Tips on not losing the idea?

[davidnaroth]

A lot of the times I’ll be taking a break or even just writing and working, all of a sudden I get the idea in my head, sounding full, I can hear it all, I start putting it into midi, and 20 seconds later I can’t recall the voicings or sound and the “aha” moment has come and gone.

So frustrating.

Click to read more...

 

[Marsen]

For these cases, I always use a dictaphone in my mobile and summing the melody, the rythm, and some prominent lines, switching between those within 3-5 seconds. Works for me real good.

 

[Elrik Settee]

A lot of the times I’ll be taking a break or even just writing and working, all of a sudden I get the idea in my head, sounding full, I can hear it all, I start putting it into midi, and 20 seconds later I can’t recall the voicings or sound and the “aha” moment has come and gone.

So frustrating.

Yeah me too!

I agree with Marsen,

even a quick scribble on paper will help,

but now we all have voicerecorders on our phones, heck, you could even sing it...

 

[Nimrod7]

I can't write notes on paper, so I am just humming on the phones voice recorder.
I get weird looks but worth it!

I have recordings in there dating back to 2011

 

[Trash Panda]

Hum it into my phone if I'm away from a PC. Hum it into the DAW and translate to MIDI via Melodyne if I'm at a PC.

 

[davidnaroth]

Just had another thought, I think I dive into programming way too fast and thats a large part of why I lose the idea when I zone in on one instrument one sound of it all before sketching it out. Silly me lol. Idk why I never thought of it before, Im used to TV writing with short deadlines so I just power through ideas.

 

[Nate Johnson]

Just had another thought, I think I dive into programming way too fast and thats a large part of why I lose the idea when I zone in on one instrument one sound of it all before sketching it out. Silly me lol. Idk why I never thought of it before, Im used to TV writing with short deadlines so I just power through ideas.

Absolutely - took me a long time to realize this myself. Honing our main skillset to being able to full-on compose from us humming melodies into an iphone is the key to the frickin’ universe!

 

[YaniDee]

I have recordings in there dating back to 2011

Hope you backed them up!

 

[danevaz]

I sleep with my Zoom recorder next to the bed. In the morning I often wake up with my most recent dream in my head and it's often a musical idea/phrase. I hum it into the recorder, then later on go into the music room to work it out.

 

[Nimrod7]

Hope you backed them up!

They are automatically saved in Apples Cloud not on the device.

 

[osterdamus]

These advice are all good y’all, but how do you get over the fact that you have to listen to yourself later?

 

[bdr]

These advice are all good y’all, but how do you get over the fact that you have to listen to yourself later?

I make sure I block my ears. Works great.

 

[Trash Panda]

These advice are all good y’all, but how do you get over the fact that you have to listen to yourself later?

Melodyne to MIDI or ReaTune to MIDI gets around that.

 

[el-bo]

If you wanted tips on how to forget ideas, I’m your man.

Wrote a piece a few weeks ago. There was a part on it that really seemed to drop from the sky. Could’ve sworn I’d played it through enough to commit it to memory. Alas, after moving to a new living space (with the resulting week without my studio gear set up), I’ve remembered all but the part that really made it special.

Just another one to add to all the others I’ve lost over the years :(