Thread: I'm a musician. Can I practice while asleep?

I have heard that lucid dreaming is a really great way to practice stuff. Ever notice that you practice something over and over and can't get it, then you go to bed and the next morning you can play it great? I have heard some theories that this has something to do with practicing things while asleep. So lucid dreaming could be a great way to work on things.

I am not sure how well pianos work in dreams. I made up a song on the piano the other night in a dream and it seemed like I was playing the right notes for how the song sounded. So if you are very familiar with the piano it will probably work.

That reminds me, I should go over to the piano right now and see if that dream song is any good!

I have heard that you can and you will learn really well, but I haven;t been able to. When I play in LDs the music never corresponds to the keys or frets I'm actually hitting, I just get an idea in my head and it's what I hear no matter what I play. But I've never tried practicing scales or anything. I will try to sometime in the next week.

Doesn't seem to do a thing for playing, but it's a great time to try creating new songs (especially as you can summon additional members of the band/orchestra/mariachi players/whatever)

Actually, there might not be a better time for creating new songs. Whatever mental faculty is at work when you look at a book in a dream and read random crazy stuff also allows musicians in a dream to create songs. So if you want inspiration, try seeing if you can jam with a DC. The only problem is that when you wake up, you'll have to carefully go over stuff to make sure you're not actually just remembering something you heard once long ago and forgot about.

The LDs I play music in are never very clear ones. THe songs I write usually suck, they're too repetitive, but it definitely seems like it should be the opposite. I think I just need to set a goal to do it, I usually just am lucid and see an instrument laying around so I decide to play it.

I was sitting in a bar in a non-LD this fall when I heard a song playing over the speakers and realized it was me playing a song I had never heard before. I recorded the melody on my phone in the morning. The song required just a little reworking (I changed the time signature), but it turned out to be a pretty good song. I include it in my setlist now and the audience is always amused at the story of how I came up with it.

Well so far I've been unable to play anything in my dreams but somehow everything I hear always sounds amazing so I'm hoping that eventually I will be able to use dreams to write new stuff.

I don't know about guitar but drums, IMO, should be possible.

Originally Posted by jasonresno

I don't know about guitar but drums, IMO, should be possible.

I would actually think the opposite, or that they would both be possible but drums would be less effective, just because drums are a very physical instrument.

I want to try working on seeing scale patterns in larger chunks on the guitar neck. I work on this playing scales in weird ways with my eyes closed in real life, I think I could do something similar but on a higher level in a dream, but I have other goals preoccupying me right now.

Originally Posted by stonedape

I would actually think the opposite, or that they would both be possible but drums would be less effective, just because drums are a very physical instrument.

I want to try working on seeing scale patterns in larger chunks on the guitar neck. I work on this playing scales in weird ways with my eyes closed in real life, I think I could do something similar but on a higher level in a dream, but I have other goals preoccupying me right now.

I've never tried so I got no idea, to be honest. The only reason I thought drums might work better is that they are less relient on knowing proper notation. For a drumset all I need to know is the rough sound of each piece of the kit and then the rest is just timing. I can memorize how different toms and snares sound but I figured it'd be hard to accurately remember the notations on a fretboard or piano.

I see what you mean, it probably has a lot to do with how much waking knowledge you have of them. I go to school for music so I'm playing guitar hours a day every day.

It doesn't seem to matter how much you can play the instrument so much as how well or effectively you can visualize yourself playing. If it's an instrument you know how to play, you'll play it realistically enough, and if not, dream logic kicks in and you'll successfully produce music while doing things that would just make random noises while awake. The physical mechanics of playing are secondary to the interrelationship of notes that make up the song, which is why dreams are better for composing than practicing.

Originally Posted by hyrumlayton

I'm a musician. I have been wondering lately if practicing piano, singing, etc. while asleep can help me while awake. I know that visualization can help in many areas. Can practicing while dreaming help me, or will the ability to do anything in a dream cancel that out?

yes...there's a scientific study on this

Music in dreams « Mind Hacks


I'm a musician also, in fact just today when i took a nap i heard some guitar music...it was loud and vivid like I literally had headphones on. I don't even like guitar music but for some reason the melody in it was so creative and original...i have never heard anything like it. Another time before that i was actually manipulating music while i was asleep, changing hi hats, drums, instruments..it was an amazing experience.

The only thing is the remembering part. You have to get real good at dream call I think..but it's definitely possible to be playing music in a dream and wake up and record the melody on your equipment in waking life.

In fact, I read this is what Beethoven had done, they recalled their auditory hypnagogia.

I know one thing, dreams are a goldmine of infinite creativity....so I'm still trying to build up my recall.

One of the perks of being a student is that I have access to hundreds of databases of scientific studies that I don't even need. I've found recently that there are loads of them about sleep.

The University of Heidelberg in Germany recently did a pilot study where they got participants to practice a task of flipping a coin into a cup during their lucid dreams. They found that these people improved overnight in comparison to their non lucid dreaming counterparts. So in answer to your question, I see no reason why you can't practice music at night as long as you have a basic idea of the instrument already.

Good luck!

Originally Posted by riverboy

One of the perks of being a student is that I have access to hundreds of databases of scientific studies that I don't even need. I've found recently that there are loads of them about sleep.

The University of Heidelberg in Germany recently did a pilot study where they got participants to practice a task of flipping a coin into a cup during their lucid dreams. They found that these people improved overnight in comparison to their non lucid dreaming counterparts. So in answer to your question, I see no reason why you can't practice music at night as long as you have a basic idea of the instrument already.

Good luck!

That's pretty cool, I have the same kind of access, I should look into what they have on dreams.

Although I can't speak directly for music I have had some interesting LD's where I'd paint on huge walls or canvases, but I'd have to pay attention closely or the image would fluctuate if I lost focus. I'd wake up with a very inspirational feeling and would try to recapture the drawing on paper or on photoshop. I can rarely get it just like it was in my dreams, but I'd do it anyway for that awesome feeling of creativity and inspiration, which I'm sure you musicians can relate to.

Originally Posted by stonedape

That's pretty cool, I have the same kind of access, I should look into what they have on dreams.

The study I'm talking about is by Daniel Erlacher and Michael Schredl and it's called "Practicing a Motor Task in a Lucid Dream Enhances Subsequent Performance: A Pilot Study." (2010) Enjoy!

Originally Posted by astralpixels

Although I can't speak directly for music I have had some interesting LD's where I'd paint on huge walls or canvases, but I'd have to pay attention closely or the image would fluctuate if I lost focus. I'd wake up with a very inspirational feeling and would try to recapture the drawing on paper or on photoshop. I can rarely get it just like it was in my dreams, but I'd do it anyway for that awesome feeling of creativity and inspiration, which I'm sure you musicians can relate to.

I've never painted in my dreams, but I like to walk around corners and see paintings that I've never seen before. It's amazing what the mind creates in dreams.

Pretty much everything has been said. The only thing I can add is about creativity in dreams.
My hypothesis is that everything you have a knowledge of - you can recreate and create a new version of that (imagination\originality); spontaneously. After I thought that - I saw the movie "Inception" and they said pretty much the same thing. :-)
That includes what you don't have a professional knowledge of.
Think about it; your mind creates a perfect vision of everything you can see in the real world. You obviously don't know how everything you see works; but you can do that.

Example - I have many great ideas for paintings for years now (not in dreams). And in one of my first LDs (recently), without me trying; I suddenly saw a beautiful painting (After I woke-up, I still though it looked great).
I guess it's the same about music. If you heard guitar music - you can create new guitar music; but you won't know how to play it.

About the practicing thing - unfortunately my LDs are still very short; and I couldn't explore much of what I can do with them. But from what I know about visualization, I know that when you visualize something - the same regions in your brain lighten-up, as if you would really perform that activity; so it's pretty-much the same thing for your brain whether you actually do it, or imagining it. So if in a LD you can imagine it much better - it's probably even better than visualization.