# How Does Weed Affect Your Playing?



## player99

I used to smoke a lot and quit for 20 years. Recently with the legalization I have partaken with some pro musicians. I realize all the years of playing on weed there is a part of my brain that really excels playing guitar when under the influence. But what I find is if I partake and play for a week everyday I play and play, get creative, play at a very high level and really enjoy it. But then when I stop the herb, my need to play seems to be less. I go days without playing. Then I smoke and all I want to do is play. Did I develop my brain to be high as a musician?

What are your experiences and observations?


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## Guncho

Pot makes me anxious and uncomfortable so doesn't help anything for me.

Good sound is all I need to get into it and feel inspired.


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## GuitarPix

I haven’t indulged in 35 years, but when I did it really messed up my playing, so that was reserved for after party time


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## Chitmo

I smoke and eat!


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## SaucyJack

I play like shite after smoking weed. My timing goes off and fingers all turn to thumbs. I'm a super hero with 10 beer in me though


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## shoretyus

My life ..smoke and play ...


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## KapnKrunch

I am either thinking about what I just played, or thinking about what to play next. Might as well go home.


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## mawmow

Weed does not influence my playing...
I never used that stuff !
Alcohol would bring inconsistencies in though...


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## Dorian2

Weed influences my playing in 2 ways. I've always practiced and played strictly sober and made a point of it for most of my 35 years of playing. Xcept High School. When I smoke now, it tends to open up the strict regimen I had/do follow(ed) and opens my ears and ideas up in a different space that I can tap into differently. I've always had that so called "artistic tap" that, when it opens up, you have to jump all over that shit and get it down before it fades away. Weed will open that up pretty quickly so when I do smoke and play I have my cell phone at the ready to record. Then I just name what I played, upload, and have a listen the next day or so. It's typically sloppier than what I thought it was but the ideas are there to be worked out for the next practice session. It can have benefits if you approach it with reasonable expectations and don't get totally shit faced stupid. I'm a fairly light smoker so a little goes a long way. My preference is stone cold sober though.


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## Milkman

I enjoy weed and I enjoy guitars.

I also enjoy playing guitar while smoking weed, BUT, my opinion is that while I can be creative while smoking, I can’t really play in a structured way, ie, follow an arrangement or even play a certain piece consistently the same.

Because I know this about myself, in all the years I’ve played I have never walked on stage, or showed up for any gig under the influence of weed.


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## Wardo

Yeah, it’s useful for opening up the creative valve in your brain so that you can get in there with a coat hanger or a guitar and winkle out some ideas. I don’t smoke at least not since around high school but back then I used to smoke and listen to music sometimes. Kinda opens a door to hearing music in a more intense way and that ends up staying with you so you don’t have to be stoned anymore to hear it that way.


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## High/Deaf

I'd rather smoke weed and listen to music than play it. I find serious concentration (and playing guitar requires that) straightens me out. On the other hand, kicking back and relaxing let's me experience the high better. You know, back when I used to imbibe. YMMV.


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## jbealsmusic

In my experience playing with people who smoked weed and/or drank in excess. 100% of the time their playing suffered by getting more sloppy, and everyone could tell except the player. From their perspective, it helped them play better. I can't say this is true for all substance users/abusers, but it's certainly true for the ones I've played with.

Mind you, I suck without the "help" so who am I to judge? Lol.


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## Electraglide

When I used to smoke I would get stoned, get hungry, make weed infused brownies and chocolate chip cookies and burn my mouth eating them, then write, play and record the most amazing music of all time. Sometimes by myself and sometimes with others. A lot of times there was beer or To Kill Ya involved. I still have some of that music on tape and I still go, "What the fu*k were we thinking and doing?". At times the music would stop and there would be dead air because it was decided that a ride from New West to Hope for a Coffee Crisp was in order. Hope Coffee Crisps tasted far better than New West ones and the dead air was because no one turned off the reel to reel. Sometimes we'd even get past the Towers or the 'Boo or the Turf.


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## player99

jbealsmusic said:


> In my experience playing with people who smoke weed and/or drink in excess. 100% of the time their playing suffers by getting more sloppy, and everyone can tell except the player. From their perspective, it helps them play better. I can't say this is true for all substance users/abusers, but it's certainly true for the ones I've played with.
> 
> Mind you, I suck without the "help" so who am I to judge? Lol.


Booze and weed are two very different things.


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## JeremyP

My dexterity definitely suffers when I partake, especially edibles lol


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## jbealsmusic

player99 said:


> Booze and weed are two very different things.


Yes. They are. Here's a list of other things that are different: chairs, China, drywall, pizza, and headphones. 

I wasn't conflating the two together and I never said they were the same. I said the result was that the people using either weed, or booze, or both played worse while using.


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## player99

jbealsmusic said:


> Yes. They are. Here's a list of other things that are different: chairs, China, drywall, pizza, and headphones.
> 
> I wasn't conflating the two together and I never said they were the same. I said the result was that the people using either weed, or booze, or both played worse while using.


I know booze will make a big difference, but weed can make some people play better. More creative, more into it etc. without the impairment that booze offers.


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## Electraglide

jbealsmusic said:


> Yes. They are. Here's a list of other things that are different: chairs, China, drywall, pizza, and headphones.
> 
> I wasn't conflating the two together and I never said they were the same. I said the result was that the people using either weed, or booze, or both played worse while using.


Depends on how much weed or booze or other things you have partaken in at the same time. That being said there were/are a lot of musicians who partake and who are pretty damned good. To the point that it doesn't matter if they are stoned or drunk we still go see them and listen to them.


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## player99

SRV sure was good when he was high.


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## jbealsmusic

player99 said:


> I know booze will make a big difference, but weed can make some people play better. More creative, more into it etc. without the impairment that booze offers.


If that's true, I haven't experienced it, nor have I played with someone for whom that has been apparent.



Electraglide said:


> Depends on how much weed or booze or other things you have partaken in at the same time.


Agreed. That's why I specified "in excess" in my original post.

Rock on!


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## player99

Bob Marley did OK.


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## Electraglide

jbealsmusic said:


> If that's true, I haven't experienced it, nor have I played with someone for whom that has been apparent.
> 
> Agreed. That's why I specified "in excess" in my original post.
> 
> Rock on!


I personally never reached the "in excess" point. That would mean I'd drunk or smoked more than the people with me.....never happened. Some crashed before me and some after. 


player99 said:


> SRV sure was good when he was high.


Joe Walsh comes to mind. Jerry Garcia and the Dead do to. But they were/are good straight and sober too.


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## player99

Then there's always Jimi Hendrix.


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## player99

Jim Morrison.


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## player99

Aerosmith.


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## Milkman

I have played with guys who got high. If it helps their confidence maybe it’s good to an extent but I’ve never known anyone who I thought played better high.


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## JBFairthorne

Play better? Maybe, maybe not. Have more fun playing? Usually.


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## Paul M

player99 said:


> SRV sure was good when he was high.


Listen to Live Alive, and then listen to In Step...... He might have been good when high, but he was spectacular sober. Maybe he needed the addiction & recovery to get to the point in his life where In Step became possible. Or maybe not. I saw SRV 4 nights in a row at Varsity Arena in '85. At the time I thought it was funny/cool that we could see the coke on his upper lip. But really...his playing was impacted by impairment. Not improved.

I also saw his last tours in Ontario....he was better sober.


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## Wardo

I’m in the play sober camp or maybe a couple of beers but generally I get emotionally high enough from playing music so tend to just have a bottle of water or sometimes a metal hip flask filled with water because then people think you’re knocking back straight bourbon and that’s a way better image than a plastic water bottle .. lol

Joe Walsh has been clean for a long time but way back I was always impressed by him plastered drunk on some talk show and then getting up there and absolutely nailing all the riffs and vocals in one of his songs.

Also saw on Hollywood Squares just by chance one day as I walked by a television. He appeared ripped and didn’t even attempt to answer one question - which was probably the best way to deal with Hollywood Squares bullshit.


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## Paul M

Wardo said:


> Joe Walsh has been clean for a long time but way back I was always impressed by him plastered drunk on some talk show and then getting up there and absolutely nailing all the riffs and vocals in one of his songs.


I saw Joe Walsh with Ringo on the first "....and his All Star Band" tour. When the band played With a Little Help From My Friends they were at the "would you believe in a love at first sight " lyric. Joe was at the mic and just *nailed * the line "Do you neeeed any body?"

It of course sounded like an open jam bar band trainwreck f'up.

Joe threw his hands in the air, fell over backwards, and played the rest of the tune lying on his back in the middle of the stage. That is what drugs do to professionalism. 

There is no credible argument against the fact that drug/alcohol impairment severely impacts your ability to drive a car. How anyone can argue the opposite is true for creating and performing music is beyond me.


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## Wardo

Paul M said:


> .. There is no credible argument against the fact that drug/alcohol impairment severely impacts your ability to drive a car. How anyone can argue the opposite is true for creating and performing music is beyond me.


I have no interest in arguing with you; I do not care. All I have said is that I’ve seen him play very well when he appeared to be hammered.


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## Budda

The only drug that wil likely *actually* help you play better is adderall.

I've rarely drank anything before playing, and when I have it did nothing to improve my enjoyment or ability. Ymmv.


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## Steadfastly

I find if the weeds are really high in our backyard it brushes against the strings and tends to have a muting effect. I usually get on the ride on mower if I'm going to play out back.


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## Kerry Brown

I quit weed many years ago but it still affects my playing when the people I’m playing with over indulge. I have to be a rock on rhythm or things quickly go to crap. They can still play, sometimes better than me, but their sense of timing goes out the window.


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## amagras

I've played with lots of different musicians, jam bands where some musicians were high (usually everyone but me) sound a lot tighter but they have more trouble catching up with new arrangements and wrapping things up. Professional bands on the other hand, well, in my experience you never can tell if someone is high in a pro band unless they are reading, in that case, probably not. The drug of choice of most Pro musicians I've played with are tobacco, tea and milk with coffee, a lot of it. 

I started drinking coffee for the first time in 2016 when I was rehearsing with The Wit because I was falling asleep, one large McCafe would get me so "high" that when the weed topic came up in a conversation I was told "Andrei, you don't need any, you can barely handle a coffee".

There's a documentary about the use of drugs for OCD treatment or something similar by professional classic musicians.


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## jimsz

Don't believe I can ever recall seeing anyone playing better or being more creative after indulging in pot and/or alcohol, usually it just led to being sloppy and lethargic. This was often confirmed by just recording ourselves and listening back when sober, what we thought we sounded like while playing as opposed to what we actually sounded like. It didn't take long to ditch the vices and then hear improvements almost immediately.


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## Doug Gifford

How does weed affect your listening?

I recall during a course in jazz history, a bunch of us went out during the break and someone passed around a doob. We went back and the prof played Jelly Roll Morton & His Red Hot Peppers playing "Black Bottom Stomp." Suddenly it all made sense.


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## player99

Doug Gifford said:


> How does weed affect your listening?
> 
> I recall during a course in jazz history, a bunch of us went out during the break and someone passed around a doob. We went back and the prof played Jelly Roll Morton & His Red Hot Peppers playing "Black Bottom Stomp." Suddenly it all made sense.


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## Wardo

100 years ago


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## player99

Jelly Roll was slang for female genitalia.


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## Wardo

Well that’s good to know .. lol


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## Doug Gifford

player99 said:


>


exactly, thank you


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## Wardo

Budda said:


> The only drug that wil likely *actually* help you play better is adderall.....


Was at L&M today and they didn’t have any Adderall but they said to try Amazon.


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## Electraglide

Budda said:


> The only drug that wil likely *actually* help you play better is adderall.
> 
> I've rarely drank anything before playing, and when I have it did nothing to improve my enjoyment or ability. Ymmv.


You bang it or snort it? You could sprinkle it in your joint but that's just a waste of so/so speed.


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## High/Deaf

It varies from player to player.

I've seen some guys fall to shit when they got too stoned or drunk. But I bet Dimebag never played a gig without a few joints and a fair amount of BlackToothGrin in his system. And I've rarely seen a better live player than him. Leaves me to wonder what he would have been like sober. Maybe better, maybe not.

I do know one thing from experience ----- smoking week plays havoc with break times. "Let's go play." "Nah, we gotta go out for one more safety meeting." FFS!


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## BEACHBUM

So I'm sitting in a booth at my favorite bar having a good ole time with Mary Jane and Jack Daniels and listening to a friend do his solo acoustic act when all of a sudden he gives me a big introduction and calls me up on stage. I walk up, sit down on a stool behind the mic, play a very nice finger style intro and then just stop. Now I'm looking out at all those faces wondering why I'm here and what I'm suppose to be doing. I don't even want to talk about the rest. Nope I don't do that any more.

%h(*&


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## Wardo

BEACHBUM said:


> .. and then just stop. Now I'm looking out at all those faces wondering why I'm here and what I'm suppose to be doing. I don't even want to talk about the rest. Nope I don't do that any more.
> 
> 
> 
> Dude in knew in art college years ago told me a similar story. He was a bass player and his band was playing somewhere - he was so ripped on weed that he hit one note on his bass and then just stopped and stared at his guitar .. lol
Click to expand...


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## BEACHBUM

^^ Well at least now I know I'm not the only one. Thanks for that.


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## reckless toboggan

Budda said:


> The only drug that wil likely *actually* help you play better is adderall.





Wardo said:


> Was at L&M today and they didn’t have any Adderall but they said to try Amazon.


But is it true bypass?


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## player99

reckless toboggan said:


> But is it true bypass?


You guys are high.


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## Wardo

reckless toboggan said:


> But is it true bypass?


The said you’d be buffered all the time and the proximity effect would fry your brain but you’d be able to play real good.


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## Genderqueer Guitarist

Other than having to pay a bit more attention when I'm high - weed doesn't really affect my guitar playing that much and I often finding myself playing more when I don't smoke. Excessive alcohol + a stage/show setting is not the best thing for my performance though.


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## Mooh

I've never directly indulged, but was exposed to so much second hand smoke for a few years many years ago that I certainly knew the high and it completely messed me up. Playing got real sloppy, thought it was inspired but it wasn't. Beer was my drug of choice and it messed me up too. 

I'm okay with coffee.


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## Falconapass

Quite interesting use of weed. Much of your desire to play guitar when you're on weed is due to the fact that THC attaches itself to the body's cannabinoid receptors, which are found throughout the brain and nervous system. As a result, you can get several effects: the first is a feeling of cheerfulness, energy, and a desire to do what you like. The second is a feeling of high, chill. To be honest, I also take delta 9 thc, but in a slightly different form, in the form of chewing gum - https://www.wildorchardhemp.com/product-category/delta-9-gummies/. And they have a more relaxing effect on me.


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## Milkman

I know weed is not a good idea if I have to play a show.

I'm not convinced most drinkers have that level of awareness. Booze gives people confidence, but that's seldom based on reality.


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## SaucyJack

I can't put two chords together after having a draw.


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## Orangeblossom

when I toke I reach for an instrument all the time . Mainly guitar. 👍


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## polyslax

Good times in the moment, but the next day listen back tends to highlight the disconnectedness of it. Then again, most of the stuff I record sounds like I'm high anyways.


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## AJ6stringsting

I am not as think as you stoned I am !!!!

😵‍💫✌


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