Help - best song ideas while driving!?!

[RichJ]

Hi all,
I've noticed that while driving, especially after work, I have no shortage of song ideas (beats, melodies, hooks...). They just keep coming...during talk radio, while listening to other songs, you name it.
I've even used the voice recorder on my cell phone a few times to record humed melodies and the like. I suppose I could get a portable recorder or something, but I'm more interested in learning how to transpose this creative juice to times when I'm siting in front of the computer at home with my guitar or keyboard (I use VSTis). Maybe, that's the problem right there - the computer (and the software, and the drivers, and the 86 VSTs, and the 1547 patches...).
My friend recently bought a digital multi-track and he is amazed at how easy it is to put down tracks, ideas, whole songs...computer to with a PC-DAW.
Anyway, this is a bit of rambling post, but any comments would be appreciated on how to improve spontaneity and creativity in composing with a computer based system.
Thanks,
Rich

 

[Armistice]

I don't actually go near a recorder until I have worked it out in the real world using an instrument. Easy if you're doing stuff that uses real instruments - perhaps not so easy if you're working with beats, electronic sounds etc.

I've known people who record every scrap of anything they ever think of on some device or other and just have a pile of scraps in the end.

The aim is to write music, not assemble a scrap book, so my suggestion would be when you get the urge and come up with something, make yourself develop it into something useful, not just another idea...

The world is full of "ideas men" - there are less people who actually produce stuff. This segues into a favourite rant of mine... people who tell me they're "creative" - yeah, sure... show me the outputs... what have you created that exists in some physical form? But I digress...

All that said, I don't use PCs to record anyway, but setting up my stuff is a little painful - if you have to record stuff, then a mini recorder is a great investment... puts less "stuff that requires analytical thought" in between you and the creative streak...

Luck!

 

[Manslick]

The way to improve spontaneity is to be more spontaneous. As for being more creative, well that might take some work.

After the initial nut of an idea has dropped off the idea tree I usually write a lyric. Anything can spark this event. I saw an old woman pumping gas one day and a song came. I heard a woman in a parking lot arguing on a cell phone and a song came. Cutting grass and thinking about a bully in my grade school and a song came. While painting, the empty room with the door ajar sparked a song. A guy said he hated logos – boom – song. Once the idea is on paper I go to the recorder.

I find the recorder is the perfect feedback device. So I will record the bare bones of a song which is normally the acoustic rhythm guitar and initial vocal idea. I always do this while playing along to a simple drum beat.

I almost always immediately edit the drum track at transition points which is the first step in the feedback process and can spark spontaneous creativity.

Next I do bass. Maybe some electric guitar, keys, strings or whatever seems to fit. All these takes always affect a change in other parts, usually vocal harmonies if the song wants them.

Then I redo guitar and vox – hence the loop has begun. This process may take weeks.

I use a program call Record which is a closed system and as such there are no VST issues to deal with. I can turn on the PC and be ready to record in less than 5 minutes.

Once I get what I believe to be the whole song down I put it on a thumb drive as an mp3 and listen to it a thousand times. This always leads to new ideas and I end up redoing the whole thing again.

So for me it’s a loop. Record – listen – think – re-record – listen – think.

 

[grimtraveller]

Metaphor and Cliche city !

any comments would be appreciated on how to improve spontaneity and creativity in composing with a computer based system.

I suspect if you look for ways to 'improve spontanaiety' you won't be spontaneous ! That's the thing with spontanaiety; it's precisely that ~ spontaneous, unthought out. Real jazz thrives on it, it's the very nature of the beast, many musicians across all genres in all times buzz on it.
First thing I'll point out is that like you, I get tons of ideas as I'm driving about [actually, not only driving] and I always have a dictaphone with me to hum ideas into otherwise I'll forget them. Probably 75% of what goes into the dictaphone are instrument lines or melodies or backing/harmony vocals for already existing songs. Until at least the song is complete, there's no sense in me getting a recording done because I like to put down the whole thing and then work on it.
But I want to add something that I think is quite important. Spontanaiety in songwriting means zilchopovski to me unless it's aligned to, compatible with, the flip side of, disciplined writing. Sometimes, fragments of a piece will pop into my head and I'll hum it into my shitty little Olympus. But at some point, I have to sit down with my guitar or bass to work on it, maybe see if I have other parts that could possibly fit or create bits there and then that make those fragments part of a whole that makes sense.
There are those that think that spontaneous writing is King, there are those that think disciplined composing is Lord~ I personally think the fusion of the two is Mama's arms. For me they are both part and parcel of the creative juice, just different aspects of it. Sometimes one predominates, sometimes, the other, there's no rhyme and reason.......like so many things musical, you just have to do and as time goes by, you naturally sift out the stuff that doesn't nourish, kind of like the body does with waste material.
I have no problem writing a 22 minute multi~part ditty, even if it's seen as cheating to just take eight bits and crunch them together because within that each piece is like a song on it's own. The thing is to do and try not to see things through other peoples' eyes.

Almost every musical idea has merit. Somewhere ! Not necesarilly where you want it though !!

 

[RichJ]

Wow - thanks all...I wasn't expecting such useful feedback.
A few take home ideas from what I read:
- Improve overall workflow (gear, technique, etc...)
- Don't stop at initial ideas - work on ideas, get them into songs
- Be spontaneous when possible, be disciplined other times

Of course, the latter two take time (and effort), which is sadly lacking in my case.

Thanks, will work on this.
Rich

 

[Armistice]

We'll be wanting royalties...

GrimTraveller lives in a shoebox in middle o' road, he can use a helping hand

He posts from an internet cafe by using the leftover time that people don't use but have paid for...

 

[grimtraveller]

We'll be wanting royalties...

GrimTraveller lives in a shoebox in middle o' road, he can use a helping hand

He posts from an internet cafe by using the leftover time that people don't use but have paid for...

I've upgraded to a box that a 51 inch plasma screen TV came in. Good legroom......I've been banned from the internet cafe so I sneak into the local college at night ! Royalties, yeah, I like the sound of them {and I ain't talking Prince William !}.