How do you remember your riffs when song writing?

At home I just record. Can normally remember how to play stuff, even years later.

In hotel rooms I normally tab things out In my note book with my own notation for tempo and timing and note length. I even structure stuff and start writing the drum parts so I can put things together very easily when I get home.

I can never remember amp and pedal settings so I have plenty of notes with diagrams of what position knobs are in
 
fuzzsniffvoyage said:
Same here. On what ever I have at the moment.

Before I started building my studio, I'd use my phone. Before that a cassette deck....
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Yeah, I do the same. Even though I've built my studio, I don't like to bring up Logic and all of that to just record one riff. So, I still use the phone and iPad. These days they have some amazing programs too. I'm real impressed with Auria with the Zoom h6. It allows the iPad to record at 96k if you want to.

You can do video at the same time. The Rode iXY is good for the iPhone or iPad too. It records an electric guitar amp or acoustic very well. Also works with video. If you have an android Tascam makes one like it.
 
JDOD said:
At home I just record. Can normally remember how to play stuff, even years later.

In hotel rooms I normally tab things out In my note book with my own notation for tempo and timing and note length. I even structure stuff and start writing the drum parts so I can put things together very easily when I get home.

I can never remember amp and pedal settings so I have plenty of notes with diagrams of what position knobs are in
Click to expand...


Well, the amp positions don't matter much to me. I just focus on the riff. I'll get the amp right when recording the demo. I'm not one to use a ton of different amps. I use an 1101, through a Mesa 50/50 through a mesa cab. If I'm recording direct I use Amplitube 3, usually the Engl Powerball with TS on the front and an orange cab sim, as well as the Fender Twin model on there, which sounds extremely good.

I do wish Amplitube on iPad had better tones. But I can't stand the tones I get out of it.
 
I just toss my phone up in "selfie" mode, angle it to capture the neck and hit record. Depending on if it is, say, a hardcore punk riff or a fingerstyle acoustic piece I vary my chord voicings a LOT so I don't like to have to re-think something that happened organically "in the moment" several months later; I have particular trouble sounding out open voicings higher up on the neck later on. If I get a melody in my head I will record one version humming/whistling/singing the melody and one clean just in case it fits something else better later on I don't feel tied to the one line.

I wish I had a better organizational method once I transfer them to my DAW but for now if I'm looking for an idea I just start them playing and sit at my desk and read until the one I was thinking of pops up.

I lost a lot of great progressions/riffs over the years and many melodies as well but since I carry a recording device with me pretty much 100% now, I have no excuses to let it happen again.
 
I record them. If i am out walking around or driving and have an idea i make a voice note of humming, or doing that cool guitar noise like a kazoo using my top front teeth and bottom lip.
 
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