Editor’s note: Nancy Cox is the founder of Research Story Consulting and former CPG corporate researcher. Her work and play include words, sketchpads, cooking (not baking) and the occasional sock puppet.
Passions, hobbies, healthy distractions and even guilty pleasures – discover how the research community plays and how that plays out in their work life. In the Venn diagram of work and play, what happens when they overlap? Research colleagues share their work and play stories in this interview series by Nancy Cox.
Hello to Fernando Castro, CEO, CultureWise Insights
What is the “play” in your life?
The play in my life is playing the piano, especially classical music. Although I did not start out in music with the piano. When I was 11, I started music lessons to join my hometown marching band in Brazil. Three hour lessons every Saturday morning, with the first three months committed to music theory. No instrument. My two brothers quit at week three. I LOVED IT! It was like learning a language, the language of the treble clef, bass clef, the C clef, then how to transpose. You must know how to transpose in band. For example, a trumpet is in B flat, but you transpose to play in C with all the other instruments.
While I loved this language aspect of music, after the first three months of music theory, they gave me the clarinet. I hated the clarinet with all the fibers of my being. I didn’t like this squeaking instrument, and it clearly didn’t like me. So, I stopped my music lessons.
Then one day, after the church service, a beautiful teenage girl was playing the piano. To this day, I don’t really know if I liked the sound or the girl. It was like a movie, I knew this was my instrument! My mom arranged for me to take piano lessons – with this girl! I practiced every single day, so as an 11-year-old I wouldn’t look bad for my 15-year-old teacher. I advanced very quickly the next few years and, impressed by my progress, my teacher prepared me to audition for the Espírito Santo state music school, equal to a United States university conservatory. Only five students were admitted that year – I made it as the youngest to ever pass as I had just turned 14.
Ultimately, I graduated with an associate’s degree in music. My mentor/professor counseled me that while music is amazing and I was talented, I should always have a back-up. This advice fit my goals. I didn’t want to play out with a band every Friday and Saturday, on the road. I always liked the idea of playing or leading music at a church. Or at classical music events. Or teaching. I don’t have the view that you’re a failed artist if you’re teaching.
I went to business school. Then, I listened to wise advice that I needed to be fluent in English to succeed in business even in Brazil, so I went into an English intensive at Oklahoma Baptist University. There I noticed a sign at the university for music scholarship auditions. I could do this! I may not have had the English language yet, but I had the music language. I won the piano scholarship which included being an ambassador for the school, traveling with the university jazz band. Thus, my life in the United States – a wife, three kids, 15 years and 30 pounds later as I like to say – began because of the piano.
The difficulty now is to carve out time to play as I try to play every day. Including my kids helps. They want to play with me, but I don’t want them bonking on the keys. I ask them, “Dance to Daddy’s song – I play fast, dance fast, I play slow, dance slow. Match the emotions and moods with your dance.” A bonus is that after I play, the mood in my house is more focused and relaxed. My kids stop running and sit down waiting for me to finish playing the piece.
I also work with music pastors or directors. With classical music, it helps to play when people want to hear music such as Christmas and Easter. I go big on Bach, Vivaldi! Last year, I performed “The Seven Last Words of Christ” by Joseph Haydn together with a Korean pianist. The last movement, “The Earthquake,” has both pianists play together – four hands on one piano. We had cameras straight on our hands so the audience could gain a perspective of our busy intensiveness. I try to do something like this every year as it helps me keep my chops!
How has your play influenced your research work?
My playing is an escape. Not that I hate my work – I love research. But when I’m playing, especially a piece I’m very familiar with, my brain goes to a zone of just me and the sound. One favorite is the “Legends of the Fall” movie theme, and another is “Colors of the Wind” from “Pocahontas.” My escape songs are in D major. Only two sharps so the harmony, while predictable, is beautiful every playing.
When I’m in this calming zone, I think of myself in third person. What is Fernando feeling right now? How is Fernando going to get more insights from this interview? How is he going to solve this very challenging recruiting? I can do this because I’m not concerned about the mechanics when I’m playing familiar.
After I play, I’m more focused and relaxed. I recall people’s names who can help me and how I solved a similar challenge before. Recently, my business shifted to the challenging recruitment of Hispanic participants for the health care industry. Older Hispanics in particular need to have a buy-in to participate. This goes beyond their language preference to overcoming a widespread cultural belief that being paid for a survey or research equates to a scam. I’ve come up with ways to overcome this cultural concern, such as partnering with a trusted member within their community, after a piano-playing session.
Another way that my music benefits my business is how I approach learning an “unobtainable” piece of music. Now, that piece is the “Prelude in G Minor” by Rachmaninoff. I master one measure at a time. I play that one measure for a good 15 minutes or until my wife tells me to play something else. In those 15 minutes, I have control of that one measure. Being in control of that one measure is a reminder to not be anxious about the total project or focused only on the end result. Be in control of each project stage at that moment. See all the other stages with the perspective, “I’m not there yet.”
What would you tell readers who want to know more about your area of play?
It’s always the right time in your life to learn an instrument. I had a 72-year-old student who started piano because her doctor recommended that she use her hands for either knitting or playing piano. We did very focused work, one piano key at a time. C then add D then E, now we can play “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” She made music! This affected her self-esteem, her motivation and her hand mobility. Through my experiences, I believe very much in the research that shows how music, much like knowing another language, helps us cognitively.
I am biased toward the piano as an instrument as you have both the treble clef and the bass clef. You can play with other voices or instruments. Or you can have the whole show for yourself. But while I think piano is the best, you may find another instrument is your instrument. As I found piano after the mutual dislike between the clarinet and myself.
Don’t get discouraged when it gets complicated. I still have pieces that I’m going to learn before I die like the Rachmaninoff. Even in the thick of life, for 15 minutes between other priorities, I have control of one measure. The next day I can move onto a different measure. The unobtainable piece becomes obtainable.