So how do You do it?

[McMahon67]

I can’t play while I’m drinking beer like…. At alllllllll.
I’ve seen so many artists play straight wasted…. And I’m sure that there’s a creative thing that happens with that. But… I ain’t one of em. Do you find that creativity there?

I’m happier otherwise.

 

[DISTORT6]

2nd post about this?
Looks like you’ve started training.

 

[JasonE]

I have been told that I do some of my best playing when I have had a few drinks. I think it just relaxes me and makes me not care so much if I make a mistake. That can free your mind to just go with the groove. The trick for me is that I know my limit, most of the time. If I keep drinking at some point things will start getting sloppy. I have to stay in the zone.

 

[Gtrbldr]

I read somewhere it has something to do with the state you are in when training/practicing. If you practice drunk, that is how you perform best (ok, exaggerated a little).

So: more drinking during band practice will get you there. Or don't drink and play.

 

[McMahon67]

2nd post about this?
Looks like you’ve started training.

Yeah apologies…. My internet is less than optimal sometimes and doesn’t register that thing have happened…. Even though they did

 

[Tony M.]

C'mon people, let's be honest here.

Getting 5 people to do the same thing at the same time
when some of them have "had a couple of beers"?

That would be a no.

 

[Daryl Jones]

Shoot, I couldn't get the other two of me to agree on things after a few beers. But we are somewhat better now.

 

[dogrocketp]

No flippin way. In Music School, only the worst players said they could play better wasted.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

I read somewhere it has something to do with the state you are in when training/practicing. If you practice drunk, that is how you perform best (ok, exaggerated a little).

So: more drinking during band practice will get you there. Or don't drink and play.

I’m not doubting that you read it somewhere, I’m just thinking that www.Budweiser.com MAY not be the best source of information on topics such as this.

 

[Gtrbldr]

I’m not doubting that you read it somewhere, I’m just thinking that www.Budweiser.com MAY not be the best source of information on topics such as this.

Budweiser is hardly considered beer on my side of the big pond, so I doubt is was where I read it ;-)

 

[László]

You only think you play better when you're high.

 

[aphantomvaper]

I know I play better when the audience is drunk, not so much the other way around.

 

[Rod/]

You only think you play better when you're high.

Boy, that’s for sure…..

 

[Deleted member 5962]

You only think you play better when you're high.

Hmmm…. Perhaps there are too many kinds of “high” to make one all encompassing judgement. Booze is no question about it. Nobody is playing better when drinking anything more than A LITTLE alcohol. But weed? Coke? I’m sure there is more than a little evidence to the contrary.

 

[László]

Hmmm…. Perhaps there are too many kinds of “high” to make one all encompassing judgement. Booze is no question about it. Nobody is playing better when drinking anything more than A LITTLE alcohol. But weed? Coke? I’m sure there is more than a little evidence to the contrary.

I think possibly the substances made them think in unusual ways that worked out. However, the execution of the ideas was probably no better than it would otherwise have been, if not worse.

These things are always debatable, and my guess is that most answers are speculative.

I think new neural pathways can be opened by the substances, and different ideas might crop up. On the other hand, that doesn't make the actual execution of the playing of the instrument better than it would otherwise have been, and my own feeling is that it makes the playing worse.

YMMV.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

These things are always debatable, and my guess is that most answers are speculative.

While I'm no expert on this, I'd guess that more than "speculative" they might be player dependent. I've never done coke, but a friend was the manager of a band we used to go see a lot. I won't say their name since there are some guys from around Cinci here, and they were pretty popular. He told me of times the band was paid in coke for gigs. Anyway, the guitarist was GREAT. He was shredding most big name guys in the late 70s and they came really close a couple times to breaking on the national scene. I remember being close one time and "thinking" that he was incredibly intense and focused... LOL We saw them multiple times and he was in the zone every time... A few years later the band had broken up because they just never got that big break and other members moved on to "jobs" and families. He was playing in a top 40 band. I couldn't believe it. Like THE rock wildman guitar player from Cinci was playing pop music now???? My friend said that he got off the coke after that band broke up. I went to see his band a couple times just to see him. He was a totally different player. He could still rip when he wanted too, but was much more laid back and the intense look was replace by a smile.

When we talked to him after the show, he told me that the shredding he did "back in the day" was "chemically enhanced." He said "I'm fast, but not THAT fast."

As for myself, I can only speak for weed. I figure basketball at the level I played at is way more difficult than playing guitar. No "reaction" to someone or a whole other team playing defense, on the guitar. Drinking even a few beers and trying to play basketball was a disaster, while I could still play guitar pretty well until the buzz kicked in more then I got "looser." So, This is not in my mind at all. I played basketball and guitar better with a weed buzz, than without. I have friends who will vouch for both. Weed was a mind enhancer for me. Just made me more "into" whatever I was doing. It put me "in the zone" for anything I was doing. But I know it can affect people differently. I'd be life of the party funny guy when buzzed while some of my friends were just mellowed out buy it.

 

[archtop]

I read somewhere it has something to do with the state you are in when training/practicing. If you practice drunk, that is how you perform best (ok, exaggerated a little).

So: more drinking during band practice will get you there. Or don't drink and play.

State-Dependent Memory

Research shows that individuals are less likely to remember information learned while intoxicated when they are once again sober.[13] However, information learned or memories created while intoxicated are most effectively retrieved when the individual is in a similar state of intoxication.[13][15]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-dependent_memory

 

[László]

While I'm no expert on this, I'd guess that more than "speculative" they might be player dependent. I've never done coke, but a friend was the manager of a band we used to go see a lot. I won't say their name since there are some guys from around Cinci here, and they were pretty popular. He told me of times the band was paid in coke for gigs. Anyway, the guitarist was GREAT. He was shredding most big name guys in the late 70s and they came really close a couple times to breaking on the national scene. I remember being close one time and "thinking" that he was incredibly intense and focused... LOL We saw them multiple times and he was in the zone every time... A few years later the band had broken up because they just never got that big break and other members moved on to "jobs" and families. He was playing in a top 40 band. I couldn't believe it. Like THE rock wildman guitar player from Cinci was playing pop music now???? My friend said that he got off the coke after that band broke up. I went to see his band a couple times just to see him. He was a totally different player. He could still rip when he wanted too, but was much more laid back and the intense look was replace by a smile.

When we talked to him after the show, he told me that the shredding he did "back in the day" was "chemically enhanced." He said "I'm fast, but not THAT fast."

As for myself, I can only speak for weed. I figure basketball at the level I played at is way more difficult than playing guitar. No "reaction" to someone or a whole other team playing defense, on the guitar. Drinking even a few beers and trying to play basketball was a disaster, while I could still play guitar pretty well until the buzz kicked in more then I got "looser." So, This is not in my mind at all. I played basketball and guitar better with a weed buzz, than without. I have friends who will vouch for both. Weed was a mind enhancer for me. Just made me more "into" whatever I was doing. It put me "in the zone" for anything I was doing. But I know it can affect people differently. I'd be life of the party funny guy when buzzed while some of my friends were just mellowed out buy it.

I'm sure you'd agree this is too small a sample size to be proof of anything.

My experience recording musicians for many years is that drugs and alcohol don't enhance the result; the skills of players who quit often improved, and the skills of those who got involved with drugs often diminished.

In some cases, it was pretty sad to see what happened.

Being inebriated isn't a performance enhancer in any endeavor. I'm not being prudish about this, it's simply fact. It's why pro athletes aren't supposed to show up for a game with drink/drugs.

As to myself, I do everything better without drugs, and firmly believe that most people do. Thus, in my case, it'd be irresponsible to show up for a session or gig drunk or stoned. When all of my work and sessions are done, at the end of the day I might have one drink, no more. I'm not saying I'm better than anyone else for that reason, it's just a sense of respect for my clients to put my best work forward.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

I'm sure you'd agree this is too small a sample size to be proof of anything.

Totally. The only thing it proves for me, is the effect on me. Like I said, a buzz that made me more into everything, would mellow several of my friends out and do the opposite of what it did to me. A couple of my buddies would never smoke before we played ball, because it slowed them down. Me and a couple others were just the opposite.

 

[Gtrbldr]

State-Dependent Memory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-dependent_memory

Yeah, that is what I was referring to. Thanks!

Fyi: that is why I step up my (lowsy) darts game after two beers, kid you not, because that is how I learned it while in college playing with my room mates. 180!!!