# Composing music in a dream



## roknardin (Sep 29, 2015)

Hey guys.
I've looked on the forum and nobody talked about this topic yet, so I thought it would be a really interesting thing to talk about.
(I will include links by the text, so you can check for a more detailed explanation)

Let's begin with the definition of a lucid dream: "A *lucid dream* is any dream in which one is aware that one is dreaming". (Link 1)
Most people, including myself don't usually realise they are dreaming when inside a dream. They just act like it's normal life. You cannot control a non lucid dream, you just act it out. Lucid dreams on the other hand can be controlled entirely. It's like you are a god in your own world. You can spawn people, talk to your subconsciousness, fly, have the best sex of your life, change the laws of physics... The only limit is your imagination. Lucid dreams are quite rare for an average human, but some people have them often. It's different for everyone. But here comes the great part. You can induce a lucid dream.
There are many ways of inducing a lucid dream (reality checks, wild, mild... (Link 2)) and everyone can do it. it requires some patience, discipline and knowledge about it.

So if you ever wanted to conduct an orchestra that plays music live from your head, here's the chance . The possibilities are infinite. Many people said that they were able to make music in a lucid dream even if they were not musicians or composers. (Link 3)
Before you rush to your bed let me tell you that there are a few "layers" of lucid dreams. In some lucid dreams you are only aware that you are dreaming, in some you can modify the dream a little and in some you have control of everything. (Link 4)
The full control of your dream can be achieved with regular practice and training.

I would really like to know if anyone has ever had a lucid dream in which they composed music or if someone uses this technique regularly for his works. Tell me what you think about this 

Link 1: 
Link 2: http://www.wikihow.com/Lucid-Dream
Link 3: http://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com/music-in-lucid-dreams.html
Link 4: 

Other useful links:
http://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com/

https://www.youtube.com/user/GizEdwards/videos?view=0&flow=grid&sort=p


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## MA-Simon (Sep 29, 2015)

"I would really like to know if anyone has ever had a lucid dream in which they composed music or if someone uses this technique regularly for his works. Tell me what you think about this "

About every day. And also every other second. I can't put the "live orchestra" off actually. 
This is why I got into digital music in the first place. To find a solution for shutting it the f*** off.
It is really disracting. But It never worked.
Mostly because composing with samples is so super slow and I hate the programming part.
Dialing in curves, managing articulations. I hate it. I can never manage to actually write what is in my head.
Because it keeps changing. The moment I load up a patch: It's gone.
So I buy and buy newer libraries, trying to get a faster workflow, so I can capture it:
But I can not keep up. It never works at all.

So... mostly I just ignore "it" for the moment.
Not actually producing any music at all.

But I still have to listen to it every day. And I can not share any of it.
Which has gotten old very quickly.

When I still was living with my parents, it was better: Because we had 2 pianos.
I could go on and just play for hours straight every day. (_I never played any sheet music)_
It was all free improvisation. Closing my eyes and let the inner cinema do its thing.
(Which was quite annoying for my parents, because I kept playing all the battle music too...)
I actually can not read sheet music that well.

For a long time I tried to do all at once. Drawing, design, film, photography, writing, composing, game design, programming etc. To much creativity can be a curse. I had to stop. Because there was not time for all of it.

So now I have settled on game design. Because here at last I can hope to someday show something
of what is going on inside my head._ (Also it's paid. Which is not a bad thing to start with at all.)
_


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## Hannes_F (Sep 29, 2015)

@MA-Simon 
This is something you can try: use piano samples for everything (or similar sounds like marimba etc.) With other words just check the raw notes while you are fixing your ideas.


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## tack (Sep 29, 2015)

I've "composed" seemingly brilliant and sophisticated orchestral moments while dreaming, but never during a lucid dream. I only say _seemingly_ because I can only judge it by my memory of the moment after-the-fact (while awake). Since my perception while dreaming must be in doubt, who knows what it _really_ sounded like.

I've always been interested in lucid dreaming. I get them rarely, maybe once a year. If I had them more often, I might think to try something musical. 

The problem is that the whole topic of lucid dreaming is so badly encumbered by obnoxious new age, mystical, pseudoscientific nonsense. Your third link for example -- I started watching it, and in part 2, the guy talks about a dream character "quite reminiscent of the light beings I've often conversed with in waking reality." Talk about immediately losing credibility.


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## Jdiggity1 (Sep 29, 2015)

I tell my best jokes in my dreams


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## Kralc (Sep 29, 2015)

Something, something, Inception Horns.


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## EastWest Lurker (Sep 29, 2015)

I have frequently dreamt whole pieces of music. In my dreams, they were brilliant but when I woke up I realized that they were banal and/or derivative. Unfortunately.


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## KEnK (Sep 29, 2015)

MA-Simon said:


> ...composing with samples is so super slow and I hate the programming part.
> ...trying to get a faster workflow,
> ...I actually can not read sheet music that well.


Use a pencil, it's the fastest tool there is.
It's a learnable skill and well worth the effort
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I do dream music sometimes and occasionally realize I'm dreaming- 
but never got to the point where I tried to do anything about it.
This thread may inspire me to try something.

Once woke up remembering some music I heard while asleep.
Immediately grabbed a guitar and captured it.
A very difficult and intense piece.

k


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## roknardin (Sep 30, 2015)

tack said:


> The problem is that the whole topic of lucid dreaming is so badly encumbered by obnoxious new age, mystical, pseudoscientific nonsense. Your third link for example -- I started watching it, and in part 2, the guy talks about a dream character "quite reminiscent of the light beings I've often conversed with in waking reality." Talk about immediately losing credibility.



Yes it's true. Well everyone interprets things differently. If you are religious your view on lucid dreaming may be different from a non religious person. 



KEnK said:


> Once woke up remembering some music I heard while asleep.
> Immediately grabbed a guitar and captured it.
> A very difficult and intense piece.



Interesting. Do you have a recording of that piece anywhere?


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## Guffy (Sep 30, 2015)

I'd just freak out over the fact that i can "spawn" stuff.
I'd imagine spawning the worst things ever, and suddenly it would be there. The Ring, The Grudge and the F.E.A.R girl vs me.

I was interested in Lucid Dreaming for a while, but figured it was too much crap to do to actually be able to do it.
I also read that you don't get a good sleep while lucid dreaming, AND that you could develop psychological issues. But this is random stuff i read online, how much of that is true? It's like if you have a headache and google it, surely you can conclude that you have a massive brain tumor, according to the internet.


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## atw (Sep 30, 2015)

Interesting topic! Never heard about it. The first thing which came in my mind was "Dream is collapsing (Inception)".


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## atw (Sep 30, 2015)

Jdiggity1 said:


> I tell my best jokes in my dreams


I think there is an app somewhere, which can record your speech when you are sleeping. (It records when you speak and turns off when not)


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## Uncle Peter (Oct 2, 2015)

The most prominent experience I've had similar to is when I went travelling. I took a book on harmony and studied/did the exercises etc. One particular day I spent longer than usual doing this - so much so it made me tired - so I had a nap. I was dozing off and my buddy put the radio on and was blaring out drum and bass. I dozily shouted for him to turn it off - but then I came round a bit and realised it was an auditory illusion. There was no radio - it was very surreal - the noise was there 'in my ears'. Not just in my head - but it was as if it were playing in the room. i had no control of what was coming out - I'm not really even into D&B. It was cool.


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## scarred bunny (Oct 2, 2015)

Fugdup said:


> I also read that you don't get a good sleep while lucid dreaming, AND that you could develop psychological issues. But this is random stuff i read online, how much of that is true?



I think this depends on one's constitution. I don't think it'd be dangerous for most people. But if a person has a tendency towards dissociation or feelings of unreality for example, I wouldn't particularly recommend disrupting one's sleeping patterns or doing reality checks all day to see if you're 'really' awake in an effort to have lucid dreams. And I can see there may be a risk of psychological trauma if your imagination runs too wild in the wrong direction. 

I had a period when I had very frequent lucid dreams and strange OOBE-like experiences and things. It was a really weird time in my life for many reasons, but the experiences were always interesting. Sometimes joyful, sometimes frightening, but always interesting. Then it just gradually stopped. I can't say it did me any harm or anything, and I wouldn't trade the experiences away. But I also don't rate myself as being terribly mentally balanced in general, so I cautiously decided not to train myself to have them again... for now. Especially as when I had frequent lucid dreams, I also had frequent episodes of sleep paralysis - which was interesting in its own way, but not very fun. 

I've known plenty of others who've had frequent lucid dreams. For some it just happened spontaneously, others had to train themselves to it. None have reported any ill effects or anything like that. 

More directly on topic, I never did write music in a dream, lucid or otherwise. I did build a Reaktor ensemble once though.


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## Guffy (Oct 2, 2015)

scarred bunny said:


> When I had frequent lucid dreams, I also had frequent episodes of sleep paralysis - which was interesting in its own way, but not very fun.


Oh god. That's reason enough for me not to get into that stuff.
I have a pretty crazy imagination, and i'm pretty sure i could create one of the scariest horror movies ever (if i was a director)


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## GULL (Oct 3, 2015)

Scientists say there is no sound in dreams. This opens a new definition of music.

"Heard melodies are sweet. But those unheard are sweeter" John Keats


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## tomaslobosk (Oct 3, 2015)

Amazing thread BTW!



EastWest Lurker said:


> I have frequently dreamt whole pieces of music. In my dreams, they were brilliant but when I woke up I realized that they were banal and/or derivative. Unfortunately.


Something similar happens to me, dreaming with music triggers an amazing emotional state of mind, and even when I wake up, I feel that I've heard the most beautiful piece of music ever written.



GULL said:


> Scientists say there is no sound in dreams. This opens a new definition of music.


I'm not an expert, but I must disagree, it's like saying that you can't see while dreaming. Indeed, you can't actually "see", since the outer senses are "turned off" while dreaming, but you absolutely can retrieve senses' data from memory while dreaming, and that will give you the impression of actual sensing.

BTW, I've had some lucid dreams, but I've never tried to control the dream. I tend to panic when thinking of the possibilities, so I force myself to wake up, and that's when the sleep paralysis occurs.


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## scarred bunny (Oct 3, 2015)

When I've had lucid dreams, staying in the dream was usually the hardest part. When I became conscious of dreaming I got so excited by the possibilities that sometimes I'd just accidentally snap right out it. I usually just woke up normally though. Sleep paralysis tended to happen separately for me... usually. 

Sleep paralysis, and the hallucinations that often accompany it, can be pretty horrifying. I had the good fortune of having actually read about it before it first happened, so at least I could recognize it for what it was even if it freaked me out. I've met some people who had similar experiences but had no explanation for them - they thought they were losing their minds, when it's really just a pretty harmless (if scary and annoying) quirk of how the brain works. 

Anyone had a false awakening, a dream inside a dream? That's another 'fun' experience in mindfuckery.


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## KEnK (Oct 3, 2015)

GULL said:


> Scientists say there is no sound in dreams. This opens a new definition of music.


??
I had a dream once about moving.
In it my cat was helping get things packed.
He walked towards me through the kitchen on his hind legs,
standing all of 6 feet tall.
He was holding a large clear plastic bag of butchered rat parts.
He asked me, quite clearly, "What am I supposed to do with these?"

There's definitely sound in dreams.

k


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## GULL (Oct 3, 2015)

KEnK said:


> ??
> I had a dream once about moving.
> In it my cat was helping get things packed.
> He walked towards me through the kitchen on his hind legs,
> ...



Ha ha. Yes, we have conversations. Actually we 'understand' what cat speaks 
Say if somebody says "King" while you are dreaming and you hear what they say, may be your cat will be a king in your dream. 

But yes, whatever scientists say about dreams are not important. The subject matter is not very clear to them too.


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## GULL (Oct 3, 2015)

scarred bunny said:


> Anyone had a false awakening, a dream inside a dream? That's another 'fun' experience in mindfuckery.



That is getting interesting


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