Musical ideas – turn them into songs

Unless you are someone who plays a free improvisational genre, your musical ideas will not have a chance to be expressed to a wider audience. So what can you do? Fortunately, there are things you can do to help the process.

Musical ideas – turn them into songs

The first thing is to make sure you have musical ideas. It can be done many ways. You can compose on an instrument, or come up with music on a walk or wherever you are. Unless you are happy to remain a musical idea collector forever, you need to capture them. Get a small digital recorder, or use your phone. Hum the thing, or sing some nonsense lyrics. If you are good at reading and writing music, you can keep a simple staff paper notepad with you as well. And a pen, of course. The important thing is to not trust it entirely on your memory. I know it’s tempting to just do that, cause you think the musical ideas you’ve come up with are so good and original, that you’ll surely remember them later. Believe me, it’s usually not the case. Even if you can recall parts, you will be pissed that you have forgotten some other parts. Often ones that you thought were crucial for the final piece.

Another important thing is to make sure that you capture every aspect that you consider to be necessary for the song. Of course it means the main melody, evidently. And the lyrics. But also the chords and the bass line. You can record or write down all kinds of different hooks as well, if you stumble upon them in your creative moments. When capturing chords, you can either hum them arpeggiated, or simply hum or sing the root notes. Sort of like a basic bass line.

Musical ideas – turn them into songs

The last step in converting your musical ideas into complete tunes is to record them. If you are a solo artist, you need to practice every piece yourself for a while. If you are in a band, make sure your band mates put enough practice into their parts. It’s your song, after all. When recording, don’t get overly analytical. But don’t let big mistakes slip through either. Make sure it sounds tight and good, and every sound has the tone you had in mind, or as close as possible. The main idea behind the whole process is to keep it going. Keep your mind in the creative zone, and don’t stop!