Thread: Musical Instruments

i think the hardest part of it would be to try and remember it after the fact.. ive had so many good songs after waking up and then going to the piano or the bass or the guitar to try and figure it out but it always leaves me before i get there. how would you suggest actually taking it out of the dream world?

FluBB, i've had this problem. I always get good riffs before sleeping. Multi-instrumental..

lol yeah.. its the pits.. but its nice to see that you have accepted your identity as the post whore lol. really you are nuts. you have way more then me and ive been a member for 4 years now... good for you tho.

I read an article...

Originally Posted by Clamosus

My psychology teacher said that even watching the sheet music will be effective; the same neurons will be activated as they would when you actually play the instrument or something like that. Why not in dreams?

It stated that the same neurons are activated/released, whatever, in your dream as in real life. For example, if you practice running in your dream, the same neurons are used as if you were running in real life. So, if you know all of the notes on a guitar, and you expect the guitar to play normally in your dream, it might work as expected. You have to expect it to work normally, if you think that the pitches will be off because it's a dream, they will be.

I have played my accoustic for a few years, and I'm not that bad. I am planning to get a good electric, like a les paul studio, or standard. I can't buy it for a few months. When I have an LD, I really hope I can find a les paul and play it right. I know what they sound like and all, because I have messed around with my friends.

My dad has a les paul studio and a gibson marauder. As well as an ibanez & sigma acoustic.

That studio is a nice guitar. Though I personally prefer an Ibanez Prestige.


Then again, i'm a bassist. My guitar taste isn't extremely picky. For a bass i need 19mm spacing, bartolini soapbars, mahogany fretboard, maple or wenge/bubinga neck, mahogany or ash body. String gauges .150-.60 or so, roundwounds (5 string). A bolt on neck. And much much more.

Yeah, you have to know what all of the sounds sound like that the instrument makes. I'm a pianist(1 1/2 years), and I know all of the notes and I'm able to make songs in my lucid dreams. Its really fun.

Yeah, see with a stringed instrument any flaw in technique will change the sound.

Originally Posted by FluBB

i think the hardest part of it would be to try and remember it after the fact.. ive had so many good songs after waking up and then going to the piano or the bass or the guitar to try and figure it out but it always leaves me before i get there. how would you suggest actually taking it out of the dream world?

That is the tricky part. Not much luck I've had. Some, but the song doesn't have the emotional impact that it did in the dream.

But, Paul McCartney's song "Yesterday" was from his dream. He says that tothis day he doesn't know if he wrote it or heard the music somewhere and then dreamt about it.

Originally Posted by jarrhead

I have great ear-training abilities as well, and I still don't see this very likely.

I agree. As someone with extremely good relative pitch, and extensive study in music theory, and several instruments, I'm telling you, unless you are a mutant freak of nature who has memorized the frequencies of sounds in relation to note values based on A440, and you've found a way to accurately translate those to the dreamstate, and verify for certain that those pitches remain the same when your MIND is CREATING them, you cannot do something like learn a new song on an instrument in a dream.

It's just not feasible. I believe that if you have a photographic memory, and have seen a piece hundreds of times, and you know exactly how it looks on the page, you might be able to memorize it by SIGHT... MAYBE. Keeping in mind of course that if words change when you try to read them, 'written' musical notes probably do as well.

But your mind will inaccurately portray the sounds that correspond with actions that would not realistically create those sounds in waking reality. There is so much fabrication of things happening in your mind, that you'd have a misrepresented form of whatever you're practicing, and it would not crossover into waking reality, and even if it did, you would have memorized the INACCURACIES of your mind trying to create music, and it would more likely be DESTRUCTIVE to your playing ability in waking reality. Just my opinion.

Originally Posted by TristanPetrosky

Yeah, you have to know what all of the sounds sound like that the instrument makes. I'm a pianist(1 1/2 years), and I know all of the notes and I'm able to make songs in my lucid dreams. Its really fun.

I know what you mean

That said, I've been playing the piano for quite some time. I play a lot of Chopin. My most recent piece is the Ballade No. 4 in F minor. I can play most of it decently. I thought I would try to practice it in a lucid dream to really capitalize on practice time. Unfortunately, even though I knew I was focusing on trying to get all of the right notes, realizing that it was a dream, I still played the piece almost perfectly in my dream, although I can't play it nearly perfectly in waking reality. This is because the mind creates what it wants to hear. It has nothing to do with the actions. Or at least, very little to do with them.

Originally Posted by Rainman

I agree. As someone with extremely good relative pitch, and extensive study in music theory, and several instruments, I'm telling you, unless you are a mutant freak of nature who has memorized the frequencies of sounds in relation to note values based on A440, and you've found a way to accurately translate those to the dreamstate, and verify for certain that those pitches remain the same when your MIND is CREATING them, you cannot do something like learn a new song on an instrument in a dream.

It's just not feasible. I believe that if you have a photographic memory, and have seen a piece hundreds of times, and you know exactly how it looks on the page, you might be able to memorize it by SIGHT... MAYBE. Keeping in mind of course that if words change when you try to read them, 'written' musical notes probably do as well.

But your mind will inaccurately portray the sounds that correspond with actions that would not realistically create those sounds in waking reality. There is so much fabrication of things happening in your mind, that you'd have a misrepresented form of whatever you're practicing, and it would not crossover into waking reality, and even if it did, you would have memorized the INACCURACIES of your mind trying to create music, and it would more likely be DESTRUCTIVE to your playing ability in waking reality. Just my opinion.

I don't know what instruments you play, but bass is all about shapes. Since we are tuned consistantly across all 4-7 strings, (five-seven here) then we can learn like this. Guitars, however, have inconsistant tuning from G to B. It should be a C, as with 6 string basses. If I ever mess around I tune EADGCF.

We don't memorize notes. Not at all! Sure, we know where they are on the fretboard so that we can play over chord changes and lock a key, but from there it's all SHAPES.

You may not understand substution chords (I call this chordal modes..) It's like playing modes, except for chords, not scales. I cannot imagine thinking of the noted structure, such as saying "Okay, play an E, G, and B over this CMaj7 chord.."

I would say "Lets play off the third of this E and play the chord tones."

From there, I would use shapes. I even use shapes to get there. I know that the third is one finger left on the root (using middle finger as home.) I then know to use 4th finger, third, and third again. I don't have to say that to myself, but it's instictive.


Point i'm trying to make is (wow I got WAYY off topic..) that i would memorize by shapes, not by relative pitch. Although I would keep it buried in my head incase my shape is flawed.

I understand what you're saying. Yes I understand all of that, I majored in music theory (jazz theory) in college. I've played guitar for almost 10 years now, so I understand about shapes too. And you're right, that is very instinctive. But what I'm saying is, you can't practice and learn something you haven't done before on an instrument in a lucid dream, and you can't even play something if it's of even moderate complexity in a way that would translate to the waking reality.

Well i'm 14, so I have NO idea what you learn in college.

And I agree with you.



P.S. - I want to major in Jazz Theory, Pro Tools, Audio Engineering, and Music Entreprenuership.

Originally Posted by jarrhead

Well i'm 14, so I have NO idea what you learn in college.

And I agree with you.



P.S. - I want to major in Jazz Theory, Pro Tools, Audio Engineering, and Music Entreprenuership.

studying music in college is quite different then you might imagine I was studying upright bass for a couple semesters until i realized it wasnt for me. but lets see what we agree on.
Its impossible to:
read sheet music
learn new techniques
practice unfamiliar songs
improve at any song you know well

its possible to:
.... i dont even know

I have no experience with such, but I believe it may be possible to read sheet music. If you're already experienced and it's not straining your brain.

I come from an orchestral viola background. I know alto clef, and even though bass clef is just half-off, it's difficult.

how about one of you experienced lders who play an instrument try it out?

i would... unfortunately im in a dry spell... but its one of the first things on my list. i think i remember trying it once, but it was a big failure because i couldnt concentrate hard enough.

Originally Posted by snowaie

how about one of you experienced lders who play an instrument try it out?

I tried it out today. I had a dream that I was on Guitar Pro 5 with a piano piece I've been working on. There were changes in it that sounded great. I remembered it when I woke up and I tried to replay it by ear. It was impossible.

I also tried to play by the notation up top, impossible.
And the tab under it. Didn't work either.

Originally Posted by jarrhead

I don't know what instruments you play, but bass is all about shapes. Since we are tuned consistantly across all 4-7 strings, (five-seven here) then we can learn like this. Guitars, however, have inconsistant tuning from G to B. It should be a C, as with 6 string basses. If I ever mess around I tune EADGCF.

We don't memorize notes. Not at all! Sure, we know where they are on the fretboard so that we can play over chord changes and lock a key, but from there it's all SHAPES.

You may not understand substution chords (I call this chordal modes..) It's like playing modes, except for chords, not scales. I cannot imagine thinking of the noted structure, such as saying "Okay, play an E, G, and B over this CMaj7 chord.."

I would say "Lets play off the third of this E and play the chord tones."

From there, I would use shapes. I even use shapes to get there. I know that the third is one finger left on the root (using middle finger as home.) I then know to use 4th finger, third, and third again. I don't have to say that to myself, but it's instictive.


Point i'm trying to make is (wow I got WAYY off topic..) that i would memorize by shapes, not by relative pitch. Although I would keep it buried in my head incase my shape is flawed.

I understand about shapes. Music is shapes, shapes of intervals.
That being said, I play guitar, mandolin, banjo, sitar, oud, flute, violin, piano, bass, and percussion. I specialize in string instruments and am familiar with many different tunings, and even fretless instruments. All the shapes are different. When I pick up a new instrument I run through a few basic songs to get familiar with the intervals and shapes. "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" is good. Then I know how to play the instrument. I can't read sheet music but I know every scale and mnay arabic and Indian scales. I also know about cultural uses of harmony and accidentals. So I learn by ear. And hearing a song in a dream, I know how to play it. Hearing a song on the radio, i know how to play it, unless it is very technically demanding.
But I think that you Can get better at playing a song you already know by dreaming to play it, just like how many athletes like gymnasts practice visuallizing the routine on the parallel bars.

As far as reading sheet music, that must be very hard. But hearing a song revealed to you in a dream isn't a problem for me. It is just that it doesn't sound as great during waking life. A simple chord change like G to C back to G can sound amazing in a dream, but it is hard to make it sound exciting dring waking life.

I've heard that "Greensleeves" was also written from a dream.