180. JAMES RHODES: Is that not worth exploring?
James Rhodes is a British concert pianist. Largely self-taught, Rhodes has released five best-selling albums and is known for his refreshing performances that ignore the usual formality and tradition of classical music. Rhodes never performs in a suit, holds his concerts in non-traditional venues and entertains the crowd with stories about famous composers and how they affected his own life in between pieces. You can watch his insane talent on display in a number of videos on his YouTube channel.
The passage used in the comic was taken from a column Rhodes wrote for The Guardian in 2013. It’s one of the most fantastically motivating articles I’ve ever read and I highly recommend you read the entire piece.
Classical music quite literally saved Rhodes’ life. As a child, he was sexually abused for a number of years, which left Rhodes both mentally and physically damaged. Mental health issues stopped Rhodes from taking up a scholarship at the Guildhall School of Music and he stopped playing piano entirely for 10 years. Throughout all of Rhodes’ pain, music was his one saving grace. Writing about one of his favourite pieces by Bach: “That piece became my safe place. Any time I felt anxious (any time I was awake) it was going round in my head. Its rhythms were being tapped out, its voices played again and again, altered, explored – experimented with. I dove inside it as if it were some kind of musical maze and wandered around happily lost. It set me up for life; without it I would have died years ago, I’ve no doubt.”
During his years away from the piano, Rhodes worked a corporate job which he was miserable in. On his decision to finally start playing piano again: “Only when the pain of not doing it got greater than the imagined pain of doing it did I somehow find the balls to pursue what I really wanted and had been obsessed by since the age of seven – to be a concert pianist.”
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– Rhodes’ memoir Instrumental was released recently, but only after he was made to suffer more anguish over his childhood abuse. The British Supreme Court removed an injunction that was preventing the book from being released. You can read more about the case here.
– Rhodes is also on a personal crusade to save music education in schools. After his successful TV series Don’t Stop The Music aired in Britain last year, which followed Rhodes’ quest to collect old musical instruments and refurbish them for use in schools, there’s now an American version looking to get help funded on Kickstarter at the moment. Hello, is anyone in Australia reading this?
– I’ve never really been exposed to classical music, besides from Looney Tunes cartoons, but I have been listening to Rhodes’ Soundcloud page a lot while working on this comic. I’ve especially been playing this Beethoven piece over and over again.
– Thanks to Lara for sending me the article.
Discussion (135) ¬
Dammit, Gav! Stop making comics that make me cry! I loved this one. Thank you!
Greetings from USA.
Chris
Ditto, Christopher!
agree
Ditto for me, too. And, it’s applicable to more than just the piano…
Wow, what a profound piece. I’m one of those who regretted giving up the piano. Eventually I bought one after buying my first house but moved it into my parents’ basement after moving again. Perhaps I’ll have it delivered to my new house now. That would be nice. Thanks for this comic!
Also, I love that little detail of the father reading TinTin to his daughter. Destination Moon was one of the first TinTin comic books I ever read!
Fortuitous timing on this one, Gav. I am 31 and just bought my first acoustic guitar.
same old shit.
Quit your job! Become an artist! Quit your job! Become an artist! quit your job
You suck Gav Mao!
Awwwww, truth hurts
Eddie didn’t quit his job. He just bought a piano and spent time playing it.
Ha ha… You call yourself TROLL! 😀
It’s never a message about becoming an artist… it’s about finding your passion. For many, passion is some form of art. If that’s not yours, well, it’s your job to know what motivates you, or if you don’t, find out. The part about a book rang true for me. Took me to age 40 to publish my first novel, a life-long dream, but I did it. There is nothing more satisfying than accomplishing your goals, whatever they are, big or small.
I read this and immediately left my desk to play my piano just for five minutes. I take too many breaks to check Facebook and read posts that often make me sad for the people who posted such trollish garbage. Taking one short break to improv on my old upright left me feeling so much better. Thank you for this reminder that creativity brings healing and life.
Hi from Sydney! Fantastic comic 🙂
I love it! but my question is…WHERE do i get that My Neighbor Totoro reading lamp??? WHEEEEERE
Oh, oh, one for me too, pwetty please! 😉
This is not exactly what’s pictured in the comic, but here’s one that’s really cool: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIFHShis9zo
And you can buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Studio-Ghibli-Totoro-Dondoko-Figure/dp/B0046XR33O
This ones getting stuck on my desktop and THEN I’m getting right back to schoolwork (after I check out those cat videos one more time while claiming that it counts as research).
I also choose to believe that the piano mover was carrying it by himself and that’s why he looked so disgruntled.
Oh Gav… please please please consider making this a poster. I need this in my line of sight everyday
The music part doesn’t apply to me but the breakdown of day-to-day, and the power of choice to engage in creative outlets very much do
This one hit a nerve, definitely started tearing up. Thank you Gav
I second that – would love as a poster.
Yes, please! I recently started piano lessons back up, and a friend sent me this link. I think of it OFTEN when I feel like skipping practice. Would love to hang this above the piano as a reminder.
What a beautiful sentiment to share. Thanks for this.
I love that in this one, he didn’t have to abandon the job or the family like most people following their dreams do on zenpencil. I wake up at 6 everyday. On week days, this give me an hour and half at the very least that are entirely mine and I use that time to draw. I don’t feel guilty about it, because there isn’t anything else I could be doing, work doesn’t start to 8:30 at the earliest, stores don’t open until 9, and my loved ones are sleeping. It can be such a struggle to find time to be creative, but it is so important.
I wish I could make music, besides just listening to it on a CD, iTunes or an iPod…
One of your best yet! Somehow this one feels more grounded and mature.
Simply wonderful.
Thanks for creating & sharing it.
Amazing! ????????????
May I just say again how delighted I am to see a range of ethnicities in your comics. Fantastically moving, a must-share.
I’m in tears. This is, simply put, everything I need to read tonight. Thank you so much.
You’re spot on. I don’t regret giving up the piano but I do wish I had written more throughout my teenage years. I’m glad you’re drawing. Every comic is a pick me up or anpunchnin the gut. Sometimes both!
One of my favourites Gav! Well done.
Just discovered your website. Your work is truly touching. Bought your book and would be happy to support you on Patreon etc.
Great way to start the morning, thanks for the inspiration Gav 🙂
At 5:35 am IST, after finishing the draft of my M.Phil. dissertation, sitting solitary at my department’s library, watching yet another sunrise underway from the basement slits over the last two months, and missing playing music, I could not have told a friend what I am going through. The sense of completion is there, yes. But I am tired over the drill, of the self imposed imprisonment of manufactured ideas that I need to produce on ‘paper’ which is just a remnant of a world that will soon be obsolete (I guess). Anyway, I refrain from commenting as I have mentioned in one other comment that I have left at your piece on Shakespeare’s Seven Ages of Man. There is something going on. Deeply coincidental, that led me to break my silence yet again. I am the same guy from the same country with the same weaknesses growing weaker and surer. The only thing that matters is the ability to keep exploring in spite of the tremendous information fatigue that I am experiencing. Yet, you bewilder me with your craft. Restore the breath when I need it the most. I guess, it’s irrelevant to you among the thousand of words flooding your days. It’s ok. We’re good. I just hope to meet you someday over coffee and tell you my story, insignificant as it is, and thank you enough, in ways I do not know yet, for the favours you keep bestowing on us consumers, nay, partakers. I hope that day comes. Maybe someday Gav. Thanks. (Please pardon my incoherence of thoughts, I am badly sleep deprived.)
Oh sweet Jeebus, Merry and Pippin you got me with this one man!
This was both a friendly pat on the back and complete kick in the nuts. I’m the idiot who has the novel inside him but sits in front of the TV or scrolls social media instead of writing. I started ‘taking it seriously’ 4 years ago – since then I have 2 complete (but unedited) novels and 3 half finished projects… and a million hours of wasted scrolling. Please put this one on a poster as soon as you can, I beg you!
This got to the core of me
always a good moral. BUT I miss the short and sweet simple quotes you used to make comics for.
simplicity is very powerful.
Awesome. Find time to do what you love it will save your soul. I makes you alive
This one really hit me hard. Sadly, living in a family which can only afford to eat 3 times a day, doing what I love does not make our situation better. That is why I have to work at an early age. Its been years though and maybe its time to do what I really love. Thanks for this gav 🙂
This comes at precisely the right time. Thank you.
Love this one. Thank you Gav.
This is really timely for me. Throughout the month of July I’ve been working on practicing my art skills for just an hour a day. I’ve always wanted to be a better artist but never thought I could do it. My progress with just that amount of time has been astounding.
Not trying to be spammy, but if you want to see what comes from an hour of practice a day for just a few short weeks, like it says in the quote, I linked my name here to my youtube channel. I’d invite anyone to check it out and encourage everyone else to challenge themselves in the same way.
I’ve had a similar experience recently, Andrux. I am 9 weeks into doing “The Artists Way” by Julia Cameron and much to my surprise I have found myself drawing again, after thinking I was never good enough to bother with it. Baby steps at the moment, but it been an exciting route to explore so far! I’m not practising enough and know that will help but even just turning up to try is still important to me. Even though this comic is about music, the principle is still the same.
I made a translation for this comic in to spanish. Here is the links.
Part1:
http://s22.postimg.org/9gcagydlr/Vale_la_pena_intentarlo_JAMES_RHODES_parte1_copi.jpg
Part2:
http://s23.postimg.org/oxlldy4o9/Vale_la_pena_intentarlo_JAMES_RHODES_parte2_copi.jpg
Amazing piece, Gav. Thanks for keeping these coming. Your artwork and depicting of quotations is truly inspiring.
Absolutely loved it that the recital is in the basement.
What a fantastic story, seeing this person rescue his humanity. I have to share this with you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7maJOI3QMu0
Have been a fan for over 2 years now.. This is overwhelming stuff Gav.. You secretly inspire and motivate so many!
Love this! And it is so true.
What a touching piece – absolutely love it. It’s something we all need to be reminded of. And thank you so much for giving the American version of Don’t Stop the Music USA a shout-out! That is so appreciated and very kind of you, Gav. We’ve already received two backers referred from this page! 😀 http://kck.st/1Cooiol
This is so encouraging, what i needed today..thank you so much for the comic and keep up the good work. waiting for more comics..!!
Can’t thank you enough for this master piece.
Had never heard of James Rhodes before, and now I can’t get enough of how life can be turned around if only one believes in the magic. Very inspiring. Thanks Gav for creating this and thanks James for being the inspiration 🙂
Is that the Animator girl?
Very meaningful quote and beautiful illustration!
Eye Opener!!!
Its really amazing Gav!! Great!
The Darn Ninjas and their Onions.
Really Nice
Love love love it!
Wonderful. One of your best. The comment from Jenny about taking too many breaks to read social media posts which eventually make you sad about people is so true. Good luck to you.
One of the best… So inspiring. Just what I needed to start my craft projects again
I have never commented.
But this moved me. I bought a violin years ago, tired playing a few times but it sounded horrible. Now I just stare at it every night telling myself that when I get the time I will pick it up and learn how to play it. This right here is my cue. I will curve out time and take it on. One chord at a time.
Thanks Gav.
This story is amazing. Like the comic, everyone have a book in them and right now I am constructing the story and everything and this comic drives me in trying to finish it. Speaking of book, when is your next book going to be released?
This almost brought tears to my eyes. thank you for that comic. It is exactly what i needed.
Well done Gav,
Yet another Zen Pencil work to share with my students and my readers.
Do all you can to make today a better day,
Jeff Hess
Have Coffee Will Write
What a beautiful comic and an amazing message/story. I wish more people focused on human potential and less on what’s wrong with the world. This is an example of both, actually. A man who was broken as a child by the evil actions of an adult, but powered through his pain to find a way to heal himself and share his gift with the world. Very inspiring.
Thanks for all you do, Gavin, to share this success stories with us!
I am echoing the first comment I saw. It almost made me cry. I would love to have this in a poster format.
ROD>
PS. Love the book too!
Gav, oh my, this is perfect.
This is exactly what I needed now.
We waste so much time on useless activities, and yet our excuse for every goal not accomplished is ‘I couldn’t find the time’. This is the perfect comic for today’s times.
Pretty please, with a cherry on top, make this a poster?
Thanks for the recurrent motivation!
Read this while listening to the first track here:
https://soundcloud.com/jrhodespianist
Basically guarantees a tear will fall.
My dad resumed piano lessons when he was around 40 years old and even played at recitals with young kids. What a great example for me and my brother! With that history, and because I’m now pushing 40 and struggling to find beauty in the hectic day-to-day challenges of work and family, this comic really got to me. Nothing like having your fill up with tears when you’re sitting at your desk in the middle of the workday. I’ve enjoyed many of your past comics, but this one was really special to me. Great job!
-Jeremy in Illinois, USA
That was a really lovely cartoon.
touched my heart
Gav, you are so ON the ball. Congratulations on your work. I’m inspired by you and your talent. I’m ready for my basement recital.I want to share one of my creations from 20 years ago. I don’t intend to go back to this intensity. Just a few great musical works in the basement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9KMUBV2Ffk
This comic is GREAT! I always felt sad that I was rubbish at piano during my three years of lessons, from age 12-15. My teacher was an amazing performer, a multi-instrumentalist with perfect pitch, who unfortunately was no good at explaining. I used to feel so self-conscious when I couldn’t replicate what she showed me and she stared at me with incomprehension. I felt stupid and disappointed that I wasn’t able to express myself musically, especially when I was so profoundly emotionally invested as a listener. At the time it seemed particularly heartbreaking to be surrounded by other students who could play easily but didn’t really care about music. I just lived with the regret for years and tried to accept my failure but it kept popping into my thoughts. For almost twenty years I couldn’t let it go. I recently decided to confront it: I don’t have the money for a piano but a few months ago I got a cheap keyboard second-hand. I’m 33 and I’ve been playing piano since February and I feel like I’m flourishing! I read music quite slowly and I’m sometimes frustratingly clumsy but it doesn’t matter – I’m doing it by myself and for myself and there’s no-one there to judge. I’ve learned and improved so much more in these 5 months than I did in almost 3 years of lessons! It turned out that all I needed was patience and perseverance. This comic is so validating, it makes me really happy that I’m putting the effort in and I know that I’ll read it again and again, whenever I get stuck on tricky bits of music, to help motivate me to work through my mistakes. Thank you so much for a wonderful edition of Zen Pencils! It’s lovely reading the comments of people who’ve been inspired by this to dust off their instruments or manuscripts.
such a powerful cartoon.. so touching
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you
As musician trying to straddle both the corporate world and the musical scene in my 20s, this really means a lot to me. Thanks Gav.
Spot on, James. Thank you.
Well yeah except the 40-hour workweek is less than 100 years old, for “centuries” our ancestors worked dawn til dusk not 9-5. We actually have more disposable time now than ever in history…
Get to it!
Gav, you bring out the innocent kid in all of us! Thanks for making us realize that we’ve only got one life to live and we need to make the most of it.
Thanks !!!
This made me cry… I am on the verge of doing something like this. (Ask me ? It is sooo worth exploring)
Thank You.
Oh Great Job thanks..
Wonderful work and art!!! =) Bravo!!!
Greetings from Monterrey, Mx.
I bought a recorder when I was 48 and started to teach myself to read music. I’m now 55 and have been playing a clarinet with the help of a teacher for a year now. Learning to play an instrument opened up a whole new world: I discover and play wonderful little pieces of music by Beethoven, Schubert and other greats. Pieces I have never heard before. I have one of these boring office jobs and I look forward to coming home and practicing for half an hour each day and progressing.
Kim from Brisbane, QLD
Amazing!!!
Thanks for such wonderful work 🙂
Thanks for all the wonderful feedback! I did ask James’ permission on Twitter if I could turn his words into a comic. He said ‘sure’. That was a few weeks ago. When I sent him a tweet sharing the finished comic he didn’t reply for awhile. I got nervous. What if he hated it????? Gladly, he did respond shortly after:
It is observations such as this one that anger many people (see the expected troll post to this very comic). They angry because the world has contrived to steal time from everyone, to try and use as many of “the little people” as possible for wait is really slave labor at slave wages. That goes for a lot of people who live in what they believe is the upper class of society – they just don’t like to admit to themselves they are highly paid slaves who live in gilded cages (otherwise known as extortion-level rent in places like San Francisco).
And you know what? It’s true. There’s a reason to be angry. Except the anger is often misdirected. It’s easy to aim it at the people who remind us about these unsavory and depressing truths. Shooting the messenger is a classic human response to bad news. But the thing is, whoever said that fighting back against the status quo was supposed to be easy? Of course it isn’t. Of course it is -hard- to drag yourself out of exhaustion after another long day of exploitation and do something worthwhile with your time. But don’t be mad at the people who urge you to do so. Be mad at those who have conspired to shape society in this way, and realize that every tired, aching act of personal fulfillment and creation is a stab at the heart of the status quo. It may not be much, but it is proof that society’s machine does not own that little part of you.
Sure, it’s a worn-out cliche to say that nothing worthwhile is easy. It’s also completely true.
I never knew that comics can be so profound. I have always been a fan of Bill Watterson, have never read any other cartoonist much, and I never felt like looking ahead of him. Your comic, however, is different and it gives me immense pleasure to read it. I don’t read the whole strip at once, but slowly, in a couple of days, a few panels after few hours. I let it sink, sometimes i mentally ruminate, the topic. Not only is our strip creative, beautifully illustrated, but also it expands your horizons about reading, poetry and a lot more.
Simply said, Gav you and your comics are an inspiration.
Ravi
I don’t know if anyone will even read this, but I think it’s worth saying.
I love this comic, as I loved all the ones previously, but I have to say, I’m getting really tired of seeing “ADHD” used as an adjective for children or people who are a little more high energy than most. ADHD is a very real neurodevelopmental disorder, that goes way beyond simply not being able to sit still. Reducing it’s meaning and gravity to simply applying to unruly children is incredibly dismissive.
I realize that it James Rhodes who is responsible for the misuse of the term, and not Gavin, and that addressing the issue in the comment section for the comic is not the ideal place to have my say. I also realize that Rhodes himself, like many, many other people, are unaware of what ADHD actually is, and was not using it with any particular malive. But I need to call attention to this. I have ADHD, and I encounter so many people who say derogatory and hurtful things to me, who speak from a place of ignorance, and many more who straight up believe that ADHD is not a real disorder. Whether they mean to be or not, people say shitty things. ADHD is an extremely complex disorder, and having it can make an individual much more likely to have co morbid disorders, like depression, anxiety, learning disabilities, OCD, etc.
It is hard to get help, and it is hard to be taken seriously. When people make light of it, reduce it’s meaning and dismiss it, they make it even harder. I loved the message in this comic, but I needed to point out that using a psychiatric disorder as a dismissive descriptor is ableist and, at it’s core, just plain hurtful.
As above, I am also an adult with ADHD and I do not like having my very real, very annoying actual disorder treated like a personality flaw. They are not at all the same. It is a neurobiological disorder, not caused by environment or bad parenting.
I generally really enjoy these comics, but that one comment did bother me.
As the mom of two kids with ADHD and the spouse of an adult who has it, I strongly agree with both of you.
Gav amazing work.
This has to be one of your best works ever. Loved it. Keep on inspiring the world man.
Nice. Of course, the notion that “Eight hours of work was more than good enough for centuries” is ridiculously wrong. The eight-hour work day, and the forty-hour week, are comparatively recent developments, won at the cost of many broken bones by labor unions around the world. Before the late 19th Century, 60 hour weeks with barely a Sunday rest, and no vacation time at all, was the norm for most workers. That doesn’t begin to mention child labor and monstrously unsafe working conditions. Labor organizers fought and died for those things we take for granted today, and so easily cast aside in our pursuit of a few extra dollars that fail to make our lives significantly better.
Love all of your comics but this one got to me like no other. Took guitar lessons as a child but it up for various reasons. Always sorry but figured it was too late. Well, I’m now 66 and this is inspiring me to buy a cheap used guitar and see if I can just learn enough to strum up a few simple tunes. My birthday is coming up in a few months so a used guitar just might be a gift to myself. Can’t believe I may actually start this at the ripe old age of 67. Thanks much for the inspiration.
Do it!
Maths oy
Hey! Not sure if this the right place to say this, but I hope you read it. I just wanted to thank you, so much, because your work, your story, and this site is such a huge inspiration! I’m trying to become an illustrator and every time I’m working and need a pause, I come here, because I know after a few of your comics and wonderful quotes I’m always almost itching just to pick up the pencil again. =)
Excellent story that is not so much a story than a recording of reality for many of us. Been there done that. Thanks for publishing.
An amazing piece that strikes a deep chord in my heart. Please consider making this a poster!
I just had to compliment you about your artwork here. That last panel was absolutely outstanding.
Loved the Manufactured Idol. It’s exactly what I think about this kind of show.
“ADHD kids”
As someone with ADHD, wow. I get lumped in with Simon Cowell and junk food into a category of things that keep people from living their dreams? Fuck you too! You don’t get to complain that hereditary neurological disorders in your kids which you chose to have are making it harder for you to live your dream. If you thought kids wouldn’t take up time and that your kid couldn’t have a disorder that takes up extra time, you’re an idiot! The kid didn’t ask to be born and they certainly didn’t ask to have a neurological disorder that will make their lives unnecessarily complicated! You think long work hours and TV is keeping you from your dream? Try living with ADHD; being either too hyper or chronically exhausted, being easily distracted, having no concept of time, forgetting everything all the time, being frustrated with yourself because of these things every day, wondering why you can’t just be normal?
I -have- ADHD, something that almost seems purposefully designed to keep me from working towards my dream, through no fault of my own, and I have to live with it every single day of my life and I still work on my art every single day!
I hear a lot of “I wish I could draw like that.” and “I used to draw” and for years I offered to help people; books, links, youtube videos, even free private lessons on-line and off. 99% turned down my offer. TV and junkfood and “ADHD kids” (wow, just wow) are just an excuse for people to do nothing. When people say “I wish I could X” it means “I wish I could magically acquire a skill without study or practice.”
Actually Thaily, ADHD is due to neurochemical imbalance because we’re not used to concentrate. Our attention is as junk as our TVs. Meditation and other serotonin-related activities rebalances the dopamine imbalance. I used to have ADHD and I know exactly what I’m talking about. Best of luck.
Emotional! Bravo!
Dude, you just got my eyes all teary in the middle of my work hahaha! You always inspire me to continue. This comic and the one from Ithaka are my actual favorites. I’m a huge fan from Brazil, keep up the good work.
Gavin, there is a poignant short film to be made out of this comic. And I tell you, is that not worth exploring? :))
Dear Gavin,
as always, I realy enjoyed reading this strip. Very inspirational and so fitting my situation. Just can’t get my ass up (with writing stuff). Same for my gf concerning the piano. This is why I, like a lot of other commenters, would LOVE to have this one as a poster so I can place it over the keyboard in our living room. It would remind me and especially my gf of what we want deep down inside: being creative.
Please consider making this a poster soon and go on drawing such beautiful comics.
Greetings from Germany
A cartoon strip like this catches your attention, makes you stop and think about life’s many interesting possibilities…and above all, gets you to start doing something…. Is this not worth exploring? Awesome, awesome piece yet again. A big fan from the Philippines! Thanks Gavin, for always popping in my life, during the right time, with just the right comic strips!
I love this comic, and it’s been stuck in my mind over the past few weeks. I agree with others that I would *love* this as a poster!
You have done a great job on this article. It’s very readable and highly intelligent. You have even managed to make it understandable and easy to read. You have some
real writing talent.
I would just like to say that the bit about how little you can learn music is true and I am talking from personal experience. You can, as an adult with no real prior training, learn to play an instrument if its in you. I know because I did.
The story begins with exploring a cupboard where we store old stuff. In it was a curiously-shaped box and in it, a strange flute from a grandfather that died before I was born. It did not work at that time but it was whole, with no real missing bits, and interesting thing. I asked my father about it and I understood that it was a dear instrument to my grandfather. I tried making sounds, couldn’t because it was too old but I remembered it.
I did not care much for instruments then and cared less for music theory. The best and only thing my teachers in what music lessons I got when I was at school did was play music in class. I shown interest but not talent in music, and I was not taken seriously when I wanted to do music.
Yet I did. My father is an engineer and doesn’t do music, but had a recorder. I tried learning from it and a book. I never got very far.
But I remembered the flute. I tried playing it. I tried to imagine how it could sound, feeling the ghost of old music it once played and perhaps haunted by a grandfather who would have wished to play it a bit more than life allowed him. One day I took the idea of getting it repaired, as a gift for my father.
And I did. Not the same day I decided and years later, but I did. I kept trying to play the recorder at that point, of which I owned several. I couldn’t get much progress and I was without a teacher. But I didn’t care too much because I enjoyed just trying to make what sounds I could from the recorder I owned. Sometimes they felt like music.
But one day I looked up the phonebook and brought the old thing to an instrument repairer. He turned out to be the right one for he worked with metal wind instruments. It went timidly because the flute is old, it is made out of wood and probably made between the two world wars. It turned out that only the pads needed to be replaced, but there was still the problem of tuning the thing or even the fingering. And the price, which as a student reliant on a single parent was not cheap. But I wanted to go forward anyway.
The instrument repairer had a friend, an old army musician and conductor who also had old wooden flutes. With a great deal of experimenting he managed to figure out the basic fingering. Then the flute’s old tuning could be figured out. He offered me to teach me how to play it. I took it.
I played and experimented and practiced almost every day since I got it back repaired. I wanted to feel the old spirits that were in the instrument, the old music. I tried to learn simple music, stuff that seemed simple from anywhere I could find it. I learned how to play each note of the flute one by one, one after another, practicing and trying and failing a lot until I ran out of failures.
It has been slowly two years now. I have performed a solo for what I assured was an enjoyable performance to a small audience of kindly strangers. I learned how to read music notation and try to play anything that catches my fancy. I can produce its entire scale and I know all the functions of its oh-so-many keys. Stuff I once resented my teacher making me do I now learned fluidly and with interest. I have once heard a song and I have then went out to find the sheet music for it and learn how to play it.
The old spirits and old music no longer haunt the flute, but they died a grateful and peaceful death because their place is taken by my own. It is no longer a interesting relic from a man I never knew. It is now my flute, with my spirits and sorrows and joys. The old spirits no longer haunt my imagination from afar, but because they are no longer needed and I could find some music within myself. I doubt that I am the next Mozart or Matt Molloy, but it has become a brighter part of my me and my life.
I have been given the gift of music, all I needed to do was ask.
Like others, I was moved to tears by this comic. It was just what I needed at just the right time. Thank you.
Another vote for a poster!
It was inspiring!
Thank you for another essential article. Where else could anyone get that kind of information in such a complete way of writing? I have a presentation incoming week, and I am on the lookout for such information.
You have done a great job on this article. It’s very readable and highly intelligent.
Excellent story that is not so much a story than a recording of reality for many of us.
Like others, I was moved to tears by this comic.
Excellent comic!!
I like it!!
I simply “LOVED IT!!”
I have followed ZenPencils for quite some time now and this type of comic keeps popping in from time to time. The one where the bottom line is : “Quit your zombie zob and become an artist. All the rest is shit”. And it bothers me. Because some of us really enjoy “domesticity”, as you call it in your comic. I enjoy being in the car and looking in the back seat, seeing my kid asleep. I enjoy coming back from work and being happy to see him. And not all kids are “ADHD”.Most of them are just kids 🙂 My 6 months old just discovered that he can make sharp sounds. They are horrible and they destroy my ears. But after each sound he stops and starts laughing. A kid 🙂
And I happen to like my job, even if it may seem boring and pointless to all of you artists out there. If we are all artists, playing the piano or drawing comics, who would feed us ? who would build the piano you play on ? or the tablet you used to draw this ? you know, behind that gizmo of a tablet there are 1001 ants just like the guy you described in your comic. And some of them are happy about it. Really …
So is not all junk everything, Mister Zen Pencils up in the clouds. If you took a closer look to what you so often call junk you will find little men and women and kids who actually enjoy their lives and who may just feel offended by the lack of respect you so often show them.
There was a good idea here, but it quickly got lost in what seems like a child’s view of adult life. I wish you’d stayed with the idea of the challenges of keeping up with abandoned passions, which is a fairly common feeling, than trying to portray what you believe to be the morass of everyday life, because what you’ve drawn comes off as cartoonish and false. You started off being sad about lost creativity, but then you went off against society’s distractions, and then you seemed to be angry about people themselves. It’s a messy strip.
Globalcorp? Really? And they’re all staring at a sales chart? Come on – that’s pure cliché. Most peoples’ jobs are more interesting than that. These images seem to be taken from the kind of adult life portrayed in Disney’s TV live action shows than actual real life.
After reading this strip, I have to guess that you’ve never owned a home, been married, had kids, or held an office job. If you have, then why did you stray so far from the truth. And “a pub where you can’t even smoke” is a really strange line to throw in there. I know maybe 1 or 2 smokers per hundred people, and that’s in all age ranges. It’s not a very common or relatable activity these days.
There’s some good stuff here, but it gets lost in the tone deaf elements. And as others have pointed out, trying to use ADHD and the concept of domesticity, which just means home or family life, as a punch line doesn’t work well. Many people like their lives, challenges and all.
I think James Rhodes probably had a better story and message than what this turned out to be. Abandoned passion is a waste, and people could benefit from more creative and otherwise life-enriching outlets these days, but there’s a better way to get that across than what you’ve created here.
Beautiful, thank you for creating this.
THanks for this comic.
like it.
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rhodes
Unfortunately this is not reality. Most people just don’t have anything exceptional about them. You keep using one fictitious example as proof that it can be done, while ignoring the thousands more that failed utterly and wondered why they bother.
Thank you Gavin for your “JAMES RHODES: Is that not worth exploring?” comic post
http://vuelosdelalma.blogspot.com/2013/11/kampung-inggris-pare-kediri.html
I discovered, to my amazement, that all through history there had been resistance … and bitter, exaggerated, last-stitch resistance … to every significant technological change that had taken place on earth. Usually the resistance came from those groups who stood to lose influence, status, money…as a result of the change. Although they never advanced this as their reason for resisting it. It was always the good of humanity that rested upon their hearts.
Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand.
Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand.
i think its true
Largely self-taught, Rhodes has released five best-selling albums and is known for his refreshing performances that ignore the usual formality and tradition of classical music
It’s been quite sometime since I found Zen pencils. Thanks a lot Gav for this amazing work!
And I am totally going to read the entire article!
If you scroll up and down around that last picture, the keys of the piano look like they’re really in flickering candlelight.
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