OUTSIDE THE OFFICE: Practice, Play, and Have Fun!

Jeffrey Harris, MD

Quite a few physicians play music off the job. When Marin Medicine asked me to write about my musical avocation, I surveyed several other physicians I’ve played with to see how music fit into our lives. What follows is a compilation of their answers and mine.

What medical specialties do we have?

Physician musicians have many different specialties; there don’t seem to be specific fields of medicine that are correlated with an interest in music. Among other jobs, I practice urgent care at Kaiser San Rafael. Dr. Ray Brindley is a hospitalist at Marin General. Dr. Ann DeLaney is a plastic surgeon, also at Kaiser San Rafael. Dr. Ward Flad works in the ER at Healdsburg Hospital. Other physician musicians I know are psychiatrists, cardiologists, head and neck surgeons, and internists.

How did we get started in music?

Ray started playing guitar at age 8 in Alabama. Ward borrowed his brother’s guitar at age 10 and taught himself how to play. Ann started playing trumpet in junior high. She added guitar and voice in high school because she wanted to be a folk singer (didn’t we all?).

There was also parental influence. Ray’s grandfather was a big-band leader, and Ray’s father played in the band. My mother is a violinist, and my father played harmonica.

To quote The Grateful Dead, music is often a long, strange trip. I started recorder in kindergarten, moved to clarinet in grade school since I didn’t have enough air to play sax, and taught myself bass and guitar in high school. During my internship at the old Public Health Service Hospital in the Presidio, I started voice, performance, songwriting, piano and pedal-steel lessons at Family Light Music School in Sausalito (escapism?). We had an all-physicians band that played at Family Light concerts. When my wife, Mary, and I moved to Nashville, I studied classical voice and saxophone at the Blair School of Music and played bluegrass instruments with Mary at bluegrass jams. I picked up drums about seven years ago when my kids stopped taking lessons because drums looked interesting and I liked the teacher. It turns out that rhythm (drums and bass) and voice are my strong suits. A bit of a late discovery …

What types of music do we play?

We all play some form of music from our formative years, including blues, rock, country and folk. Ward plays finger-style versions of (mostly) 60s tunes, with an emphasis on the Beatles. Ray plays guitar with Firewheel, an Electric Americana band (how Woodstock would have sounded if it had been in Tennessee). Ann sings with an a cappella group and plays the zils (finger cymbals) with a belly dancing group. She also performs on the doumbek (a Middle Eastern drum) and the guitar. She plays jazz, standards, folk and Middle Eastern music.

For me, another long, strange trip. I played surf music in high school, blues in college, and rock during medical school. I played folk rock in Juneau and bluegrass in Anchorage while in the Public Health Service and afterwards. Mary and I played rock and country when we lived in Nashville. Now I sing and play various instruments in The Egrets (rock), Left on Lonely (country and bluegrass), Purvis and the Stray Dogs (rockabilly), and Chameleon (jazz). I should mention that all these bands are the same people playing different kinds of music. They include several local professional musicians who have played with stars such as Huey Lewis, Maria Muldaur, Fleetwood Mac, Michael Jackson, the Jazz Crusaders and Willie Nelson, among others.

I sang with SingersMarin for many years as well. Mary is a member of The Egrets, Left on Lonely and SingersMarin, so we spend time playing and singing together.

Where do we play?

Ray, Mary and I have played in bands and vocal classes organized by the Crossroads music school in Mill Valley. Mary and I have also played with bluegrass bands at the Freight and Salvage Coffee House in Berkeley and Bluegrass at the Beach in Oregon.

Many physician musicians--including Ann and I and Drs. Mike Lennon, Alan Eshleman and Bob Fried--have played at the Kaiser Physicians’ Wellness picnic for the last 10 years. Ray’s band plays at Peri’s, George’s, 19 Broadway, Rancho Nicasio and other Marin venues. We’ve also played Crossroads concerts at various local spots, including Dr. Irina deFischer’s birthday party. SingersMarin performs at the Civic Center, schools and senior facilities around Marin County and has sung at Carnegie Hall. The acoustics there are amazing, adding to the experience.

Several doctors host jam sessions on an irregular basis. These are a lot of fun and let us hang out with people who have common interests.

Do we make recordings?

In the 1980s, Mary and I had an analog recording studio in Nashville where we produced cassettes of bluegrass, country and rock. We now have a digital recording studio and spend a fair amount of time working on recordings. My drum teacher is also my engineering teacher and chief engineer.

We have produced and engineered CDs on our own label, Special Projects Records. (“Special projects” are what corporate people get assigned to when management is trying to get them to fade into the sunset.) To date, we have made CDs for Purvis and the Stray Dogs, Sound Medicine, The Egrets, Jazzi and The Permian Rangers. We are working on CDs for Chameleon, Tiffany, Left On Lonely, and the Tamalpais Valley Ramblers, along with more CDs for The Egrets and Purvis and the Stray Dogs.

How does music interact with our medical careers?

We all play music as a change of pace, and as Ward puts it, to use the other (right) half of our brains. He notes that developing right-brain skills helps with patient interactions. Music uses different skills and abilities than most of medicine, so it provides a break and positive sensory feedback. It has also improved my ability to hear subtle heart murmurs and breath sounds.

Playing is fun and relaxing, although practicing can be frustrating. Ray and I have found that talking about musical interests improves the mood at work. Ann points out (and I agree) that playing complex rhythms activates the brain. Some of us use music as an alternative identity. All told, music provides balance to our lives.

What would we recommend to colleagues interested in learning a musical instrument?

Ann and I advise finding classes or a good teacher and just getting started. Keep your expectations realistic and practice a lot. I have trouble with this, but Ray practices every day before work. Ward plays for a couple of hours each morning, to create a good mind-set for the rest of the day. He also finds music especially re-energizing after a long shift in the ER, to redirect his thinking back to a more relaxed, less serious state of mind.

Ray and I agree that ear training helps a lot, both with pitch and rhythm. Reading music helps but is not mandatory. You should at least learn to read tablature (note fingerings), if not actual notation (note pitches). Band classes are a lot of fun and provide a supportive environment. Jamming with friends is also fun and motivational. For jamming, it’s important to have a good sense of rhythm and to play well with others.

Practice, play, and have fun!

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Dr. Harris, an accomplished amateur musician, practices urgent care at Kaiser San Rafael.

Email: jeffrey.s.harris@kp.org