How to capture a song idea before you forget it

The rule is simple: capture first, judge later. Here’s how to actually do that.

Get it down before you judge it

It’s all about honoring your idea, in whatever way you can in the moment. Hum it, play it, tap it out on the desk, whatever the idea actually is. Get the shape first: the melody, the rhythm, the feel. You can clean up the recording later. You can’t clean up an idea you didn’t keep.

Put a recorder on your Home Screen

Utilize that tiny computer in your hand

Your phone is either the biggest distraction or biggest asset to modern day music making. In any song writing environment you always want useful tools at your disposal, so that your idea is never lost. No matter if that’s a notebook, an old school recorder or your iPhone, whatever you reach for should let you create freely without distractions.

Looping while writing

This is the part most people miss, and it’s where ideas actually turn into songs. A voice memo records the sound, but you can’t build on a memo, so it sits there and you never open it again. A full studio setup will let you build, but by the time it loads, the spark has moved on and you’re recreating a memory. The good ones fall through that middle.

Be ready when the moment strikes

Build on it.. for a while.

You’re not trying to make ‘it’ perfect.. You’re letting your idea brew and it is a magical experience, whenever you hear an artist try to explain where a song came from they can’t really say. With everything around us constantly grabbing your attention, it’s starting to feel like being an artist means mastering the art of sacred focus. I can’t say where I get my songs from truly, but I know it’s a feeling I could never get enough of. I wouldn’t let anything stop me from doing it.

The missing middle

If you have an iPhone you are probably familiar with Notes but it’s not designed for writing songs. Voice Memos is great, but you can’t tap a tempo, write lyrics, record the idea and have it looping. And you definitely couldn’t record more layers on top of each other. This is the whole reason we made Songwriting by Clay and Kelsy. Write your song in one app, on the phone that’s already in your hand.

That’s the part worth protecting: not the device, the song only you were ever going to make.

Just you and the song.

Clay and Kelsy