There is music within us

I’m going to do something a little different this time. I’m going to cut right to the chase. I’m driving straight to the heart of the matter. I’m wasting no time in attacking the meat of the bone. I’m going to mellifluously strangle this metaphor so we can get directly to business.

I had a dream a few nights ago where I could hear a full orchestra playing an exceedingly complex tune replete with melody and counterpoint. It was a very sophisticated composition the likes of which Mozart, Beethoven, and Vivaldi might envy. I’m just kidding; I’m not actually very familiar with classical composers, but I do know this dream music would rival the best of what I have heard.

I could hear an ensemble of violins, cellos, flutes, and oboes. I don’t even like classical music. I was in band for 2 years and played in the percussion section. Outside of band I listened exclusively to classic rock music and played trap-set drums (hardly a graceful instrument.)

And this dream concerto has happened to me a handful of times. Each time, I can’t remember much else about the dream except the music. The imagery is very fuzzy and I can’t seem to remember what I saw in the dream or even its basic subtext. One in particular I was walking down the block of my old neighborhood in the middle of the night. However, the music is what strikes a chord in me. And it’s not always classical compositions with an orchestra. The dream in my old neighborhood featured some very otherworldly music and sounds from instruments that simply do not exist. I’m not even sure I could describe some of the sounds—I’ll try. I remember one sound was like strumming a giant rubber-band. It made an incredibly rich resonating bass sound, but had an electronic overtone that reminded me of a theremin.

It’s not always something I hear. Sometimes it is music I am interacting with! In a way, I am creating it. It’s as if my thoughts are dictating the sounds they want to hear and the music comes alive. It is an effortless creation.

Now, I mentioned taking percussion classes. I am hardly a musician. I hit things with sticks and that’s about it. I do not compose melodies or even know any scales. I have noodled at piano a couple of times as I do occasionally play balafon (a more primitive version of xylophone.) But I certainly don’t know how to ‘create’ music. And the music I hear is definitely not anything that exists in my music library. I can’t imagine that my brain just pieced together some of the most moving orchestral music I’ve ever heard by splicing together snippets and excerpts from The Cars and The Who.

I find that these dreams are very difficult for me to remember upon waking. I can remember most of my dreams in meticulous detail. In other words, I can hardly even remember what the tunes sounded like. I wouldn’t even be able to hum or whistle them at this point. And yet, it was unbelievably moving music when I heard it in the dream. Perhaps it is my lack of musical aptitude that keeps me from retaining it better.

I know of at least one musician who claims they have heard music in a dream. Sir Paul McCartney himself has made this claim when referring to his hit song “Yesterday.” I mean, the guy pretty much can't pee in the snow without writing a hit song, so I have no reason to think he'd be making that up. (Granted, the Beatles have "embellished" some of their history anyway.)

as McCartney tells it:
"I woke up with a lovely tune in my head. I thought, 'That's great, I wonder what that is?' There was an upright piano next to me, to the right of the bed by the window. I got out of bed, sat at the piano, found G, found F sharp minor 7th -- and that leads you through then to B to E minor, and finally back to E. It all leads forward logically. I liked the melody a lot, but because I'd dreamed it, I couldn't believe I'd written it. I thought, 'No, I've never written anything like this before.' But I had the tune, which was the most magic thing!"

www.brilliantdreams.com...

Have you ever experienced this? If so, are you musically-minded—or not? Could this be evidence of any latent potential we have as human beings? Does anyone know of any case studies of musical savants?

On a similar note (no pun intended. Alright, it was intended after I noticed the pun) there was a period where I would wake up to the sound of flutes and bells. It’s almost as if the music itself was what was waking me up. It’d be a playful melody and many times I thought it was my cellphone jingle (naturally, it was not.) I could never figure out what the music was until I started learning about “inner” music and “astral” music etc. Now, that might just be a topic for an entirely different thread. I do hear OM/ AUM when I listen for it. It is most certainly NOT tinnitus. I hear the humming vibrations. However, for this thread I’m more interested in this “dream” music. Do you hear music in your dreams or when you wake up? Fall asleep?

Any thoughts at all? Please share! Do you know of any musicians who have claimed inspiration from a dream? Or even just comment by adding a piece of music that is especially moving to you, but you must explain why since this thread is essentially about music appreciation.

Keith Richards wrote "Satisfaction" in a dream. He always kept one of those little old school cassette tape recorders with him.
He woke up, mouthed the chorus ( 'I can't get no...satisfaction') and the three-note guitar riff, then went back to sleep.
He woke up later, played it, and said "This could be a cool song!"

On hearing sounds when you wake up, there's a phenomenon where you hear audio hallucinations going in or coming out of sleep, called hypnogogia.

But yes, music is within us, because everything vibrates in rhythmic patterns. Rhythm is life, and life is very much like music. It's to dance and sing to while you listen to it.

reply to post by ColeYounger


Wow, I can't believe I've never heard that one before! And I thought I knew everything there was to know about classic rock. That's a heck of a tune to just dream up, but I still think Jumpin' Jack Flash was their opus magnum.

reply to post by ManjushriPrajna


Yes, I am familiar with hypnagogia. Granted, these auditory hallucinations are still capable of creating some pretty beautiful sounds. Is there a cold, scientific term to kill the wonderment in that? Either way, the music is there and I want to know why. I find it fascinating that while my sense of logic and inhibition are not at full capacity, something is blasting intelligent music in my head.

Going to bump my own thread here. Sorry! I was in the ATS chat room and someone posted a great video of a 'savant' case relevant to my thread.

reply to post by NarcolepticBuddha

Jay "Bluejay" Greenberg (born December 13, 1991 in New Haven, Connecticut) is an American composer and former child prodigy who entered the Juilliard School in 2002 at age 10.

Greenberg has said he hears the music performed inside his head, like many composers, and often several musical pieces simultaneously, and he is then able to simply notate what he has listened to, and rarely needs to make corrections to what he has notated.

Source

He says he even has different "channels" where he hears different melodies at the same time.



There's a movie called August Rush that has a gifted boy who can hear music everywhere. "Music is all around us, all you have to do is listen".

It's not based on a real story, and some parts seem a bit hard to believe, but it shows how someone could make music just by drawing inspiration from their everyday life.