we use to make sense of reality.

The second takeaway is that music requires surprise, the dissonance of “low-probability notes”. While most people think about music in terms of aesthetic beauty - we like pretty consonant pitches arranged in pretty patterns - that’s exactly backwards. The point of the prettiness is to set up the surprise, to frame the deviance. (That’s why the unexpected pitches triggered the most brain activity, synchronizing the activity of brain regions involved in motor movement and emotion.) I wrote about this concept in Proust Was A Neuroscientist:

Before a pattern can be desired by the brain, it must play hard to get. Music only excites us when it makes our auditory cortex struggle to uncover its order. If the music is too obvious, if its patterns are always present, it is annoyingly boring. This is why composers introduce the tonic note in the beginning of the song and then studiously avoid it until the end. The longer we are denied the pattern we expect, the greater the emotional release when the pattern returns, safe and sound. Our auditory cortex rejoices. It has found the order it has been looking for.

To demonstrate this psychological principle, the musicologist Leonard Meyer, in his classic book Emotion and Meaning in Music (1956), analyzed the 5th movement of Beethoven’s String Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131. Meyer wanted to show how music is defined by its flirtation with–but not submission to–our expectations of order. He dissected fifty measures of Beethoven’s masterpiece, showing how Beethoven begins with the clear statement of a rhythmic and harmonic pattern and then, in an intricate tonal dance, carefully avoids repeating it. What Beethoven does instead is suggest variations of the pattern. He is its evasive shadow. If E major is the tonic, Beethoven will play incomplete versions of the E major chord, always careful to avoid its straight expression. He wants to preserve an element of uncertainty in his music, making our brains beg for the one chord he refuses to give us. Beethoven saves that chord for the end.

According to Meyer, it is the suspenseful tension of music (arising out of our unfulfilled expectations) that is the source of the music’s feeling. While earlier theories of music focused on the way a noise can refer to the real world of images and experiences (its “connotative” meaning), Meyer argued that the emotions we find in music come from the unfolding events of the music itself. This “embodied meaning” arises from the patterns the symphony invokes and then ignores, from the ambiguity it creates inside its own form. “For the human mind,” Meyer writes, “such states of doubt and confusion are abhorrent. When confronted with them, the mind attempts to resolve them into clarity and certainty.” And so we wait, expectantly, for the resolution of E major, for Beethoven’s established pattern to be completed. This nervous anticipation, says Meyer, “is the whole raison d’etre of the passage, for its purpose is precisely to delay the cadence in the tonic.” The uncertainty makes the feeling.

Music is a form whose meaning depends upon its violation…

FACT: As each bird flaps its wings, it creates an “uplift” for the
bird immediately following. By flying in a “V” formation, the whole flock
has at least 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew on it’s own.

LESSON: People who share a common direction and sense of community
can get where they are going more quickly and easily because they are
traveling on the thrust of one another.

FACT: When a goose flies out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag
and resistance of trying to go it alone. It quickly gets back into formation
to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird in front of it.

LESSON: If we have as much common sense as a goose, we stay in
formation with those headed where we want to go. We are willing to accept
their help and give our help to others. It is harder to do something alone
than together.

FACT: When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates back into the
formation, and another goose flies to the point position.

LESSON: It is sensible to take turns doing the hard and demanding
tasks and sharing leadership. As with geese, people are interdependent of
each others skills, capabilities, and unique arrangements of gifts, talents,
or resources.

FACT: The geese flying in formation honk from behind to encourage
those up front to keep up their speed.

LESSON: We need to make sure our honking is encouraging. In groups
where there is encouragement, the production is much greater. The power of
encouragement (to stand by one’s heart or core values and encourage the heart
and core of others) is the quality of honking we seek. We need to make sure
our honking is encouraging and not discouraging.

FACT: When a goose gets sick, wounded, or shot down, two other geese
will drop out of formation with that goose and follow it down to lend help
and protection. They stay with the fallen goose until it dies or is able to
fly again. Then, they launch out on their own, or with another formation to
catch up with their flock.

LESSON: If we have the sense of a goose, we will stand by our
colleagues and each other in difficult times as well as in good!

It looked like he was carrying all of his books, and I thought to myself, “Why would anyone bring home all his books on a Friday?  He must really be a nerd.”

I had quite a weekend planned (two gigs plus a jam session with my friends tomorrow afternoon), so I shrugged my shoulders and went on.

As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him, and they ran at him, knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping him so he landed in the dirt.

His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten feet from him… He looked up and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes

My heart went out to him. So, I jogged over to him as he crawled around looking for his glasses, and I saw a tear in his eye.  As I handed him his glasses, I said, “Those guys are jerks. They really should get lives.”  He looked at me and said quietly, “Hey thanks!”

There was a big smile on his face. It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude. I helped him pick up his books, and asked him where he lived.

As it turned out, he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen him before…  He said he had gone to private school before now.  I would have never hung out with a private school kid
before.

We talked all the way home, and I carried some of his books. He turned out to be a pretty cool kid.  I asked him if he wanted to come to  a gig with my band, and he said yes.  We hung out all weekend and the more I got to know Kyle, the more I liked him, and my friends thought the same of him.

Monday morning came, and there was Kyle with the huge stack of books again.  I stopped him and said, “Boy, you are gonna really build some serious muscles with this pile of books everyday!”  He just laughed and handed me half the books.

Over the next four years, Kyle and I became good friends.

Kyle was valedictorian of our class, and I teased him all the time about being such a nerd.

He had to prepare a speech for graduation.  I was so glad it wasn’t me having to get up there and speak.

Graduation day, I saw Kyle.  He looked great.  He was one of those guys that really found himself during high school.

He filled out and actually looked good in glasses.

He had more dates than I had and all the girls loved him.  Boy, sometimes I was jealous ,and today was one of those days.

I could see that he was nervous about his speech.  So I smacked him on the back and said, “Hey, big guy, you’ll be great”

He looked at me with one of those looks (the really grateful one) and smiled.  “Thanks,” said he.

As he started his speech, he cleared his throat, and began:  “Graduation is a time to thank those who helped you make it through those tough years.  Your parents, your teachers, your siblings, maybe a coach… but mostly your friends… I am here to tell all of you that being a friend to someone is the best gift you can give them.  Please let me tell you a story.”

And I just looked at my friend with disbelief as he told of the first day we met on the street with those bullies, and of how had been seriously planning to kill himself the next weekend, of how he had cleaned out his locker so his Mom wouldn’t have to do it later and how that day he was carrying all that stuff home.

He looked hard at me and gave me a little smile.

“Thankfully, I was saved…  My one new friend saved me from doing the unspeakable…”

I heard the gasp go through the crowd as this handsome, popular boy told us all about his weakest moment.

I saw his Mom and dad looking at me and smiling that same grateful smile, and not until that moment did I realize it’s depth.

So please remember the power of kind little actions…  With one small gesture you can change a person’s entire life for better or for worse. We’re all in each others lives to affect one another in some way - Look for the Godly and good in others - and especially in yourself…

- “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, What are you doing for others?” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

- “If you could only love enough, you could be the most powerful person in the world.” - Emmett Fox

- “Love has to spring spontaneously from within, And it is in no way amenable to any inner or outer force. Love and coercion can never go together; but, though Love cannot be forced on any one, It can be awakened in him through love itself. Love, is essentially self-communicative: Those who do not have it, catch it from those who do have it. True Love is unconquerable and irresistible; And it goes on gathering power and spreading itself, until eventually it transforms everyone whom it touches… To penetrate into the essence of all being and significance, and to release the fragrance of that inner attainment for the guidance and benefit of others, by releasing in the world of forms, truth, love purity and beauty… This is the sole game that has any intrinsic and absolute worth. All other happenings, incidents and attainments can, in themselves, have no lasting importance.” - Meher Baba

- “When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

- “Whoever performs ONLY his duty is not DOING his duty.” - Bahya Pakuda

- “In the long run, we get no more than we have been willing to risk giving.” - Sheldon Kopp

- “It takes courage for a person to listen to her own goodness and act on it.  Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness, and when she acts on it, she is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most.” - Pablo Casals

- “In nothing do men more closely approach the Gods than by doing good to their fellow man.” - Cicero

FYI, although multiple sclerosis put an end to my decades in music, I can still contribute, because the web allows us to connect online for the highest good of all involved. Thank goodness!

God, but I love this internet, don’t you ?

She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat.

She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth.

A fisherman spotted her just east of the Faralon Islands off the coast of California (outside the Golden Gate ) and radioed for help.

Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so bad off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her - a very dangerous proposition. One slap of the tail could kill a rescuer.

They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her.

And when she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles, then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, nudged them, and pushed gently, thanking them.

Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives.

The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth says her eye was following him the whole time, and he will never be the same.

May you, and all those you love, be so fortunate…   To be surrounded by people who will help you get untangled from the things that are binding you.

And… may we always know the joy of giving and of receiving with deep and abiding gratitude.

Here’s the invitation:

I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart’s longing.

I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love,
for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon.

I want to know if you have touched the center of your sorrow,
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals,
or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own,
without moving to hide it or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own;
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic,
or to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true.
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself;
if you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
I want to know if you can be faithful
and therefore be trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty
even when it is not pretty every day,
and if you can source your life from God’s presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine,
and still stand on the edge of a lake and shout at the silver moon,
” Yes! ”

It doesn’t interest me to know where you live
or how much money you have made.
I want to know if you can get up after a night of grief and despair,
weary and bruised to the bone,
and do what needs to be done for the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you are and how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand at the center of the fire with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have
studied, I want to know what sustains you from the inside when
all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself, and if you
truly like the company you keep in the empty moments . . .

. . . So would I . . .

Ha!

September 8, 2008

By Michel Fortin

Words are powerful. They are the crux of our existence as copywriters. And your choice of words is crucial in getting the results you seek, whether you’re a copywriter or not, and be it in business or in your personal life.

To compel others to do what you want them to do, words do the job. So it goes without saying that you need to choose your words. And you need to choose them carefully. Because words are more powerful than you think.

How powerful?

Words sell. They persuade. They influence. They even forge smiles, dry tears, heal wounds and abolish fears. They have the power to bring joy and laughter in an otherwise cold and somber world. And of course, words can make you rich.

But by the same token, words can also hurt.

They can create havoc out of thin air. They can drive virtual stakes through people’s hearts. They can topple companies and entire governments. And they can even kill. Because, worst of all, they can cause wars. And sadly, they often do.

Words have immense power that can be harnessed for both the good and the bad. As Edward George Bulwer Lytton wrote in 1839, “The pen is mightier than the sword.”

However, I’d like to submit that words also play another (and perhaps an even greater) role. One that holds what I believe to be one of the greatest secrets there is in your business, and more importantly, in your relationships. Use words to this end, and you can achieve not only great success and wealth, but also great happiness, love and peace of mind…  (see full piece at FTR)

But where the rubber really meets the road is something most people don’t want to think yet alone do – and that’s the copy editing part. I have a 9-step sequence I use to really hone, polish and sculpt my sales letters (and you’re going to get 8 of them right here). Fact is, most people’s rough drafts are quite similar but it’s in the editing that you see the difference between a blockbuster and ho-hum copy.

Before we get into the phases of editing – you need to have something worth editing. Many writers fail to let their creative brains loose because it’s always being stymied by the critical part. It’s that little voice in your head that says, “That’s dumb”, “Blah!” or “Nobody is going to care about that” etc.

I suggest you write fast and turn off your internal editor. Get it all out as soon as you can and then edit later. There are 2 different parts of your brain. You really cannot edit and write at the same time.

Now when we get to the editing phases – I focus on one particular part for each pass through and edit. You might want to highlight that because right there is one of the biggest secrets. It’s like when you buy a new car and all of a sudden you start seeing your make and model everywhere. The same number of Mini Coopers were on the road before – but now you have selective perception. Our brains are trained to seek out what we are hunting for and most people will do 1 ‘general’ edit. That’s not good enough.

Phase 1 Edit: Opening   

Your opening is one of the most critical parts of your sales copy (after your headline). In readership studies it’s been shown that readership after 500 words will only fall off again at 5,000 words. So the key is getting people into a slippery slope and into those 500 words.

Most writers have a lot of ‘warm up’. Essentially getting ready to say what they want to say – you need to be ruthless and cut out the fluff. Many times when doing critiques I will literally ‘X’ out an entire first page (or 2) or initial paragraphs. This is an easy trick to making your writing more powerful is to see what you can cut from your original opening. Typically your lead-in will be further down the page.

Phase 2 Edit: Moving Pieces and Copy Blocks

The next thing I look at is if the copy blocks fit into a sequential process. Here, I’m looking for a logical and most persuasive order of the parts of my letter. If my audience is especially skeptical then I will move my ‘Authority’ and ‘Proof’ elements near the beginning. If I’m using a copy analogy or a story – is it positioned in the best spot to keep readers engaged?

I will read through the entire with one thought “Does this paragraph/section/copy block make sense where it is?”

Phase 3 Edit: Graphics, Embellishments & Look

The next thing I’m thinking about is the ‘look’ and ‘feel’ of my copy. As online copywriters we have a few items in our toolbox to choose from like

Bolding

yellow highlighter

shaded boxes

bullet points

check boxes

fake handwriting

embellishments

(I also will very sparingly use italics and underline if it’s an online letter.)

When looking for where I am going to put graphics and embellishments in – I am considering a few things. I look at each one as a spice and just like a top chef doesn’t want the spice to overpower the food – we don’t want the graphics and embellishments to overpower the copy. Just a pinch will do it. I use what I call my “Squinty test”.

I will print out each page and then hold it far enough beyond my face that I just squint to see it. I want to see a good amount of white space, different engaging elements (like bullets) and shaded boxes. But also I don’t want to see too much bolding or too much yellow highlighter.

Phase 4 Edit: Double Readership                

I first learned this term and concept from Dan Kennedy and it’s especially useful online. As prospects hit your site – many are only going to skim what is there unless they are fully engaged. Essentially there are skimmers and readers. You want someone to be able to simply skim through the headline, subheads, boldings, yellow highlighter, embellishments, etc and be able to make a buying decision.

If they can do that – you’ve done your job.

Let’s look at one of my first million dollar products – Instant Sales Letters®. I’m going to only write out the headline and subheads here. Nothing else.

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This doesn’t include any bolding or yellow highlighter, etc to draw the eye in. Just from skimming these subheads – somebody could get the main idea and actually buy the product. Look at your copy from a skimmer’s viewpoint and see where you need to add more subheads or graphical embellishments to make the sale.

Phase 5 Edit: Bucket Brigade

This is where you smooth out and “stitch” everything together. Your copy’s readability (next edit) is directly part of the “bucket brigade” copy transitions. They are called bucket brigade because they keep moving the reader forward and through the copy. Use words and phrases like these:

•    And that’s just the beginning…

•    As you read on, I’ll tell you more about how…

•    But before we go into that,…

•    But better still…

•    But don’t take my word for it…

•    But I’m jumping ahead. Let me tell you how this all came about:

•    Here’s more…

•    Fact is,…

•    Here’s the deal:

•    Here’s the scary part:

•    Listen, there’s more. Lots more.

•    My strong hunch is…

•    Needless to say,…

•    What this all boils down to is..

•    What’s more,…

•    What’s the catch?

•    Then it hit me…

•    Wait, there’s more…

Anytime you can use a copy transition – it will help keep the reader sliding down the slippery slope we’re creating that ultimate ends in the sale. (I have compiled 226 I use that are part of my copywriting workshop material)

Phase 6 Edit: General Flow    

I don’t know what it is about reading something aloud versus reading to yourself, but you’ll pick up lots and lots of insight into how good (or bad) your ad really is by reading it aloud. All the bumps and rough spots jump out at you.

Or a variation on this is to have someone else read it you. This is even better. As they’re reading it, you should take out a copy of the ad and make notes on it. One big advantage of this is your reader is completely impartial. He won’t stress certain phrases or words to make the meaning clearer. And if the reader is having trouble you know that’s an area to edit.

Also, at this editing phase I like to see if I can change some of the “I”, “We” or “Me”s to “You’s” and make most of the sentences geared to the readers benefit. i.e.

“We are giving you 6 must-have bonuses” to “You’ll get 6 must-have bonuses”.

Much stronger that way. A simple start of a sentence you cannot over-use is “You get…”

Phase 7 Edit: Sleep On It 

First, you should let your ad sit for at least a day. Then the next day you can come back to it with new eyes and a fresher perspective. You can find errors that weren’t apparent before. Also, your chances of writing a good ad are significantly improved with rewriting. (I will rewrite an ad or letter 3, 4 or 5 times before I’m done.)

If you do not have the luxury of an extra day – even a few hours will help to give you a new perspective on the writing.

Phase 8 Edit: Grammar and Spelling Edit   

This is my final pass through and I will typically have someone else who is much better at grammar and English look at my work. Not I definitely take this with a grain of salt because a copywriter’s grammar is usually not proper English but I don’t want to look like a total dunce when I confuse ‘their’ and ‘there’.

Now I know most people will not go through all 9 8 copy editing phases – but I promise it will dramatically improve the power of your writing!

Check out the course here: http://www.ultimatecopywritingworkshop.com/?53492