odd notes

[thane1200]

I don't really write songs, but I figured this was the best place for this.

I am by no means trained musically, and although I can kinda read sheet music I have no idea how to "correctly" put my ideas down on paper. This is part of a project I'm working on.

Does anyone else here write silly or interesting notes while working on ideas?

 

[The First Don]

I record with a 4 track that has virtual tracks, ill take notes on whats on what track and if something should be panned in the mix. When mixing i do a similar note taking process of whats what. Also if im programming drums ill write down the arrangement of patterns before i actually save it that way.

 

[Mr songwriter]

If I'm trying to write down the structure of a song I'm going to record it tends to be in list form, eg:

Intro x 2
Verse section x 4
Verse section x 2 (add second guitar)

...etc.

Sometimes I'll write out 'to do' lists of things that I want to try out when I'm working on a track.

 

[The First Don]

Sometimes I'll write out 'to do' lists of things that I want to try out when I'm working on a track.

i do that too

 

[HapiCmpur]

That's a really cool script you've developed, thane. Future anthropologists will spend decades trying to decipher it. If found by the right people, it might even spawn a new language or religion. And even if it doesn't, I'm impressed by your resourcefulness.

 

[prestomation]

I really don't take any notes at all, it's all up here*points to forehead*

It will be cool in 10 years or so to go back and try to decipher those notes!

 

[andyhix]

That looks sorta like what my music theory class would call a "sonograph." I think htat word also means about 10 other things...but it's basically a time line of music, with bar markers, that you can take notes on as to what happens when.

||:-----|------|------|-----:||

That would be 4 measures that repeats. you can take all sorts of notes along the sonograph. The idea is that you could eventually transfer that to std. notation pretty easily, if you were so inclined. I find it to be a good way to share song structures, as it works much like regular music, but you don't have notes (you could slash out rhythms, even, if you wanted to).

 

[ethos]

i do similar stuff when writting verses. lots of arrows and random ideas written outside the margin. sometimes it gets hard to read back. i dont know whats meant to be rhymed and what was random thought.

 

[andydeedpoll]

yeah... i do that when arranging a piece for big band from just a piano score or something. i'll listen to it over and over again, making a big list of stuff thats going to happen where and when and which instruments going to do different sections. really Really helps. its much easier to think analytically when you're not sat at a computer on Sibelius trying to work out what to do. its also means that when you actually start arranging, you have a much better plan of the general direction of the piece.

Andy

 

[Dani Pace]

I've got one of those "dry erase" boards on my wall. Most of the time it is covered with scribbling and heiroglyphics that no one but me can make any sense of.