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Anecdote: I distinctly remember being on the edge of sleep writing a song one night in 2019. I was about to fall asleep on the floor with a notebook in my hand,
by diatone 5y ago
Anecdote: I distinctly remember being on the edge of sleep writing a song one night in 2019. I was about to fall asleep on the floor with a notebook in my hand, and just at that moment, the music came into my mind. For whatever reason, I was able to stay awake and flesh it out as a recording. After reflecting on it the next day I realised I had written an acoustic fingerstyle piece that moved across keys as if there were multiple voicings in the accompaniment all moving independently in polyphony. Far more harmonically complex than anything I had written before, or since.
Three weeks later my partner and I played it for the first time in a pub, and the normally cosy and laugh-filled room fell silent. We had the exact same experience in another open mic night a couple of weeks afterwards, where we took the first-place prize before the competition even finished. It was as if people were moved by it without any effort or coercion, like we cast a spell over people.
Now it makes sense! I’ve heard music play in my mind as I’ve fallen asleep before; this news explains this story almost perfectly. Unreal. Live on the edge of sleep and magic can happen. I wonder what health risks there are with prolonged use?
- _dain_ 5y agoCan you share this piece? I want to hear it now.
- waltbosz 5y agoDo you have a recording of the song online? You story reminds me of a video by Jack Conte and his wife about their experience with lucid dreaming. They talk about how he wrote a song while dreaming. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yti4yYZqtMo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yti4yYZqtMo
- pier25 5y agoWow what a story! Is this available anywhere?
- saltyfamiliar 5y agoThat reminds me of this quote from Dick Dale, "I still remember the first night we played it ('Misirlou'). I changed the tempo, and just started cranking on that mother. And ... it was eerie. The people came rising up off the floor, and they were chanting and stomping." It seems like people really are susceptible to a sort of mass hypnosis if you can make the right noises.
- djmips 5y agoI did the same thing and no one would probably believe it except I recorded it as a MIDI stream. The next day I played it to my boss and he wouldn't accept that I composed it. (edit - it was a complex classical piano piece)
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y agoI read that The XX would intentionally stay up until the wee hours of the morning, and would only start recording once they begun to nod off. Their music sounds so nocturnal and dreamy that I'm sure it must be true.
- bschwindHN 5y agoI'm pretty sure there's some sort of internet rule where you have to share a link to this music if you make such an interesting post!
- jakear 5y agoUnfortunately that same rule also stipulates that at each stage of the musical work being rendered to a digital medium, transferred to an unknown location, then played back using unknown equipment, a portion of the magic is irrecoverably lost.
- genewitch 5y agoI dunno, I'd rather have heard that really awful recording of the last living castrati than never have heard it, for instance. Then again I listen to 1940s radio programs while driving, so I might be biased.
- grupthink 5y agoI'm also interested in hearing your music especially since it came from a lucid state.
- exitb 5y agoI love music and I’ve attempted music making at various points in my life, but I’m just not great at it. I don’t have the imagination to plan and layer out the interesting bits that make a good song. But my near-sleeping mind is totally able to do that. And this is at least a semi-conscious process, where I’m able to direct the music as it’s being “played” in my mind. As I said, I’m very much an amateur, so I wouldn’t describe it as genius, but it’s still much better than anything I can create awake. I’ve also noticed that this translates into other areas as well, like architecture or languages - I can hear a very convincingly sounding sentence in a language I’m familiar with just well enough to know that it was gibberish.
- lukas099 5y agoYes, I've had this exact experience. I only wish I had the skill to transcribe what played in my head while I was in this state.
- kwonkicker 5y agoThe people wants the link. so you better deliver.
- mdp2021 5y agoYou must know of the "Trillo del Diavolo" from Giuseppe Tartini (first half XVIII century). (He asked the devil in a dream to play something for him, and the very pale imitation is the Sonata per violino in sol minore he wrote from memory once wake.) Of course, also Kubla Khan from Coleridge comes to mind.
- diatone 5y agoTo everyone asking for a recording: I appreciate the curiosity, but we were very much a live act. But I hope my little story encourages you to pursue the arts, and nurture them in your local area. Your local live music scene needs your support, so we can see serendipities like this appear :)
- alvarlagerlof 5y agoCan you share this?
- lee 5y agoPerhaps this is the why so many of the 60's and 70's psychedelic rock songs are so enchanting and beautiful. They were under the influence of psychedelic drugs which may induce this state while awake.