Sax on the Web Forum banner

Smoking & playing sax

42K views 108 replies 61 participants last post by  Captain Beeflat 
#1 ·
How many of you are smoker? Do you think it really harmful on our skill (but many Master player are heavy smoker...)?

:cry:
 
#79 · (Edited)
I gave up smoking in February after smoking for 25 years, guess I started real young.

My real enjoyment was smoking a Sp*** and not the tobacco, but still I smoked around 20 cigs a day. Some I know never smoke cigs and just occasionally smoke a sp***. For me though one leads to the other. So I've given up everything smoking related.

I had been trying to give up for maybe 2-3 years without success, I'm just taking it 1 day at a time but things are looking good as it's been around 5 months.

I have put on some weight and stated going to the gym only last week. I will surely get this under control.

To those who want to give up, never give up on trying!!!! you will get there it just takes time for some.

To those that do not want to give up, I understand where your coming from.

Andrew
 
#80 ·
I smoked unfiltered Camels for 45 years, about 1 1/2 packs per day. I must have quit at least a dozen times, but always started again. It wasn't unusual for me to cough when I first woke up, but in the past year I would get coughing fits during the day. I finally realized it was making me miserable and that it was less painful to forgo the pleasure (largely psychological because I considered myself a smoker and rewarded the completion of any activity with a cigaret) in favor of better health.

I have not tasted tobacco in three months and, surprisingly, don't really miss it. The coughing stopped almost immediately and my wind is slowly improving.

Here's what has workled for me. First, remembering how I felt when I was smoking. It's surprising how easy it is to forget that. Secondly, nicotine gum. It does offer a healthier substitute for tobacco. Less than a week after quitting I was on an out-of-town consulting job that involved dinner and drinks every evening with smokers. I chewed 16 pieces of 4 mg. nicotine gum per day. My jaws ached, my mouth was sore. But no cigs! Now I'm down to six to eight 2mg. pieces per day.

In my case, and I suspect with most smokers, the true desire to quit is the key. There are a lot of ways to quit, but none of them work if you continue to think of yourself as a smoker. Alchoholics may need to always remind themselves that they are alchoholics, but former smokers must remember that they ARE NOT smokers.
 
#81 ·
there was a documentary about the cost of smoking to society last week here. It turned out smokers actually contributed greatly to the overall budget. Not because of the high taxes on each pack of cigs but because they die a lot younger and therefore do not burden the old age pension systems and all the things that go with old age ( bad hips, eyesight, you name it) that cost society money.
So killing yourself with smoke turns out to be beneficial to society as a whole. :(
 
#82 ·
Cool. :D

Sometimes I think that the biggest impetus for anti-smoking laws is provided by the insurance industry. If they can get people to stop smoking then they don't pay out as much. I think the same about mandatory wearing of helmets by motorcyclists; the industry lobbied state legislatures to pass the helmet mandatory law. People go along thinking this is a good thing AND their insurance premiums would go down.... I doubt very seriously that has happened. [Granted, smoking and not wearing a helmet are both foolish, but that's not my point.]
 
#83 ·
I quit smoking about 28 years ago.
I did it "cold turkey."
I decided that I didn't want to bring kids into an unhealthy environment.
I found it difficult to play longer phrases sometimes.
I sat down with a calculator and figured out that I smoked away enough money to buy another sax!

Quitting cigarettes just made sense.

I would encourage my smoking friends to quit cigarettes. You don't need it.
 
#85 ·
Rauchen Verboten!
Many may recall the Camel ads depicting jazz musicians which were totallly discusting. Thank god we are beyond that era of glamorizing smoking in connection to musicians. At least we can all play and ride in an airplane in a smoke free invironment in clubs, etc. There is some progress for sure.
My first teacher and sax mentor ended up tethered to oxygen and could not play for the last 5 years of his life. It was very sad to to see him wither away prematuraly. I feel sorry for people who cannot break the habit. For those who do not smoke, no explanation is required, for those that cannot kick the habit until it is too late, sadly none is possible.
 
#98 ·
Reverse psychology can be very effective I agree, challenging a proud smoker that they don't have the guts or willpower to give up can sometimes work, far better to have never started, the reasons smokers start is many and varied, it is never because they wanted an addiction that affected their health and supported the big salaries of tobacco company execs
 
#102 ·
I smoked for 30+ years,,,started very young. Smoking was the biggest contributor to my having a heart attack at age 44. I thought I had food poisoning and smoked 5 cigs DURING the heart attack. I have most definately lost a lot of my breathing capacity due to this...I can become short of breath just sitting in a chair. I am now 55 and play to the best of my ability on a regular basis. I wish I had quit sooner, before I did this to myself.I gambled, I lost.
 
#104 ·
I imagined that with every pack I was contributing to politicians that were paid by the tobacco companies.
 
#107 ·
I bought one of those new-fangled electronic cigarettes last week. After decades of smoking rollups (and enjoying it, it had to be said) I've gone a whole week without smoking. Better than that, I haven't even wanted a smoke. I'm astonished at how effective these things are.

Regards,
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top