Compose music in your sleep?

Work on transcribing, start small. Listen to a piano piece, work out what the home key is, then try transcribing it. When you have done this for a while and are being coming good at it, try a string quartet, then gradulally go onto bigger ensembles, until you finally move onto full orchestra. Trying to go straight to full orchestra will only result in frustration, believe me :happy:

Yeah, I know. It's frustrating having to learn how to write score.

People keep talking about learning "music theory". But I already know what I want the music to sound like. I don't feel that I need to learn music theory. What I need to learn is how to write down what I already have in my head. The music theory part is obviously already done! The music in my mind sound GREAT!

So it must already be well-composed. The only thing that remains is to "transcribe" it into score. And that process actually has nothing at all to do with music theory because the music has already been "written" so-to-speak.

I mean, a person wouldn't need to know "music theory" to transcribe a concert into score. All they need to be able to do is recognize which instruments produce which voices and how to write that out in notation.

If I can get that "transcription" process down I won't need music theory because I already hear the music. The music has already been "written" in my mind.

I did manage to write down a flute and guitar duet that I could hear in my mind. But I actually played it out on the instruments to figure out where all the notes were. I used the actual instruments to help me transcribe it into score.

I'm doing the same thing with a guitar/banjo duet. However, there are some parts of it that I can hear in my mind, and can't yet even improvise on the banjo. I only just bought a banjo last week so it's taking me some time to figure out how to play it. But I can hear it in my head. If I could play what I can hear in my head I'd be a star! :happy:

I suspect you will need some music theory, it will help you a lot, for example, if I hear something in my head and am notating it, I may know it's in C major, from there it's easier for me to recognise the sound of a neapolitan 6th, and understand how these work, than to realise that the bass is playing an F, and the winds playing Db and Ab, jsut an example of how theory could help ;)

Abra: I read what you said, but personal issues, make me not get into that. I promise that I will PM/help/post about it further...

On topic:

I never dream about music. Never. I work on music (atm 16 hours a day). I don't need it in my sleep! ;) I dream of other things (private! Ok?)

I don't dream about music usually, per se, but I do find my second-best inspiration and ideas while trying to fall asleep. Unfortunately, I usually forget them by morning.

If I go to sleep with music in my head, I'll forget it 100% of the time unless I play what I'm thinking on my keyboard first. Kinda strange....

~Kal

:laugh: I dream of other things (private! Ok?)

:laugh:

:thumbsup:

....

*bursts out laughing*

:(

I don't dream of music (except once when my brother insisted on playing the entire collection of 24 Rachmaninov preludes to me. Twice. At one in the morning.) I tend to dream of other really mad stuff.

my dreams are few and far between. however, some of my best work (none published here as of yet) had been done because I thought of it in my sleep.

i dream of music but i tend to be listening to the piece (as if on a radio) and thinking to myself 'god that sounds good, iv never heard of it before. i wish i could write something like that'. of course if i have never heard of it in my dream then it must be my own... i never remember it when i wake up...what about hypnosis....?

I dream music alot. I usually can remember most of the themes, so its pretty fun to use them in pieces.

Has anyone ever composed music while half sleeping? I have, a few times. And I think I met Chopin once in my sleep :) Anyway, I was able to control what I wanted to write but I was sleeping. And I might add, the music was amazing! I of course forgot everything when I woke up, but I believe that an unconscious mind can create better things, than a conscious mind.

An example, I created this piano composition......then it was accompanied by a beautiful bassoon melody, and before I knew it, strings were chiming in, indicating a piano concerto. And I was controlling it. I was half awake after all. If I had only remembered what it sounded like, I would have written it down. Does anyone have experiences to share?

This is really interesting. I recall, over a year before I ever started to compose anything or even think about music in general, I was nearly asleep - but not quite asleep. In my mind was the image of an underwater sanctuary of some sort, it was very green. An orchestra came into my mind, and it felt like I was controlling it - the music was particularly aquatic but had a similar grandeur to a Mahler symphony, but I totally forget it now.

A figure that was supposed to be Bartok was once in my dream, though he looked different.

There was supposedly a woman, known well to any expert on the parapsychological, from whom the great composers "spoke" - mostly trivial, whimsical commentary on their works -- I however, believe this to be "tape recordings" of their own memories, as opposed to the actual sentient being.

I’ve known for awhile that I’ve been creating songs in my dreams. I’ve always been to busy to analyze it and not ambitious enough to write it down when I wake up. Recently I watched the MTV music awards. I was watching Miley Cyrus sing midnight sky and I realized that I recognized the song. Word for word it was the song I sang in my dream a month or so before. Everything in that song has a specific meaning. I’m shocked it’s almost the exact song. Another song that I sang in my dream was hands to myself by Selena Gomez. I’m not sure what’s going on with this, if I keep invading famous peoples dreams with my music. I mean it’s pretty cool but now I’m just thinking I should look more into it. There’s not too many other people with similar experiences. I’m not sure if I’m in other peoples dreams or they’re in mine. Maybe it’s because we’re musically inclined so our vibrational frequencies get connected in our dream state? I’m sure I’m not crazy or making this up. It’s too eerie. Anyways I just thought I’d leave my little experience here.

I have enough trouble composing music while I'm awake, I don't know about sleep.

Well, I don't compose music in my sleep, but I dream of melodies, together with harmonies. However, most of the time, I forgot most of the details after I woke up. If I ever remembered the music that I dreamed of, I played it in my head over and over again and then wrote it down. The music that emerged from my dreams usually sounded better than the one I wrote down with a conscious mind.