Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Ever had this dream?

Before I started learning piano as an older adult, I had a recurring dream that I would sit down at a piano, place my hands on the keyboard ready to play, knowing that although I had never had any piano lessons, my fingers would some how know what to do to produce beautiful music... but when I started playing I didn't have a clue. These dreams stopped when I started lessons 😀

I have the exact same dream. Reoccuring.

I once had a dream about Rachmaninoff. He was playing his Third Concerto. On a grand piano. On the tennis court in my apartment complex. In a tux. Without an orchestra.

I don’t have piano dreams but for some reason I still have “it’s the final exam and I don’t even remember signing up for this class” nightmares. I’m 46 years old for goodness sake and haven’t been in school for two decades.

Dreamed I was subbing for a concerto soloist at the last minute, I needed the score, the score was on the floor of the cello section, and I was stuck on the staircase downstairs from stage which suddenly had developed a ceiling in the middle of the staircase that I couldn't get past. Thwarted in so many ways!
Normally, though, what I have is the ballet dream where I'm suddenly onstage in Nutcracker and I've never been to a rehearsal.
(Wonder if TwoSnowflakes ever has that one?)
(Hi TwoSnowflakes!)

I have a recurring dream that I've decided to repeat my music degree. It's my final year, but I forgot to attend any of the courses in Maths and Physics (which my dream requires). This has mostly replaced my back-in-school dream.

I don't tend to remember my dreams - just as well, as I have a vivid imagination, and would be living in a psychedelic topsy-turvy world if I kept my memories of all my dreams .

The piano-related dreams have included everything from playing a miniature piano (à la Cage) in the Space Station (where, of course, weight is a big factor when ferrying luxury things up) to crashing-banging my way through the Dante Sonata (which I've never played in real life) after being sent to a version of Dante's Inferno in the depths of Earth, for my sins (which I freely admit, are many ).

In 2016, I had two related piano dreams which I remember.

Dream 1: I am in my appartment. I remember that the PianoWorld recital is going online the upcoming weekend, and that I promised to submit a piece; and I haven't practised yet.
However, it's a piece I know well. So I don't panic, I go to my piano and start playing the piece.
Then while I play, I notice that the white keys of my piano aren't white. They have a light wooden pattern. Then, while playing, I think to myself: Wait a moment, my piano does not have wooden patterns on the white keys. And then I realise: This must be a dream.
Since I try to remember what music appears in my dreams, in order to make a chart at the end of the year, I play a few more pieces which I wanted to be placed high in my charts. While playing "Les Préludes" by Liszt I woke up.

Dream 2 (a few weeks later): I am in my birthtown, and am going to visit my old piano teacher. He, my father, and me had decided to meet at his (the piano teacher's) place.
I arrive at his house. The piano teacher isn't available yet but my father is already there. I sit down at the piano, and while waiting for my former teacher my father suggests that I play a bit. I start playing Beethoven's 4th movement of his 5th symphony, and while playing notice a light wooden pattern on the white keys. So while playing, I think: That's why I dreamt of wooden patterns on my piano a few weeks ago. They reminded me of my old piano teacher's piano.

After I woke up, I was fascinated by what the human subconscious tries to rationalize in dreams.
In dream 1, my appartment didn't quite look like my appartment. It was a mixture of my old appartment and my current appartment; and the piano was positioned in a way different from reality. And yet, none of this clued me in that it was a dream; only the wooden patterns.
And my old piano teacher's piano did not have wooden patterns on its white keys. It was an ordinary Seiler piano with black and white keys. But in dream 2 I rationalized it.

Dreams really are fascinating.

For those interested in the outcome of the dream charts in dream 1: All pieces I played in my dream made the top 20 at the end of the year, three of them even made the top 10. Including Les Préludes.

I remember dreaming playing for an audience, playing incredible.Just before the end I could feel piano moving away gradually on its casters......

As a theater student, the variant of this dream I had was, "Whoa, I'm on stage, in a play..." All the improv pays off, and there's nothing to do but look at the costumes and listen to what everyone is saying and go from there.

I took a decades long break from this dream, but started having it again when my daughter was doing ballet school recitals.

Lately, it seems that that dream scenario was excellent preparation for what I do every day in my current job.

Any piano dreams I've had are surreal, like getting trapped inside a scale or a rhythmic pattern or something.

recurring nightmare: next friday rehearsal with orchestra Brahms 2, while I am just doing Brahms 1.