 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Igloo Bob
Date: 2004-10-14 02:40
...is an alcoholic drink, that tastes like butterscotch. I remember someone asking me in a thread that seems to have been since deleted, and I didn't have time to answer.
Anyone have any experience with drinking buttershots before a big performance improving the tone? :p
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Author: OpusII
Date: 2004-10-14 08:19
The tone does get better and better...or I'm just getting drunk
Have you also noticed that the reeds are going to taste better?
But being serious...some people seem to relax witch a drink, so it could help. But I think a real performer shouldn't need it to be convinced of his/her performance….or you’ve to go back to the practice room. ![[grin]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie5.gif)
Post Edited (2004-10-14 09:28)
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Author: BobD
Date: 2004-10-14 14:38
If there is liquer containing sugar in there it won't help your horn
Bob Draznik
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2004-10-14 14:47
Or as we used to say in college, "the better I get, the drunker you look".
(Actually I'm a non-drinker)
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2004-10-14 15:08
When I played shows in college, I had trouble with my tenor sax embouchure. Soprano sax was pretty much clarinet, and alto was relaxed clarinet. Baritone was so far from clarinet that I did something else entirely. But tenor was trouble. The easiest way was to have a beer before the show, which relaxed things just enough.
Not that I'd recommend it for today's youngsters. . . .
Ken Shaw
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2004-10-14 16:15
I've got two section leaders who both need a single drink before performing (section work with a lot of chorded solos played by each). In their cases, it seems to work at reducing anxiety over having to make instantaneous decisions on what's going to be played.
If I had any alcohol before I played, I'd probably be playing flute parts on the bari...
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Author: hans
Date: 2004-10-14 22:20
a beer before the show...
Beer can't be bought - only rented - and that can create a different problem for performers.
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Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2004-10-14 22:46
Hi,
Maybe I'm getting a little long in the tooth but I really don't think that taking a drink is a good thing before any serious business (what would you think of your cardiovascular surgeon taking a drink before doing your procedure). I drink a glass of red wine each evening and chat with my wife about the day's events; I am not going anywhere or preforming in any way.
I do not drink anything on Tuesday evening before community band rehearsal or before a gig of any kind. I do not want my standmate/fellow musicians to smell alcohol on my breath for any reason. This is not to say that on a clubdate or a wedding reception I would not have a drink with a customer or friend to be social. I remember telling a couple of guys I worked with that I would not continue to play with them unless they got things under control; the result was I ended up not woprking with them as there were more serious problems.
If you need a drink to overcome pre-performance gitters, maybe you need to talk to a professional about this and see if you can develop a good solid mental program. Pretend you are a going to a sport psychologist!
HRL
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2004-10-15 00:16
Well, I can one up that position. I've not had "a drink" for well over twenty years, and precious few (say three cocktails and one taste (sip) of beer) before that. Now I have to abstain for medical reasons, but for all the years before 2002, I just didn't drink it at all. Never liked the stuff, don't need it to have a good time, and it's too damn'd expensive for my tastes in any event.
Having sounded like a honest Baptist in the above, I am just as realistic about how everyone else views the stuff. On the mild side of the issue, my wife likes Jack Daniels and water...as far as I can determine, it's her only fault. Going to the deep end of the pool, our Federal government recognizes the "need" to drink by allowing it as a tax deduction for businessmen (albeit at a 50% depreciated value), and (at the state and local level) claiming to "get tough" on drinking while driving while at the same time letting those in the "in crowd" skate on DWI/DUI/DWD charges. All of it legal, all of it tolerated by society, and all of it an accomplished fact.
And, there are those who suffer anxiety that is counter-acted by something to "take the edge off." While I haven't done it (and will never do it), millions upon millions do it each and every day. Call it "unprofessional" if you like, but you run the risk of coming across as a bluenose at the least and possibly far worse.
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Author: Jim E.
Date: 2004-10-15 04:05
35 years ago I was a college freshman playing in my first adult community band. We had a trumpet player who kept a fifth of gin in his case, and once offered me "a snort." This was ny first real experience with a (presumed) alcoholic, though I later found out that my mother (and her father as well) was an alcoholic.
And the best reason not to play and drink...
This band had an annual gig playing on a party boat in a boat parade. The draw for us was free food and beer. The second year I did it, the above trumpet player was getting off the boat and fell in, between the boat hull and a bulkhead on shore. No he wasn't crushed by the boat, and one of the mates fished him out. Afterward, within the band, the event was always known as the "splash party for XXXX." (I'd give his name, he's long dead, but I feel funny about doing it.)
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2004-10-15 18:25
When I used to hang out at jazz clubs for jam sessions, I observed that the guys who drank through the afternoon or evening, believing that they were playing with more and more feeling and imagination as they got drunker, were in fact going the opposite way -- playing more and more garbage, until they got to the point where the noise coming out of their horns was no longer recognizable as music. Of course these are extreme cases --- I wouldn't think a single drink would have too much adverse effect on a musician, unless he/she were allergic to or had an unusually low tolerance for alcohol. Like they say, "everything in moderation".
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Author: VermontJM
Date: 2004-10-15 19:07
There was a rumor floating around that one of the area oboe instructors didn't use water, but vodka instead, to soak his reeds during performances. (in a small film canister sized container.) As I remember it, it was said that he would then swig down whatever was left at the end of the night. I never saw anything to confirm this, so it was strictly a rumor- and an amusing one, at that.
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Author: ken
Date: 2004-10-16 00:14
I think I shared this story before but I once worked with a flute player in a military band who was forever conducting nutty experiments to alter his tone (solutions, creams, coating, even lamb skin velcro ... everything but laying on of hands). In an effort to soften his tone, he once even "marinated" his head joint in a flavored liquor to produce the desired affect.
One Friday morning rehearsal, he claimed to have discovered and bought a unique silicone lubricant that after application would create a noticeably darker and more velvety tone.
....monday morning he walked into concert band rehearsal with his lips ballooned-up 3 times their normal size and his tone exactly the same...v/r Ken
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