Dreams never lie
Image by 0fjd125gk87 from Pixabay
On the night between the 1st and 2nd of June, I dreamt that I could play the drums exceptionally well. It felt as if a very important lock snapped into place. I have kept a daily dream journal since around 2017, so by now I have a pretty good idea of what happens when I sleep. With this dream journal, I have seen strong correlations between dream and reality in that important milestones are often presented in a dream. It is as if my subconscious mind has figured something important out. The feeling is like learning to ride a bike. Certain things you learn are life-altering. Once you have figured out how to ride a bike, you cannot un-learn it. I am soon in my fourth year of daily drum practice. And after this dream, I have played better than ever before, with a big margin. Coincidence?
I think it is still a bit too early to light the cigar, but I reckon that if my drumming stays around its current level for at least two weeks, then I am certain that I have finally reached the next step on the staircase. Acquiring a new skill is like climbing a staircase where the steps come quickly at first, then become exponentially rarer. Early progress is lightning fast and whatever you do, you become 20% better every practice session (at least that’s what it feels like). After about a year, progress starts to slow down significantly, and after several years when your skills have developed a lot, the next steps (or level-ups in video game language) are extremely rare.
A while into my drumming endeavor, I placed a big whiteboard behind my drum kit. I have divided it vertically in the middle, naming one side “good” and the other side “bad”. It refers to my subjective rating of the latest practice session. Nothing fancy, simply my own rating of what it felt like. I draw lines on each side just like an inmate at a prison. Needless to say, there are a lot more lines in the “bad” side. Using this method, I have seen that my daily shape varies just like a sine wave with a slow but steady upward trend. The “wavelength” between a seriously good session and disastrous one is usually about a couple of weeks, or at least two. Anyone who practices an instrument consistently will probably recognize this phenomenon. It can almost feel as if you are deteriorating between each session, and it can be very frustrating to make the same mistakes day after day with no visible improvement. Of course, that is just in your head. If you keep showing up, the water will break the stone eventually. Anything else is physically impossible.
What I am most interested in is to raise my lowest level, when I play at my worst, to such a high level that even on my worst days, I won’t make mistakes. That’s why this dream thing I mentioned is so significant. I have been learning the song Bleed by Meshuggah every day since 2019, and it is one of the most difficult songs out there. Thus, it is the perfect beginner song if your goal is to reach as high a drumming skill as possible in the shortest possible time, which is one of my primary goals. I am not in a hurry and have no problem spending 4-5 years or more on this one song. Because when I finally get it, any other songs in the genre will feel rather easy in comparison. After the 1st of June, it now feels as if I am actually playing the drums and not just trying to get through the song. The dopamine hit is very real, when you start to feel in control of the hertas after almost four years of daily practice.
Fingers crossed, we will see in a month or so whether me daily shape stays on this elevated level or if I am completely mistaken. I feel confident, because dreams do not lie. I highly recommend anyone to start a dream journal too. It has been a ton of fun learning to remember dreams. The number one piece of advice I can give you is to prepare something to write on and place it on your bed table. As soon as you wake up in the morning, grab it and start writing as fast as you can without letting a single thought into your mind. It is near impossible at first, but with practice you will get better at it.
One thing that I have noted again and again, is that when I am on an unhealthy level of stress for whatever reason; I never remember my dreams. Unless it is on a burn out level, then they became horrible nightmares. Back in 2017 when I ended up on burnout sick leave, I had brutal nightmares every single night. I grinded my teeth and was a complete mess. But as I improved, the nightmares went away. It was a perfect correlation between my health status and my dreams. That’s why I kept writing my dream journal even after I had recovered fully. The dream journal is now my best device to keep track of my health and stress level. Any hint of nightmares or trouble remembering the dreams, a red warning light flick on. And I take evasive action. I never did that before, I just soldiered on.