Pickers and healers
Medical students bond over bluegrass roots.
Matt McCord and Eric Swanson cradle their instruments and, with few words of introduction, launch into a frenzy of finger picking. During the course of their 10-minute set, McCord transitions from the acoustic guitar to the banjo, while Swanson switches from the mandolin to the acoustic guitar.
Claps and cheers erupt from the audience after each up-tempo bluegrass tune, and when the final twangs of “Rocky Top” fade, the crowd offers a standing ovation to cap off the performance.
UF medical students Eric Swanson, left, and Matt McCord find creative outlet in playing bluegrass music.
Mindy C. Miller
Occasionally called the String Surgeons or The Hamstrings, the two are better known by another descriptor: third-year medical students at the University of Florida. The musicians met after Swanson flipped through the class of 2016 booklet during medical school orientation, glancing at the names and faces of the people who would go from strangers to classmates during four years of medical school.
As he skimmed the hometowns and interests of his fellow first-year students, his eyes locked on the word “banjo.”
“I thought, ‘There’s no way some other medical student in my class actually plays bluegrass music!’” Swanson said. “At the beginning of first year we met up and decided to play sometime.”
Their first gig — in the Maren Room at the UF College of Medicine — sparked their involvement with Medstock, an annual concert that showcases the talents of UF College of Medicine students while raising money for health outreach trips. They landed a spot in the 2013 lineup and helped organize the event as second-year students.
Watch Eric and Matt perform a bluegrass tune
For McCord and Swanson, playing bluegrass music provides a creative outlet and a brief respite from studying. They also admit the benefits spill over into their education.
“When you’re learning a new song or even a new lick on an instrument … the best way to learn it is to play it over and over again until eventually it gets burned into your motor memory,” McCord said. “And ideally that’s the same principle that will allow you to learn any type of new material and specifically what we’re studying in medical school — repetition and practice.”
He said he has always gravitated toward tasks that require hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills — such as playing the banjo — which is why he is drawn to the field of surgery.
Similarly, Swanson said playing an instrument requires manual dexterity, which will come in handy if he pursues a procedural specialty such as anesthesiology, surgery or emergency medicine.
They each try to squeeze music into their medical school schedules, but the roots of their involvement in bluegrass were planted long before they dreamed of becoming doctors.
A Stuart, Florida native, McCord, 25, learned to play the guitar at age 10 and picked up the banjo four years later. He finds inspiration in Earl Scruggs, a pioneer of bluegrass music who popularized the three-finger picking method, or the “Scruggs style” of banjo playing, and the Lonesome River Band, a modern bluegrass group.
For Swanson, 26, playing music was always a family affair. Growing up in Crystal River, Florida, he took piano lessons, played drums and percussion in a band and picked up a mandolin habit from his brother. His father bought resonator guitars and took him to a bluegrass festival in middle school, and from there they began to attend bluegrass camps and formed the Swanson Family Band.
“Something about (bluegrass music) draws you in if you spend some time around it,” he said. “I think what I like most is that it’s natural. It’s just raw talent and there’s no microphone with reverb or effects to hide anything. It makes it really a pure music — it’s like an experience.”
Music with a cause
Willey playing guitar at Medstock in 2008.
Priscilla Santos
During his second year of medical school in 2005, Matthew Willey, MD ’08, saw a need for funds to support international medical outreach trips. As a musician who already played paid gigs around town, he decided to mix his love of music and medicine to create Medstock.
After 10 years of future physicians rocking out for a cause, the student-run event has raised nearly $18,000 and entertained patrons at local bars in downtown Gainesville, including Loosey’s and former venue Rum Runners.
The fundraiser is typically organized by second-year UF medical students and takes place in February.
“I feel like we’ve been able to leave a mark,” said Willey, now a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician at the Orlando Orthopaedic Center. “I’m thrilled that Medstock continues.”
