Takeaway
Playing the Chinese bamboo flute has enhanced my ability to listen deeply and enriched my understanding of patients.
Creative Arts in Medicine | May 20, 2025 | 1 min read
By Yunbing Wu, MBBS, Johns Hopkins Observership Program, with Carolina Musri, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine
“What’s your first language?” many people in America ask me. If a first language means the most natural way to express myself and connect with others, then music, not Mandarin, is my truest first language. Music is how I bridge the gap between myself and the world. Music and medicine offer me two languages to interpret life.
16 years of playing the Dizi (Chinese bamboo flute) and serving as principal flutist in an orchestra taught me how to lead and follow, listen deeply, and to express without words. I learned to build harmony with people as much as with sound.
The Dizi gave me the habit of noticing. To uncover a melody’s emotion, I’d replay it over and over, noticing the tiniest shifts in tone. That practice made me sensitive to phrasing, pacing, and what’s left unsaid—skills that now help me in clinical settings.
The Dizi taught me to look beyond medical charts and diagnoses, and to stay attuned to each person’s story with sensitivity, presence, and empathy.
Here are two thoughts on music and medicine:
1. Practicing an instrument enhances communication skills, and thus interpersonal relations.
2. Playing an instrument can train the clinician-musician to notice subtle details and unspoken cues that enhance patient care.
If you played an instrument in childhood, consider picking it back up!
Click here to watch and listen to the author play the Dizi.
This piece expresses the views solely of the author. It does not necessarily represent the views of any organization, including Johns Hopkins Medicine.