The Tim Ferriss Show - #174: The One-Handed Concert Pianist, Nicholas McCarthy

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Starting point is 00:03:03 Hello, boys and girls, this is Tim Ferriss, and welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show, where it is my job each episode to tease out the habits, routines, tactics, and tools of world-class performers, whether they are from the worlds of entertainment, athletics, business, or otherwise. And in this episode, we have Nicholas McCarthy, at nmccarthypiano on Twitter, who was born in 1989 without his right hand and only started to play the piano at the age of 14. He was told he would never succeed as a concert pianist. Fortunately, the doubters were completely wrong. His graduation from the prestigious Royal College of Music in London in 2012 appeared in press around the world, as he was the only one-handed pianist to

Starting point is 00:03:45 graduate from the Royal College of Music in its 130-year history. Since, Nicholas has performed extensively throughout the world, including in the UK, US, South Africa, South Korea, Japan, even Malta and Kazakhstan. He has also played alongside Coldplay and gave a rendition of the Paralympic Anthem in front of an audience of 86,000 people and half a billion worldwide viewers. His first album, which I highly encourage, is entitled Solo from Warner Music. It features 17 stunning pieces of left-hand repertoire, and we talk in this interview about what that means, spanning three centuries and has been released around the world to great acclaim. This was a blast of an interview, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Please say hello to Nicholas on social. And

Starting point is 00:04:29 as always, thank you for listening. Thank you. Nicholas, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you so much for having me. Where are we finding you right now? Where are you seated? So I'm sat in my lounge at my home where I haven't been for about three weeks because I've been on tour. So it's quite nice. It's nice to be chatting to you from my house for once. And is that in the UK? That is in the UK? Sorry, yeah, that's in the UK. So I'm about 50 minutes outside of London. And you have a companion with you also, in case we hear any barking. Who's that? That's my little Pomeranian, Binny, who is very good and she's quiet unless a dog walks past the front of my house. And then she senses they're there and likes to say hello. So I'm sorry if

Starting point is 00:05:56 that happens. That's what dogs do. I remember hearing you comment, I guess it was in a BBC interview that she was a good companion, but a little breathy in the dressing room. She is. She is a bit breathy. So talking about sensing things, let's start towards the beginning, maybe not the very beginning. But when did you first get bitten by the bug as it related to music or piano? It was very late, actually. It was when I was 14, which for most people who go into music as their full-time career, they usually have started at the age of three or four, you know, on average, even younger sometimes. And usually by that, they've kind of played their

Starting point is 00:06:39 first public concert by the time they're five or six and maybe played with their first orchestra by seven or eight, you know, when I'm talking about these kind of professional concert pianists little concert violinists or whatever you want to say so for me to start at 14 again i was already swimming swimming upstream for for one very clear reason but that also exasperated that really and uh what was it at age 14 that triggered it well i was very non-academic should i say at school i was very average academia didn't interest me i wouldn't go and study for hours because you know i i wanted to i had to i just wouldn't i wasn't like that so i kind of didn't really discover anything throughout my life where I was really good at it you know until 14 when I discovered the piano and what happened a friend of mine I'm still friends

Starting point is 00:07:31 with today a very accomplished pianist she played one of Beethoven's late piano sonatas the Bernstein sonata and she played that in in my school assembly and I just had one of those moments that you see in movies that you see until you know, you hear people talk about, I had one of those moments where I was just completely transported, completely bitten by the piano bug. And I just loved everything about about the instrument, the way it looked on stage, the sound that was coming out of this instrument, the possibilities of what it was what it was like and you remember what it was like when you were teenage you've got that teenage invincibility you know that that kind of thing where you know anything is possible and it's

Starting point is 00:08:14 fine and and i loved that and so for me looking back i didn't even think about the fact i only had one hand i just in my head that is what i was going to be i was going to be pianist, not just play the piano, but I was going to earn my living from playing the piano. Walk me through just the moments before and after that experience. I'm just, I'm always curious about these types of details. Were you talking to your friends and then all of a sudden the music started and you just stopped talking? Were you paying attention from the very beginning? And then what was your response afterwards? We were all quiet. We were all in assembly. We were, you know, we sat down on our chairs and obviously we all knew that my friend could play the piano. She'd played in school a lot. But I hadn't seen her play in this capacity before. You know, I hadn't seen her play on the big piano in our hall. You know, it wasn't like so.

Starting point is 00:09:02 We were all quite in anticipation but just normal you know we were just kind of waiting for this performance to happen like you do in school you just get told to do something you do it then you go and sit down so we were all just waiting and I didn't realize that that moment and that that you know 10 minutes performance would affect my entire life and my entire career and everything about me you know i didn't realize that obviously at the time afterwards again with probably again that teenage what's the word where you know you're a bit flat as a teenager as well sometimes you know even though i said earlier we've got that teenage invincibility you're almost sometimes a bit like

Starting point is 00:09:42 well yeah i'm going to be a concert pianist that's great very nonchalantly as if it's an easy career choice you know it was okay yeah i'm going to go and do that and and that's that is how it went that is how it went and that and that immediate that immediacy either side of that performance what were your what were the next steps after that i mean did you sit down and have a conversation with your parents? Did you get a hold of some type of keyboard on your own and start tooling around with it and seeing what you could come up with? Did you find a teacher? What were the next steps? Well, it wasn't ever as formal as sitting down with mum and dad. You know, my mum and dad are both non-musicians. They're both sales people for a living. They're just hardworking,

Starting point is 00:10:23 normal people. They've got no particular interest in classical music at all um apart from you know the odd favorites that you hear on adverts and things so for me i just went home and i just said mum and dad i i want to be a concert pianist and i don't i can't really remember their faces but i'd love to see their faces when their one-armed son comes up to me i want to be a concert pianist really are you sure are you really sure um so yeah it it it was fine and mum and dad just said okay well but what do we what do we need to do what do you want to do i said well i need you know can i have a piano the answer was very quickly no of course as if they're cheap instruments so i was like no this could be a very quick passing fad we'll get you a

Starting point is 00:11:05 keyboard which was also very generous of them to do so they bought me you know a middle of the run kind of keyboard and uh and and that's what I started to learn on so I started you know teaching myself to read music teaching myself the keys on the piano because obviously I didn't know any of this at that stage they don't really teach that that in school in England like they used to. So, you know, I didn't really know. I kind of knew where middle C was on a piano, but that was it. So I was kind of working things out. I started, bearing in mind, as I mentioned, I come from an unmusical family.

Starting point is 00:11:39 So for me, I hadn't heard of Chopin's music. I've never heard of a piece of Liszt before. I'd never really heard Rachmaninoff. What was the second one? A piece of Liszt? Liszt, yeah. Franz Liszt is one of the kind of great romantic composers of piano literature. And he was really held as the super virtuoso of the 19th century. These are things I need to know. That's what I'm saying. There we go. So, you know, I was like a a sponge I literally was kind of you know searching for recordings listening to to the radio listening just absolutely trying to listen to as much stuff as I could to find out what I liked you know to find out you know when you hadn't really heard

Starting point is 00:12:16 of any of these pieces but with you I've just explained to who who list was you never know he might now when you go and listen to him and I encourage you to go and listen to some of his works you might absolutely fall in love with it you know you just don't know these things so I was like that I was kind of you know exploring all this stuff whilst actually putting it into practice you know myself just me and my my little keyboard up in my bedroom you know just just working out for myself and there was one moment which really changed that um which i remember very very clearly as i used to listen to so much music all the time there was one time my dad shouted up the stairs to me and just said nick turn turn the radio down and i said dad it's not the radio it's

Starting point is 00:12:57 me and there was deathly silence from downstairs and the next minute mom and dad were at my door and i'm like do you do you want piano lessons and the answer was yes and that's that's how i that's how kind of i transitioned from becoming a kind of self-starter if you like to to then having semi-formal lessons because she was a local piano teacher and she was quite young so you know it was all quite relaxed um it wasn't as if you know straight away i was sent to this you know special teacher in vienna or somewhere it wasn't like that it was just a local piano teacher um but but she certainly was was how i started and when you were teaching yourself and then starting with this local piano teacher i've tried to do of course a bit of homework before we jumped into this interview left hand or left-handed repertoire is that something that

Starting point is 00:13:46 you found on your own first or that the local teacher provided at what point did that even come into the picture and can you explain to people what that is well funny enough a lot of people don't know this even in the uk because i just tend not to speak about it because that's not what I do now but I started the piano playing what I affectionately call my my little arm which is my my arm which I haven't got so I was born as you know without my right hand I haven't got my my right hand my right wrist and about three quarters of my forearm but I have got my elbow so and I've got my elbow in a very short part of my forearm and with that I can actually play on the piano a single note so I started learning two-handed

Starting point is 00:14:33 pieces if you like and playing it as it was written so I'd play the left hand part as was written and with my little arm I would play a single note in in the right hand so obviously repertoire choices I would I wouldn't be playing something right hand. So obviously repertoire choices, I wouldn't be playing something with two massive big chords in each hand because I didn't have two hands to do that. So I would find pieces which had one note melody lines, for instance,

Starting point is 00:14:54 and quite complicated left hand, and I would play those. And that's how I actually did my grade exams. And I did that. And I didn't discover left hand repertoire. I didn't even know it existed. And no one along the way told me it existed until I was 17 and and that was exciting and and deeply deeply frustrating for me at that time why was it was it frustrating because you wish you'd found it earlier or was it frustrating for a different reason no I I had no

Starting point is 00:15:23 I didn't want to play it i i was so in love with with the repertoire that i'd learned you know mozart and rakmaninoff and mendelssohn and and all these composers which i i'd grown to know and love to then be told at the age of 17 after you know working so hard and by this point having gained a place at london music school i was then you know told that i had to kind of wave goodbye to that repertoire and say hello to this left-hand repertoire which I knew nothing about and I had no intention of it and actually and actually I think as well my attitude at the time being a very headstrong 17 year old was that well no I don't want to play left-hand repertoire because

Starting point is 00:16:01 I can do this I can play two-handed repertoire with my little arm and left hand. Why do I want to specialise in left-hand repertoire? And it was what my teacher at the time said, you don't want to become a gimmick. And especially with all the TV talent shows, which were just coming about then, you know, it was all the start of like, you know, Britain's Got Talent

Starting point is 00:16:21 and all that kind of thing. I'm so pleased I took her advice because I would have just been that gimmick who would have maybe, you know Britain's got talent and all that kind of thing I'm so pleased I took her advice because I would have just been that gimmick who would have maybe you know made a quick buck over two years but certainly wouldn't have had the respect that I have now as a pianist and certainly wouldn't have had the career that I've had to date and that I look forward to continuing until you know I'm in my 60s you know classical musicians do have long careers. We're not, we don't burn out. You know, we don't, you can carry on playing until you want to stop. And I think if I went down that route of the gimmicky route,

Starting point is 00:16:55 and believe me, Tim, I've said in the papers over here, and I've said it in various interviews, every year, even if I didn't own a calendar, I would be able to tell you the month because every year i get well my manager gets now but i used to get before i had management an email or a phone call from britain's got talent asking me to go on the show and i i've had that for years and i'm a big fan of the show i love it i'm one of their viewers but i for me it's just not for me because those those doors

Starting point is 00:17:26 i've tried to hold open the classical music world and and to try and to try and spread my message in in the least gimmicky way i can i've worked so hard to do that if as soon as i kind of sold out and did one of these shows all of the classical music doors would close on me and i'd never be able to reopen them again yes i'd have a bigger fan base i'm sure but you know i'm looking at the long term and i always have been ever since i was young so yeah there's various different things so there are at least two dozen questions i want to ask about everything you just said so the few points i mean just to reiterate something you said which is the importance of playing the long game, right? Because it particularly in a, how should we call it, sort of esteemed high barrier to entry world like classical music, you can, it might take you 20 years to build a reputation and only 20 minutes to destroy it if you make the

Starting point is 00:18:25 wrong choices and it's something that you have spoken with a former podcast guest about eric weinstein who's mathematician and physicist and he said you know general fame is overrated you want to effectively be famous to 3 000 people or so of your choosing right and if you do that and if you do that well you really you can do what you want with whom you want and effectively have all the things that you would like to have and do in life. It seems to me at least, but one of my questions to you was, or is rather, what, what gave you the unusual combination as a teenager of being headstrong enough that as a one-handed piano player, well, as a one-handed boy, you would aim to be a concert pianist, right? I mean, thank God for that, that you had that sort of stubborn will, while at the same time you were open to the suggestions of this piano teacher. Was it something special about the teacher?

Starting point is 00:19:27 Was it something that your parents instilled in you? It's an unusual combination to be both very stubborn and open-minded at that age. I think I've always been both of those things. I think I've always been, if i look back you know through through my childhood um i've always been one of those really headstrong headstrong people who you know you tell me i can't do something and i will do everything in my power even if i've lost interest in it by that point i'll still go ahead and do it because i need to prove that person wrong are your parents that way no not at all not at all do you have any do you have

Starting point is 00:20:05 any siblings no i'm an only child and i think probably that contributes to it as well and i think the fact of my disability and being born with one hand that contributes to it i mean i'll give you an example when i was younger you know i lived in a very small street with lots and lots of kids my age so we're all friends we all used to play out you know in the street together and things and i remember one of the parents said to my mum and she, but this was not in a malicious way at all. This was in a, you know, a kind of I don't know what way she meant it. But she said, oh, it's it's such a shame that, you know, Nicholas won't really be able to to to learn to ride his his bike with with the other boys. And my mum said, oh, I'm sure he'll find a way and uh and I overheard this conversation

Starting point is 00:20:46 so in my head I then we were all quite young and we all had our training wheels on our bike and um and I I had told remember even hearing my inner voice in my head saying to myself I want to be the first boy not want to be I'm going to be the first boy out of all of my group of friends to ride my bike without training wheels and I did and I remember all the parents standing at their front porches looking and some of the women were crying with kind of admiration and things like that which of course I loved as well I love I mean I remember being very very pleased with myself at that age and I must have I don't know how old I was, but you know, I was, I was young, but I remember that. And that is just, that is what I've been. I've always been

Starting point is 00:21:29 like that since with anything, just like I said to you earlier, just not with academia. Cause I just didn't care. I just didn't care, you know, academic stuff. It just wasn't my bag. It just didn't, I didn't feel that burning desire to prove anything with that. For people who aren't familiar, and I would count myself among those people, what do the hands generally do in piano, meaning the left and the right? You mentioned melody earlier. Is that typically the responsibility of one hand over the other? Yes, definitely. The right hand is certainly the star of the show and your left hand is the supporting actor. So your left hand is kind of like the the show and your left hand is the supporting actor so your left hand's kind of like the rhythm guitar and your right hand is the soloist exactly not obviously obviously there's so many pieces of classical music so that doesn't apply to everything of course but usually

Starting point is 00:22:15 i'm saying generally generally speaking the right hand is doing all the flashy virtuoso big stuff that you're seeing and carries that melody line and And the left hand also, you know, in two handed repertoire, does a lot of very difficult things and virtuosic things. But it's the supporting harmony, you know, usually. And with left hand repertoire, that turns everything on its head. So me as a left hand pianist, I have to create to you, the listener or you, the audience, that there's in fact two or even three hands playing this piano, whereas in fact there's only just one. So the amount of times I've had people come up to me and say,

Starting point is 00:22:53 so do you play with an overdub? Do you pre-record stuff and then play along with it? I'm saying, well, no, it's just me and an acoustic piano. And it's because their ears are tricking them, or I'm creating that illusion where it doesn't look, you know, the sound is a lot fuller than it looks that I'm playing. Maybe this is a silly question, but I'm going to ask it anyway. The right-hand sort of virtuoso flair,

Starting point is 00:23:19 left-hand rhythm tradition in piano, does that create difficulties for two-handed but left-hand dominant piano players? Because presumably that was created by people who were setting the norms and who are right-hand dominant. So does that mean at the highest levels of two-handed piano playing that the majority of players are right-hand dominant? I would probably say so. I do know a couple of very well-known two-handed pianists who are actually left-handed naturally and in day-to-day life. I think obviously when you're honing your craft at the level that we are honing our crafts to as concert performers,

Starting point is 00:24:02 it doesn't matter what hand is dominant and i'm speaking for someone with one hand as you know so i can't be the authoritative figure on this but um i would say that you know because it's like a a sports person you're you're you're rehearsing you're you're practicing so so much that even if that left hand is more naturally dominant because the right hand is the way the music's written you're having to do this these right hand technical difficulties and if you can't do it and you can't play the piece then i think it's just something that as a two-handed pianist would just get over they just have to work at yeah it's when i'm not left-handed i'm right-handed but uh it's when

Starting point is 00:24:43 you really stop to notice a lot of the day-to-day interactions with objects, they seem to be designed very much for a right-handed world. And even something as non-obvious as, for instance, dog training. They always have the dog heel on the left-hand side. And I was, at least in the United States, that's true. And I was thinking to myself, why is it on the left-hand side? And the only explanation, plausible explanation that I could come up with, pure speculation, was that because many people are right-handed, perhaps this was developed for, say, seeing eye dogs where someone would have something in their non-dominant left hand securing them to the dog and it just brings up all sorts of questions but i don't want to to digress too far the i've uh now we've heard some stories of your supportive parents but not everyone

Starting point is 00:25:40 has been that supportive i would imagine uh can you Can you tell us about your process of applying to musical schools? Yeah, that's where it kind of started getting slightly more difficult for me. This wonderful piano teacher who I first started with, as I mentioned earlier, the local piano teacher, she was lovely. She was young. I really responded to her. She was really, really, she was a think outside the box kind of girl, you know?

Starting point is 00:26:11 And she very admirably said to me and my parents, look, Nicholas has become more advanced than I am as a player. And she felt she was doing me a disservice by continuing to teach me. She felt that I needed to go and study properly, you know, in London with a proper concert pianist to further my career. Because as I was very, very explicit with everyone, I didn't just want to learn the piano. I wanted to become a concert pianist. So I always think she was so admirable for that because she was giving up quite a lot of money to do that,

Starting point is 00:26:50 especially as someone her age. And yet she did that for me. So I'm eternally grateful for that. So my friend who inspired me at the age of 14, she went to a... What is her name? Hanako. She's a Japanese friend of mine oh well thank her for that yes and she went to a specialist piano school and it wasn't that far

Starting point is 00:27:13 from me and so obviously in my head I was thinking how wonderful you know me and Hanako can go to school together it's on Saturdays this school was held on Saturday and so we went to our normal school in the week and then on Saturdays you'd go to this and they did concerts in London and they they did concert tours to Europe and all sorts of things um you know really high level school and so I think how perfect would that be me my friend can go together and you know they already know me at the school because I'd been to see a couple of of competitions with my friend who my friend was in so I organized i rang up the headmistress of this school one day after after i'd finished school i come in and i rang her and she was a very do you know what i mean by an old school headmistress i mean i think so yeah like yeah she was just very old school very traditional

Starting point is 00:27:59 in her teaching in everything you know and it turns out she wasn't like my other teacher where she she wasn't thinking outside the box and she the phone call went something like this uh i said i introduced myself and said i'm a friend of hanako's and uh i i was born without my right hand and she said oh yes yes i i've heard of you i know who you are are from Hanako. I'd already had a lesson with one of the school's teachers. I purposely went and had a private lesson with one of the school's teachers, almost as a little inroad into the school. And this teacher gave me her blessing and said, I would love to teach you at the school.

Starting point is 00:28:39 You need to go and audition for the school. So she kind of gave me the green light for that. And how old were you at the time? I must have been 16 sixteen yeah about 16 and she said oh yes I've heard of you because of you know one of my faculty and because of Hanako um but but unfortunately I haven't got any time to see you or audition you because you know to be honest I just don't know um how you how you can possibly you know be a pianist and I don't really't know how you can possibly be a pianist. And I don't really know how you could possibly play scales. And I was quite the cocky 16-year-old at the time.

Starting point is 00:29:11 I said, well, I don't really want to play scales. I want to play music. That must have been a crowd pleaser. Yeah, she hung up the phone. It wasn't the best thing. So she hung up the phone on this 16-year-old she hung up a phone on this 16 year old one-armed boy which i didn't think was nice of her um and and i was deeply upset by this as you could probably imagine because you know what it's like at that age or maybe you didn't tim if this is

Starting point is 00:29:36 this is you know but for me i felt at that age that that was it that was my one path that was my one path of becoming a concert pianist and that path is now ended because this woman has stopped it now i'm an adult obviously i know there's many many paths that people take throughout their lives to to to success whatever they want to do whereas at the time as a youngster i just felt that that one path has now been finished and that's it i can't do anything more so for two weeks i was really quite down and didn't play the piano at all and then I don't know why I was just you know walking home from school one day and I thought to myself why am I letting well like how many billions of people are in the world do you know the figure I don't even know the figure but

Starting point is 00:30:21 however many billions of people are in this world I'm letting one person who hasn't even seen me play the piano. I'm letting one person stop me from achieving my dream. And I thought, well, that's it. I'm going to audition for a better music school. So I did. I auditioned for the Junior Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. What was the name again? Junior.

Starting point is 00:30:43 Well, as a junior, because obviously I was only going on Saturdays. It's the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. What was the name again? Junior, well, as a junior, because obviously I was only going on Saturdays. It's the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. So it's where Orlando Bloom studied acting. It's where, you know, there's lots of big names on the acting side of it, and also big names on the classical side of it went to. And so I auditioned for them. I didn't say about my disability in the application form.

Starting point is 00:31:05 There was a slightly awkward moment when I turned up for the audition. And it was kind of this X Factor style audition with a big grand piano and three judges at the back of the room. And I had to walk in and say, by the way, I only have one hand. And yeah, it wasn't it was fine. It was just slightly awkward. But I played and I was offered a place. And so I was so pleased that I listened to, and I had that little chat with myself on the way home from school that day

Starting point is 00:31:31 where I thought, I'm not going to let this one woman tell me I can't become a pianist. And you know what interests me even now? The fact that she was, she must have been in her late 60s, early 70s, been in the classical industry all of her life she didn't even think about left-hand repertoire she didn't even think to suggest well yes i would

Starting point is 00:31:51 like to audition you but i'd like you to learn two left-hand alone pieces first before you know she didn't even think of that and and that surprises me a lot now i'm just so thankful because by that path and that series of events, it took me to a better school. It took me to London, which was, you know, it's just more, the standard was much higher, basically. And it really did kind of sow the seeds for my future career. in some ways dodged quite a bullet as well, in the sense that you can have old school teachers, and there are different ways to interpret that, of course, who are open-minded in some respects,

Starting point is 00:32:33 and you can have old school teachers who are very close-minded. And it sounded like she was in the close-minded camp. So if organizations take on the personalities of their leaders, it's quite a good thing indeed that you have your phone schedule. Well, the organizer at that school isn't around anymore, so it was definitely... Can you tell us about Paul Wittgenstein? Yes. So Paul Wittgenstein, basically, I'll tell you a brief potted history of left-hand repertoire. Left-hand alone repertoire started in the 19th century, where a lot of the time, concert pianists, and as you mentioned earlier reality stuff they were the celebrities of the day they would sell out in minutes like madonna does and back then they would close some of them

Starting point is 00:33:31 obviously not all of them some of them would close their concerts and as an encore they would perform something with left hand alone and the reason left hand alone is because your left hand is your naturally weaker hand so it's almost a sense of irony. Like you thought I was good with two hands. You wait and see what I can do with my weak hand. It's like a princess bride moment. Exactly. So they would play these amazing virtuoso displays at the piano, which is where they left hand and it would absolutely send the crowd wild.

Starting point is 00:33:58 And then let's fast forward in history. The first world war happened. There was a man named Paul Wittgenstein, brother of the famous philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. You know, I was wondering that, and I was like, I'm going to embarrass myself because they're probably two centuries apart. Okay, and I wasn't wrong.

Starting point is 00:34:15 No, the Wittgenstein family was a very wealthy, very well-respected society family of the time. And Paul, well, in those days, being a concert pianist in those kind of families or being any kind of performer was very much looked down upon so paul's father for but absolutely forbidden him to to perform to be a concert pianist even though that was always paul's lifelong ambition so when paul's dad died he went out and gave his concert debut and to very favorable reviews. And by the look of things, he had a very promising career as a good two-handed pianist ahead of him.

Starting point is 00:34:53 Then the First World War happened and within six months he was in battle. And within eight months of his concert debut, he lost his right arm in battle. So talk about steely determination. Within eight months of his concert debut, he lost his right arm in battle. So talk about steely determination. He was taken as a prisoner of war. And during that time, he found some old wooden crates. And he turned these crates over and he chalked a piano keyboard onto these crates. And he worked out how to play some of his most favorite two-handed pieces, how he could arrange them for left-hand alone.

Starting point is 00:35:29 He was then, thanks to his family who were very influential, pulled some strings and got repatriated back to Vienna. And it was here where he decided to use his vast wealth and the fact that everyone knew the Wittgensteins and wanted to be involved with the Wittgensteins and wanted to be involved with the Wittgensteins, he used his position and his wealth to pay the biggest composers of the day to write pieces for him.

Starting point is 00:35:54 So Ravel and Prokofiev and Benjamin Britten, Richard Strauss, Hindemith, they all composed left-hand alone pieces for him. And he paid them around the sum of 30 000 pounds back then well now that is a lot of money for a composer that sounds like a good chunk of change yeah that's above the uk salary now so imagine back then that amount of where you could buy a house for i don't know six thousand or i don't know that figure,000 or I don't know. Wow. I'm fucking that figure out there. But certainly, you know, it was an awful lot of money. And it was that that really expanded that left-hand repertoire

Starting point is 00:36:31 and really grew it to be, you know, to become. And now most two-handed pianists, if you ask them to print out their repertoire for them, most of them will have at least one or two left-hand piano concertos in their repertoire. Usually, Ravel's Pianoo for the left-hand, which is probably the most famous piano left-hand piece out there. I've heard you mention before that you've arranged but not composed, and that might

Starting point is 00:36:56 be out of date, but to be perfectly honest, I thought I knew what compose meant, and now I'm not sure. What is arranging music versus composing music? So arranging music. So basically I almost, for me in, in every century there's been since the 19th century, there's been one left hand alone or one, one armed pianist, if you like, who, who kind of, you know, was making waves in their industry. And in the 21st century, I'm, I'm very fortunate.

Starting point is 00:37:23 It seems to be me. And that's something which I'm hugely proud of and hugely humbled by and I want to provide as much repertoire, if not more, than that Paul Wittgenstein left for the likes of me to come along and play in the future. So by doing that, I do a lot of commissions, I work with a lot of commissions. Unfortunately, I'm not quite as wealthy as Paul Wittgenstein, so I haven't got a lot of money to be throwing around at these composers.

Starting point is 00:37:51 But I do a lot of arranging. And is arranging taking two-handed music and converting it into, in this case? Yes. So the difference between composing is someone thinking up of a melody or an idea or something and creating a piece of music arranging is where i would take take from my album for instance um i i took my favorite piece of music ever gershwin summertime this is on your album solo my album solo yeah and i decided that would work well for left hand alone which it did so i arranged that for left hand alone and there's

Starting point is 00:38:23 two other of my own arrangements on the album as well um and it's lovely because you know people come up to my concerts afterwards and say where can we buy your arrangements and unfortunately they're in my head so I need to actually sit down and get them published properly because there's a demand for them already which is lovely because I was kind of in my head doing it for when I die I'm going to be passing on these people you you know, when I'm older. So already it's quite nice that there's a demand for some of my arrangements. I think you need to get those on paper, young man. I do.

Starting point is 00:38:56 That long life is not guaranteed, not to get all morbid and stoic. That's very true, very true. I'd love for you to tell the story of the blind man in malta just because i found it very touching um and i'll leave it at that this was very very sweet and very very i i was equally as touched so usually when i'm when i'm playing a concert i obviously i usually do my album signing after the concert and then there's often people waiting you know afterwards if they want to speak to me further and it's very rare in the interval that I ever have people come back at that stage but there was you know there

Starting point is 00:39:37 was a knock on my dress room my manager said look there's someone who really really wants to speak to you now is it all right I was like yeah that's fine you know no problem bring him in and so it was him and i could see him straight away he had a white scene you know he's blind and he had his friend his ably sighted friend with him and uh and he he said he said i just i'm so sorry to disturb you i i had to come and speak to you now my my friend booked these tickets for me and i didn't realize until until my friend in the interval just as that last applause was happening before I walked off stage

Starting point is 00:40:09 said, and isn't it wonderful that he does all of that and just with one hand and he said, I just don't believe it he said, my ears never ever lie to me he said, I do not believe that you have one hand can I feel, can I hold your left hand can i feel for a right hand

Starting point is 00:40:26 i said yes please by all means so there he is there's my dog you see it's a rousing story so please continue so there's my my uh you know i'm in my dressing room this blind man's there and he's kind of feeling my hand and my right arm and and he he was like i can't i still can't believe it but it was it was lovely and i said to him i said well it means i'm doing my job right because i'm creating that illusion and that's what i want that's what i wanted to do and what i aim to do so yeah it was um it was lovely what a story now most people listening probably have two hands uh And I would imagine it's difficult for them to imagine what would be difficult, what might not be as difficult for someone with a single hand. One note that you'd shot to me with no elaboration, of course, was I wanted to be a chef before I was a pianist.

Starting point is 00:41:22 Now, can you please elaborate on how you cook? I mean, now, of course, there are ways you can cook with one hand, but what types of approaches or cuisines or modifications have you made? And why cooking? I know it's funny. Again, it's an equally dexterous job. I don't know why I was drawn to these two-handed jobs all the time. I don't know what it is.

Starting point is 00:41:48 But again, I don't really think I adapt to anything, really. I think, you know, I think one, well, one thing, if I'm cooking for friends, for instance, I always put, because say I'm slicing an onion. So I will support the onion with my little arm. And I'll obviously slice with my left hand. But what I do is I put a sandwich bag, you know, like a little bag kind of thing over my little arm. That way, I just, I don't know why I do that actually.

Starting point is 00:42:19 But yeah, I would say that's kind of one little adaptation I just do. I almost feel like it's more, it's a bit weird kind of cooking with a forearm they don't they don't seem quite even though of the wash your hands and why i wash wash my forearm but it doesn't seem quite as hygienic as cooking with hands so i like i think i kind of yeah a little a little bag over it and work it that way um but yeah apart from that i don't there's nothing really I can't do. I crack eggs with one hand. Yeah, I think I never really struggle with, with cooking. And I think the more I travel, and obviously my job involves an awful lot of travel and food is, I'm such a foodie. I'm such a foodie. Like food is, I'm driven by food probably equally as much as I am by music, which isn't always good for your waistline. What's your favorite cuisine? Do you have a favorite cuisine? Japanese definitely, which is good for your waistline, unless it's kind of okonomiyaki kind of things.

Starting point is 00:43:12 And then it's just hugely high in carbon sugar. It's so good though. Like the katsudon, like the deep fried pork cutlets on rice. It's amazing. I mean, I love playing in japan anyway but especially you know over here japanese food like it is in the states it's very popular but when you go to japan it's just on a different level you know it's completely as you know it's it's just it's just amazing it's yeah it's an alien landscape it's really an incredible experience is there a particular i remember having this conversation with paulvesque, but Triple H, he's very well-known professional

Starting point is 00:43:49 wrestler. And he was at one point over dinner describing to me the differences among, or I should say across different crowds and how the Japanese are totally different from the Brits, who are totally different from the next person. When you perform, is there any particular audience or place that treats you with just an inordinate amount of respect or reverence? Yeah, I mean, the difference, like with your previous podcast guest, it's huge. Us Brits tend to be quite staid which doesn't surprise anybody really um we tend to applause and you know be quite reserved whereas when i'm in malta or you know italy and places like that they're very vocal you know bravo bravo bravissimo and you know the shouting which i love

Starting point is 00:44:38 you know it's great i love that they're very vocal if they've enjoyed something um when i've played in the states i've only actually played in in the states a couple of times now um and i've always been very you know well welcome there they're lovely um and i think they you know you guys kind of get my story whereas a lot of places like france for instance they're not really interested in in the story that goes with me they just want to hear the music um so you know it's definitely i mean japan and south korea their response is great and they have a really i mean you've probably experienced it over there tim you know they they have this fandom they they love being a fan you know like i've had when i'm in japan you know people come up to me and ask me to sign the

Starting point is 00:45:20 backs of their iphones like their actual metal iPhones on the back. I feel like, oh no, I don't want to ruin it for you. You know, where that doesn't happen here. So yeah, it's so funny. It's different. It's very different. And it's all wonderful. And especially when you go back to places, you know what to expect as well. You know that, you know, what certain countries are like with their, with their appreciation of you. I'm going to switch gears just a little bit. I'd like to ask some rapid fire questions, uh, which honestly don't know why I call them rapid fire questions. They tend to be shorter questions, but your answers don't need to be short. They can be,

Starting point is 00:45:58 but don't need to be. As you can tell, I'm quite a chatterbox, so they're not probably going to be short. The'm sorry. The first is when you hear the word successful, who is the first person who comes to mind and why? In my industry or just generally? Let's say both. Let's say both. I would say successful, I would say Bethany

Starting point is 00:46:18 Frankel. Big fan of hers. I love the kind of rags to riches thing and the fact of what she did and the brand she created. And it's kind of, you know, I know I'm not in a liquor brand, but again, I'm trying to create my own brand as me, you know, and it's hard. You know, people don't teach you when I'm at the Royal College of Music, for instance. They don't teach you how to create a brand, create your own, you know, your own brand as an artist. You don't get taught any of that. You've got to do it yourself or learn how to do it. So and similar to, you know, your own brand as an artist, you don't get taught any of that.

Starting point is 00:46:45 You've got to do it yourself or learn how to do it. So, and similar to, you know, how she did. Unfortunately, I don't think I can sell myself for, you know, 150 million or however much she sold her company for. That's a skinny, skinny girl or whatever. So, yeah, I would say that's someone I do think of when i think of success in my industry um i would say lang lang the chinese concert pianist yeah he's kind of bagged the you know the whole grand endorsement thing and you know everything which kind of one day i hope to do

Starting point is 00:47:21 he's kind of he's he's done's done that. And, and definitely, you know, whether you like his playing or not, you can't deny that he is certainly a phenomenon in, in our industry. What book or books have you gifted the most to other people? If you have? I'm not really, I'm not, I'm kind of, I'm more of a Kindle kind of person. So I don't really gift books. Sorry, if that's a really boring. No, no, that's not, I'm kind of, I'm more of a Kindle kind of person. So I don't really gift books. Sorry if that's a really boring. No, no, that's not, that's, that's totally fine.

Starting point is 00:47:49 I actually don't, I've ever given a book a gift. Okay. Well, we can, we can, we can dance with that. So what, are there any books you've read more than once that come to mind? I would say I like books about people. I like books about interesting people so i like autobiographies but not like a reality stars autobiography i like you know a really interesting person's autobiography um any particular autobiogies come to mind yeah like graham

Starting point is 00:48:18 norton the guy who he's he's quite big over here in the UK and the guy who you were listening to. That's right. The BBC interviewer. Yeah. Um, he's, he's great because he's had a fascinating life and you know, yeah, I've enjoyed,

Starting point is 00:48:32 I've read that. I've read that twice now. Um, so I would say anything about, you know, and anything about people, Nina Simone, I remember reading her.

Starting point is 00:48:44 I'm sorry. What was that name again? Nina Simone. Oh yeah. Um. I'm sorry, what was that name again? Nina Simone. Oh, yeah. I read a biography of her, and that was fascinating. So, yeah, I think I like the real life, kind of real people thing. I'm not really one to go and get lost in a novel. That isn't really me. I'll make a suggestion for autobiographies, which is Open by Andre Agassi.

Starting point is 00:49:05 Even if you're not a tennis fan or player, which I'm neither, really. But Open is one of the most incredible books in terms of autobiographies that I've read in probably the last five years. I think you might enjoy it. I will add that to my list. That sounds my cup of tea. How old are you at the moment? I'm 27. 27. Wrong side of 25 now wrong side of 25 what advice would you give to your 20 year old self and can you place us as to

Starting point is 00:49:36 where you were what you were doing i would probably say so i'm at the age of 20 i forget what what what age i was when i started the royal college but I think if I'm right in saying I think I had started the Royal College then what I would say would be don't listen to don't listen to people no don't listen to the negativity because I used to do that a lot and it would influence me and it was it's only since I've kind of I would say it's only really the last four years really that i've consistently not listened to negativity you know obviously when i when i've been turned down by that music school and various things you know earlier that we spoke about earlier i i obviously wasn't listening to that negativity then but there's been some other times where i have listened to people you know i've had people say to me before well you know well of course and

Starting point is 00:50:24 they're always a certain type of age these people you know very I've had people say to me before, well, you know, well, of course, and they're always a certain type of age, these people, you know, very, you know, older people in the classical industry. Well, it's a shame that, you know, you won't ever really be able to have a recording career. And I used to be like, oh, well, what a shame, because that is

Starting point is 00:50:40 what I really want to do. And then, obviously, I went on and signed my major record deal with Warner Music. So, you know, I'm I,, I, you know, I wish I could, I wish I could have told myself that or whispered in my ear and be like, don't listen to them because you're going to be more well known than they think you're going to be. You know? Now, when you hear negativity now, how you cope with or respond to negativity, is there something that you say to yourself when you hear it? Because of course, there's a lot of negativity in the world.

Starting point is 00:51:11 You can just go online and you're going to end up waiting in the mud at some point. What, what do you, how do you, how have you trained yourself to not take the negativity to heart? Was there something you say to yourself is there a practice of some type that helps with that i usually well i always now try and spin it and make it into a positive so i usually visualize myself i'm quite a visual person so i you know say for instance i mean you know i'm quite lucky it's not as cutthroat as it is in like the celebrity world so the classical world it is cutthroat but it's quite lucky. It's not as cutthroat as it is in like the celebrity world, the classical world. It is cutthroat, but it's not as, what's the thing,

Starting point is 00:51:49 as negative where people are just being negative for the sake of being negative, like tabloid press, for instance. We don't really get that yet. So in regards to kind of negative comments, I don't tend to get them a lot. But things like negative things, like if I really, really wanted to play this certain concert

Starting point is 00:52:04 or this certain concerto, and then someone else has got that I kind of then use that as a positive so I would say you know it's not it's not my time and it was their time I'll close my eyes I'll visualize myself in that situation in two years time for instance and I just think you know what whatever will be will be you know it is what it is nothing I can do about it and i wish i had that when i was younger because i used to take things in and get so frustrated with things and so upset about things and and now i just don't i just think you know it is what it is and i quite like that phrase it is what it is it kind of sums everything up really nothing you can do about it so that's it well that's a good segue so you don't have to choose that but if you could put anything on a gigantic billboard

Starting point is 00:52:50 uh that was not an advertisement what would it be what would it say anything is possible anything that's possible that is just my i just wholeheartedly believe that and actually i've had some negativity about that because there's some people i've been interviewed you know about things and that's the message i bring to the countries i visit and things because i do 100% think that and i think why why wouldn't i think that because a guy who's from a non-classical background from a non-moneyed background from a very small village in england who you know no one's really done a great deal from where I'm from and and then for me to you know with one arm as well and the age I started to then become and enter this this arena of kind of you know highbrow classical music and kind of honing your craft to

Starting point is 00:53:37 it to the to the highest level and I think by me doing that I 100% think that anything is possible. And I just think, of course, with hard work, determination, those things go hand in hand. But there's been people who say to me, yeah, but I don't believe that. I couldn't go out and be, this one woman who's a journalist, and said, I couldn't go out and be the best lawyer in the world. I said, well, you probably could if you actually wanted to. And you actually wanted to, if you 100 believe that yourself and you felt that you were going to be that person but you don't think that and you don't want to be that so you're not going to be tough talk i like it i gotta tell how i gotta tell it is. Do you have any particular morning routines? So any routines or habits that are important to you, say, in the feel because I'm on stage usually at 7.30 and I'm off stage at 10.30. That's kind of more where I prefer to practice.

Starting point is 00:54:48 I'm not really a daytime practicer. I almost feel like I'm missing out, even though people are at work. Most of my friends have normal jobs. They're just at work and things. I still feel like I'm missing out. I don't know why. So I'm not really one for daytime practice. So I do work slightly later.

Starting point is 00:55:05 So I get up about 9 a.m. And I usually go to the gym in the morning to do a run. I'm quite a good runner and I enjoy it as well. And I don't ever listen to music when I'm running, which people find very bizarre. You know, people are constantly jogging and running with their headphones in and there's me with nothing in and that is my my time if you think i'm surrounded by music all the time um and i'm surrounded by my own voice and speaking and doing interviews and things so it's i like the silence i like the silence of running without headphones in without me talking about myself without me doing you know doing anything and just to run.

Starting point is 00:55:48 And I do a lot of running for two different reasons. One, because as I said, I love food so much. Two, because I find running the best way to increase stamina. And because of my concerts, I have to have a very high stamina because it's hard work playing the piano for 90 minutes with one hand. So I have to kind of do anything in my power to increase that that natural stamina so yeah my morning routine starts at nine I go for a run usually maybe four times five times a week and then I would come home have my shower and then I'm just ready for the day then whether that is a little bit of practice or I've got my interviews

Starting point is 00:56:21 to or catch up on emails or other projects that I'm doing or take my dog for a walk, you know, just, just things like that. Really. You mentioned building a brand earlier. Are there any resources, books, quotes, anything that you've found very helpful in trying to differentiate yourself and build a career? Well, I think with me, I, I, again, it's difficult because most books on branding is talking about a product. And yes, I know I am a product essentially, but it's different, isn't it? When you're branding a person or an image or, you know, it's kind of different. You have to think.

Starting point is 00:56:59 And also with me having one hand, I've instantly differentiated myself anyway, in that sense. But I've always foundated myself anyway in that sense but I've always found a way of trial I hope I've tried to find a way of branding myself without always screaming from the rooftops that I have one arm you know I don't I never wanted just to be like well yes you know and obviously he's very good for having one arm I want people to say and luckily they do now and say he's a fantastic pianist by the way and isn't it fantastic he's only got one hand you know it's first and foremost i wanted to be recognized for my playing ability not for the fact that i've come a long way with one arm so that branding wise and marketing

Starting point is 00:57:39 wise and things you've got to be very careful with that now the press over here you know do brand me the one-armed pianist and that's fine but it is you know my my phrase again it is what it is and it's saying what i am it's kind of that is what i am i'm proud of that at the same time like i say i never wanted to be gimmicky because if i did want it to be gimmicky i would have done one of the big tv challenge shows yeah and i think you i think you made the right choice on that. So we've talked about some of your, your wins. Have you had any particularly punishing failures that have set you up in some way for later successes? Or do you have a favorite failure story of any type? See, being a very positive person, I try and spin any failures into a positive one. I think, I wouldn't say this was a failure,

Starting point is 00:58:29 but this was something that was hard to swallow. I, a couple of years ago, got, because, you know, being a public speaker, I do a lot of speaking for businesses and things like that.

Starting point is 00:58:41 And as you've seen, my TED Talk and things. And that's the side of my career which I love. I love motivating people, inspiring people in any way possible. And the BBC picked up on the fact that I was a good presenter.

Starting point is 00:58:54 And they asked me if I'd be interested in presenting for television a couple of the BBC proms, which are obviously a huge deal over here. Now, what is, I apologize, when I hear the word prom in the US, it's usually associated with sort of a ball of sorts with like high school graduation or college graduation. That's the same here. We have our kind of high school, college graduation balls as well.

Starting point is 00:59:19 With regarding proms, it's an old tradition. It's called, it's basically um it's held in the royal albert hall it's a big big festival all through the summer of classical concerts every single day by the biggest name so the whole world kind of descends on this big festival it's now obviously covered by the bbc but it never used to be it went before the bbc and the word proms refers to promers. And it's where you can get five pound tickets on the day for standing in the arena. So it's basically making classical music very accessible.

Starting point is 00:59:57 And if you're one of those people who stand in the arena, you're called a promer. So it's kind of this kind of tradition thing. It goes back years. But it's a really massive, massive cultural thing here because we do get the biggest names and the biggest orchestras every single day from the end of July through to September, every single day in the Royal Albert Hall. And people queue all the way. You know, even most of the concerts sell out very, very quickly, but they don't ever sell those promised tickets until the day,

Starting point is 01:00:21 and you have to queue up for them. So you're pretty much always guaranteed a ticket if you're willing to be a promer that's cool i like that but it's broadcast on radio every single day every concert broadcast on radio and some of them are broadcast on television which i was i was picked to to do um and one of the uh the proms that i was meant to which i was asked to present was a pian pianist, very, very good pianist, very good French pianist, was playing Ravel's left-hand piano concerto.

Starting point is 01:00:50 So when the BBC asked me to, would I be interested in presenting for them, I said, of course, yes. And here's what you'll be presenting. I said, that's fine. I said, has it not crossed your mind that maybe having Britain's only one handed concert pianist,

Starting point is 01:01:07 actually probably the world's only one handed concert pianist presenting a prom where a two handed pianist is playing Ravel's left hand piano concerto. Do you think that might give a little bit of backlash? And they said, Oh, we didn't really think of that. I said, well,

Starting point is 01:01:22 I'll tell you for now, I'm more than happy to do that. I'm more than happy to be involved. But some of my fans were very, very loyal, very, very supportive. Won't take, you know, they'll find it bizarre. They'll just find it odd and they will comment. Well, I said that. And then there was always that slight worry that no one would write into the BBC or no one would tweet into the BBC about, you know, how awful it is that Nicholas McCarthy was presenting this prom when a two handed pianist was playing in the left hand concerto.

Starting point is 01:01:52 But luckily, they got lots of complaints and and and tweets in about, you know, not necessarily complaints, but just highlighting the fact that, you know, it was probably not the best decision on their part. For me, it was fine. It was kind of hard to swallow at first because I thought, why wasn't it me? But you know what? It was his time. He played it brilliantly and good for him. And I was pleased that people tweeted in and wrote in. I'm not going to lie. What has been the best investment you've ever made that could be money time or energy and i know it's a big question but whatever comes to mind see that's difficult when you're starting out in any creative industry and especially you know in music people forget that a lot of people think especially in the classical world that you know you don't need to be investing in yourself whereas I completely have um when

Starting point is 01:02:49 you're creating any brand you've got to do that and and you know the amount of when I was first starting out the amount of concerts I was doing for free just to build a fan base just to sell a couple of my self-produced cds and kind of earn the money off of that you know that is investment you know me spending two thousand pounds to make my first CD just so I can sell it. And yes, I made my money back on it. But, you know, I didn't know I was going to make my money back on it. So there's been so many times and things like, you know, video production for YouTube, and especially now there's so much content that people are thirsty for content. If you want to be part of that you've got to create that content and as you know Tim that isn't cheap to do that isn't cheap to do you there's a cost to it it takes people you can't just do it all on your own um and and that that just takes money

Starting point is 01:03:36 to do that so I would say there's been so many things I would say maybe I think I got offered which was very kind by do you know know the violinist Nigel Kennedy? I've heard the name, but I'm not. He's very famous over here. In 1989, he released the Four Seasons, Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, and he sold pop numbers of them. He really made classical quite cool back then. Even my mum and dad bought this album. And the producer of that that he's a very

Starting point is 01:04:05 very well-known producer called andrew keener he's produced the biggest names in the classical world and he produced that album which went on to sell pop figures of of this classical album um and andrew heard of me and you know i hadn't done a great deal by this stage i had graduated from the royal college and i'd played at the carolic closing ceremony and various things but I hadn't done you know a lot a lot and uh and he contacted me and said you know I'd love to produce a demo disc for you for you know free of charge um if you'd be interested and that is like I don't know who's the best producer in pop I don't know who it is but that's like them ring you up and say oh i'll produce you for free it was like okay you know i'd never recorded apart from myself when i'd done it very very crudely myself i've never had that so here i was from you know having

Starting point is 01:04:56 two self-produced discs very crudely done to then sat in a concert hall with andrew keener producer extraordinaire. And, you know, I had to, it cost money because I had to pay for the studio. I had to pay for the engineer. I had to pay for various things and it cost quite a lot of money. But what I got out of that was completely invaluable. How did he hear about you? If you trace it back, like what is, what does the spider's web look like i was on the cover of a piano magazine over here and i think he must have read it and then got in touch with me about it

Starting point is 01:05:31 because this is the thing with me i mean you i've i've never done there's usually a blueprint from if you see any success whether it's in pop or classical or whatever you're in there's usually a blueprint of what happens you know you in classical most people kind of win a big competition and get signed by an agent and then they start you know touring around and then they get signed by a big record label and then obviously the PR from that is amazing and you know then you become a name and then you do another album and blah blah blah whereas with me that didn't happen I started getting major major worldwide and national press before I'd even done anything you know I hadn't

Starting point is 01:06:13 even I was playing maybe three or four free concerts a year to a couple of hundred people yeah I was on the biggest shows promoting well not a lot really because I didn't have anything to promote you know and and it's kind of I did everything backwards so I wasn't you know I didn't get picked up by the agent straight away I didn't get signed straight away I none of that happened I did everything backwards so I was already seen as a success even though the reality wasn't that you know yes I was looked at as a success because I was on all these shows and people were seeing my name a lot but I didn't have any of the things which kind of went with that. I didn't have the 90 concerts a year. I didn't have the CD, which was being sold around the world. And every time I was

Starting point is 01:06:54 on a show, it was selling more copies. It wasn't happening. That didn't happen for me. So I've, I've always been, everything's always been a bit topsy-turvy with me. If you were to be in charge of a piano school or to just teach someone with no musical background how to play piano, and you could choose one-handed or two-handed, or design the curriculum, right? If you wanted to, because I feel like there's, I've taken music lessons for piano, trumpet, trombone, recorder, flute. You go down the list, the only thing that really stuck for me was the drums. I think in part because I'm impatient and you can sound conceivably tolerable

Starting point is 01:07:46 pretty quickly with the drums. But if you wanted more people to stick with piano, how would you teach them in the first few weeks? Or what would you do differently than is commonly done? First of all, I would find out what their musical tastes are. Now, there's a misconception with classical music that, and the amount of times I hear this, that people say, oh, no, no, no, I don't like classical music, it's boring. I'm thinking, well, classical music is a very big umbrella. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:08:17 You know, there's a lot of stuff in there. I mean, you might not like opera, but you might love piano. You might not love Bach, but you might love Chopin's music you know you can't just write you can't just discount a whole kind of section of our history and of our of of culture just because you've heard a couple of pieces which yes you may have found boring and I'm sure you did the amount of times I turn on a classical radio station and i turn it off again because i'm bored by it because it's not my cup of tea some of the stuff they play you know it it's like with pop music you don't say say for instance if you didn't like rihanna you don't then say well i don't like pop music

Starting point is 01:08:58 because you might like adele you know but but with people people's mentality with classical music is very different they they feel that they don't like the entire 300 years of music because of they've heard two pieces that they don't like so that's part of my thing i would instantly educate people on listening i'd get them listening to find out what they actually like and then i'd run with that i would then say right so you like russian 20th century music. Okay, so let's learn some Prokofiev. Let's look at some Kabalevsky. Let's look at some composers, which aren't on the tip of everybody's tongue, but I saw you might love.

Starting point is 01:09:35 So could you, on that point, if I do enjoy a lot of classical music, but don't know the first thing about it, and nine times out of ten have no idea what i'm even listening to honestly if if i wanted to or people listening wanted to explore a few lesser known classical musicians or composers who might you recommend well to you i would say go and listen to list yeah and that's that's just, and that's just L I S T L I S Z T. Um, very, very famous classical.

Starting point is 01:10:10 So yeah, go and listen to him. I would say pianist wise, I would say YouTube, the, the concept of the Argentinian concert pianist called Martha Argarich. She is just superhuman. She's,

Starting point is 01:10:24 she's quite elderly now, but she's still playing. She's coming to the BBC proms she is just superhuman she's she's quite elderly now but she's still playing she's coming to the BBC proms this year um she's she has cult status in our world I mean she sold out the Royal Albert Hall which is what six thousand you know she sold that out in a day or two I think um obviously the prom is can still go and see her as I mentioned earlier but yeah um I would go and I would go and youtube her because you it's almost watching her is it's just it's just superhuman what she can do cool what is some of the worst advice that you see or hear often see it's funny people don't really give me advice anymore.

Starting point is 01:11:09 But when I was first starting out, people, I remember having a meeting with an agent once and she said this was before I got my management and things and before I'd signed my record deal and, you know, things. But things had happened for me. You know, I'd done quite a lot of stuff by that point. And I remember her saying, yes, yes well I think you should you should go and do your master's degree at nine thousand pounds a year for two years and then I think you should take another two years out and go and study in Vienna or something and I'd been working for probably two years by that stage and I thought why, why am I, you know, why am I going to spend £18,000 minimum

Starting point is 01:11:47 on doing a master's degree, where I've already got my bachelor degree, on something that I already do? I'm playing the piano. I've already got a fan base. I'm already playing concert. And she just obviously had that very, very, like we mentioned that word earlier, old school.

Starting point is 01:12:04 She had that old school blueprint that I was never going to fit into. Never. I mean, even when I first started doing television, when I was at the Royal College, I was doing these mainstream talk shows, daytime chat shows. No classical pianist was doing those because, you you know they didn't necessarily have the backstory that i had and the royal college of music was saying well we don't think it will do you any good to to do these chat shows i said why said well it is you know it's not very highbrow is it i mean but i don't want to be highbrow music is for everyone music is a universal language why do i have to do these shows where 140 000 viewers or listeners listen to them as

Starting point is 01:12:47 opposed to going on a tv show where five million viewers are watching why do i have to do that just because it's not highbrow so i've always kind of listened to people's advice and very promptly ignored it if i was wrong likewise i'm the first to take advice and the first to praise advice if I feel it's suited to me. But a lot of the time, like I said, I feel that people were very quick to try and apply this blueprint to me. And I was never going to be, you know, for obvious reasons. In fact, I have one hand. There isn't a blueprint. There isn't someone you can look at back in history and say, ah, ah well he had a very successful career and he was just like you you know that it wasn't like that most of the people who played my repertoire and if you looked back from history having already had some sort of

Starting point is 01:13:33 career as a two-handed pianist I was starting straight away in left-hand repertoire as a one-handed pianist I'm kind of that first one to kind of have to have to do that so how can you apply the same blueprint that you do to a two-handed pianist? How can you apply that? I just don't think it would work. And clearly it hasn't worked because I've done my own thing. Well, even if those blueprints could work, it seems like a blessing in many respects, but certainly in the sense that it would lead you to at least ask or say to yourself, wait, hold on a second now, let's test these assumptions, you know, let's question these assumptions because

Starting point is 01:14:11 maybe it doesn't apply to me, whereas a lot of other people would have probably accepted the blueprint as the default, but you were in a position to have that instinctual response of questioning, which I think is always a good position to have that instinctual response of questioning which i think is is always a good instinct to have yeah and like i say you know i've got it wrong many times as well i'm not saying that you know i've gone through and every decision i've made is right of course not that isn't the case but at the same time i think my wrong decisions i've certainly learned from very quickly well you mentioned food you've mentioned food a couple of times. I'm quite a fan of food myself.

Starting point is 01:14:48 What is the best meal or drink you've ever had? Best meal I had was in Japan. It was the end of my, I went out there to promote my album over there. So I was out there for 10 days, solid press, you know, what it's like when you're doing these promotions of books or whatever you're having to do. It's hard work. And the end of it, they took me out for this, you know, big's like when you're doing these promotions of books or whatever you're having to do it's hard work and the end of it they took me out for this you know big celebratory meal what's it wasn't actually called called the wagyu beef but basically it was similar but it was called something else i can't remember the name of it um but you should have seen maybe i can't remember but you should have seen the size of these fillet steaks. Like I've never seen anything in my life. And it was cooked all in front of a private chef in a private dining. Absolutely beautiful. And that was the hands down best meal I've ever had in my life.

Starting point is 01:15:37 Was the food, was it the company, was it the relief? I guess it was all it was it was the relief of having done you know a good 10 days work I like working and I like it when it goes well as we all do so you know it was that it was the success of everything it was the team I was with who were just brilliant you know they're really great my manager was with me as well so it was lovely to travel and it was just everything as well as the ambience as well as the head chef cooking for us as well you know the whole thing the theater of it it was just brilliant this makes me this all makes me want to go back to japan yeah immediately uh outside of music or i shouldn't say outside of music i'll say outside of classical piano where do you geek out meaning do you have any odd obsessions uh or obsessions like a star wars a sports team wine anything not really i mean i'm i'm very much interested in something and i do

Starting point is 01:16:34 get slightly geeky over things like interior design for instance if i wasn't going to be a pianist and i wasn't going to be a chef then i'd have probably wanted to go into interior design because i love it and i love you know doing up houses and kind of you know I've helped my mum and dad a lot with theirs and I've helped friends and you know if anyone any of my friends are moving into somewhere new they're all like Nick will you come and help me with you know because I just love it and I love getting into people's heads to see what their style is and what they want and I like to put together you know obviously if I've got the time I don't have as much time anymore but you know when I am on time off I'm always reading interior design books or looking for various things that I want to do to my house and so that's something where I probably

Starting point is 01:17:15 do kind of it's so different from my job um even though it's creative still it's so different from what I do and it's something that I do get quite excited about in a geeky way you know i love going kind of interior shopping are there any do you have any favorite books or magazines or anything else yeah my my favorite design is kelly hoppin she's more i think she's more well known here but she does lots of lots of really high-end luxury hotels and yachts and various things but she also got she's got a really nice um these nice books which have done her kind of more normal homes if you like not kind of billionaire homes um and and and she kind of teaches you that how to design and her thought process and i like that i like reading about her actual process of it as opposed to someone just

Starting point is 01:18:04 telling you like this is why I did this and this is why she was actually saying like you know if you put this against this this will really work and this will create some drama and blah blah blah so I like I like her a lot and I also like I mean it's not so much designs but there's there's often design companies which I like a lot which wouldn't really mean anything to you but anything to anybody even over here because it's only you don't really use the design companies if you use them but i know them because i i almost take influence from their design style what is what is one that comes to mind you'd be surprised just listening to this there's one for hill house interiors

Starting point is 01:18:40 and they designed a lot of the lovely show homes um here. And it's very similar to my style of my house. So I've designed my whole house almost off the back of their styling of how they've designed their interiors. I think they're wonderful. Hill House Interiors. In Weybridge and so. I will check that out. What purchase for less than $100? I don't know what the exchange rate is now. Well, it's dropped today. Now we're out of the year.

Starting point is 01:19:12 Yeah, that's right. Let's just call it £100. Has most positively impacted your life in recent memory? And it could just be a purchase. I'm just looking for something that doesn't say the price of a grand piano it is actually this is this is quite random but i love it it's a diffuser for aromatherapy oils and i have it in my my my piano is in my lounge and i have this diffuser on and i put different oils in for when I'm practicing I would put geranium in for instance which I love and I just find kind of relaxes me but at the same time keeps me perked up enough to be able to work right whereas if I want to relax I might put you know ylang ylang in or something like I'm really almost suddenly in the last six months got quite interested in aromatherapy because I can I've 100% felt the effects of different aromas and my concentration or my relaxation or whatever so I would say that

Starting point is 01:20:13 and it was only 50 pounds and the oils that I bought with it probably amounted in total to maybe about 80 80 pounds so yeah that is what and I use it every day when i'm here i love it it's neil's yard which is a big brand over here of kind of natural organic um aromatherapy oils and skincare products and various things like that yeah and i i love that and it i only because i've seen such a difference so it's one of those diffusers it's not like you put the candle in and it's an electric one which kind of emits steam well this this is i mean this this will sound funny to my fans too this is this is actually of great interest to me i recently got a sauna i built a barrel sauna based on specs from uh two former guests leard hamilton a world famous big wave surfer and rick rub, the music producer. And I've bought various oils like eucalyptus oil,

Starting point is 01:21:07 and I do not know what the hell to do with them. It was just in the people who bought this also bought category on Amazon. So I went on like a 3 a.m. binge and bought a ton of stuff. But I also noticed about a week ago, I had a woman blow frankincense, basically put oils on her hands and then blew through her hands onto me. This requires a lot of explanation. I won't get into it. To relax me and it had the desired effect immediately. It was very, and psychosomatic or not i don't really care in

Starting point is 01:21:46 this case because i needed to fucking relax and it worked so i will have to check out you know everyone comes into my they come into my home and they say what's that smell it's beautiful and i love that what a nice thing for people to you know to be greeted by i think we're very affected by smells as humans oh definitely and i think so people often overlook that you know the amount of gorgeous places i've been in or beautiful hotel rooms and things and the ones i remember are the ones who have you know have a have a lovely smell to them have a lovely it instantly transforms the environment doesn't it i feel so and it's certainly because i work from home a lot it certainly

Starting point is 01:22:25 transforms my my working home life in a more positive way it certainly helps me concentrate or helps me relax and yeah and when i'm practicing in a room if i'm not at home i miss it oh for sure so geranium which i have not experienced yeah i use geranium a lot i love that that's my one that i kind of so it's relaxing but allows you to have a calm focus it doesn't relax me too you don't want to be dopey when you're working right be kind of relaxed because you've got focus still and i find that really works with me this is exciting for me well i will try that uh we could keep going for hours, I am sure, Nicholas, but I would want to be respectful of your time.

Starting point is 01:23:09 I know we're a couple of time zones apart. And where can people find you online, learn more about you, your music, say hello on social, if you're engaged on any particular platform and so on? Well, I think the best for your listeners, if they go and check me out on YouTube, Nicholas McCarthy, they'll be able to at least see what we've been talking about today. And I think that's the first thing.

Starting point is 01:23:34 It's so visual what I do. So I always encourage people just to go and look, because instead of us explaining it, it's going to be so much more fulfilling for your listeners to be able to actually watch and see what I do. But yeah, come and say hello on Twitter. Come and say hello on Facebook. I'm nmccarthypiano on Twitter and Facebook. So come and say hi. And yeah, I look forward to hearing this when it goes out and chatting to your lovely listeners. Well, I hope that they all check out your work and listen to your work and say hello on social and for everybody listening, of course. Links to everything that we discussed will be in

Starting point is 01:24:16 the show notes as usual at 4hourworkweek.com forward slash podcast, where you can find all previous episodes as well. And Nicholas, thank you so much for the time. This was a good, this was great fun. Thank you. I've really enjoyed it. Thank you so much for having me. And to everyone listening as always.

Starting point is 01:24:38 And until next time, thank you so much for spending time with the Tim Ferriss show. Hey guys, this is Tim again. Just a few more things before you take off. Number one, this is Five Bullet Friday. Do you want to get a short email from me? Would you enjoy getting a short email from me every Friday that provides a little morsel of fun before the weekend? And Five Bullet Friday is a very short email where I share the coolest things I've found or that I've been pondering over the week. That could include favorite new albums that I've discovered. It could include gizmos and gadgets and all sorts of weird shit that I've somehow dug up in the world of the esoteric as I do.

Starting point is 01:25:16 It could include favorite articles that I've read and that I've shared with my close friends, for instance. And it's very short. It's just a little tiny bite of goodness before you head off for the weekend. So if you want to receive that, check it out. Just go to fourhourworkweek.com. That's fourhourworkweek.com all spelled out and just drop in your email and you will get the very next one.

Starting point is 01:25:40 And if you sign up, I hope you enjoy it.

Pet Camera - EBO Air 2

The Tim Ferriss Show - #174: The One-Handed Concert Pianist, Nicholas McCarthy

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Pet Camera - EBO Air 2

The Tim Ferriss Show - #174: The One-Handed Concert Pianist, Nicholas McCarthy

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.