Anyone ever write music in their sleep?

PTravel

PTravel

Senior Senior Member
Sometimes I'll wake up with music in my head -- new music that I hadn't though about before. I'll either boot up a DAW and record it or, if I'm not at home, try to write it out (I'm not very good at that). This happened to me today. I took a nap this afternoon, woke up with music in my head and got it into my DAW.

Does this ever happen to anyone else?
 
happens to me sometimes,wake with the whole song finished in my head,completed like listening to a cd ... when i wake i usually feel like crap so its a battle to try and work it out before it gets lost .. if i dont it will keep on looping over and over till i at least get the basics down ... sometimes i dont even like em and listen to something else to try and forget about it,can be really annoying at times.


another time when it comes from nowhere is when doing pointless tasks,i kinda get to the point where i clear my head then say cook or make a drink and BOOM something will hit me outta the blue ... journeys when im the passenger,its kinda strange its like the "zone" you get into when you play,switch off and it happens ...

another strange thing is i can dream a whole film but be in it (kinda an actor,main lead or bit part ) or just watch ...


gotta ask,does it take a lot out of you? i often feel exhausted and completely drained like i haven't slept
 
Yes! Music flows from my subconscious. Problem is, usually between the bed and DAW I've got it so messed up I end up with a different song...
I also used to dream full episodes of Star Trek that I'd never seen. Don't even particularly care for the Spock & Kirk stuff. I was really glad when those dreams stopped.
 
this does happen to me also, but nowhere near as often as it used to, and that really annoys me. I've had something similar when I can get myself in a very relaxed almost meditative state first thing in the morning, and whilst not thinking about anything and my mind is clear, I literally start hearing music, but that is also rare thesedays.
 
Btyre2013 said:
this does happen to me also, but nowhere near as often as it used to, and that really annoys me. I've had something similar when I can get myself in a very relaxed almost meditative state first thing in the morning, and whilst not thinking about anything and my mind is clear, I literally start hearing music, but that is also rare thesedays.
Click to expand...

It happens to me with some frequency. Sometimes if may be a musical "hook", sometime a lyrical phrase. I use to lose them because it was too much effort to get up, go to the studio, etc. I started to keep pen & paper by the bed, but that required turning on the light (the wife always appreciated that), getting into a position to write, etc.

Finally, a few years back, I purchased a small digital dictation device (abount the size of a cell phone). Now I can reach out to the night stand, in the dark, hit record and mumble the melody or lyrics, without barely moving. Then the next morning I can listen to the recorder, and hopfully make sense of what I hear.

Some ideas still get lost in translation - but I now capture at least 75% of those musical dreamscapes.
 
Xdrummer said:
It happens to me with some frequency. Sometimes if may be a musical "hook", sometime a lyrical phrase. I use to lose them because it was too much effort to get up, go to the studio, etc. I started to keep pen & paper by the bed, but that required turning on the light (the wife always appreciated that), getting into a position to write, etc.

Finally, a few years back, I purchased a small digital dictation device (abount the size of a cell phone). Now I can reach out to the night stand, in the dark, hit record and mumble the melody or lyrics, without barely moving. Then the next morning I can listen to the recorder, and hopfully make sense of what I hear.

Some ideas still get lost in translation - but I now capture at least 75% of those musical dreamscapes.
Click to expand...
That digital dictation device is a great idea! I'm going to get one for this purpose.
 
Yeah that happens a lot to me too. It takes me about an hour to start feeling even remotely awake after getting up though, so I usually forget the melodies. Mountain hiking is key to musical inspiration to me, the music becomes almost literally audible.

I might try that dictation device idea too. It's a great idea, but I'm not sure I could convince myself to record the ideas at the state I'm in at that time of day.
 
dainbramage said:
I might try that dictation device idea too. It's a great idea, but I'm not sure I could convince myself to record the ideas at the state I'm in at that time of day.
Click to expand...
That's precisely the state you want to be in, when your critical faculties are switched off. I find bits of music coming to me in my sleep quite a bit. I had this 8 or 9 note phrase come to me the other morning. It was so strange I had to get out of bed and hum it into my dictaphone. I'd never remember it otherwise. At other times I've been so lazy that I've had a great tune arrive and I couldn't be bothered to get out of bed, convincing myself that I'd remember it and of course, 7 minutes later, I've forgotten it !
This morning, I had a piece of music arrive as I slept. I could hear the drums and the slurring bass and the riff.
Then I realized later on that it was a song I've already recorded {The tooth decay dental blues}!
 
grimtraveller said:
That's precisely the state you want to be in, when your critical faculties are switched off. I find bits of music coming to me in my sleep quite a bit. I had this 8 or 9 note phrase come to me the other morning. It was so strange I had to get out of bed and hum it into my dictaphone. I'd never remember it otherwise. At other times I've been so lazy that I've had a great tune arrive and I couldn't be bothered to get out of bed, convincing myself that I'd remember it and of course, 7 minutes later, I've forgotten it !
This morning, I had a piece of music arrive as I slept. I could hear the drums and the slurring bass and the riff.
Then I realized later on that it was a song I've already recorded {The tooth decay dental blues}!
Click to expand...
I wonder if only musicians/composers dream music, or it's something that everyone does?
 
PTravel said:
I wonder if only musicians/composers dream music, or it's something that everyone does?
Click to expand...
That's an interesting one. I think there's a good chance that hearing songs you've never heard before while sleeping is fairly common to mankind but unless you compose or play, there's no real reason to remember or access it. I do all kinds of weird things in my dreams that I don't do in waking life. I also find that my responses in my dreams are exactly what they would be in waking life. I have no great head for heights for example and if I'm high up in my dreams, my heart is beating more rhythmically and rapidly than Phil Taylor's bass drum foot.
 
Ya, I experience this at times.. The 'voice memo' app on my iPhone comes in pretty handy.. I can quickly/easily hum or speak the basic idea without having to scurry around and boot up a bunch of equipment..
 
I have done that before, I woke up with a tune in my head, but unfortunately I didn't have any way to track it, I don't really know how to write that stuff out, so I lost it xD I thought it was the craziest thing though. Also any inspirations for lyrics tend to come to me at night while i'm supposed to be going to sleep. I always keep my ipod with me with the notepad on it and jot down any lyrics that come into my head.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top