How many performers get high from music

Subject: How many performers get high from music
From: Tigger the Tiger
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 07:54 AM

This is rather a personal question regarding something I have wondered about myself for 50 years. From early years I found that the music itself,especially playing guitar,has always gotten me natually high. Later I found that hard rock sent me into outer space if I danced or just listened. I still get too bouncy....Anyone else like me?

Subject: RE: How many performers get high from music
From: GUEST,highlandman at work
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 10:22 AM

Sounds to me like your top must be made out of rubber, and your bottom out of springs.
Seriously - yes. Sometimes.
On the other end of the spectrum I've found that singing medieval and renaissance choral music with a superb group can put me into outer space, too. Not a bouncy experience, but floating up there with the angels...
Nothing in the world exerts the range of emotional (and physical) effects on us that music can.
-Glenn

Subject: RE: How many performers get high from music
From: Mrs Scarecrow
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 12:35 PM

Yes all sorts of music

Subject: RE: How many performers get high from music
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 02:44 PM

Sometimes when I am really belting a song out, I get sensation of explosion in my chest. Not painful, kind of cold wet sparking electrical feeling. Bit scary.

Subject: RE: How many performers get high from music
From: foggers
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 02:54 PM

Oh yes definitely an affirmative from me; different music has different effects. I think I have mild synthaesthesia (mixing up of the senses). I can literally see colours and shapes when listening to music at times. It can be quite trippy at times and I think it is influenced by my original mood, the performer's skill in connecting with the audience; it is not usually about technical brilliance.

The effects of performing music can give me a real adrenaline high; after a good gig I often have difficulty getting to sleep because I can't switch off.

Subject: RE: How many performers get high from music
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 03:19 PM

wouldn't like to rely on it as a line of defence in court.

Subject: RE: How many performers get high from music
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 04:06 PM

Listening to music can have an effect on my mood but I don't think I ever get high from it.

Performing for me is limited to floor spots and usually the feelings I get are nervousness and relief when I've done my bit. On extremely rare say 3 or 4 times in 30 years) occasions, I have had the feeling the audience is almost under my control, hear and feel the silence when doing my piece and then when it's over an extended silence before (believe or not!) an ovation. I find it quite eerie but I suppose if I got high from it, it would be from some form of ego trip rather than from the music.

It may apply to other forms of joining in but I'd say the only time I get high from music is the occasion when a session goes up that extra gear and everyone seems to just be magically swept along by the music.

Subject: RE: How many performers get high from music
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 04:42 PM

I know I do!
It's a legal and fun way to get high. There are consequences, though, such as lust for expensive new instruments.

Subject: RE: How many performers get high from music
From: Leadfingers
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 05:35 PM

Back in the Dark Ages , Ian Anderson was running a Folk Club in Weston S Mare which I attended a couple of times = Offered to buy him a drink , he asked for Coke ! " NO beer ? " says I . "I can get high on the music " was his reply .

Subject: RE: How many performers get high from music
From: kendall
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 07:33 PM

I've never been high on anything, I'm a New Englander, but good music always lifts my spirits and puts me just on the giddy side of morose.

Subject: RE: How many performers get high from music
From: Ref
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 07:37 PM

Watch good drummers. A lot of them definitely move to a different plain while on a good run. The mouth hanging open is a dead giveaway.

Subject: RE: How many performers get high from music
From: michaelr
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 09:23 PM

I live for those moments when playing with the band when I lose the "watcher" in me who monitors my playing, and it becomes a non-conscious flow that carries me with it. Athletes call it being "in the zone"; a Grateful Dead lyric calls it "the music plays the band". It's an incredible feeling, as if you can't put a finger wrong, and a definite high.

Subject: RE: How many performers get high from music
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 10:06 PM

For me, I think it's the connection I make with other people when we're making music. Sometimes, I "connect" with an audience when I'm performing, but the connection happens more often when I'm singing with other people.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: How many performers get high from music
From: Tigger the Tiger
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 06:03 AM

I am very glad to hear that this is a common phenomenon among musicians.I love watching people play together.I think I first noticed this when I was around Kweskin's jug band. I think it is possible that no one hears us quite as well as we hear ourselves,holding the instrument and singing.As I had only been around acoustic,I was unusually effected when I spent lots of time in a small venue around Butterfield and Muddy Waters bands.It just sort of went through me.

Subject: RE: How many performers get high from music
From: GUEST,highlandman at work
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 10:36 AM

I've long been fascinated by the way musicians with disparate styles and talents can somehow create, playing together, something that does not exist when they play separately. Something different than just adding up the bits. It seems to go beyond simple synergy to me.
Musical magic.
-Glenn

Subject: RE: How many performers get high from music
From: GUEST,SteveT
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 05:36 AM

["Watch good drummers. A lot of them definitely move to a different plain while on a good run. The mouth hanging open is a dead giveaway."] I think that may be to do with preventing ruptured tympanic membranes - a bit like sucking a boiled sweet; which might be more dangerous with all that jumping around!

I've often wondered if the "getting high" is linked to resonant frequencies. Why did people first start to "sing" as opposed to chanting or speaking? (I think it definitely has something to do with vibrations inside you.) Why do some voices affect me, even when I can tell they are not perfect, whilst others don't? Why are some rooms good to sing in and others not? Can any of you really get "high" in a room with bad acoustics?

Subject: RE: How many performers get high from music
From: Geordie-Peorgie
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 06:08 AM

Definitely do! Even more so when an audience comes with you and is singing all of thbe choruses AND laughing at the stories! The best 'high' next to watching your children come into the world!

Subject: RE: How many performers get high from music
From: Tigger the Tiger
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 06:29 AM

I think this started when I was very young,as I distintly remember walking around singing to myself outside.Do you think some of us just start as being musical instruments and then add guitar?

Subject: RE: How many performers get high from music
From: kendall
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 06:44 AM

Yes.

Subject: RE: How many performers get high from music
From: GUEST,saulgoldie
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 06:45 AM

Singing is an activity that causes the body to release healing endorphins. It takes me 15 to 20 minutes before I warm up. But once I do, I get the same sensation I do from running or biking. And the guitar rings with my very core.

Saul

Subject: RE: How many performers get high from music
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 07:10 AM

The other indication is how long it takes you to "come down" from a gig. I could arrive home at two in the morning after driving back from a gig and still not feel a bit like sleeping.

Subject: RE: How many performers get high from music
From: Tigger the Tiger
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 07:27 AM

Very glad to know I am not as nuts as I thought. Or maybe we all are....

Subject: RE: How many performers get high from music
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 02:02 PM

I usually have a very pleasant feeling of having fun when I perform -- which I do, of course. Sometimes it can get quite intense, and I get that feeling in my chest, like VirginiaTam, as if something is going to burst (in a pleasant way!), which is the same feeling I sometimes get when I think about my kids. If I could bottle it, I'd be a millionaire ... although I'd probably give it away!

Subject: RE: How many performers get high from music
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 02:13 PM

"just on the giddy side of morose."

But isn't that an excellent summary of the New England version of being high, kendall? As also is true for some parts of Yorkshire and Scotland, and for County Carlow in Ireland.

Subject: RE: How many performers get high from music
From: kendall
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 02:21 PM

Yes, but I'm usually closer to morose than giddy.

Subject: RE: How many performers get high from music
From: kendall
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 02:22 PM

When I do a performance and I see people roaring with laughter at my humor, I would have to be a real twit to not be somewhat elated.

Subject: RE: How many performers get high from music
From: MikeL2
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 02:44 PM

Hi

I got two completely different sensations when playing and performing and from listening.

I used to get on a high after each performance....some more than others.

When I am watching or listening to music I used to feel the music more - many songs brought shivers down my spine and raised the hairs on the back of my neck.

All these were enjoyable.

I used the past tense because I don't perform in general public any more and while I do get the emotions when listening they are not as strong as they used to be. I guess I must be growing old !!

Cheers

MikeL2