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eden--

i think you answered your own question toward the end of your response when you wrote "you can't change your genes, but you have the ability to act against your natural tendencies." i too, find this a very interesting idea in that it seems to go against all we have been taught about how our dna makes us who we are. as you said, despite your lack of piano viturosity, if you were to practice everyday you would become competent at the piano. although you would not be changing the message from your genes which says that you are not a natural pianist, everyday that you practice you would be building new and stronger connections in your brain which would allow your fingers to respond more and more easily to the messages from the brain telling them what to do. i'm sure as the course goes on we will able to answer more thoroughly how these new connections occur, but for now we must settle with the idea that although your genes cannot change, their must be processes within your brain that are changing to enable your skills to improve.

you also asked whether this practice would change your inherited character and i think that it does to some degree. although your chemical "character" does not change, your starting position from birth told you that you would unlikely be able to play the piano well. by fighting this tendency and becoming a fair musician you have changed your outward character although not chemical.

as a music major and bio minor i am very excited to learn more about subjects like this which can combine my too interests. i hope we can talk more about topics like this.