21 replies to this topic

[drunkfunk]

Hi all,

i'm a singer-multi-instrumentalist-composer (jazz, soul and yes, funk!) and have from end of august till december some time off, that i want to utillize with extreme music-study, in other words 10 - 12 hrs of eating it up EVERY DAY!
I'm self-taught and have so far (12 years) been lacking a thorough understanding of music-theory, so i'm looking at getting theory down cold as well as really working on my chops on piano, guitar and vocals.
My main aim with the stack would probably be focus, commiting short term to long term memory and some muscular memory aid as well as an overall energizer/motivator.
Now i have dabbled with noops before, with so-so success, so here a lil run-down on my noop-history:

gingko - definately better circulation, but memory wise, hmm, i dunno
vinpocetin - yes, some short-term definately, took a while to notice
piracetam (with choline) - can somebody say brain-fog?
l-theanine - good for creativity, can feel my 3rd eye (pineal gland) buzzin while on it
rhodiola - good for 2 days, then major depressive state
modafinil - reason for my insomnia, had to let it go

I have a daily supplement routine, that consists of a multi (garden of life living multi men's), 3 grams of fish oil and a pretty healthy diet with lots of fish, greens, berries, ect. I also work out 4 days of the week, mainly weights and some cardio.
Btw., i'm 27 and in pretty good health otherwise, and it's really not that i have problems with memorizing things, i just want to maximize my efforts and get the most out of those 4 months.
I've done this before for 3 months and it can get REALLY painful and discouraging
thanks.

[drunkfunk]

No wanna help this poor musician?

[platypus]

No wanna help this poor musician?

How about a sub-threshold dose of some classical psychedelic? [wis]

[revnik]

Maybe try out Yerba Mate (tea from Argentina), it's really great. It's a bit like coffee/green tea without all the negative side-effects and very usefull for energy levels and mood.

A tiny dose of Deprenyl could be usefull too... I find Huperzine-A pretty effective also.

[rebuild101]

Hi all,
piracetam (with choline) - can somebody say brain-fog?

Just curcious, but could you tell us more about your piracetam trials? I ask because some claim it can heighten the music experience among other things:

Did you try micro dosing piracetam? There's a thread around here about some that found piracetam was more effective for them at very small doses.

I"m sure you did, but just to make sure, did you make a strong effort to slowly increase/decrease dosing with piracetam?

Was choline the only thing you took while on piracetam? What did you use for a choline source and what was the dose? What was the dosing you used on piracetam?

[drunkfunk]

Well, back when i started my piracetam-experiment, talk was that one would have to do a loading-phase, so i started out by doing 4x1200 mgs every day for about 2 weeks and then slowly cut back to 1x1200 evry day (in the morning), which i did for like 4 months, after finally giving up on it.

Choline-source was regular Lecithin-granules(plant-base?) by spoon, i would say about 14g's a day (which comes to about 3,22 g's Phosphatidyle-Choline)

One thing i did notice, was that my verbal fluency was off the hook in the beginning, which soon translated into slight confusion and then just foggy brain, not nice. [huh]
But as far as enhanced musical experience, neh, not over here, at least for me.

I'm going to follow the micro-dosing thread and see, if it's worth giving another shot.

As well as checking with the hup-a, deprenyl and yerba (i'm already drinking green tea by the litres!), but i probably want to save the psychedelic stuff, for when my studying is over and it's time to get creative [lol]

I guess we are not at the point yet to have found an amazing memory-enhancer, but isn't there something out that can help with muscle-memory enhancement? i'm sure, there's some stuff out that pro-athletes pop (besides the obvious!) that helps with that aspect of their training, i just can't find any reference to it.
Should i maybe go find a tennis or golfing-forum?

[drunkfunk]

Yes, it's definately a little above my eyebrows, in the middle.
From what i've heard, yoga refers to that area as the brow chakra (ajna) and it is used as meditation-help, even refered to as a symbol of enlightment or nirvana. Guess that's why they mark it with a red dot in indian culture.
I haven't really messed with yoga that much, but a lot of other meditation-techniques also use it, and say, that one should concentrate on that area or even look up at it (with eyes closed) as it introduces a alpha-wave brain state, which is ideal for relaxation and meditative states.
Then i have heard, that l-theanine also brings the brain down to alpha-state, therefore the relaxed, day-dreaming quality of it's effects, so it all makes perfect sense.

I also like it's caffeine-masking qualities, since i'm a serious coffee and tea-FREAK!

So yea, some pretty cool stuff, specially while working on a new tune or writing lyrics and poetry. If i could only find a substance now, that makes all these scales and progressions make sense to me, what a glorious day that will be [thumb]

[Live Forever]

Funk, are you drunk?

(sorry I couldn't resist)

[drunkfunk]

drunk like a monk, punk.
hehe

[drunkfunk]

LF, i hope you are not offended by the sillyness of my rhyme. it was part of my intoxication

But on a side-note, what are the recommended doses of l-theanine from users on here?
I usually pop a 200mg suntheanine brand and green tea seems to greatly enhance the effects, but has anybody on here experimented with higher dosage?

[kenj]

Theanine is a good sup, 100-300mg is a fantastic dose. Higher doses does not make a difference, when sitting in front of the piano, for me.

Also, I second the "micro-dosing" approach to Piracetam (few times/week, for me -- and I take Alpha-GPC every day, to elevate acetylcholine).

[ajnast4r]

brow chakra (ajna) and it is used as meditation-help, even refered to as a symbol of enlightment  or nirvana. G

sup [wis]

[drunkfunk]

sup  [wis]

well hello there, your 3rd eye must be buzzin like crazy with a username like that?
you know, i'm still trying to open mine, i guess it's been dormant for too long, but let me tell you, when i do my little meditation and concentrate on it, and then think of something (anything), that certain something seems to pop into my life couple days later. i know, it sounds crazy, but works like a charm everytime, even tho i'm still working on that fat million-dollar-cheque, i'm supposed to get

anyways, i just found a full box (100 tabs) of pharmaceutical grade piracetam, 1200mgs laying around, so starting tomorow, i'm going to give this micro-dosing a shot, probably cut the tab in four pieces, so 300mgs a day and will report back.
only thing is, i ran out of lecithin, would that still be needed with micro-dosing? i guess, i should take that anyway, huh?

[drunkfunk]

ludongbin, funny thing is, these internal sounds are, what brought me to music in the first place, long before i started with meditation and such. I'm not really sure, if they got more intense with meditation, but i have always heard sounds, melodies and also grooves, since i was little.
Another fact is that these sounds seem to come to me like either colors or emotions, like when its a rainy day outside, you know that melancholic overcast (highly inspiring btw) i hear purple or dark-blue sounds, which i guess in musical terms comes closest to sus or diminished chords, even minor 9ths or 11ths perhaps. Depending on the color it also calls for certain instrumentation, like piano, cello, ect. (which is, where the emotions come in)
The challenge is to put those floating concepts on tape, which is why i want to dig really deep into the theory-aspect aswell as getting some more ear-training going. It's just frustrating sometimes, because you hear these heavenly symphonies and by the time you get to recording, it doesn't sound the same anymore.

Btw, i got kinda stuck with the silva-method meditation, which again brings you to alpha and then has you visualize whatever or even nothing, depending on what the goal of the session is.
I try to do it at least 20 mins. every day (even tho i've been slackin [wis] )

[drunkfunk]

Also on a side note, today i started my piracetam-micro-dose-experiment, like i said, cut the 1200mg tab in 4 and took one this morning (got some lecithin-tabs as well).
So far, nada, how long before one should notice something? and should 300mg be enough once a day?

[drunkfunk]

As i realize, that all this talk of 3rd eyes and hearing colors might scare some people here away from this topic, i just wondered if i could maybe get some more input on stack-suggestions, especially in the area of muscle-memory enhancement?
Is there any substance known to science, that has provided at least some evidence of benefit in that field?

i'm only on my 3rd day of piracetam-micro-dosing, and for some reason i seemed at a loss for words today. maybe the brand(abz-pharma)? placebo? hmm

[rebuild101]

i'm only on my 3rd day of piracetam-micro-dosing, and for some reason i seemed at a loss for words today. maybe the brand(abz-pharma)? placebo? hmm

It's probably not possible, but can you cut the tabs into eighths? I believe on the micro dose thread, some people were using 75 mg... As far as the loss for words, your dose could still be too high for you (or may be just placebo). Also, were you able to get a choline supplement? If so, what kind and what dose?

Seems like most piracetam problems involve either too much piracetam or not enough choline -- at least in my observation.

[medievil]

Theanine is a good sup, 100-300mg is a fantastic dose. Higher doses does not make a difference, when sitting in front of the piano, for me.

Also, I second the "micro-dosing" approach to Piracetam (few times/week, for me -- and I take Alpha-GPC every day, to elevate acetylcholine).

what dose do you take?

[drunkfunk]

rebuild, i found a choline-tab (lecithine-source) that gives me about 150mgs per tab (also has 1mg of copper in it), is that maybe not enough?

also, i cut the 4ths again into halfs, boy, this package is gonna last a mighty long time a.k.a. 100 pills x 1200mg.
yeaee

[rebuild101]

rebuild, i found a choline-tab (lecithine-source) that gives me about 150mgs per tab (also has 1mg of copper in it), is that maybe not enough?

lol congrats on cutting tab in to eighths...I don't know the tab size, but it doesn't sound easy [lol]. As for the choline, I believe some have suggested 1-3 grams. However, that IS with standard piracetam dose. Maybe someone else will have more experience with choline while microdosing...