Nightmares

**Jimdalf** · May-30-2012, 4:04am

I thought I'd make a play at the dumbest post of the month; I bought a mandocello yesterday, gazed at it lovingly, made some pathetic attempts to familiarise myself with bass clef, made a neurotically minute inspection of every quibbling detail, looked in the thesaurus.

Nightmares though! when I went to sleep I was wracked by dreams of woodworm making huge holes in the soundboard, churning wood dust up onto the surface and wriggling around teasingly in their holes. I finally squashed one, but not before my instrument looked like a swiss cheese.

I am a naturally stressed out nocturnal tooth grinder, I'm curious to know anyone else has had any bizzare mandolin dreams.

**Bertram Henze** · May-30-2012, 6:11am

Originally Posted by Jimdalf

I'm curious to know anyone else has had any bizzare mandolin dreams.

A recurring one of mine is that there is a band on stage who are missing one member I am supposed to stand in for. The have lots of weird-looking stringed instruments, but none of them is even remotely GDAE tuned or otherwise mandolin-like. Plus, I know none of the band's numbers.

**Jimdalf** · May-30-2012, 6:25am

Haha, that's brilliant! are they imaginary instruments?

**AnneFlies** · May-30-2012, 6:43am

Not a nightmare, just a weird dream. I was playing smoothly, quickly, and in time & in tune with the rest of the Irish session-players, and I knew every tune they played. Since I've been struggling with getting through even one tune with the group, this was a very strange dream.

**OldSausage** · May-30-2012, 7:22am

The other night I dreamed I went to a mandolinists convention. Boy, they were an odd bunch, but I got to try out some cool mandos.

**Mandobart** · May-30-2012, 10:33am

Now this is an original thread! Happily I never have mando nightmares. However, I routinely live one of Bertram's. I often go up on stage to play with bands I've never played with, and frequently I know none of their songs. Some call it nightmare, I call it live-fire practice. The audience probably calls it "Glad I didn't have to pay a cover charge to get in."

**Bertram Henze** · May-30-2012, 10:42am

Originally Posted by Jimdalf

Haha, that's brilliant! are they imaginary instruments?

I guess they must be. Mostly, it's a stylistic mix of medieval renaissance instruments and those "ugliest mandolins" we have so many threads about.

Originally Posted by Mandobart

..."Glad I didn't have to pay a cover charge to get in."

That's what I call a positive attitude

**mommythrice** · May-30-2012, 11:57am

I once dreamed about a pack of coyotes eating my mandolins.

**G7MOF** · May-30-2012, 12:00pm

Originally Posted by Jimdalf

Haha, that's brilliant! are they imaginary instruments?

Is there such a thing as an air mandolin, and if so, is it an A or an F style?

**Ed Goist** · May-30-2012, 1:46pm

I have had a recurring dream (but just a few times, fortunately) that I am standing on a stage with an instrument (usually nondescript...is it a guitar?, a mandolin?, a violin?, something else? I'm never quite sure) before a very large, quite, riveted audience. All of the audience members are locked onto me, anticipating my performance. Suddenly, it dawns on me that I have no idea how to play the instrument I am holding. At this point in the dream I become overwhelmed with anxiety and I wake up.

**Rroyd** · May-30-2012, 2:15pm

My worst mandolin dream was the night a school bus ran off the road and through my yard fence, and ran over my Loar, which I had leaned against the fence while waiting for a ride from a band member. I was going to fly back to Nashville and have it repaired, but was worried that the airlines would willingly provide additional damage, so I decided I had better drive. Fortunately I woke up before the situation got totally out of hand.

**Jimdalf** · May-30-2012, 3:57pm

Originally Posted by G7MOF

Is there such a thing as an air mandolin, and if so, is it an A or an F style?

Special care would need to be taken to avoid appearing to do a George Formby impression.

The running theme seems to be to performance anxiety, something I had not thought of.

**FrDNicholas** · May-30-2012, 4:06pm

Not a mandolin dream, but I once dreamt I was auditioning for Garrison Keillor on Prairie Home Companion but the only instrument I had was my recently acquired concertina. I hardly knew one tune on it at the time and I remember thinking in the dream, "He's had Allistair Anderson on the show!" ( a world class concertina player)

**Jimdalf** · May-30-2012, 4:11pm

Originally Posted by FrDNicholas

Not a mandolin dream, but I once dreamt I was auditioning for Garrison Keillor on Prairie Home Companion but the only instrument I had was my recently acquired concertina. I hardly knew one tune on it at the time and I remember thinking in the dream, "He's had Allistair Anderson on the show!" ( a world class concertina player)

Strangely, I can imagine that being one of the sketches. Probably one with the sound effects guy being led on a wild goose chase.

**hank** · May-30-2012, 4:18pm

Since this is becoming a subconscious extension of our waking consciousness may I carry it a step further down the rabbit hole. Have you ever for no apparent reason felt compelled to (you fill in the what. Ex. Buy a mandolin in the classifieds) that later turned out to be a key player in what transpires next to take you to the next level.

**nobullmando74** · May-30-2012, 4:27pm

I had several before I took delivery of the Campanella F. One where Joe used a belt sander on the back to change the graduations. Another where all of the finish came off in huge plastic like sheets. The first one I was playing it and everything sounded great but then it turned into a really tinny mandolin. I have had dreams about opening up guitar cases and them being filled with water. When I took out the instrument they would fall apart in my hands.

**jim simpson** · May-30-2012, 10:39pm

Recently I had a dream in which I was to fill in with the Monkees at a hospital auditorium. I had to go out to my car while it was raining to retrieve my mandolin. I couldn't find my way back to the auditorium so never got to actually play with them. Perhap it was the news of Davy Jones' passing that made me think of them, it was a strange dream.

**pjlama** · May-30-2012, 11:01pm

Trying to fix...

**pjlama** · May-30-2012, 11:05pm

Originally Posted by Bertram Henze

A recurring one of mine is that there is a band on stage who are missing one member I am supposed to stand in for. The have lots of weird-looking stringed instruments, but none of them is even remotely GDAE tuned or otherwise mandolin-like. Plus, I know none of the band's numbers.

This was reality for me for 10 years being a freelance bass player. You get a good ear fast and can read anything put in front of you or you starve.

**Ivan Kelsall** · May-31-2012, 1:36am

I've had several dreams involving both my banjo & mandolins. Usually,somehow they get lost. Have you found that often the 'dream instruments' look totally bizzare ?,
Ivan

**if6was9** · May-31-2012, 2:22am

It must be something in the stars? One or two nights ago, I had a dream in which one of my guitars (Merrill, I think) had been badly damaged by termites. First (and I hope only) time I ever had that dream.

I apologize for the lack of mandolin content, but your recent woodworm dream experience reminded me of this.