Author: John Carter

The Vocal Impact of Medication: Understanding How It Affects Your Singing Voice by Rebecca Reid

This might explain why listeners more readily try to make sense of complex recordings while under the influence. With debilitated short-term memory, time intervals can expand over the course of the high. With time moving more slowly, listeners are under the impression of perceiving more musical information — trained ear, or not. In effect, cannabis seems to convince the listener of a heightened ability to discern musical notes. Throat irritation can make it difficult to sing high notes, and other side effects can impact the tone, pitch, and volume of the voice.

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There are plenty of positive examples of well-respected musicians who have overcome their dependency on drugs, and have even gone on to achieve more success following treatment for their addictions. It’s also important to keep the body well hydrated with water the day of a performance, but please remember to lay off on the water intake several hours before you go on, since there probably won’t be too many bathroom breaks. Some performers will chew a bit of sugar free gum or suck on a sugar free hard candy prior to going onstage to keep the saliva flowing in lieu of drinking water.

The link between drugs and music explained by science

Medications can impact the functioning of the vocal cords in a variety of ways. They are made up of two folds of muscle and mucous membranes that vibrate to produce sound. I understood why the stage lights were bright and flashing, and why trance music is repetitive; the music and the drug perfectly complemented one another.

How Artists Have Reclaimed Their Creativity in Sobriety

Drug representations may serve to normalise use for some listeners, but drugs and music are powerful ways of strengthening social bonds.
Improve your voice immediately by standing with tall posture and breathing with your diaphragm.
The relationship between music and cannabis becomes more intertwined when we consider that both activate the pleasure and reward systems in the brain.
When the stomach is too full, it is difficult to take the low breaths necessary for healthy singing.
As a singer, your voice is your instrument, and anything that affects it can have a profound impact on your ability to perform.

Some foods and beverages to avoid prior to singing are mucous producing foods such as dairy, stimulants such as caffeine and spicy foods, soft drinks, refined sugars, chocolate, iced drinks and alcohol (including wine and beer). Be aware also of any foods which you may be sensitive to or allergic to prior to singing (for example, some singers have trouble with citrus fruits, wheat, nuts, shellfish or soy). In order to understand how medication affects the voice, it’s important to understand the anatomy and physiology of the vocal cords and how they work to produce sound. “The disruption of short-term memory thrusts listeners into the moment of the music as it unfolds,” writes Levitin in his book, The World in Six Songs, and summarizes in his TED Talk. “Unable to explicitly keep in mind what has just been played, or to think ahead to what might be played, people stoned on pot tend to hear music from note to note.”

In fact, the higher the dose, the more that natural rhythm will be affected. What is especially dangerous is when an emotional desire to strengthen creativity evolves into an addiction. The process of playing music has been described by researchers as a “full-body workout” for the brain.

It was as if a veil had been lifted from my eyes and I could finally see what everyone else was seeing. Acid rock would never have happened without LSD, and house music, with its repetitive 4/4 beats, would have remained a niche musical taste if it wasn’t for the wide availability of MDMA (ecstasy, molly) in the 1980s and 1990s. Suzi Gage receives or has reeived funding from CRUK, the MRC and the Wellcome Trust to conduct research in to links between recreational drugs and mental health. Harry Sumnall is an unpaid member of the UK Government Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD); an unpaid Trustee of the drug and alcohol charity Mentor UK; and an unpaid Board Member of the European Society for Prevention Research.

Performance

It’s important to note that everyone’s voice and response to medication is different, and what works for one singer may not work for another. When forming memories, the brain accesses existing information, and uses it to predict what’s going to happen next. As cannabis is known to disrupt short-term memory, the relationship between expectations and the experience at hand tends to dampen. This inhibited formation of short-term memory under the influence is what leaves the listening experience feeling novel. They may also be able to suggest alternative medications or dosages that may have a lesser effect on the voice. Your GP can provide information on the specific effects of your medication and help you manage any side effects that may arise.

Just listen to Passion Pit’s Michael Angelakos, who believes that “there is no romance about depression.” Albarn is not profound because he took heroin. And supporting the idea that people should go untreated for any illness — whether it be for schizophrenia or addiction — is horribly destructive to all involved. So the distinction between this truth and the romantic notion of the drug is a question of longevity. Sure, any kind of new experience gives you a new way of looking at things — heroin forges new connections in the brain like any experience would. But it’s worth noting that a lot of the songs created while using heroin are more or less about being miserable from doing the drug.

The Best DRUGS for SINGERS

When someone plays an instrument, whether it be a harp, guitar, or even the use of their own voice, they are simultaneously pulling on brain signals and information from both hemispheres which control the visual, auditory, and motor skills. It is a priority for CBC to create products that are accessible to all in Canada including people with visual, hearing, motor and cognitive challenges. Damon Albarn, the infamous frontman of Blur and Gorillaz, wants you to know that he thinks heroin isn’t all that terrible. In fact, he has recently spoken up about it to both Q Magazine and Time Out. He stated, “Once I’d tried it, I found it initially very agreeable, and very creative.”

Pairing music and drugs

Music is an artform about connecting to the world, not about what you see when you are escaping from it. And heroin doesn’t make you a great artist; having unbridled creativity (which heroin can, for a short period, enable) and talent makes you a great artist. Enjoy music performed by some of the above-mentioned artists in recovery and more in the Creativity In Recovery Mountainside Spotify playlist below. When an outside chemical is added, the body’s natural rhythm will change, usually not for the better.

First, let’s talk about the ideas of lemon, honey, teas, throat sprays etc. While all of these things can help the throat feel good, the only way that any of them will actually come into contact with your vocal folds is if you breathe them, and this is not something I would recommend. This is not the same as a vaporizer which puts moisture into the air of a room. It’s no stoned delusion to think that time moves a little slower under the influence, either.

For singers who are taking medication, it’s crucial to understand how it can affect the voice and to take steps to minimise the impact. What will its legalization mean for how the masses process more complicated — or even highly theoretical — music in the future? With the brain ingesting musical notes at a decreased speed, what we call popular music could experience a shift. Assuming that the legalization of cannabis will popularize the plant’s use, it’s interesting to consider what effect cannabis might have on radio charts.