Smoking and playing

[oldbandnerd]

Seeing the recent "Bar Smoke" thread reaminded me of something I have always wanted to start a thread about here. A trumpet player in my community band is a smoker . I have two questions about this :

1) How does he find the lung capacity to play ?

2) What is all that crap he has inhaled and is now going in to his trumpet doin to it ? Isn't tar and nicotine acidic? It has to be just eating it up from the inside .

Nasty habit to have .

[SRanney]

When I was in school at Arizona State and IU with Mr. P, I smoked two packs of unfiltered Lucky Strikes/day and kept it up for 11 years (in addition to some...ahem...other things). Amazingly enough, I was still able to pump out enough air and generate good sound quality, though I have no idea what it did to the inside of my horn.

I've since quit smoking the cancer sticks (cold turkey) and have been smoke free for almost 3 years (7 May is the anniversary).

Yippee!

SR

[quinterbourne]

Last night I was sitting beside an older trumpet buddy... I remarked on how well used his cup mute looked. He took it out and showed me an area here:



It was all black in there, he said that was from all of the years when he used to be a smoker.

Since smoking takes many many years to kill humans, I doubt it could do serious immediate harm to brass instruments. Assuming the instrument is cleaned regularly, I can't imagine there being much of a problem... besides the smell in between cleanings (which smokers are used to). Silver plate might tarnish more quickly...

[SplatterTone]

A massive chaw of tobacco will help plump the lips out for bigger mouthpieces and bigger sound. Very beneficial indeed. And it will help freshen up what comes out of the spit valves.

[Dylan King]

I am going to be 33 years of age in a few days. I quit smoking 14 months ago. I had been smoking a pack a day of blue American Spirit cigarettes for seven years, and daily marijuana use for over ten years before I quit both.

While I was smoking I had convinced myself that it didn't effect my playing, but I was certainly fooling myself, as we so often do as human beings.

I would get short of breath, have coughing fits, get dry-mouth often, and no doubt had a smaller lung capacity than I do now that I have been smoke free for a while.

There is a HUGE difference in bodily performance from smoking, and I have observed that first hand!

The again, will it stop one from being a great wind player? You're going to have to make up your own mind on that one.

[The Big Ben]

Well, Miles *did* die of lung cancer...

[Dylan King]

Well, Miles *did* die of lung cancer...

And so did Dana Reeves, who never smoked.

[MartyNeilan]

Well, after a semester of Brass Methods, I would be inclined to say that smoking, in and of itself, shouldn't have a negative impact on playing, in general.

Vital capacity (the total air you can take in and then expel from your lungs) is key to tuba playing. Slightly less so for trombone and and even lesser for trumpet.

Is vital capacity important for tuba - you betcha!!!

Over the last two years I have gained a LOT of weight due to my unstable job situation (although ultimately I have noone to blame but myself.) I am already relatively short to begin with. This has substantially reduced my lung capacity further. Has it affected my playing? YES - a LOT, especially on the big horn. I am reduced to one measure phrases in many contexts. Done with care, this can still be made musical, but it is nonetheless very limiting. Is this a negative thing for tuba players - hell yeah!!
If I was so inclined, I could hopefully lose the weight in a matter of months and gain most or all of my capacity back. Much harder to get a new pair of lungs in that same period of time, when the old ones were heavily damaged by smoking.

Smoking has got to be one of the worst legal things you can do for your body and for those around you. I am sure alcoholism and chronic overeating are close by.

[MartyNeilan]

I would put chronic overeating on top, personally, (of those three), and many psychological issues on top of that, some of which likely lead to smoking, alcoholism, and chronic overeating.

Yeah, but smokers damage other peoples lungs, and alcoholics ( and I don't mean those who take a drink in moderation) are a major threat on our roadways. The worst thing a fat person will do is crack your toilet seat

[brianf]

Watch what Mr Jacobs has to say about smoking - http://www.windsongpress.com/video/smoking.wmv

[LoyalTubist]

How do some smokers get off without having any problems caused by smoking while others are plagued with all sorts of problems?

My father smoked for over 45 years. He started when he was 10 and quit when he was 55. He was a three pack a day smoker and didn't believe in filter tips. A heart attack caused him to stop smoking. His pathologist stated that the plaque built up in his bloodstream would take more than surgery to unclog--and it might never be fixed. It wasn't. He was warned that this plaque would cause many other problems, including strokes, swelling in the lymph nodes, and cancer. He had all of that. In 1999, he had a stroke that took away his power to do most everything for himself. From that time until his death, his life was one misery after another.

On March 3, 2007, he died of congenital heart failure--the doctors all said the plaque closed up everything.

I am a very militant nonsmoker, although I learned from my life insurance selling days that nonsmokers who live with people who smoke four packs a day don't get lung cancer or any of the other maladies caused by smoking. Second-hand smoke can cause some painful headaches and rough breathing. I don't allow smoking in my house--which is almost considered RUDE in Vietnam (a good host always offers his guests a cigarette after a meal!)

Vietnam doesn't allow tobacco advertising of any kind--and yes, there is a lot of advertising here. Smoking is not allowed in offices, shopping malls, or supermarkets. It is allowed in restaurants, bars, and, surprisingly, schools. (In fact, on my first day teaching at Le Quy Don High School, there was a stack of Tiger Beer cases next to the Teachers' Lounge!)

Most men smoke. Most women don't smoke. Maybe that's why some Vietnamese women prefer foreigners!

[windshieldbug]

To the original question- It seems that your lungs act as the ultimate activated filter... I smoked for 20+ years, and never saw the slightest reaction in ANY of my 50+ horns.

And to the discussion, I quit, probably 10 times. Once for over a year. But it took a coma to make me STOP!

(The worst thing you can ever do is "think you're over it". But it's been 10 years, and God willing, I intend to STAY quit this time)

[Dylan King]

The only thing that gave me the power to quit smoking was turning to God. I fasted ten days consuming nothing but water on occasion, also fasting during that time without water as well.

I was physically weakened more that I had ever been before, but was spiritually strengthened to a point where I was able to put smoking behind me forever. The thought of smoking again literally makes me feel ill.

I strongly recommend fasting for both health and spiritual reasons, especially when confronting any kind of chemical dependency. It cleanses the mind and the body in ways that only one who has fasted can fully appreciate.

-DK

[Chuck(G)]

Anyone who has had to live with someone dying of lung cancer (like my father) would never dream of engaging in the filthy habit.

It's too bad that it takes that kind of experience for some.

[tubatooter1940]

I smoked 45 years until the 5-way heart bypass in 2001. My good friend and neighbor (the one who dragged his oxygen tank and four friends out to see me play tuba at a bar down the street) just died of lung trouble.
My lung capacity is 20% of what it was but I am still luckier than most who smoke that long.
My mom died of lung cancer at age 82. She quit smoking in the 3rd grade and started back after high school.

[tbn.al]

I smoked for 25 years. The very day I smoked my first cigarette, I smoked a whole pack. I fianally got up to 3 packs a day. You have to get two going at once most days to do that. My father was a chain smoker who quit when I was 18. His second had smoke had primed me for the trip. I started the next year, because it was the cool thing to do at school. Both my children were athsmatic, not because of second hand smoke because after my experience with my dad I never smoked in the house, car or around them, but because of the chemicals I had on my clothes. I had a serious come to Jesus meeting in 1993, threw down the cigarettes and have never smoked another one. I had quit hundreds of times before, but this time was different. I finally was made to understand the gravity of the situation. I can only say that God is good and if you pay attention He will show you the way.
I am convinced of several things now:
1. Playing a brass instrument has probably kept my lungs in good enough condition to fight off any cancer that might be lurking. That's from my Doctor.
2. My lung capacity has declined over the years, some from age but mostly from smoking.
3. When you are 20, you won't notice that it hurts your playing. Totaly different story when you are 50.
4. You will die some day. You can't avoid it. You can avoid the pain and suffering an untimely death from lung cancer will cause you and your family.
5. Try to think of one absolutely good and pure thing that results from smoking, please. You can't.

[Chuck(G)]

You know, I lost my dad about 25 years ago a day short of his 70th birthday. While I've kept some special memories of him alive in my mind, I will never forget his last months of life. What was a big, robust human being was turned into a moaning (even when he was unconscious) shadown of a human being whom the doctors and cancer had mercilessly whittled away.

Stop it--if not for yourself, stop it out of consideration for the people who will survive you.

[LoyalTubist]

In my last band I played with in the Army, I was the low man on the totem pole. While I used my own tubas to play with the band, I also used the equipment the Army issued me. Whenever the band bought something new, there was a big rotation: The Field First Sergeant, a tuba player, would have everything he didn't like issued to me. He liked small bore tubas that would blast by blowing almost no air into them while I liked huge bore monsters....

And he was a smoker, who would actually smoke while he was playing....

I inherited one of his sousaphones to play for marching. When I got it, the tuba was filthy. I took it home and, on a three-day weekend, soaked it in my bathtub. I would have to continually fill up the tub with warm water and drain it. The substance that came out of the horn resembled Hershey's chocolate syrup! It was tobacco. I had to soak that thing at least ten times, using lots of Dawn dish detergent, before I was happy with how clean it was.

Then, because it was silver, I polished the bell. It looked really nice when I took it to work on that Tuesday....

When we played in a pass-in-review that week, the Field First commented how nice the sound was that came out of his old sousaphone. He said he could never make it sound the way I did.

"Well, Sarge," I replied, "I guess I'm a better player than you!"

He nodded.

[bearphonium]

Like Chuck G, I lost my Dad to smoking related cancer 20 years ago this Christmas, and like Chuck, watched a healthy robust man waste away to nothing. He died at age 71 after a lifetime of smoking, the youngest death age of anyone in his family. Mom died three years ago Easter, of emphsemia, following a lifetime of smoking.

It tears me up to see people, especially kids, smoking. IMO, you don't look cool, you look like a dork with a burning thingiy hanging out of your mouth. Don't get me started on what I think of a cigar!

[LoyalTubist]

I never had the mentality of a smoker. I smoked when I was 19. It wasn't a habit, it was a boredom killer for me. I started with cigarettes. When I didn't like the taste of them I switched to cigars. They got to be expensive and girls didn't like them to much, so I stopped.

The odor of tobacco makes me physically ill. Despite having chronic bronchitis, which leaves me with a stuffed up nose all year, I have a very keen sense of smell. Sometimes I wish it weren't so.

My wife (a non-smoker) lived with her father, a heavy smoker, until she was 29, then she came to live with me. She can't understand why I don't want anyone to smoke near any opening of our high rise apartment--she can't smell tobacco. She lets him smoke on the balcony. If he asks me (and he would, if I spoke Vietnamese and he spoke English), I would tell him to take the elevator down to the ground floor, walk to the street and smoke there, not near the door to the building. My wife says that doesn't show her father (who is younger than I am) the respect he deserves (and yes, I look many years younger than he does!)