If you forget your dreams, you die! So hold on to your dream that is music!
“If you forget your dreams you die” is a line a friend once quoted me from “Run to the Light” by metal band Trouble.
Basically I was having a bit of a bad day as despite all the efforts my band was not going anywhere. Or at least I thought. The restless teenager I was, I had no patience once we released our demo to wait for the reviews to start rolling in (hence my blues). But hey presto, some months later and we actually ended up being received stunningly well around the globe.
We all get good & bad times – that’s life! But each time a student comes to me feeling they are not improving, I mention my above example from my teens, that the fact they keep on practicing, they are stocking more information into their subconscious which will come across naturally without pushing it. And that in blocks of 4-6 months they will see improvement in how they play. Without fail, it always works. So the point here is always give time for the flower to blossom, for the caterpillar to become a butterfly, for yourself to improve, and never expect too much too soon, as that is a demotivator none of you need.
On the course start date, the guys came but the girl not (turns out she was Trent’s mate’s girlfriend, so Trent’s mate will be teaching her later himself). So did I loose a student? Actually not, the guys decide to change plans few days later, and ask me if I could teach all 3 back at their place, which is something I do, as I teach at students’ homes too, in group and separately. So this is an example of when I was waiting for my band reviews in my teens, every loss is a blessing in disguise that opens future doors. Always stay positive, love your instrument, and play!
So what’s this dream suggesting? The ‘strangers’ in our dreams are actually people we’d have seen when out and about as the brain cannot make-up new faces for us to dream about. So given the amount of true facts that happened at about the time of the dream, its narration all makes sense to me. How reality comes into our dreams, or at least mine, is something one cannot understand (is there a need to?), although I think this is the same way one learns chords & scales, or to a higher degree, songs come to us while asleep.
Yes we do practice chords and scales while awake, but we really learn them while asleep. How many times have you been rehearsing with your band, and that same night or the day after, you get the riff B that connects Riff A to Riff C?
So the next time you start dreaming music, it means you are actually improving, and that is your subconscious reacting to your daily practice.
Also back to reality, daydream as much as you can that you can become a rockstar. But do not stop at that. Life will throw you many setbacks – the way to make it to the top is what you learn from each setback, and how you soldier on with perseverance. But never, and for no reason, should you stop dreaming! Good luck my friend!
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