Musicians in recovery
 

I just opened a thread with my story entitled very scared to wean off...you can see the backstory but in a nutshell I was drinking 2.5 bottles of wine a night not seeing any effects until one day due to the amount and time I drank the night before I finally saw what withdrawal was like feeling light headed wanted to pass out and shaking like crazy...apparently all of the anxiety, hands feeling weird/stiff etc. around the time I left work I just got my first sip in before withdrawal happened....either way my eyes were opened and I am now committed to never drink again (I am weaning myself over 3 days but more on that in my thread)

Anywho...back to my question...because I was always seemingly about to experience withdrawal shortly after getting home I would never pick up my guitar until after I had quite a few drinks...I couldn't play right when I got home because I was on the edge of withdrawal and didn't have great coordination

Does any new friend here play the guitar before and after sobriety? Better/worse? honestly? I know the Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh was a pretty hectic alcoholic who recovered.

Some musicians swear they play and perform better while under the influence of....something....or a combination of things....Maybe they do or maybe they don't...it can be argued either way. But here's my experience: I play better with practice. Period. There's no magical formula, no magical drug that makes me play better. Practice. I sing better when my vocal chords are warmed up good. Practice. I write great songs when I take the TIME. Practice involves time. If I want to be good at something I have to give it the time it needs. That holds true for anything else in life we want to be good at. And since substances are something I need to stay away from, it just comes back to practice, not using any enhancing substance that make me play better. But, incidentally, I've know MANY musicians who don't use any substances and never have. My sister won't. She says alcohol would just mess up her playing.

I'm a far better player and performer sober - better to be around for my mandates too :)

I was a reasonably successful small time muso who lost his career over alcohol - I became unreliable and embarrassing and unemployable.

I've worked my way back now as a sober player and I don't take that for granted - it's a great gift to be able to play music, I reckon, Greg? :)

D

I have played keyboards in pubs and clubs when completely drunk and I thought I sounded amazing. The next day though (and feedback from anyone else that was there) I actually sounded terrible.

I guess it all really boils down to confidence, when drunk you have all the confidence in the world, and when sober you don't.

I guess Joe Walsh pushed through all that and connected the dots.

Good luck with your recovery!

Clapton, Bowie,Elton John, Alice Cooper, James Hatfield, Malcom Young, 50 cent the list of musicians that got sober and continue to excel is long. Feeling like you play well drinking is similar other drinking illusions. I dance better drinking, I paint better drinking alll those statements. It’s learned behavior. Relearning artistic skills sober really doesn’t take that long because our focus is better and we can relax in sobriety, and explore our creativity without alcoholic restrictions.

The older I get the more I appreciate the guys who've been through the fire like I have.

Peter Green from the original blues based Fleetwood Mac is one example - he's so frail nowadays thanks to the ravages of his demons - but he beat them...

strap a guitar on the guy tho, and the magic is still there.

D

Stoner musos and drunken writers have managed to do some great work despite their addictions. The reverse is so not true.

It always amazes me how many seminal jazz cats were heroin junkies. And how many classic 19th and 20th century American writers were alcoholics.

I think all of the above did great work despite their using, not because if it, and the drink and drugs caught up with them eventually.

I think it is too complicated to say 'because of' or 'despite' when talking about how musicians' excesses affect their work. It is in there- the adversity the, euphoria, the darkness, the wildness, the moodiness....all of it. The music and the performances would have been different without the lifestyle. Different, how? We couldn't know with certainty...but different by necessity.

I am a musician too. Personally, I am much, much better in every way when sober - creatively, in playing technique and accuracy (guitar, mandolin mainly). When performing live, I am a bit more nervous when playing totally sober - but not for long - a song or two.

Like Dee, I find I connect very well with players who have some history in this area but have come through to the other side and found calmer waters. What is more they stand a decent chance of going on to create and perform into their sixties, seventies and beyond which is something that too often eludes the musician who continues too long in the wild stuff.

I am still trying to leave all that stuff behind for good and still stumbling. But, the last year has had more sober time and fewer binges than any any other time in my adult life. It has made the distinction between the wonder and adventure of sobriety and the gloomy recycling of lousy drunken experience very stark to me now. I am only on day 9 of this stint but, in planning my future sobriety, music is playing a big part. Not least, I wonder how good I could be. I don't mean in terms of fame and fortune but in satisfying myself as a songwriter and player. Only one way to find out - and it has to be sober.

Talent is talent. It's innate.
No amount of drinking or drugs can make talent - but it can destroy it.

D

This is a question it doesn't have to be for guitarist or musicians but anyone who does something with their hands...painter...crafts...drawing...whatever...I picked up my guitar today and because of weaning off of alcohol my hands were slightly shaky...like not like you could really notice but enough to effect something like guitar playing...also I fell super stiff....basically i am awful when 3 days ago after a glass or two of wine I was very smooth...after that when I got schammered of course I play like crap...so I guess my question is ...is this shakiness/stiffness sort of par for the course for just recently being off of heavy alcohol use? im pretty bummed : (

A lot of people deal with shakiness in withdrawal, and some loss of co-ordination Greg - for the vast majority folks it's temporary and gets progressively better over a week or two :)

D

I enjoy water color painting. When I was drinking it simply didn’t happen. Painting is by far my most fragile artistic expression and it is difficult for me “to get there” at any time, but simply impossible if I’m drinking. Drinking dulls my emotions, which is obviously why I drank, but that also removed the ability to “see” instead of releasing it. Does anyone else see colors when the thoughts are passing through your mind? The other thief is depression, I only get greys when my depression is leaning on me.

Turmoil has always characterised my binges - mainly internal but, often enough, external too. I have, at times, seen that turmoil as 'creative' because it is a vivid, florid experience, both in terms of thoughts and feelings. It also leads to the kind of life events and circumstances that can make for a pretty good song - especially if you like blues and country! But, calling it 'creative' was a just a sort of rationalization, a cover story. Nothing ever came out of it except intentions - at least nothing I can still remember!
When I go through a period of sobriety I remember what creativity is really all about. But it takes a while. In the days after a binge, my spirits are low and my motor functions are not the best. It takes a week or two and then something usually starts to stir. Then one day I will pick up an instrument and play a bit and think 'wow, this is what I used to sound like!' (in a good way!) But, for me, at least, that usually takes a week or even two of being sober.
......I wonder what a year of being sober could produce? Or a lifetime?