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Beginner Can't get you out of my head

lennieh

I know nothing...
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This keeps happening, I play saxophone when I get home from work, pretty much every night.
I do long tones, then scales, then I play through my repertoire of standards trying to make them sound nice and then I either go though the ABRSM Jazz syllabus tunes or jam with some one chord playalong grooves I've got, or work on a new tune.

The problem occurs when I work on a new tune, this weekend for example I was working on I've Got A Crush On You from the Gershwin arrangements book that someone mentioned on another thread. Great tune and the written out improv is almost within reach of my technical ability.

The problem appears when I go to bed, because I've played the tune maybe 20 or 30 times throughout the day, I literally dream it, and it's disturbing my sleep, because in my dream I'm obsessing about whether I'm swinging enough, and that 16th note triplet where I don't quite nail it etc.... round and round in circles, actually this morning when I woke up the tune was still there....

Does this happen to others? Anyone found a way to deal with it?
 
Put some music on to go to sleep to. Sleep function on the radio or music player or even the telly.
 
Ok, you have a great tune in your head day and night. So what was the problem? :cool:

Seriously, I do the same thing with songs---especially when I am working on an arrangement that is not finished yet. Just because I go to sleep, my brain doesn't stop running the tape of the song over and over trying to figure out the arrangement.

The same is true if I have a problem that I am working on and haven't found the answer. Actually I have been struggling with a proof in trigonometry for the past several days. I awoke this morning and kind of in a half sleep, I said "Oh that's how its done". Then I got up and wrote down the math so I wouldn't forget it again. Isn't human intelligence neat.
 
It happens to me all the time. Funny thing is I can play whatever tune perfectly in my head. It's getting the blooming thing right on the sax that I struggle with.
 
Your brain must be taking it all on board - which is great, apart from disturbing your sleep!

I sleep badly if I drink too much coffee or tea - in fact I tend to avoid both after mid day. While great for concentration, they can easily make you hyper, and this can be bad for sleep. The anxiety you mention could be through drinking stimulants such as caffeine.

If I don't sleep well I can also get 'obsessive' dreams and half awake obsessive thoughts.

Maybe you could try reducing your stimulant intake (if you think that might be the problem). A ritual milky drink - cocoa is good, even better with a drop of dark rum - can help sleep. A glass of something... whatever works.

A 'hop pillow' (pillow stuffed with hops, buy them from a brew it yourself shop) helps sleep - hops are a soporific. Beer helps sleep, of course.

If you can sleep a more soundly, maybe you will have the benefit of your mind running over what you have learned without losing sleep.

Keep us posted on how you get on!
 
Maybe you could try reducing your stimulant intake (if you think that might be the problem). A ritual milky drink - cocoa is good, even better with a drop of dark rum - can help sleep. A glass of something... whatever works.

Baileys in mine :)

Jx
 
I have one coffee a day in the morning, and herbal tea after that. I have a football injury so I haven't been as physically active for the last month or so, that may be a contributing factor.... Went for a run tonight, so now I feel too sleepy to play...But I'll persevere, pick a different tune :)

When I have trouble falling asleep after playing because I'm buzzing then I spend time visualising fingerings, playing scales in my head.

I'll try hot chocolate, I'd love to listen to music in bed but my wife wouldn't appreciate it. I think Tommy Smiths Into The Silence would be perfect, apart from the first track - called Scream :)
 
No No No. If this music ever stops in your head while sleeping or day-dreaming, you will come back to dull reality.
This is a charisma not a problem dude.
I have lots of friends that can't sleep because of the taxes they have to pay, or becuase their DW found the chance to start complaining about new furniture.
I'd choose Gershwin ANYTIME.

Now seriously, this happens to many people with the latest thoughts of the day. Try not to get too anxious. Music is an ART and FUN. Put some fun into your practice and take it easy nice and slow. I feel that you get too anxious about your progress. And no matter how high your level will be, you will never be content because music has no end :)

No drink some ouzo and enjoy the moment
 
I recite my times tables!
Dull maybe, but true!
Whenever I have a tune going round and round in my head, that is either preventing me from getting to sleep, or haunting me when I wake during the night, then I recite my times tables, starting from 2x2 and getting to 12x12, if I am still awake then I recite them backwards too.! It forces the brain to think about something very mundane and boring and so pushes the music out.
I rarely reach the 4-times table before I'm asleep.

TBH I haven't really had a broken night since my (now 17) son was about 8 weeks old!
 
TBH. I don't understand the term. Having a tune running around in my head. ( sounds a bit nightmarish ) personally I like to hear a song as a bunch of phrases in my inner ear. Some bits making some kind of declamation, some moving on, growing, in steps and expectation, and not sure what's around the corner. Then suddenly take off , and plateau out to an expressive non vibrato long and high clear tone. Then a few notes reticent to speak that end in a soulful low D. Mixed with joy and pain together. Then picturing a group of four quavers that don't sound like four quavers, but an expressive stutter, to end with a large interval drop and long note, that cries of longing, and yearns for that, that no words can speak, but cannot remain silent, and unspoken.
Then I try to recreate it with an instrument, and I'm lucky if I can achieve 10%.
 
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Jim, you described that so beautifully i was running it through my mind but alas this is all i could come up with !!
 
TBH. I don't understand the term. Having a tune running around in my head. ( sounds a bit nightmarish ) personally I like to hear a song as a bunch of phrases in my inner ear. Some bits making some kind of declamation, some moving on, growing, in steps and expectation, and not sure what's around the corner. Then suddenly take off , and plateau out to an expressive non vibrato long and high clear tone. Then a few notes reticent to speak that end in a soulful low D. Mixed with joy and pain together. Then picturing a group of four quavers that don't sound like four quavers, but an expressive stutter, to end with a large interval drop and long note, that cries of longing, and yearns for that, that no words can speak, but cannot remain silent, and unspoken.
Then I try to recreate it with an instrument, and I'm lucky if I can achieve 10%.

I loved that description :)

Almost as good as listening to you play

Jx
 
I woke up once in the middle of the night with a full orchestra playing in my head. It was amazing. I could do what I wanted with them. It's never happened since. I think a lot of filing and sorting and emptying of the bin happens to your brain when you're sleeping. It is amazing how sleeping on a thing brings clarity or solutions and resolutions. I don't sweat a new piece I'm struggling with till I've slept on it a few times.
 
Thanks Jeanette, possibly in the far flung future we won't play awkward mechanical contraptions called musical instruments. We will be able to hear a performance by hooking up the performer to access his inner ear. @trimmy . From your song.

Then picturing a group of four quavers that don't sound like four quavers, but an expressive stutter, to end with a large interval drop and long note, that cries of longing, and yearns for that, that no words can speak, but cannot remain silent, and unspoken.
Drinking up the Night.
ie. try...ing not to drown.......
 
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Strange as it sounds I have developed a slight ringing tinnitus probably from years of aural abuse Luckily it's a perfect 880 hz High A. What are the chances?
 
Called an earworm . I often wake up with pieces from my group's current play list running through my head. Sometimes useful for solving the rhythm problem of a particular phrase I'm struggling with. Going over the notes of melodic minors in multiple # and b's is often enough to dull the senses back into unconsciousness.

My tinnitus is at a higher pitch than my external hearing so not much use for tuning up.
 
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