Dreaming as practice?

[brianrost]

I have a gig coming up tomorrow where I had three days to learn a set to play on DB. A couple are tricky funk tunes, the others are simpler and I just need to keep the arrangements in my head.

Anyway, last night while going in and out of sleep I found myself dreaming about them, seeing the fingerboard while hearing the bass part. Definitely a first for me.

Anybody else do this sort of practicing, whether sleeping or while awake?

 

[buldog5151bass]

I used to listen to tunes as I drove (had a one hour commute), and would think about hoe I would play the changes. More than once I would catch myself "playing" the wrong note.

 

[31HZ]

I have a habit of doing theory "homework problems" in my head, especially when I'm walking. For example: what chords are in the relative minor of D major, what notes are in the chords, what would the notes sound like in my head, where are they on the bass and how would I play them? Etc.

Jaco quote (from his video with Jerry Jemmott): " ... I do most of my practicing without even an instrument. Just thinking it."

 

[Nedmundo]

Yes, back in 2014 I signed on to an amateur production of RENT, which was more challenging that I expected. My reading has never been remotely close to good, so I spent many hours with the sheet music and Broadway cast recording to learn the show. For awhile, I was seeing the sheet music in my sleep.

 

[matt_s]

Yes I’ve learned and practiced tunes this way since my teenage years.

 

[brianrost]

Sounds like Nedmundo and I are the only ones practicing while sleeping

 

[Pdaddy1978]

Cant remember dreaming parts or practicing in my dreams. But to be honest, I'm not good at remembering my dreams after I wake.
But I have had LOTS of anxious dreams about finding/losing/breaking/repairing my basses.
And a few about showing up to gigs without my pants.

 

[red_rhino]

I’ve done it too. Occasionally my wife will ask me what I was playing in my sleep, because apparently my hands and fingers will move in sync as I’m dreaming.

 

[GKon]

I can't say I've dreamt parts, but when rehearsing for gigs, especially in cases where I had to learn a lot of songs in a short amount of time, part of my practice routine would be to visualize the notes I play on the fretboard, with which fingers, and where my hands would move for the changes.

 

[Major Seven]

I have a gig coming up tomorrow where I had three days to learn a set to play on DB. A couple are tricky funk tunes, the others are simpler and I just need to keep the arrangements in my head.

Anyway, last night while going in and out of sleep I found myself dreaming about them, seeing the fingerboard while hearing the bass part. Definitely a first for me.

Anybody else do this sort of practicing, whether sleeping or while awake?

Once a friend brought a malfunctioning car to my house. I thought about it then decided to take a nap.
During the nap I mentally did troubleshooting. Woke up and what I found in the dream was indeed the problem.

How to you bill for that labor time?

 

[Michedelic]

Why, that reminds me of Prof. Harold Hill’s “think system”…

 

[prndltech]

Yeah… but then I wake up

 

[JamesGrant]

I’ve had this with piano several times - it’s a thing! Apparently it is legit improving your ability.
I stopped playing piano properly years ago and now I suck at it, I still occasionally dream that I’m suddenly proficient at it having sat down to a piano somewhere random. Then I wake up and… I’m not.

 

[micguy]

Your brain goes about consolidating and making sense of stuff while you sleep, so dreaming abut things like that, sure. I'm always learning new material, and one of the things I do is make a pint of doing a run through of stuff I'm working on right before going to sleep. Often, when I wake p and run through that same material the next morning, I'm better at it than I was the night before - my brain has worked things out for me, without consciously thinking about it.

 

[JohnnyChatter]

I thought it was a common thing… I always have an imaginary fretboard in my head that I play along with music to. It often is in my dreams also. What’s strange to me now that I think about it is that my brains fretboard is rosewood like my bass growing up but all my basses now have maple fretboards… I guess my brain didn’t get the memo.

 

[klyph]

Couldn’t resist…

 

[tb-player]

I wouldn’t put much stock in this method. I used to write songs while dreaming. They would always feel so groundbreaking and original. When I woke up, I would immediately write them down or hum them into a voice note. Awake, they were usually pretty dumb.

Practice awake with your bass.

 

[Klangfarbe]

Not dreaming about tunes i practice but dreamed performing some "new" songs. Happened several times over the years and sometimes
it was so precise and clear that I could then play and write them down after waking up.

 

[Slade N]

not dreaming but visualizing

 

[Discount Bassy]

I spent a few weeks visualizing the fretboard before bed, naming notes and working through the circle of fourths to the effect that it stuck while actually playing. I now do the same with ideated pitches and fingerboard relationships. I think it can help, but definitely needs reality to be concrete.