Music and the inner self | James Rhodes | TEDxMadrid

In times of superficiality and exteriority we need to learn to look into ourselves, and truly listening to music is a great way of doing this. Music is a trustable friend that can save you even in your darkest moments.

James Rhodes is one of the most important concert piano players of our times and a great innovator of classical music. He has been the subject of documentaries for BBC and Channel 4, he writes for The Guardian and performs in concerts all around the world. His book "Instrumental", where he talks about the abuse he suffered when a child, is being loved by people and critics everywhere.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

(Piano music)

(Applause)

Thank you.

(Spanish) Hello.

I don't speak Spanish.

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

We musicians,

we always get asked to play.

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

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

I often think, well, what if Gordon Ramsay

was coming here to talk about something?

They wouldn't bring an oven onstage
and say,

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

(Laughter)

But that's fine, I love playing.

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

is kind of my best friend.
(Laughter)

A lot of you will know that piece,

I imagine, that I just played.

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

and maybe a few of you will know

that it's his first prelude

for piano in C major.

But I'm going to say something now

that I think most of you won't know.

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

And I'm the anti-trust guy.

I don't trust a fucking thing.

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

But I do trust music

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

There is not a single person

in this room today or watching this online

who would not be able
to play that piece of music

within a few weeks.

Even if you've never touched
a piano before

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

you would be able to play that piece

in five or six weeks.

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

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

You don't even need a proper piano,

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

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

and I've already plugged the book.

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

But the point is that music

that piece is, what - 90 seconds long?

2 minutes? 32 bars.

It was written 300 years ago.

And yet, within it,

it contains the entire universe.

It's magical thing.

I can't think of anything else

in the world in which we live

that it is as universal as music.

Possibly football?

(Laughter)

Not English football because we're shit.

Spanish football definitely.

But music is extraordinary,

Ian foster said,

"Classical music
is the deepest of the arts

and it goes deep beneath the arts."

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

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

It's amazing and so learning an instrument

even listening to music

is something that I think we need more of

in the world in which we live today.

Because that world in which we live today,

it seems to worship extroverts

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

I think it should be the other
way around.

Everything we do today
is predicated on the idea

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

You know we post selfies on Instagram,

we are funny or argumentative on Twitter,

we poke people on Facebook,
we swipe on Tinder,

we buy shit we don't need from Amazon,

we eat junk food,

we do so many things looking outside

to try and make what's happening inside

feel just a little bit better.

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

Two weeks ago I was in Madrid

and I was doing a concert here

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

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

Oh my God what a place!

And I went to see the Goya paintings.

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

And I did that because

Goya and Beethoven
have a lot of similarities.

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

They were depressed.

Goya was homeless,

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

Beethoven was arrested once

because the police thought he was a tramp,

that he was homeless.

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

they looked inside of themselves

to express what was going on
in the outside world.

Goya painted the ugly truth
that people needed to see.

Beethoven ripped up the rule book
and he composed music

that really for the first time
in musical history

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

It wan't about the glory of God,

making the people paying him happy

it was about feelings.

And the truth is,

all of us today, myself included

we have forgotten

how to shut the fuck up.

(Laughter)

And just sit and be still and just be.

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

how to really listen and hear.

If I say to my girlfriend,

"Darling, what's wrong?"

and she looks at me and she says,

"Nothing, I'm absolutely fine."

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

(Laughter)

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

There's nothing I can say to that.

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

And she looks at me and she says,

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

Suddenly everything is different.

And we have somewhere to go,

we have communication,
and dialogue and honesty.

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

about what was going on in the inside.

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

Would the world be a better place?

I don't know.

Would it be a more trustworthy place?

Absolutely.

There's no doubt in my mind.

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

Some of you here know

I had a quite challenging
childhood and upbringing.

Lots of us have, of course.

We all go through trauma
in one way or another.

And I actually wrote a book about it,

that some of you
have been kind enough to buy

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

and that book is -

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

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

So it's a comedy.
(Laughter)

My publishers were so happy,

"Yes this will be in supermarkets
everywhere,

everyone wants to know about that stuff."

But the truth is,
the reason I bring it up

it's a love letter to music

because music is the one thing

that when bad things were happening

it literally saved my life.

Even today when shit is going wrong

I listen to music and everything changes.

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

between our inner and our outer worlds.

That small space between
dreams and fantasy and reality.

And my happiest moments

are when I get back to that place

even if it's only for a short time

that's where Bach and Beethoven -

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

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

the M word:

Mindfulness.

Mindfulness.

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

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

and you climb up a mountain

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

Bach invented mindfulness.

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

is mindfulness.

It's where the magic happens.

I'm not a religious man at all.

But I've got a lot of faith

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

But there is no greater proof

for the existence of God

than Bach, Beethoven, Prokofiev,

Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Rachmaninoff,

Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Schubert,

Schumann, Ravel, Debussy,

Scriabin, Bartók, Hummel,

Haydn, Mozart -

Mozart, fucking hell!

Him on his own!

(Laughter)
Oh my God!

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

to help us connect
to that part of ourselves than

Trimipramine, Fluoxetine,

Citalopram, Olanzapine, Lithium,

any one of the dozens
of medications and drugs

that I've taken over the years.

And of course medication is important

it kept me alive for a bit.

But music is where the real magic happens.

Much more than drugs,

much more than self-help books,

I fucking hate self-help books!

They're awful things!

These books you buy...

and the premise behind everyone of them

is that you have all
completely fucked up your life.

You've done everything wrong for decades,

you're a complete failure
as a human being.

But if you read this book,

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

that will say the same thing.

And... (Laughter)

We don't need it because the truth is,

the absolute fundamental truth,

is that every single one of you

is a fucking miracle.

You're perfect just the way you are.

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

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

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

we all know the impact it has.

And yet progressive governments

all around the world

have absolutely massacred music education.

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

I was in the House of Lords
three days ago,

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

And I'll tell you something,

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

They just haven't got a clue,

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

And the truth is
unless you have money today,

your kids aren't going to learn music.

They aren't going to know who Bach is,

they're not going to know that piece.

And so it falls on us
as people who are creative

and who love music,

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

to share that message.

I think it's so important.

One of the things I really want to do

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

because we need more apps,

there are not enough of them.
(Laughter)

And this app will celebrate interiority

and what it will do
is it will provide you everyday

with a piece of classical music.

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

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

The problem is

classical musicians
and the people in the industry

they are such assholes.

They keep classical music up here

in a little box

just for them

and just for a certain kind of audience

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

and it's such bullshit.

If anyone can suggest a better phrase

for classical music

please let me know.

I did that on Twitter
and people were saying things like

mind music

or old music

or shit music.

(Laughter)

But I like inner music.

But everyday what will happen

is that you'll will find this app,

it will send you a piece of music,

it will go hopefully into classrooms

in front of children

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

you'll send them a little piece of music,

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

you will switch off

and reconnect
with that interior part of yourself,

and see what the impact is.

So I'd like to do a little experiment now,

to kind of end.

I'd like imagine that I've given you all

a free iPhone 7.
(Laughter)

I've given you all this app
on your smartphones

and you pull out your smartphones
and you open up the app

and now I want us to go really quiet.

It doesn't matter you can't see me now,
this is about listening.

I want us to learn how to listen again,
to reconnect to that part of ourselves

I'm going to play you a piece of music
by a composer called Gluck.

It's really a love song.

And when I'm playing it
I want you to close your eyes and trust

what's going to happen to you.

Trust, listen to your heart beating

feel what a miracle you are

trust this music will tunnel into you

and take you to a place that is safe
and extraordinary and powerful.

And I hope that everyday,

you will find 5 minutes

just to connect with something,
some kind of inner beauty.

And if it's not learning an instrument
or listening to music

it can be painting, or drawing,
or cooking, or dancing,

or writing, or photography,

or any one of a thousand creative things

that are a vital antidote

to the the fucked up,
crazy full on world in which we live.

And to me that kind of inner beauty,

it sounds a lot like this.

(Piano music)

(Music ends)

(Applause)