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Songwriting during sleep


Adama

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HI! My name is Adama, I am new to this forum.

 

I want to give this thread a shot, although it is probably going to be a lonely one. I am very, very curious to find out if anybody out there writes their songs in their dreams.

 

I have been writing this way for as long as I can remember. If you have even remotely dreamt of a melody or any lyric at all and woke up in the morning and remembered it, please drop me a reply.

 

If not....no worries! Drop me a note anyways, just to say hi.

 

Thanks for reading this post..

You're invited to visit me at http://www.adamaworld.com
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I've experimented with lucid dreaming, as a way to learn and write, but have been largely unsuccessful at it. You can actually remember what you've come up with in a dream state and recall it while awake consistently??

impressive.

-Paul

"You look hopefully for an idea and then you're humble when you find it and you wish your skills were better. To have even a half-baked touch of creativity is an honor."

-- Ernie Stires, composer

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Originally posted by Adama:

Do you mind if I ask you how often you get ideas during your dream-state?

I don't really count but I'd say maybe once a month/two months or something. More often it's just something that happens in my dream, then I wake up and think "hey there could be a song in there somewhere" and then I start working from that.
A duck-pond, a museum, and a red hunting hat.
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I have had dreams where I can hear music that my band is playing, stuff we've never actually played, but I can hear it fully and clearly, in my dreams that is.. I have rarely, if ever been able to recall it in the morning however..

 

by the way - gorgeous photos of you on your site Adama

"You look hopefully for an idea and then you're humble when you find it and you wish your skills were better. To have even a half-baked touch of creativity is an honor."

-- Ernie Stires, composer

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Originally posted by kitaristi0:

Originally posted by Adama:

Do you mind if I ask you how often you get ideas during your dream-state?

I don't really count but I'd say maybe once a month/two months or something. More often it's just something that happens in my dream, then I wake up and think "hey there could be a song in there somewhere" and then I start working from that.
I have this too, where I get stuff I can work with. It flows from a different place once I start to work with it. Do you find it any different to working with ideas from the wake-state?

:idea:

You're invited to visit me at http://www.adamaworld.com
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Thank you Mound for your compliments.... I know what you mean about your experiences with dreaming music that you have never heard and knowing that you have not heard it before, even if you don't remember it when you wake up. I have had these too. It can be frustrating, especially when you really enjoyed it during the dream.
You're invited to visit me at http://www.adamaworld.com
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the "mad scientist" in me always wanted to invent some kind of helmet that would record the audio that was running in my head. how cool would that be?

 

anyway - there is lots of information on the net about lucid dreaming - there are in fact exercises you can do to "train" yourself to recognize and "become concious of" the fact that you are dreaming. If you can become concsious of your being in a dream-state, without waking up then you are in theory, having a "lucid dream" where you can control the dream. (there are in fact exercises you can do to train yourself not to wake up when you do realize you are dreaming) The thought being you could practice, or learn, or write, or fly or whatever and have total control over it.

 

pretty cool stuff.. very difficult in practice. if this comes naturally to you Adama, consider yourself lucky!

"You look hopefully for an idea and then you're humble when you find it and you wish your skills were better. To have even a half-baked touch of creativity is an honor."

-- Ernie Stires, composer

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HI mound and cherrie! Sorry if I spell your names wrong, but I forget how they are spelled when I hit the reply button!

 

It so funny you say that mound because one of my biggest dreams is to have a machine that can record my tunes that I dream. I know what it feels like to feel unfulfilled too cherrie, as I feel like I have lost many a song when I either don't wake up or someone talks to me just after I wake up.

 

I have found that certain songs come back again if I don't record them. Also, I get parts of the arrangement on different nights. Other songs seems lost forever.

 

I could lucid dream consistently as a kid, like most kids, but now, it's not so fluent. I find as I am an adult, I care less about it. I was fun as a kid to be creative in my dreams. I was more adventurous. Now, I am a lazier dreamer (I have just realised as I type this to you guys).

 

But I am trying to be less lazy about recording the songs. I used to just take it for granted and let them leave me, even if it is with me the whole day. Now I am recording every single thing I dream.

You're invited to visit me at http://www.adamaworld.com
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Some of my more treasured bits of words and chord combos have come to me while sleeping. The pencil & paper is on the nightstand, at the ready.

 

PPaul

[url=http://www.TiredIronBand.com

 

Fender Strat

Hamer Sunburst

Guild D-25

DeArmond Jetstar (Spel!)

Washburn HB-15C

Peavey C-30

 

blah blah ho hum etc etc

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Adama, none of my songs are available on the net, they are all... sort of... self published. I sell tapes & CD's at gigs & give them away as gifts.

 

My instrument of choice is the guitar.

 

PPPPPPaul

[url=http://www.TiredIronBand.com

 

Fender Strat

Hamer Sunburst

Guild D-25

DeArmond Jetstar (Spel!)

Washburn HB-15C

Peavey C-30

 

blah blah ho hum etc etc

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I wrote my very first song completely in a dream. I wrote all the lyrics down in the morning, but when I grabbed my guitar and tried to play the melody, all of the notes and chords were different than the ones I had envisioned in the dream. So I had to learn the music over again.

 

Since that song, I've only dreamt bits and pieces. But it's still a resource for ideas.

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I write haiku in my sleep. Here are a few:

 

My mom is on fire

I put her out with whiskey

I'm regretting that

 

You are not handsome

Even your wife tells me so

I am banging her

 

George Bush is my friend

I think about him alot

I'm Donald Rumsfeld

 

This is getting old

I can't seem to find good work

I smoke crack at noon

All paying jobs absorb and degrade the mind.

-Aristotle

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Hey mstrek- that's crazy that your band is called Section Eight. Right here in good old Sheboygan, WI there is a funk band with whom my band is good friends called Section 8. OOOOHHHHH....I'd better tell them. I suppose, though. That's just one of those words that screams "cool band name". Hey, anyone know of any bands out there called the Dead Beat Dads? That's my band. And no, we are not actual deadbeat dads. In fact, I have yet to reproduce. On a side note, we are very sexy. Most of our fans are women. Lots of sex for the Dead Beat Dads! :wave:

All paying jobs absorb and degrade the mind.

-Aristotle

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  • 4 weeks later...
Originally posted by cherri:

I keep a notebook by the bed, in case I wake up with a good idea.

Cherri

That's a great idea; but mine is even better. I purchased a dream recording device. You just set it before you go to sleep and it records the music from your dreams -- words, melody, instrumentation, everything.

 

At 5:30 each morning it wakes me with fully produced versions of the songs I dreamed the previous night. Later it gives... news... and... weather...... never mind. :rolleyes:

Don Turner

TaoManna Media Productions

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I was somewhere between awake & asleep last night, and these wonderful musical ideas kept coming to me.... unfortunately my wife was already asleep and it would have been inconsiderate of me to disturb her sleep, so those ideas are gone :(

I used to think I was Libertarian. Until I saw their platform; now I know I'm no more Libertarian than I am RepubliCrat or neoCON or Liberal or Socialist.

 

This ain't no track meet; this is football.

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Don't let that stop you ... A pen light and a tablet are all you need, it won't disturb anyone.

 

Now and then I hop up and run out to the kitchen to write if something really good starts cooking in the brain. My husband understands, and looks forward to the finished product, even if I make him wait a couple of weeks until the song is tighter.

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Some years ago I experimented quite a lot with lucid dreams. It was very frustrating in the beginning when you woke up every time you realized you were dreaming, but after a while I got it working. (One trick is to spin around as kids do to get dizzy. That often worked for me.) Then the problem was to get yourself to the point where you really understand that you actually CAN change everything around you. For an example, try to make the monitor right in front of you turn into an apple. Difficult? The dreams feel this real, and to tell yourself you can change anything isn't easy. I quit exercising for some odd reason, but sometimes I get the lucid dreams anyway. BTW, try sometimes to just flow with the dream when you're "lucid". It's pretty easy, and really hilarious at times. :D

 

I've heard music in dreams, and sometimes remotely remembered them, but at the same time understanding that they are way too difficult technically for me playing, or writing them down. A real shame. I've had some great tunes... :(

- Bob Freebird

 

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. -Douglas Adams

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This topic interested me so I quit lurking and joined. Thank you.

 

I read an interview about Townes Van Zandt once and I believe he wrote "If I Needed You" after he sang and played it in a dream.

www.oneaisleover.com
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I write from dreams all the time. I usually end up singing or playing the song in the dream, or it is a soundtrack playing during the dream. I have a voice recorder by the bed, and I sing the melody, words, and rhythm into it to the best of my ability. It is better than pen and paper for me because the feel, melody, and rhythm can be more easily remembered along with the lyrics. Often I wake up and can't remember a lick of it, but as soon as I play back the tape, there it is. Actually, I usually write songs by singing into the voice recorder first, and fleshing out the details later. Try it!

Sean

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I have this too, where I can go back to the tape after the dream and the parts just flow back. My dreams come in themes a lot of the times. At the moment, I am dreaming a lot of instrumental pieces with a lot of brass with trombone, and deep strings. There are actually instruments that I don't recognise in my current dreams. My frustration (I believe we all have them to one degree or other) is that I have to choose which song to record when I wake up. After that, I forget the other ones from the night. So I have to make a decision to 'let-go' of three or so.
You're invited to visit me at http://www.adamaworld.com
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