Ever find yourself walking
down the street when you suddenly realize that a song idea is forming
in your head? Maybe it’s a chorus hook or a verse melody, even a
keyboard line for a song you’ve already started to record. Once it’s
become solidified enough in your head, do the smart thing and record it
immediately.
It’s easy to say to
yourself that you’ll remember it later, or even that you’ll record it
once you get home, but the truth is, you probably won’t. Or more
irritatingly, you’ll kind of remember it, but know that something just
isn’t quite right.
Ideally you’d have a
simple recording device of some kind with you at all times, but ideas
can pop up at anytime. It’s far more likely that you’ll always have your
phone on you, and most phones have some kind of voice memo function
that will let you preserve your idea. If you’re one of the many people
carrying around an iPhone, Blackberry or Droid, you can even find a
multi-track recording app that let’s you add, say, a drum beat to your
melody.
If all else fails, call your own voice mail, record a message
with the idea and listen later when you have the ability to make a
better recording.
You may find that some of
these ideas end up not working (especially if they came about at the end
of a drunken evening), but it’s much better to have the idea and not
use it than to have it drift back into the ether from where it came.