Is your New Year’s resolution to be more creative? Or to take some time out for your mental health? Perhaps you want to take up a hobby that encourages you to disconnect from screen time, but you aren’t sure how to do it? Pianist James Rhodes can help.
The leading British concert pianist believes that it is never too late to learn to play an instrument, and to help us do it, he has released a book on How to Play the Piano. Complete with online tutorials from Rhodes, the book promises that with just 45 minutes’ practice a day, six days a week for six weeks, users will be able to play the Prelude no 1 in C Major from JS Bach.
The book teaches the basics of piano playing, including how to read music, the difference between treble and bass clef, sharp and flat notes and how to practice.
Rhodes was inspired to create the volume after receiving overwhelming feedback to his 2015 memoir Instrumental, in which he documented the critical role that music played in his recovery from a mental breakdown. As told to the BBC, Rhodes was inundated with comments from readers wishing they continued to play instruments, or had taken up the opportunity to do so as a child. “I got a message from a retired Mexican professional airline pilot who said: ‘I used to play as a kid but I haven’t played for 50 years. I read Instrumental, I bought a piano, I got myself a piano teacher, now I practise every day. And I just want you to know: these are my best days’”, shared Rhodes.
“How often do we convince ourselves that it’s just too late – too late to learn how to ride a bike, too late to know how to mediate, too late to travel the world,” asks Rhodes on his website. “As we get older and time slips through our fingers like water, we become resigned, almost defeatist, about abandoning our dreams.”
“Learning a musical instrument can unlock the door to a new dimension that many of us forgotten even exists,” says Rhodes. Perhaps now is the time to take up that challenge.
You can read more about Rhodes work and purchase his book online here
To read more about the benefits of being creative, why not read the following articles:
- “Healing Rhythm” – the benefits of music as therapy
- “Capture Your Imagination” – unlocking the process of creativity
- “In the Moment: Art and Dementia” – how art can help with dementia
