It’s happened to us all. If it hasn’t’ happened to you yet, maybe we can keep you pure.
I’m talking about losing a killer line that popped in your head…
A melody you swear you’ll never forget, because it’s so freakin’ catchy.
Or, a new idea for a song no one has ever done before.
There’s no way you’ll forget them. No way!
Until some little ol’ granny rakes the side of your car with a shopping cart at the outlet mall.
The phone rings, and it’s an old friend you hadn’t heard from since you were… like 12-years old.
Or the dog won’t stop barking out back… and you know… there was that Porcupine hanging around here lately.
Anything could happen to wipe that gem from memory faster than a summer ant on a picnic watermelon.
So, what do you do?
In the old days, we’d write them down on anything we could get our hands on: napkin note pad, brochure, junk mail, palm of your hand… anything.
And truthfully, you still can. But who has a pen around anymore?
Now days, most people have a smart phone or mobile device with them at all times.
If you have an iPhone, you can even use SIRI to help you out in a few ways, and never take your hands or your eyes off the road.
You can use a voice memo app, a notes app… there are lots of ways today.
There are aps out there just for songwriters. There’s also apps like Evernote.
With Evernote you can save just about any kind of media file or snippet off the web.
Shoot, you can write your killer line on a napkin, then take a pic of it and save to Evernote or one of those apps.
Talk about handy when you’re in a writing session with someone and remember you took a pic of that line.
Look… the point to all this is to have some way of capturing an idea so you don’t miss the muse when it comes a’knocking.
For instance, I always have a cheap digital recorder on me. Nothing fancy.
While I could pull out my phone, unlock it, open up the Voice Memo app, press record, name it, and save it…
I just reach in my pocket, pull out my recorder, and slide a button. Very quick. Then later I copy it to my computer to add to my hook book.
There’s no restaurant conversation save with me around ;D.
I’ll plunk that baby down and begin playing around with song ideas on the guitar at home.
I’ve got bits and pieces I’m’ not even sure how I played them, but I can figure them out anytime I want, because I’ve capture them.
Just find some way of snagging those beauties when they pop up.
Here’s eleven ideas to keep you from cussing yourself.
- Send yourself an e-mail from your phone.
- Text or voice message your own phone.
- Use your mobile device’s Voice Memo app or similar.
- Carry an inexpensive digital recorder.
- Write it in your phone’s Notes app.
- Commandeer a friend’s phone to send yourself a text or voice message, or e-mail.
- Use your Alexa ap to send a reminder with it.
- Download and use an ap like Evernote.
- Write it on a napkin, piece of junk mail, brochure, or anything.
- Tell it to Alexa with the Note Taker skill on one of the Echo products.
- Borrow a friend’s phone to leave yourself a voice mail.
I’m sure you can come up with some fresh ideas yourself.
When you do, send them over and we’ll add them to the list.