Posted by Rick Denney on May 05, 2003 at 15:13:55:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Beta Blockers posted by Just kinda' heard on May 05, 2003 at 11:39:33:
Be careful who you sweep up in your pronouncement (though you attribute it to those you have "heard"). There is no one who escapes an attack of nerves at one time or another. I suspect that a large share of professional musicians have used beta blockers when needed. In the old days, many of them would drink alcohol (and, of course, some still do). That old stereotype of musicians being alcoholics had some basis in truth. Beta blockers are a lot safer than booze. If beta blockers in any way created an alternate reality, such as so-called recreational drugs, then I'd oppose it. But by all reports, there is no high from beta blockers. Also, if music was a sport where one person was competing against another (as in, say, golf), then I'd also oppose it. In competition, the ability to handle adrenalin is part of the game.
With me, I feel the adrenalin rush, and it makes my head swim. I can't focus on the music sitting on the stand. I can't go through the mental processes that I rehearsed (and rehearsed and reheardsed). My hands shake. Music that was solidly ten times out of ten in rehearsal or practice falls apart on stage or in front of the group. What is this? It is a chemical reaction to adrenalin, that's what. All the beta blockers do is make us a bit less allergic to an overdose of adrenalin.
Yes, it is true that some don't need it. But I wonder what great music we have missed because the performer could not overcome debilitating nervousness. The ability to withstand an overdose of adrenalin doesn't seem like a musical quality to me.
Rick "who hasn't tried it...yet" Denney