So what is #DocsWhoRock and can I join? I get this question from time to time and I’m finally going to attempt an answer.
In brief, #DocsWhoRock is group of people, mostly medical doctors (but everyone welcome), who Tweet videos of the music they play. Anyone can join, it’s not really a group or a club, it’s just a hashtag so we can find each other.
Every 2 weeks we pick a new theme. The theme is nothing ironclad, it’s just something that might help inspire or help us learn about new music. Past themes have been based on musical eras, words in song titles, song subjects, etc.
Mostly, I’ve been announcing the theme and on some level, I’ve been picking the themes each week. That being said, it wasn’t always me who picked and to clear up a common misconception, I wasn’t the person that started #DocsWhoRock.
I tried to go back and put together a short history of the beginning. We are after all, coming up on one year of this hashtag.
March of 2020 was a bad month. For me, the turning point was Friday March 13th. That was the day my jiu-jitsu gym shut down. That weekend was when the Mayor of NYC announced the shutdown of the schools and non-essential businesses.
Like so many others, I figured it would be a good time to start playing music again. This tweet below on March 14th was the first time I posted me playing guitar on Twitter.
Meanwhile, some distance away in the wilds of Illinois, Seth Trueger was also playing guitar. He decided to post on Twitter this video March 29th.
Atul Grover saw the above and was inspired, here are his first 2 uses of the hashtag and the birth of #DocsWhoRock.
I saw Atul’s tweet the next day and here’s me responding with my first use of the hashtag.
And here’s Melissa Reed’s tweet from May 13 containing a rare screenshot of the first ever #DocsWhoRock convention.
Here’s a joyous thread of the first #DocsWhoRock t-shirts, from #1 fan @tippin_elaina.
So the above is an incomplete history and I’m working on updates.
That being said, the people in this community kept me going through the horrors of 2020. We kept each other going. For me, it started out as just a way to be accountable to practice guitar. Now, I think to myself all the time, “These are the only people who get me.”
So if you’re on Twitter and if you see a video with the #DocsWhoRock hashtag and you want to join in, please do. Play something, record it and post it. There’s a lot of pro-level AV work being done now but to this day, I mostly just record with a cellphone camera playing a guitar with no amp. However you can join, we’d love to have you.
A place for me to write 
The #docswhorock community has been a place for comfort, inspiration and hope through the toughest times that most of us have seen.
Thank you for sharing the story of its creation.
I can’t remember when I chanced upon you guys, but it has been a safe place for so many like me.
Healing each other with music!
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