I said to myself this subject must have been covered a hundred times,and not to upset certain people, and out of interest ,I done a search using drink as the search word ,but no results that I was looking for came back ,so I,ll ask !!!
When you play out in pubs do you have a drink,and if you do how much would you drink.
Does it affect your playing ,Do you play better after a few ??
Mr Ennis once explained that he could play well, starting sober and drinking as he went along ,he could still play well even when fairly drunk,
But he could not play well if he got drunk first and then put on his pipes to play !!
I can still play if I have 1 drink but if I have more I start to sound really bad. That’s on the whistle. On the pipes I sound bad anyway so probably no one could tell the difference.
When I was younger, I thought I played better when drinking. Now I realize I’m shite most of the time and a few scoops just dulls the pain. I do remember songs though, when getting into the cups, that I would never remember otherwise.
Oh, that’s interesting–I had actually typed in that I was a word that rhymes with light most of the time and there’s an auto-filter on there. My we’re precious aren’t we?
I don’t drink as much as I used to. A pint or two can perhaps help you feel a bit more relaxed, particularly if you suffer at all from stage fright. These days, I find that I don’t want to drink more than two pints at a session (okay, maybe three once in a blue moon…). Much more than that and I find that the effort needed to concentrate on what I’m doing gets annoying.
As for Ennis, as much as all of us here love him, the man drank himself to death, so I don’t think he’d be the best person to model yourself after…
Our band often play in pubs in our area. I only have 1 pint during the set or I fall off the chanter but usually have a couple more after playing. Our bodran player drinks like a fish all night and still keeps good time. My wife (fiddle) has a couple of G&Ts to steady her nerves. I guess its horses for courses. I enjoy pub playing most because the audience generally likes what we do and I dont feel too exposed.
Tim
Time was, I could put a lot away during the course of an evening’s self-destruction. I cultivated a rich reputation in the Twin Cities for my Whiskey gymnastics.
But in the last ten years or so, I have moved away from boozing. I am not certain how it happened, but I became bored with it and lost the desire guzzle vast quantities of fine libations, ad infitum.
Every now and then, I’ll have a glass or two of whiskey, or a couple of pints but very rarely when I play gigs… boozing while performing nolonger holds any magic for me.
This reminds me of conversations common among rockers… I’ve never seen someone play well when drunk although I’ve already seen someone think he plays better once drunk !! Anyway I might have a pint from time to time, but I really prefer tea…
The way the drink drive laws have really tightened up here,many musicians are now drinking red bull by the pint.
Apparently one can is the equivalent of drinking twelve cups of strong coffee.
