Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

And the ensuing anxiety "what have I done?!" haha.

I'm a chronic recorder! I always have my iPhone handy, and when I get an idea, I have to write it down, but words rarely do justice to a recording, and recordings rarely do justice to the idea! It's so funny how that works. I may get an idea for a song title, or get some phrase that tickles my fancy and then I gotta jot it down so I don't forget it. Of course, when I revisit what I jotted down, it rarely has the bite / inspirational impact it had when I thought it up. All I can think of is that I was in a mood, or had some context that when I thought of it, made it impactful, whereas the idea standing by itself on a recorder is just words.

I haven't found a way to capture the context or mood backing these ideas I don't know if it's possible, but I come up with at least 2 noteworthy things a day. I just got finished counting the notes on my iPhone from this past month and I have over 50 recordings I have to weed through to see if anything strike a note. So far, I've found two songs I started strumming that I want to develop. I'll sketch one of them out after I go through the rest of the notes. Then I'll record it for my singer to contemplate. Hopefully she'll find some vision/direction that I haven't. Won't know til we meet up to work on it.

here are some of the titles of notes on my phone. I have to listen to each one and if any of them grab my interest in the first 5 seconds, then it's worth my time to copy it to my ideas folder. If not, I really have no choice but to hit delete because no-one has time to re-listen to an archive of over 1000 ideas! It's a dreadful thing hitting delete, but it's necessary to keep the table clean or good ideas may get lost in the clutter

Backbeat hook
Song 12
Need drums - bass line for this
another simple progression
been a long time
PI
Time waits for no man
I Wish
Sound
Intro Number 11
solo idea
gtr riff 8
bass riff 3
Just a dream
Occupying Dreams
A Little Diddie
We can break this door down
do you hear me?
I've seen you before
I am broken
My Name Is Chris
I'll Never Forgive you
Dance Like the wind
You can't complain
Get off Your Horse
Criminal
Don't Despise Me

So today, I'm spending an hour deciding what to do with these recordings! To Keep, or not to keep - that is the question!

Do any of you use your phone to record ideas? How do you organize them? Better yet, how do you decide what to keep and what to toss?!! Such a dreadful thing, everytime I click delete!

Ha! I just formed my new band - we're looking at a studio in Oakland, CA. right now to work on an EP. In the meantime, all I really have is what is on my profile page (youtube videos). Just short snippets I did for collaborations along the way.

I will be posting updates on my band forum / website as we finish material. I have about 9 song sketches that I have to sit down with our new singer to work on together. I'll post snippets on my forum since it's easier to keep it all in one place, where I can moderate who has access to what, etc.

We're going for a hybrid of folk/ folk rock with some harder edge stuff throw in for good measure, where it's warranted anyways.

No need to race tho! haha. it's just fun!

jookeyman wrote:Hey, Bro!!

You have a little studio set up @ home??
I'd love to hear some of your stuff.
I might hear something catches my fancy. Then the race is on!!

Cool. I checked out your site - the releases page doesn't have any links - it lists amazon, itunes, rhapsody, etc. and then it gives a title, but no direct links, so I went ahead and searched for it, but you should make it easy for people to find with a link! they're cheap and easy!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C574CRC?ie=UTF8&keywords=CORNBREAD%20JONES%20-%20BOTTLE%20FULL%20OF%20WINE&qid=1460260884&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

jookeyman wrote:No.......the collaboration race!!
If you like folk, I uploaded a folk CD last month.
Go to my website to find out about it. It's listed on the 'Releases' page @ the top left.

Just Randy is a dark folk artist who is stripped down but very cool.

Mike writes a lot of folky rock stuff.

You're in good company.

I actually don't give a folk.

I've got an old phone (rotary dial - HAH!) so don't take any notes that way. I have piles of lyric sheets, and if/when I finally get a whole song idea together, I record a 1-mic scratch track to the computer before i forget it. I notate chords on the lyrics sheets, as well as any lyric changes. Very messy.

Cool beans! Glad my 2 cents made a nickel in the end I always think in terms of the customer. If they have to think too hard or work too hard or read too much, they'll just move on because the level of effort outweighs the satisfaction of clicking onto the next interest. People is lazy!

jookeyman wrote:

Sir Jamsalot wrote:you should make it easy for people to find with a link! they're cheap and easy!

Thanks for the advice Jammer!! I fixed this. Click on the image of the cover and you get the list of releases w/ a link. I chose CD Baby because they are responsible for distributing my material so I gave them first dibs.

That is hilarious ~ a rotary dial cellphone. That reminds (for no real reason) of an idea I had to replace my pickup switch with a lampshade pull chain to change pickups. Yank the chain once for the front pickup, then again, to get to the next one, etc. Technology sucks.

GuitarMikeB wrote:I've got an old phone (rotary dial - HAH!) so don't take any notes that way. I have piles of lyric sheets, and if/when I finally get a whole song idea together, I record a 1-mic scratch track to the computer before i forget it. I notate chords on the lyrics sheets, as well as any lyric changes. Very messy.

Lamp chain for a toggle on the guitar! You gotta do that! More entertaining than Eddie Van Halen wanking, that's for sure.

wow great stuff dude. thank you very much for this post... pass4sure