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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:
 
#28 ·
I used to smoke 2-3 packs a week, and every time someone asked me if it affected my playing I would proudly say that it most certanly did not, and that my Sax playing was probably helping me keep a good lung capacity. Now I've all but quit. I still enjoy the occasional cigarette, but my average would probably be maybe a cigarette every other day... It's been about 6 months since I cut WAY back on the cigarettes, and now, from experiance, I can say that it definatly did affect my playing. I've changed nothing but my smoking habits, and I can play MUCH longer runs now, and can hold my longtones a LOT longer before running out of breath.
 
#30 ·
I would like to point out that a lot of the great jazz musicians and non-jazz musicians have all succumbed to cancer or cigarette smoking related illnesses.
What is interesting is the kinds of cancer: throat, lung (overwhelmingly so), and liver (which is clinically proven to be related to smoking in combination with other factors).
It stands to reason that the part of your body you rely on for your craft should be the LAST part you would want to pollute with carcinogens, or anything foreign (ie: addictive substances) for that matter.
Forgive the analogy here, but it's like a porn actor willfully putting his "instrument" in a food processor and setting it on "slow puree". Guarantees a bad ending to your career, and a painful one at that.
Also, for every person who has a story of the "100 year old who smoked everyday" (and these anomalous people are as rare as hens teeth), there are a hundred thousand people going through painful, costly deaths and suffering. This doesn't even take into account the losses to the families of these people.
I have seen no less that 10 of my close relatives with the same fatalistic attitude about, "ya gatta die of sumthin" indeed die of "sumthin".
That "sumthin" is, lung cancer, heart disease, and liver cancer. Common factor? All smokers.
Smoking in public is a crime I believe.
We are all free to do to ourselves what we will, however we are not free to poison or harm another person to exercise our free will. That is what smoking does, and the sooner smokers stop their self denial of this fact, the sooner smoking becomes absolutely illegal in ANY public place. We all breathe the same air in any given place.
So Tears June, think of everytime you light up and look "cool" while posing with your sax, you are subtracting minutes from your life and all those people around you.
Frankly, I don't want to shorten my life and I certainly don't want to be responsible for hurting other people and SHORTENING THEIR LIVES.

:idea:
 
#31 ·
Make smoking illegal. Then we can have a 'new' grime wave. Like prohibtion which made it possible for the mafia to gain power. Illegal cigs will still be sold and used in this country just the same as drugs,illegal firearms, terrorism, and prostitution. Get real people. We'll have to build and pay for more prisons to house all the smokers.
 
#34 ·
saxusa said:
Also, there has never been a documented case of anyone dying from second hand smoke. If your paranoid, then buy a gas mask.
It depends on which bit of research is to be believed. Some of the research shows that you have an increased likelihood to suffer from smoking related illness due to the exposure of second hand smoke. You may choose to live in denial - that's your choice.

I do not advocate making smoking illegal. You can kill yourself with any legal vice you choose. What I do believe is that you shouldn't have a legal right to expose me to it in public places.
 
#35 ·
Tears, I understand smoking in Japan is often called "smorking". Why is that?

I even have a T shirt that says "No Smorking." Makes me smile whenever I put it on. :D
 
#36 ·
Paul wrote:
Tears, I understand smoking in Japan is often called "smorking". Why is that?


Paul, that is simply a result of poor English skills at the shirt maker. This kind of fractured "Engrish" is rampant here!
There are books devoted to this topic even.

There is no "r" pronunciation in Japanese, so 99.9% of the Japanese cannot say this, even if they wanted to. :lol:
 
#37 ·
I've been playing for 10 years and smoking for 5 (I started smoking at age 16, about a pack a day since). I never once had a problem. I ran cross country and the 2-mile in track, and even got kicked out of these sports for smoking, but I never once had a problem with lung capacity. I play on a LaVoz hard or VanDoren 4 and I can tell you that my lungs are a lot stronger than my lips. Part of the reason I have good lungs is possibly the exercise in sports, but I haven't ran in 3 or 4 years. The most physical thing I do now is bowling, when I smoke the most.
 
#38 ·
Markie...slow pureee..... :?
 
#39 ·
Well, of course you don't notice a difference Markieg - you're only 21 - you have youth on your side!

Even if there were no evidence, it seems to me to be pretty obvious that smoking's no good for the lungs - you're inhaling smoke, tiny particles of dust, and they don't all come out when you exhale. Those particles gotta be somewhere, and that somewhere is the lungs; if you're putting dust in your lungs, stands to reason capacity decreases.

It always amuses me when people say they have an 'addictive personality' (and this isn't a dig at Bootman, he just happens to be the one that mentioned it): it makes it seem like they can't help themselves, and even sounds kinda romantic and out there - 'hey I'm the kinda guy that does it all 100%, baby, it's just in my nature'. Two things come to mind here: first, it looks to me to be a manifestation of the 'I'm not to blame' culture - 'it's not my fault, I have no choice, it's just the way I am' - WRONG: nobody forced you; and second, yes, there is an addiction, but it's to NICOTINE, a drug widely held to be more addictive than heroin (oh yeah, and how many of our sax heroes were heroin addicts as well...?). In plain terms, most smokers are junkies, it's just that their drug is legal.

OK, end of rant. Once again, this is not aimed at anyone in particular, just my tuppence worth.

That's one of the great things about this forum - you can have your say without anyone interrupting you!
 
#40 ·
ATTENTION MARKIEG

I've been playing for 10 years and smoking for 5 (I started smoking at age 16, about a pack a day since). I never once had a problem. I ran cross country and the 2-mile in track, and even got kicked out of these sports for smoking, but I never once had a problem with lung capacity.
Reality check: You and I are the same. I too started around 16, I too played sax since grade school, I too ran cross country and I specialized in the 880 (1/2 mile) in track, I was a regular 1st or 2nd placer in that event. The difference is I'm now 35. It really didn't start to bother me until my late 20s. Now it bothers me a lot more. Not lung capacity, per se, but it's not like I don't feel my lungs are coated with tar. I'm developing a mild smoker's cough. Some mornings I wake up feeling like my lungs are on fire, especially if I smoked Marlboros. And when I got GERD (stomach acid coming up the esophogas) I freaked out that it was something worse. It felt like it. Now, I'm "only" 35. You'll be thinking about this too in ten years. I also quit for a year or two around age 19 or 20, then took it back up. I am still kicking myself for that, it's a terrible burden of an addiction and it's a lot more expensive than it was 20 years ago (when I was buying packs for 75 cents).

[/b]
 
#43 ·
This is kind of a sad thread. I suspect the question is not a sax question as much as a habit thang. Let's say we convinced you that you would be better off not smoking. (You could buy more reeds at the very least.) Could you quit, just like that. Yeah, kinda sad...
 
#44 ·
I've smoked on and off for a few years.. I found at some points it made me feel pretty damn unhealthy, but never really affected my playing. It's odd how many horn players I know who smoke.
Most of the kids I'm in jazz school with are full on serious and won't do anything to jeopardize their lung power, but all of our teachers smoke.
 
#45 ·
I smoked habitually in high school for about a year, but have now again started smoking habitually. Not heavily, only about half a pack a day, usually only 8 cigarettes. I actually came here looking for advice on the subject, as I have worried about it effecting my playing, and intend to quit. Ironically, I promised myself I wouldn't buy another pack, but broke down since I was getting nervous and irritable, and I needed to play for my sax jury! :lol:

Here's a tip, something I did to help my lungs a bit: I know some of you guys smoke the other stuff. I mean, you are musicians! I built a vaporizer according to instructions at www.potcooker.com. I'm not affiliated with the guy (a fellow musician), so this isn't spam. It saves alot of money, and it's been proven to eliminate carcinigens and tar, as long as you don't run it too hot.
 
#46 ·
smoking and sax

saxusa said:
Also, there has never been a documented case of anyone dying from second hand smoke. If your paranoid, then buy a gas mask.
Yea sure - :roll:

Nor is there any problem with drinking and driving. Just keep the stupid people off the road that don't want to get killed.

Smoking is stupid in all cases.

I figure I lost about 5-10 years of my life expectancy from playing in bars during the 70s/80s. Breathed in lots of other peoples crap. :evil:
 
#47 ·
and what would be so important that you'd be contributing in those 5-10 years you think you lost, that you can't do now?
Smoke 'em if ya got 'em-get some if you don't!
 
#49 ·
Thomas said:
I've played the horns over 50 years now and have smoked 40 of those years. I have no smoking related issues with blowing the horns. I believe that smoking should be mandatory and introduced at an early age the philosophy being that something's gonna kill you sooner or later so you may as well enjoy yourself. Personal observation proves to me that the propaganda generated by the anti-smoking folks is not true. Far more people smoke than do not. Tobacco is a huge generator of revenue for most governments and it would be unpatriotic to quit and the thought that my contributions to society,through taxes on tobacco, is a truely unselfish sacrifice gladly made for the betterment of my fellow man. Smoke often and heavily!
Thomas said:
and what would be so important that you'd be contributing in those 5-10 years you think you lost, that you can't do now?
Smoke 'em if ya got 'em-get some if you don't!
That makes two inflammatory :!: statements Thomas has made, Hurling. He seems to be trying to justify his drug addiction; I don't think sensible people would take him seriously.
 
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