“I never knew you played piano.”

That’s almost always what I hear when someone finds out about 乐队 I play in. It’s not as though I keep this from people, but there’s really no reason why anyone should know that I play piano. On the other hand, why hasn’t anyone imagined that I play jazz piano (however clumsy it can be sometimes)? Tim Herzog from Chemistry plays bass in the same ensemble, and so many others up and down our hallways have musical pursuits, so it’s not like I’m unique.

钢琴是我创作、庆祝或沮丧的隐居之地。 And although you can’t simply point to a piano to define me, there are countless lessons that I take from the 88 independent possibilities on a keyboard; and there are countless more as I’ve started to play with a group.

First, there’s beauty in the collective mechanisms of strings and hammers, a real wonder of engineering. 按下键盘，你会听到音符以不同的间隔发出不和谐的声音。 八度音阶和七度大调之间的差别几乎是同时存在的，这既能在耳朵里也能在手底下感觉到。 It’s both physics and physical, mental and emotive at the same time.

玩游戏需要我全部的注意力，讽刺的是，这是一种治疗。 At a piano I’m not thinking about email, an exam to write, or how I’m going to approach a piece of research. While I’m at the piano, I’m only at the piano. 我们中的其他人用飞蝇钓鱼、烘焙、绘画、瑜伽、骑马、攀岩、制陶、编织和许多其他同样的方式。 It’s no small thing to have a break, a place where energies are invested in restorative ways.

我自己的教学是由我在钢琴上的时间启发的。 和弦结构提供了一个全面的指导，即使在爵士乐和即兴演奏中，我的教学也应该同样准备好，但要灵活。 And then there’s “growth mindset,” a scholarly and trendy theory in 新葡京app and learning. 我们知道，我们如何看待学习的内在灵活性会影响我们自己的学习，也会影响我们学生的学习。 It wasn’t a surprise to me that Tim shared a 最近的报告 about how professors’ perceptions of students’ potential to learn can affect the student outcomes in class. In music and in physics, knowing this reminds me to put faith in the act of practice, and to dedicate myself to more of that (often tedious and frustrating) practice, whether it’s homework or rehearsal.

在一个相互依赖的团队中工作，使我对他人负责，并提高了我的实践责任。 在乐队里，我们必须以各种方式倾听彼此，演出期间和演出后，音乐上的和其他方面的。 Even as we take turns being a diva, for the most part, we get gears to mesh, and this happens only because we’re mutually responsive and respectful. This influences how I’ve started to think about lab and group work in classrooms: How do we form pairings in projects and problems? 我们在实验室的合作目标是什么？ 我们如何在课堂上构建个人和群体角色，从而构建理解？ In all this, there’s great potential in the experience of the collective, “乐队.”

As I’ve likened the ensemble and its chord structures and improvisations to our labs and classrooms, I think of my 与埃里克·斯特恩和舞者合作. I’ve marveled at how dancers rely on one another in multiple contexts, to the point that their 新葡京apps depend on each other: a student choreographer needs a student dancer to perform a creation, and then 10 minutes later they reverse roles. It sounds ridiculous to imagine what it would be like if you had to construct your scientific findings, your life’s work, and then rely on a collaborating student to present this to the people who will grade you. It’s terrifying and, I think, worth considering.

I could go on to list “lessons learned” from piano, music, and the arts and how these connect to my scientific existence. But there’s a more salient point. 从事科学研究的人生活在如此多的维度中。 I started to list just those that I know about in my colleagues, the guitar players and drumline leaders and welders and writers and … then it was clear that the list wasn’t doing justice to any of the people and their practices. 它带走了你可以在我们中间的科学家身上看到的惊喜和潜力。

Maybe the most important idea is that we each bring a whole person into Tracy Hall, our best selves, and these aren’t all just analytical and objective. We’re surrounded 通过 award-winning teachers, renowned scholars, and community activists because they bring their complete personas to work. 学生们也应该带来并庆祝他们的多维自我。 For me right now, I’ll take off this stereotypical yet practical lab coat and create interesting problems about conservation of momentum. 然后我想去练钢琴； 我们星期五有一场演出。

跟着乐队走

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