好英语网活到老学到老 什么时候学乐器都不算晚
Is it ever too late to learn a musical instrument? According to the leading British concert pianist James Rhodes, the answer is an emphatic ‘no’ - and he has just written the book to prove it. The delightfully straight-talking How To Play the Piano is an elegant little volume that promises - with just 45 minutes’ practice a day, six days a week, for six weeks - to enable anyone with access to a keyboard to play one of JS Bach’s most beloved works, the Prelude no 1 in C major from Book One of The Well-Tempered Clavier.
长大成人后再学习乐器是否为时已晚？英国首席音乐会钢琴家詹姆斯·罗兹（James Rhodes）的答案是"不晚"——他还刚刚写了一本书证明这个观点。这本书名为《如何弹钢琴》（How To Play the Piano），它用轻松愉快、直抒胸臆的语言阐述了如何用小块的时间掌握钢琴这种看似复杂的乐器。他承诺，只要每天练习45分钟，每周练习6天，连续6个星期，任何人都可以用钢琴弹奏巴赫的名曲《十二平均律曲集》里的第一首C大调前奏曲。
The book, Rhodes reveals, came from an overwhelming response to his excoriating 2015 memoir Instrumental, which addressed his devastating mental breakdown and the critical role music played in his recovery and redemption. Following its publication, countless readers were moved to tell him they’d been inspired by his words to return to the piano themselves. “I lose track of how many people have said ‘Oh, I used to play when I was a kid, I wish I’d stuck it out,’” he tells me, mentioning one particular email that sparked the idea.
罗兹披露，他2015年出版的回忆录《乐器》（Instrumental）曾经引发了巨大反响，而这本新书正为了回应读者的热烈反应。他在之前的那本书里提到了自己曾经遭遇精神崩溃，而音乐则在他恢复和救赎的过程中扮演了至关重要的角色。在该书出版后，有无数读者告诉他，他们受到了这本书的启发，决定重新弹奏钢琴。"我已经记不清有多少人告诉我，'哦，我小时候也弹过钢琴，真希望我能坚持到底。'"他还提到了那封直接给他这本新书带来创作灵感的邮件。
成人仍然可以学习乐器
“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.’ I found that so moving.”
"我收到了一位已经退休的墨西哥职业飞行员发来的邮件，他对我说：'我小时候曾经弹过钢琴，但已经50年没弹了。我读了《乐器》，还买了一架钢琴，给自己请了一位钢琴老师，现在我每天都练习。我只想告诉您一件事情：这是我一生中最好的时光。'看到这番话，我很受触动。"
Rhodes’ new book is the first in publisher Quercus Books’ Little Book of Life Skills series. It manages to tap into something pervasive, even romantic in the Western zeitgeist - becoming better, more skilled, more cultured and accomplished versions of ourselves - whilst never deviating from the integrity of a tradition that has remained essentially unchanged since humans first started making music on keyboards hundreds of years ago. “Learning a musical instrument can unlock the door to a new dimension that many of us have forgotten even exists,” Rhodes begins in his opening chapter, and there is no denying the immense appeal of laying aside technology to engage one’s fingers and brain and soul in a pursuit that has nothing to do with email, texting, or social media.
罗兹的新书是出版商Quercus Books的《生活技能小手册》（Little Book of Life Skills）系列中的第一本。它挖掘了西方思潮中的一些流行甚至浪漫的元素——成为更好、掌握更多技能、更有文化修养的自己——同时还没有偏离人类几百年前第一次通过键盘演奏音乐以来始终未变的优良传统。"学习一种乐器可以打开一个被很多人遗忘的新维度。"罗兹这本书的开篇写道。在当下的环境中，能够抛开科技的束缚，用手指、大脑和心灵去体味一项与电子邮件、短信或社交网络毫无关系的爱好，无疑具备不可抗拒的吸引力。
His project offers perhaps the ultimate digital detox. Reading the book, I had fantasies of lighting a few candles of an evening, pouring a large glass of wine and getting stuck in to my piano practice: an alluring act of hygge, artistic self-improvement and self-care all in one. If you’d told me as a kid that I’d one day actually look forward to practising the piano, I would have laughed in disbelief. But in Rhodes’ witty, engaging, unpretentious hands, the prospect of daily piano-practice and its requirement of deep concentration becomes both meditation and medication.
他的项目或许扮演了数字时代"终极戒毒所"的角色。看这本书时，我就幻想着在夜间点几盏蜡烛、倒一杯红酒，然后专心享受练习钢琴的快乐：这是一种诱人的感受，不仅能提升自己的艺术修养，还可以给心灵带来慰藉。如果小时候有人告诉我，我有一天会渴望练习钢琴，我肯定会满怀不屑地嘲笑这种说法。但在罗兹诙谐、迷人、含蓄的文字里，每天练习钢琴以及由此带来的高度专注却可以引导我陷入沉思，甚至成为治愈心灵的良药。
“We live in an age of such instant gratification, we’re always looking outside of ourselves, and I think we’ve lost sight of just doing something quiet for ourselves,” he offers, when I suggest that the book is also a timely reflection of a modern Western aspiration not to material wealth but to spiritual and emotional enrichment, as seen in the proliferation of on- and offline adult skills courses such as those offered by Skillshare, Creative Live and The School of Life.
"我们生活在一个即时满足的时代，我们总是向外看。我认为我们失去了安安静静为自己做点事情的能力。"他说。我认为，这本书还适时地反映了现代西方人的追求：不光看重物质财富，还重视丰富的精神和情感世界。这一点从Skillshare、Creative Live和The School of Life提供的各种线上和线下成人培训课程中得到了充分印证。
“Not for the reward but just for the sheer loveliness of doing it. I think of playing the piano as a version of mindfulness - for which you don’t need a fleet of commando-style, shaven-haired monks, you just need a keyboard.” Besides, have we ever needed analogue escape routes more than now? Rhodes agrees. “All the news is bad, so why not just do something lovely for ourselves?”
"这么做不是为了获得回报，纯粹是因为发自内心的热爱。在我看来，弹钢琴就像念经修行——不必严守戒律，无需剃度出家，只要一架钢琴即可。"除此之外，还有什么时候比现在更需要逃离现实呢？罗兹也同意这种观点。"坏消息此起彼伏，既然如此，为什么不干脆做一些令人愉悦的事情呢？"
Ditch the scales
抛弃音阶
Besides, learning - or re-learning - a skill such as playing the piano is proven to be good for our brains. According to research from the University of Texas, “mentally-challenging leisure activities” can re-wire our grey matter, restoring our brains to a more “youth-like” state. Rhodes is careful not to over-promise. “Look, this book won’t have you playing Rachmaninov or Chopin etudes. I was well aware that if you set out with a book about learning to play the piano and you say it takes 10,000 hours, nobody’s going to do it, because for whatever reason, good or bad, it has become hard to find time to simply focus and work on something for yourself. Time is such a precious commodity. But it will have you playing some Bach. And the Bach is still challenging, it will still push you, but it’s as accessible as possible.” He continues. “And six weeks is an outsize estimate: if you have time to practise more, or you played a lot as a kid, it will come back quicker. And it will give you a proper insight into the music. Maybe that in itself will be enough, or maybe you’ll enjoy it so much you’ll decide to get a teacher and learn other things.”
另外，学习——或重新学习——弹钢琴这样的技能也对大脑有好处。根据德克萨斯大学的一项研究，"挑战心智的休闲活动"可以更新我们的大脑灰质，将其恢复到更加年轻的状态。罗兹写书时也很注重措辞，避免让读者产生过高的预期。"你瞧，这本书不会让你弹拉赫曼尼诺夫或肖邦的曲子。我很清楚，如果拿起一本学钢琴的书后却发现需要花费1万小时来练习，那就不会有人感兴趣。因为无论出于什么原因，都很难抽出足够的时间专心致志为自己做这件事情。时间很珍贵，但你仍可以弹奏一些巴赫的曲子。巴赫的曲子很有挑战性，也仍会让你感到挫败，但已经尽可能做到'平易近人'了。"他接着说，"6个星期的预期其实已经很长了：如果你有时间多加练习，或者像孩子一样多弹弹琴，速度还能更快。这样做还能加深你对音乐的理解。这样做本身或许已经足够了，但你可能也会深迷其中，想要找个老师，然后学学其他东西。"
Central to his approach is the beauty of the actual music itself. “I’m a big fan of taking a piece that you want to play and finding a positive way to work at it, not through scales and etudes and exercises, but by simply playing it,” he explains. The book breaks down exactly how to practise in this way, including his genius fingerings, which staves off the potential boredom and frustration that would lead many of us to give up. I tell him I could never face doing scales and arpeggios as a child and I feel no differently about them as an adult.
音乐本身的美感正是这种方法的核心所在。"我比较推崇的方法是，找一首你想弹奏的曲子，然后找到积极的方式来演绎它，不要过分深究音阶和练习曲以及练习方式，直接演奏即可。"他解释道。这本书详细阐述了如何通过这种方式练习钢琴，例如，他开创的新颖指法练习方式巧妙地避开了可能令很多人中途放弃的无聊感和挫败感。我对他说，我小时候始终不愿意面对音阶和琶音，长大成人后同样如此。
“Arpeggios and scales are never necessary!” he insists. “In any piece there will be technical challenges that you can work on using the music itself. I also loathe doing scales and arpeggios, but hey, I’m looking at this Mozart concerto that’s sitting on my piano right now, and it’s filled with scales and arpeggios. If you’re working on a piece and achieving something, it’s a great way to learn. Find a piece you love, and work on it through the music.”
"琶音和音阶根本没有必要！"他坚称，"任何一支曲子都包含一些你可以用音乐本身来应对的技术挑战。我也很讨厌音阶和琶音练习，但我现在正坐在钢琴前练习莫扎特的一支协奏曲，里面充满了音阶和琶音。如果你正在练习一支曲子，并收获了一些东西，那就是一种很好的学习方法。找到你喜欢的曲子，然后通过音乐来克服挑战。"
Rhodes is evangelical about the joys of connecting or reconnecting with the piano, and beyond the book itself, his website has tutorials and videos dedicated to help you on your journey. The start of a new year, with all its attendant resolve, seems as good a time as any to take the plunge; our lives, after all, are not getting any longer. “Yeah. We’re not going to be lying on our death bed thinking, I wish I’d sent a few more emails and done a few more spreadsheets,” he jokes. “But you might well think: I wish I’d written that novel or painted that picture. Or learned to play that piece of Bach on the piano…”
罗兹就像一名布道者，总是不厌其烦地传播与钢琴相识相知和久别重逢的愉悦感受。除了写书之外，他还利用自己的网站提供教程和视频，帮助人们享受钢琴的学习过程。新年伊始，很多人都会给自己制定新的目标，所以这时候似乎很适合尝试一下新的挑战。毕竟，生命短暂，岁月珍贵。"是的。我们不会在即将离开人世时考虑再多发几封邮件，再多做几份表格。"他开玩笑道，"但我可能会想：我真希望自己能写一本小说，或者画一张画，抑或弹奏一首巴赫的钢琴曲。"