Dreaming About Playing

I’m not trying to get too surreal or ethereal here, but I’m just wondering if anybody dreams about playing music, whether it’s trad or anything else. And if so, how realistic are they?

For me, I will somtimes dream about playing, but the realism of it is very low, or nothing works like it’s supposed to and it’s very frustrating and I would really rather even not dream about it.

However, last night I dreamed about playing Irish flute. I’ve never touched a flute, but I’ve thought about it. I’ve messed around with whistle a bit but far from being able to pull something off at a session. But this dream felt more realistic than most musical dreams I’ve had. That is, I was holding a flute, I was learning to play it, the fingering matched the whistle, I was having to find places in the phrases to take in breaths, and I was actually trying to play Leitrim Fancy. It was as if I were trying to learn my first tune on a flute and making the types of mistakes that I would probably make if I were doing it for real. It was surprisingly lucid.

Anyway, not trying to bore anyone here, but it just was one of those dreams that had a profound impact and actually had me waking up thinking I should pick up a flute and give it a go. Then again, maybe it was just a dream that affected me emotionally and the instrument wouldn’t be a good fit at all. In any case, it’s got me thinking about picking up a Tipple flute for cheap or even a Forbes flute.

The subconscious mind is a mysterious place. I’m just curious if anybody else dreams of playing music and how it works for them.

For me it goes the other way. I’m playing music and fall into a dream. Perhaps you should try a flute.

Usually when I have an ill timed gig, with music I don’t care for, and I have a bit too much an economy grade fruit of the vine which has some sort of additive or alot of tannens.

It is usually in the form of a merciless ear worm- of the music I care for the least.

I don’t dream. And I’m not being dramatic- I haven’t had a dream (that I remember anyway) in years. As far as playing music goes…if someone else can do it so can you. Do it. The world is yours for the taking JimmyB….buy a flute!

@ shanty,

It’s rare that I remember dreams myself, so when I do they typically have a strong impact on my psyche for a day or two. This one was incredibly lucid and because of that was inspiring. In the past, if I’ve ever had a dream about playing a musical instrument, it’s a mess. The instrument doesn’t behave like it’s supposed to at all, and it’s actually more like a nightmare. I don’t know what that says, perhaps some bit of insecurity about my playing or something probably, but it’s not pleasant.

Sounds like my experience with the concertina! Unfortunately that was not a dream! You could always pick up a cheap fife to see if it’s for you.

I can’t remember any dreams about playing. I do dream quite a lot, but generally it’s an intriguing re-assemblage of things I’ve experienced in my (so-called) waking hours - and like many, I have found that if I leave the radio on, my dreams are likely to have at their centre whatever is on the radio: one can occasionally be sure of this if one wakes out of a vivid dream and hears the radio, as it were, continuing it. I’m sure it’s all good exercise for the brain.

O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you…

At the last music festival I went to I got so little sleep I nearly fell asleep at work on Monday… and I could’ve sworn I kept hearing tunes. Then I went to a session on Monday night, which had the same effect on my attempts to sleep.

I’ve had Dreams about being in session’s many times, but whats worse is, dreaming about this wonderful tune you have never ever heard before, an it seems so clear. But when you wake up you remember the dream ok.. but the tune is totally gone !
: )
jim,,,

I have had the same dream and experience as you have, except it was an accordion. Very funny. I always thought it was maybe a sign to get one, but I am saving up for a flute haha.

I used to dream about playing trumpet like Dizzy Gillespie. Now I dream about playing accordion like Mairtin O’Conner. But I always wake up, and reality is not nearly so wonderful…

@ FIDDLE4:

That’s funny. A similar thing happened in my dream. I was actually playing and hearing Leitrim Fancy in the dream, which is a two-part jig, yet my brain was adding on a third part and I couldn’t figure out where that came from. Somehow I think I was trying to work in the third part of Battering Ram.

Just don’t be thinking that you’ll get a cheap flight to Ireland because that’s a dream….or a nightmare more like…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPyl2tOaKxM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

play video

Still Laughing at that Rudall..
But, Maybe heres an ITM dream, that was remembered.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFulEr7YUxo

play video

jim,,,

Yeah, pretty good Jim, eh? 🙂

Never heard of Frank Ferrel before. Great player.

There’s the clip of the Boys Of the Lough together with Frank Ferrel, and they’re playing polkas on a concert stage. It’s not a session, but it is still a blast.

If I’m not mistaken, Mr. Ferrel was (perhaps still is) a Canadian, and played in the old dance halls on Dudley Street in Boston back in their heyday. I heard about him from my former next door neighbor, who used to go to dances there…

Just looked at the boys of the lough one - brilliant, but look at this one, jeez the guy knows his stuff…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWAUKYarG0w

play video

Rudall the time,,
Thank-you ! For this link, my type of guy. He can play about anything and it still feels like its fiddle music..
Love it !
jim,,,

Every so often, he guests as the featured musician on the radio show “Says You,” out of Boston. It’s very broadminded of them to invite him on.

@AlBrown -- Frank Ferrel lived in Seattle for a long time, then Port Townsend WA where he was the Program Director for an arts organization called Centrum there. Then he moved to the East Coast. I think he now lives in Maine (near Portland?). I don’t think he is Canadian. Not sure when the Dudley Street dances were in their heyday, but Frank is probably somewhere in his mid-sixties now. Could be a different guy. Terrific fiddle player though and one the people that inspired me to learn to play.

After working a double shift one day (sixteen hours in a row), I tried to unwind after I got home by listening to one of the last five or six symphonies by Mozart. Since I had a copy of the score, I followed along with the recording while I was listening to it. After I fell asleep, I had a dream where I was composing a symphony in the style of Mozart for a full orchestra and the music was writing itself on the page while I was hearing it in my dream. No, the radio wasn’t on and no I couldn’t remember a single note of this symphony when I woke up the next morning.

Laurence

FIDDLE 4

Had that same dream. It was a hornpipe, though I swore I knew it.

The next morning, on my list of tunes that I have learned (to varying degrees) I added a line- ‘unnamed hornpipe’ in case I ever hear it and the memory jogs in.

Funny. For years, I didn’t think I dreamed. Herself said I snored and flopped around.

I got these strange nose things American Football players wear. I now sleep all night, Herself says I don’t snore as violently and I have dreams…albeit sometimes like anoying ear worms!

’Er Indoors swears that one night I SANG in my sleep - something simple and folkie of course - not recognizeable nor with words.
Makes a change from her talking in her sleep - apparently most dreams involve re-enacting aspects of emotions or crises that worry you, so talking in the sleep often sounds a bit like arguments.
There are stories about people trying to harness dreams for artistic purposes; one individual who kept a notepad by his bed woke up in the morning to find “Write it down!” scrawled on the pad. A musician who did the same checked his manuscript in the morning and found a well-known slow air on the paper.

GP

Hope your voice is better than mine!

You know the old joke….If i sang, Herself could kill me in my sleep and be judged innocent on justifiable grounds!