WEBVTT

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(Piano music)

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(Applause)

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Thank you.

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(Spanish) Hello.

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I don't speak Spanish.

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(English) Typical English guy, I'm sorry.

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We musicians,

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we always get asked to play. 


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They say, "Will you come and do a talk?".
And I say, "Yes, I'd love to, thanks".

NOTE Paragraph

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And they say, "Of course we'll bring
a piano so you can play too."

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I often think, well, what if Gordon Ramsay

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was coming here to talk about something?

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They wouldn't bring an oven onstage
and say,

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"Cook us a fucking cake or something",
would they?

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(Laughter)

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But that's fine, I love playing.

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It's sad, but it's true but this thing...

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is kind of my best friend.
(Laughter)

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A lot of you will know that piece,

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I imagine, that I just played.

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And some of you might know
that it was written by Bach

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and maybe a few of you will know

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that it's his first prelude

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for piano in C major.

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But I'm going to say something now

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that I think most of you won't know.

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And this whole conference
is about trust, isn't it?

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And I'm the anti-trust guy.

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I don't trust a fucking thing.

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I don't trust anyone,
I don't trust anything.

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But I do trust music

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and I want you to trust me
when I tell you this:

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There is not a single person

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in this room today or watching this online

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who would not be able
to play that piece of music

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within a few weeks.

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Even if you've never touched
a piano before

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so long as you've got
two hands and ten fingers

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you would be able to play that piece

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in five or six weeks.

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I've just written a book
that explains how to do it.

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It shows you how to read music,
how to practice...

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You don't even need a proper piano,

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you can get a cheap electric keyboard
and you can still do it.

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I just realised it's been 3 minutes
into my talk

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and I've already plugged the book.

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I'm really sorry.
I'm not going to do that again.

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But the point is that music

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that piece is, what - 90 seconds long?

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2 minutes? 32 bars.

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It was written 300 years ago.

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And yet, within it,

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it contains the entire universe.

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It's magical thing.

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I can't think of anything else

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in the world in which we live

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that it is as universal as music.

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Possibly football?

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(Laughter)

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Not English football because we're shit.

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Spanish football definitely.

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But music is extraordinary,

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Ian foster said,

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"Classical music
is the deepest of the arts

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and it goes deep beneath the arts."

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And it's one of those things
that it's like a language

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that we don't know
that we're all fluent in.

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It's amazing and so learning an instrument

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even listening to music

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is something that I think we need more of

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in the world in which we live today.

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Because that world in which we live today,

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it seems to worship extroverts

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and we see introverts
as kind of freaks, to be honest.

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I think it should be the other
way around.

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Everything we do today
is predicated on the idea

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that looking outside of ourselves
is the right thing to do.

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You know we post selfies on Instagram,

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we are funny or argumentative on Twitter,

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we poke people on Facebook,
we swipe on Tinder,

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we buy shit we don't need from Amazon,

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we eat junk food,

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we do so many things looking outside

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to try and make what's happening inside

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feel just a little bit better.

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And weirdly,
we've got it the wrong way around.

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Two weeks ago I was in Madrid

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and I was doing a concert here

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and in the concert I was playing
a piece of Beethoven.

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In the morning of the concert
I walk down to the Prado museum.

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Oh my God what a place!

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And I went to see the Goya paintings.

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He did a series of paintings called
"The black paintings."

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And I did that because

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Goya and Beethoven
have a lot of similarities.

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I guess most importantly they went deaf
at the same time, both of them.

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They were depressed.

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Goya was homeless,

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he spent time living under a bridge
not far from here in Madrid.

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Beethoven was arrested once

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because the police thought he was a tramp,


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that he was homeless.

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But the real reason
they're so connected is that,

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they looked inside of themselves

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to express what was going on
in the outside world.

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Goya painted the ugly truth
that people needed to see.

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Beethoven ripped up the rule book
and he composed music

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that really for the first time
in musical history

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was about feelings,
it was about interiority, looking inside.

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It wan't about the glory of God,

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making the people paying him happy

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it was about feelings.

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And the truth is,

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all of us today, myself included

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we have forgotten

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how to shut the fuck up.

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(Laughter)

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And just sit and be still and just be.

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Things are so fast
we've forgotten how to listen,

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how to really listen and hear.

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If I say to my girlfriend,

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"Darling, what's wrong?"

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and she looks at me and she says,

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"Nothing, I'm absolutely fine."

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It's not just me, right?
That happens to all.

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(Laughter)

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I know then, whatever I say,
I'm in trouble.

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There's nothing I can say to that.

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If I say to her,
"Baby, what's wrong?"

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And she looks at me and she says,

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"You know, this morning when you
said that thing it really upset me."

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Suddenly everything is different.

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And we have somewhere to go,


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we have communication,
and dialogue and honesty.

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And I often wonder what would happen
if we were all a bit more honest

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about what was going on in the inside.

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It's an extraordinary thing to be able
to do, it's a brave thing to do.

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Would the world be a better place?

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I don't know.

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Would it be a more trustworthy place?

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Absolutely.

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There's no doubt in my mind.

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Like I said,
I find it very difficult to trust.

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Some of you here know 


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I had a quite challenging
childhood and upbringing.

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Lots of us have, of course.

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We all go through trauma
in one way or another.

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And I actually wrote a book about it,

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that some of you
have been kind enough to buy

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and some of you have even read it
which is very kind of you,

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and that book is -

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It's really a love letter to music
but it also talks about -

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it's basically a book about
child rape and classical music.

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So it's a comedy.
(Laughter)

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My publishers were so happy,

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"Yes this will be in supermarkets
everywhere,

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everyone wants to know about that stuff."

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But the truth is,
the reason I bring it up

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it's a love letter to music


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because music is the one thing

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that when bad things were happening

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it literally saved my life.

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Even today when shit is going wrong

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I listen to music and everything changes.

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You know they say that the soul
resides at that junction point

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between our inner and our outer worlds.

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That small space between
dreams and fantasy and reality.

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And my happiest moments

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are when I get back to that place

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even if it's only for a short time

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that's where Bach and Beethoven -

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that's the space they inhabited
and they created from.

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And I want to mention a word,
I'm really sorry for mentioning it

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the M word:

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Mindfulness.

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Mindfulness.

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I'm sorry, you know,
I often thought mindfulnes meant

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you kind of hire a fleet
of commando monks with shaved heads

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and you climb up a mountain 


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and you "om" for three weeks,
while fasting.

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Bach invented mindfulness.

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Playing the piano, listening to music
listening, really listening...

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is mindfulness.

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It's where the magic happens.

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I'm not a religious man at all.

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But I've got a lot of faith

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I've got a lot of faith but no religion.

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But there is no greater proof

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for the existence of God

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than Bach, Beethoven, Prokofiev,

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Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Rachmaninoff,

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Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Schubert,

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Schumann, Ravel, Debussy,

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Scriabin, Bartók, Hummel,


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Haydn, Mozart -

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Mozart, fucking hell!

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Him on his own!

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(Laughter)
Oh my God!

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And that is a much, much,
much stronger list of things

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to help us connect
to that part of ourselves than

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Trimipramine, Fluoxetine,

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Citalopram, Olanzapine, Lithium,

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any one of the dozens
of medications and drugs

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that I've taken over the years.

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And of course medication is important

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it kept me alive for a bit.

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But music is where the real magic happens.

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Much more than drugs,

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much more than self-help books,

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I fucking hate self-help books!

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They're awful things!

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These books you buy...

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and the premise behind everyone of them

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is that you have all
completely fucked up your life.

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You've done everything wrong for decades,

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you're a complete failure
as a human being.

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But if you read this book,

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I'll convince you
to buy the next book I write,

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that will say the same thing.

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And... (Laughter)

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We don't need it because the truth is,

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the absolute fundamental truth,

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is that every single one of you

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is a fucking miracle.

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You're perfect just the way you are.

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And the way to get in touch
with that part of us

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is to listen and to connect
and to celebrate this idea of interiority.

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And music, the saddest thing
is that we know how powerful it is,

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we all know the impact it has.

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And yet progressive governments

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all around the world

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have absolutely massacred music education.

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It's not just in England,
although England is appalling.

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I was in the House of Lords
three days ago,

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speaking to a big group of people
all about music education.

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And I'll tell you something,

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non of them have a fucking clue
of what to do.

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They just haven't got a clue,

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they don't listen, they can't listen
they don't know how to fix it.

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And the truth is
unless you have money today,

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your kids aren't going to learn music.

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They aren't going to know who Bach is,

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they're not going to know that piece.

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And so it falls on us
as people who are creative

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and who love music,

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and who were lucky enough
to be able to listen and explore music,

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to share that message.

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I think it's so important.

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One of the things I really want to do

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is to form, to build, to develope an app -

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because we need more apps,

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there are not enough of them. 
(Laughter)

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And this app will celebrate interiority

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and what it will do
is it will provide you everyday

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with a piece of classical music. 


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I hate the phrase 'classical music',
by the way

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I'm sorry I keep mentioning it
but there is no other phrase, does it?

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The problem is

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classical musicians
and the people in the industry

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they are such assholes.

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They keep classical music up here

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in a little box

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just for them

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and just for a certain kind of audience

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who are well-dressed and educated
and wealthy and they can understand it

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and it's such bullshit.

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If anyone can suggest a better phrase

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for classical music

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please let me know.

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I did that on Twitter
and people were saying things like

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mind music

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or old music

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or shit music.

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(Laughter)

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But I like inner music.

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But everyday what will happen

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is that you'll will find this app,

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it will send you a piece of music,

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it will go hopefully into classrooms

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in front of children

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and you will send to people you love,
you miss, you're thinking about,

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you'll send them a little piece of music,

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and you will listen to it yourself
and just for 5 minutes a day,

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you will switch off

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and reconnect
with that interior part of yourself,

00:15:09.341 --> 00:15:11.537
and see what the impact is.

00:15:13.117 --> 00:15:15.362
So I'd like to do a little experiment now,

00:15:15.362 --> 00:15:16.901
to kind of end.

00:15:16.901 --> 00:15:19.441
I'd like imagine that I've given you all

00:15:19.441 --> 00:15:20.987
a free iPhone 7.
(Laughter)

00:15:23.629 --> 00:15:25.922
I've given you all this app
on your smartphones

00:15:25.922 --> 00:15:28.599
and you pull out your smartphones
and you open up the app

00:15:28.599 --> 00:15:30.634
and now I want us to go really quiet.

00:15:35.467 --> 00:15:38.468
It doesn't matter you can't see me now,
this is about listening.

00:15:39.653 --> 00:15:43.411
I want us to learn how to listen again,
to reconnect to that part of ourselves

00:15:43.421 --> 00:15:47.045
I'm going to play you a piece of music
by a composer called Gluck.

00:15:47.385 --> 00:15:48.526
It's really a love song.

00:15:48.666 --> 00:15:52.908
And when I'm playing it
I want you to close your eyes and trust

00:15:53.088 --> 00:15:55.148
what's going to happen to you.

00:15:55.148 --> 00:15:57.623
Trust, listen to your heart beating

00:15:57.623 --> 00:15:59.452
feel what a miracle you are

00:15:59.452 --> 00:16:01.689
trust this music will tunnel into you

00:16:01.728 --> 00:16:07.057
and take you to a place that is safe
and extraordinary and powerful.

00:16:08.902 --> 00:16:11.041
And I hope that everyday,

00:16:11.041 --> 00:16:13.334
you will find 5 minutes

00:16:13.644 --> 00:16:16.930
just to connect with something,
some kind of inner beauty.

00:16:16.930 --> 00:16:19.938
And if it's not learning an instrument
or listening to music

00:16:19.938 --> 00:16:22.572
it can be painting, or drawing,
or cooking, or dancing,

00:16:22.574 --> 00:16:24.495
or writing, or photography,

00:16:24.495 --> 00:16:26.602
or any one of a thousand creative things

00:16:26.602 --> 00:16:29.389
that are a vital antidote

00:16:29.389 --> 00:16:32.862
to the the fucked up,
crazy full on world in which we live.

00:16:33.519 --> 00:16:36.248
And to me that kind of inner beauty,

00:16:36.917 --> 00:16:38.975
it sounds a lot like this.

00:16:51.820 --> 00:16:54.230
(Piano music)

00:21:15.087 --> 00:21:17.763
(Music ends)

00:21:19.860 --> 00:21:23.288
(Applause)