Dream Jazz

Hi, everybody.

I'm a very serious and focused person. This, strangely enough, I owe mostly to my commitment as a musician. I, like most people who play guitar, absent mindedly noodled throughout high school, but when I fell in love with Jazz, I learned to apply myself in a whole new way. I can play any of the modes from the major scale, jazz minor, harmonic minor, or harmonic major, as well as the symmetrical diminished scale(s) and wholetone scale, in all keys, sixteenth notes between 120-130 bpm. I can also play most of the common chord voicings(triads and sevenths) fluently, taught myself to read music, and am learning to fire through chord changes like a pro.

I'm incredibly proud of my accomplishments, but I didn't come here to brag. I know that I'm very fortunate to have all of the passion and pure dumb luck that has led me to this point, though I still have a long, winding path.

I discovered not long ago that "perfect pitch" or "absolute pitch," a phenomenon long believed to be inborn and unlearnable, a strictly natural talent, has been proven in University studies to be learnable! This has taken long to receive recognition, just like lucid dreaming. In fact, I had a Music History professor tell me just last year that it is impossible to learn perfect pitch (the ability to hear in your head, independent of any external stimulus, any given tone.) Along with my discovery now that lucid dreaming is a confirmed scientific phenomenon as well, I can't help but see a connection.

Mozart, Beethoven, Frank Sinatra, and many other of the greatest of all time were born with perfect pitch. Those who possess it compare it to hearing music in colour rather than black and white. Relative pitch, the traditionally learned form of ear training, is the association between pitches, and is like the clarity of picture.

Thanks for reading my essay so far. Nobody's holding a gun to your head, but I'm flattered you're still following.

Ok, now I clearly see a similarity between these abilities. Both have long been believed to be non-learnable, unconscious processes. From what I hear from Lucid Dreamers, most of the "naturals," including Dr. Laberge, had lucid dreams in childhood. Just so, with perfect pitch it has long been believed to manifest only in childhood, if you miss the boat you can never acquire it.

My daily practise, besides the hours of wood shedding I spend with my guitar, has now included, for a few months, 45 minutes of ear training. I now have daily LD practises as well-- DJ, RC, ADA, and MILD are my current go-to methods. I have yet to become conscious in the dream world, but I stopped smoking pot (daily user for 10 years) and I generally recall at least one highly vivid dream a night. I know I will find myself lucid in no time at all, with my commitment, and you must have guessed my goal by now... Absolute pitch is in my brain somewhere, and I'm going in after it!!

Thanks for reading, I didn't know how to be any more brief about the subject, it's my introduction after all! Wish me luck. :)

I guess I'm looking for any advice, as well, as I know that such a specific task will not be easy to focus on and it's really sort of abstract. I have ambitions of bumping into Miles Davis or Jimi Hendrix in my dreams and getting some general musical inspiration. Like I said, I'm a newbie, so anyone with some knowledge of using dreams to manifest or improve skills, like the examples in Laberge's book about golfers and skaters (but with conscious awareness,) would be MUCH appreciated. Thanks.

That is a really awesome intro post! There's no question that you'd be able to commit to learning to LD if you can dedicate yourself to jazz like that and become good at it! I'm a jazz lover myself. I took up the saxophone but I never really got anywhere with it. It was so fun being able to play in a big band for a couple years though! I'm a Brubeck, Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Fats Waller, Charlie Parker (etc) fan. I'm also big on classic rock.

Lucid dreaming is a wonderful endeavour. I started in June and have now been lucid about 15 times, even though in the past couple months I haven't applied myself to it fully. If there's one thing I'd advise, it's to keep with the ADA even if you're not trying to lucid dream. It's a seriously good thing and leads you to become very...spiritually healthy shall we say. As for the LDing itself, take heart from every small step of progress you make. If it's something you haven't experienced before (such as sleep paralysis or a false awakening) but you now have because of you're LD quest, take great confidence from that. It means you're getting closer and becoming more aware of your sleeping and dreaming.

Welcome to Dreamviews!

If you looking for accounts of people using LDs to explore themselfs, I can recommend Robert Waggoner "Lucid dreaming - Journey to the inner self". He describes in details, how he talks to his inner self, among other things.

And to start you off with lucid dreaming, here is a Beginners guide. After that, you can explore DV Wiki for many details. Of course, you can post your questions, or join DV Academy class of your choice.

Good luck and Happy dreams :alien:

Thanks for the support. Nivv-- that's really cool, I've dabbled in the sax as well and wow that instrument is a HARSH mistress. I feel that I'm inclined to agree with you about ADA, although I've only tried a couple days. I was walking my dogs in the park and I remember thinking about how beautiful everything was when you really look at it and I though hm, maybe the first thing I should set my mind to do in an LD is to thank god. (Not a particularly religious person, but I thank whatever is out there every day.)

Gab, that sounds very cool, I'm interested in the Jungian type of stuff, archetypes and shadow characters and stuff, but what I've seen of Robert Waggoner seemed a little out there for me. I might just have to pick up this book, however, if experienced LDers believe he's on to something!

I actually had a night with very little except a fragment or two recalled. Disappointing, but as you can tell I'm trying to stay positive and believe that it will happen right away. Laberge says it's about motivation, which I clearly have :P, correct practise, which I'm working on but daily practise is sort of my thing, and excellent dream recall, which is slowly but surely getting better.

I read a post that says that the temperature of their room effects recall, and I strongly agree with that. It's way too hot in here right now I think.

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Originally Posted by StephenDedalus

Gab, that sounds very cool, I'm interested in the Jungian type of stuff, archetypes and shadow characters and stuff, but what I've seen of Robert Waggoner seemed a little out there for me. I might just have to pick up this book, however, if experienced LDers believe he's on to something!

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Maybe you thinking of Robert Bruce? Because Waggoner's book is pretty solid.

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Originally Posted by gab

Maybe you thinking of Robert Bruce? Because Waggoner's book is pretty solid.

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I know there's a lot of misinformation about LDing, so I've been pretty skeptical and have stuck to Laberge related sources. I remember seeing Waggoner discuss some interesting stuff on Youtube, but I (prematurely) decided that he was speaking too much in terms of anecdotes, and not enough hard science. I err on the side of caution with such wild stuff as this, but I'm giving him a try now!

Picked up the book on my kindle today, so far it's right up my alley.

I have merge your posts. You can use the Edit button to add relevant stuff to your posts. :alien:

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Originally Posted by StephenDedalus

I have ambitions of bumping into Miles Davis or Jimi Hendrix in my dreams and getting some general musical inspiration.

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I did that once! I was talking to Jimi Hendrix about music until he suddenly drowned (he wasn't even in a lake...?). I was disappointed when I woke up and nothing he said in the dream actually worked, but it was still cool. The lyrics of Purple Haze were written in the sky and we were standing on the side of a brick building. I don't know much music theory at all, I can barely read music, so maybe you'll have a dream that will help and inspire you.

I don't know if I've always had it or accidentally learned it, but I can "hear" any note I want in my head. That's how I tune my guitar. I have trouble naming notes because I'm just learning them now.

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Originally Posted by Woodstock

I don't know if I've always had it or accidentally learned it, but I can "hear" any note I want in my head. That's how I tune my guitar. I have trouble naming notes because I'm just learning them now.

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Really? If you can sing any note accurately 100% of the time you probably have perfect pitch, though I've known lots of people who could tune their guitars this way because they memorized the sound of one or all strings. That's sort of a related skill.

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Originally Posted by StephenDedalus

Really? If you can sing any note accurately 100% of the time you probably have perfect pitch, though I've known lots of people who could tune their guitars this way because they memorized the sound of one or all strings. That's sort of a related skill.

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I can't always sing notes accurately, but that's because I'm a horrible singer. But I can imagine an F or B or something in my head and play it on my guitar and it's the same. I don't know if that's perfect pitch or a good musical memory.

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Originally Posted by Woodstock

I can't always sing notes accurately, but that's because I'm a horrible singer. But I can imagine an F or B or something in my head and play it on my guitar and it's the same. I don't know if that's perfect pitch or a good musical memory.

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It could be the beginning of relative pitch, because if your ear has a chance to orient itself to any note at all it can judge the other ones by association to that original one. If you have PP you should be able to sing any note reasonably accurately pretty much every time, maybe not with a beautiful sound but in pitch, and you should be able to do so with any of the 12 notes of the tempered musical scale, whether you know their names or not.

For example, as part of my ear training I sing an A or handful of other notes before I've touched my guitar or had a chance to compare it to something else. 99% of the time I get it right, and this is sort of getting into absolute pitch territory, but real establishment of the perception of tones should mean that they're as clear in your mind as imagining different colors.

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Originally Posted by StephenDedalus

It could be the beginning of relative pitch, because if your ear has a chance to orient itself to any note at all it can judge the other ones by association to that original one. If you have PP you should be able to sing any note reasonably accurately pretty much every time, maybe not with a beautiful sound but in pitch, and you should be able to do so with any of the 12 notes of the tempered musical scale, whether you know their names or not.

For example, as part of my ear training I sing an A or handful of other notes before I've touched my guitar or had a chance to compare it to something else. 99% of the time I get it right, and this is sort of getting into absolute pitch territory, but real establishment of the perception of tones should mean that they're as clear in your mind as imagining different colors.

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When I said I can't sing, I meant I can't even sing the right notes when I try. I have almost no control over my voice when I sing. I know when I'm singing a little too low, but I try to change that and then it's too high. There's a small part that's a little less than an octave that I can sing the right notes.

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Originally Posted by Woodstock

When I said I can't sing, I meant I can't even sing the right notes when I try. I have almost no control over my voice when I sing. I know when I'm singing a little too low, but I try to change that and then it's too high. There's a small part that's a little less than an octave that I can sing the right notes.

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I understand, that's not unusual. You may have a naturally talented ear, the extent of which does vary a lot individual by individual, but it is still unlikely that you would have perfect pitch, without being able to accurately pronounce the syllable "la" within your comfortable vocal range.