Dreaming Up Songs..........

powderfinger

New member
Well, I've read about this happening to songwriters, but it had never happened to me until this morning............

I woke up with the changes, melody, and lyrics to an entire new chorus in my head.............I hope this happens again, because it sure is an easy way to write a song:D ......................
it wasn't half bad either............

Does this ever happen to you guys??
If so, what is the frequency of it??
 
John Lennon has said HE never wrote Yesterday, because someone in his dreams played the chords to him and sang the tune, he just remembered them, he said..
 
I often get bursts when I'm trying to get to sleep:mad:

But I've had it a few times where I've woken up with the perfect lyric(s) and have a mad rush to get out of bed and jot it down quickly (probably hitting my head on my bedside cabinet)

Sometimes I note down tunes, but normally I just keep them in my head and let them develop at free times.
 
yes this has happened to me

the first time it happened i was 17 and the song was a new Hargar/halen tune. whole song just heard it. Never wrote it down though. I Didnt' realy want to be responsable for another v.halen reunion tour.
The last time it happened to me I went through the entire process of writing and recording the song. all I can remember is the beauty of all the instruments coming in together after a first verse of just vocals and guitars. in the dream it made me say wow. I remember the sound of the vocals. they made tears come to my eyes. then I realized I was realy dreaming and I decided to remember the song. that caused my consious memory to kick in causing me to wake up. The whole song was done. I played the drums and all the other parts. I remember that much of it. but none of the melody, chords, or lyrics. essentialy the whole song. But it doesnt get me down. It gives me something to strive for in my writing. to write a song that brings tears to my eyes and could only come from a dream. I know cheesy but it realy makes me work hard at every song.
 
i've had this happen, but not enough recall to put it down.. yet. i anticipate i'll improve my dream recall well enough eventually. ah well. i've been considering basing some of the songs i write on dreams, though, on a slight tangent from the topic.
 
It happens to me quite often, but I'm never sure if it's something I've dreamed or just the result of thinking about writing the song right before I fall asleep. Prior to a couple of years ago I would convince myself I would remember the lyrics or melody when I woke up; of course, I never did. So, now I keep a notebook or mini-cassette recorder at bedside and transcribe what I've dreamed and/or thought about while it's fresh in my mind. Despite rumors to the contrary, most women don't consider jumping up in the middle of the night to write down a song a "turn on".

I have to admit, I've ended up with some good songs by this method. On Townes Van Zandt's Documentary album, he relates an incident of writing one of his best songs during a dream. It's a funny story about him living with Guy and Susanna Clark and the three of them having the flu and taking Robitussin for it. Van Zandt said he felt like he should go back to the pharmacy and get a case of Robitussin and tell the pharmacist he needed the stuff to write songs.
 
I once did this. I ended up with a blues song called "Mama! Don't let the dead come in" Very odd dream, an elderly lady was sitting in a wheelchair reciting the words to me. Kind of made an impression...
 
This, I think, is all about the power of the subconscious mind. The old cliche about "sleeping on a problem" is founded in truth.

Of course songwriting is not a problem (well, it is for me:) ) but you are thinking "I want to find a combination of words and music that conveys this particular message or emotion" and you struggle away with the front of your mind, with a pen, a guitar or a keyboard and it all seems very difficult. When you get part way - unless you're a Lennon/McCartney or a John/Taupin - you kind of feel you give up and do something else. This is when the subconscious mind starts to work and you wake up with a new lyric, riff, chord structure or whatever.

So it would be very interesting to hear whether these songs that came in dreams were in fact related to things you had been thinking about before. If they're not them I'm talking a load of old bollocks:rolleyes:
 
Oh my yes, it did have quite a bit to do with my real life. *sigh* Still made an interesting song, though...
 
Song Writing

I've written parts of songs while sleeping, sometimes good but always have a hard time recalling the melody when I wake up. I am able to to write a song about once every two months, gives me time to refine them.
 
a couple of times a year i will dream a chorus part of a song (singing or intrumental) while im a sleep and when i wake up i can't remember it exatly or all the parts in it or mostly i can't even play or sing it out properly.
but easy come easy go and you just got to ready for when they come.
 
Hi All,

When I saw this topic I had to respond. When I start getting really into my music ie; practicing everyday-thinking about music all the time-seeing that my "technicality" and proficiency is getting better at the instrument I am playing... Right before I go to sleep I can hear the instruments, the chord progression, even a singer singing the melody and words-weird huh (even stranger I see the actual band and musicians!) Like tuning into a live radio station.
Since I am starting fresh again by not only playing and practicing but by learning theory as well, I am sure it will return (or I hope) in a few months, cuz I will hopefully know what is being played-hehehe!!!
 
Yeah... I actually got an entire concept for a song in one of my dreams... i was dreaming about this music... woke up and just recorded what i was hearing from my dream. It was weird...I already knew what notes to play and everything :D
 
Yeah. It was a life-changing experience.

1996: I'd played for 20 years, but was only doing church music for a little while. I'd been bumming about not being able to find a good gospel-style setting of the Gloria (a standard part of the Catholic Mass) for a few weeks.

This particular night, I did a concert backing up David Haas (he's big in some Catholic circles), drank too much iced tea (i. e., caffeine) at dinner after, and woke up in the middle of the night, with a fully-formed, six-part gospel-style Gloria running through my head. All the vocal parts, turnarounds, everything.

Not only was it all there, it would NOT go away - just ran in my head all day for three days. Finally, the third day, I took the day off work, went to my church, talked to the music director. He handed me a pad of manuscript paper, said "start writing".

The strangest thing about all this is that I NEVER wrote before - 20 years of playing, the only thing I'd come up with was a novelty Christmas Blues song. But this just FELL together. It also opened the floodgates - I've written a bunch or Christian music since. I try my hand at secular stuff sometimes, too - an occasional gem, but the Christian stuff just keeps coming.

That Gloria got performed at that year's midnight mass - 20+ voice choir and piano (that was a major coup in itself - getting the guitarists to put their axes down), plus tambo. It was a glorious moment. Never recorded it, but still one of the best things I've ever written (or, more accurately, held the pencil for). As far as I know, the sequence is still sitting on the KT-88 I left behind...
 
Sometimes just before falling asleep its like having a radio in my head. I will hear a complete tune, could have whole horn sections with a bunch singers, could be a whole symphony, etc. Just like listening to a radio. Tunes I have never heard and I hear them complete. Sometimes it starts by running a melody through my head and then blooms into a full tune. I dont know where it comes from, I never get up to write them down, I am just to astonished and lay there listening. It really is incredible. Stuff I am completely unable to play, very intricate chord structures etc.

Maybe its the crackpot.
 
Wow, have to say I'm amazed to see a thread like this!

Have not to my knowledge ever actually dreamed a song as such but often come up with complete songs (vocals, riffs, changes - everything) in my head, usually as someone said while drifting off to sleep. I've found one of the best ways to finish songs or come up with those missing parts is to simply play it over and over in your head until that piece comes to you. I did this for a chorus in one of my newer songs (www.audiox.cjb.net/v2.html - 'What You've Done' - if you're interested in hearing it) and although I know it's no piece of brilliance I've been told many times its one of my more catchy songs, largely thanks to that 'dreamed' chorus. That same semi conscious focus is also really good for coming up with arrangements, and again as someone said - coming up with some great vocal lines.
I often think that if I could translate whats in head immeadiately into recorded or at least transcribed music I would much more successful than I am now (still restricted to bedroom recordings!
tho i am only 17..). Which is unfortunate for me because I forget melodies very easily for which I have no idea why and don't quite have the ear to start playing whats in my head without a second thought. Subsequently most of my songs are written purely on experiental playing, jamming with myself if that makes more sense - but then maybe most are written like that?

Anyway very interesting thread, it's probably safe to say that all composers are 'dreamers'.
 
There are books on lucid on dreaming.....thats where you guide your dreams and even control the subject of your dreams ... although you have hundreds of dreams in a night and most often only remember the last one it is not uncommon for musicians to dream of music never before heard ...... I could never lucid dream but they do have books with exercises which you can train your brain with. I saw it on TLC (no really, I did)
 
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