Why You Should Always Be Ready to Capture a Songwriting Idea

“A writer is like a bag lady going through life with a sack and a pointed stick collecting stuff.” – Tony Hillerman, American Writer

Have you ever come up with a great songwriting idea only to forget it later?

If I don’t capture an idea when it comes I am almost sure to forget it. That’s why I always carry a notepad, smartphone, or an audio recorder.

There is no predicting when I might get a good lyric or melody idea. I get ideas in the grocery store, walking down the street, in the shower, riding my bike, and lying in bed at night.

John Lennon got the idea for The Beatles’ song “Good Morning Good Morning” from a Kellogg’s Corn Flakes commercial. The title “Good Morning Good Morning” came from the first line of the commercial’s jingle.

Paul Simon got the title idea for his song “Mother and Child Reunion” from the name of a chicken-and-egg dish he saw on a menu in a Chinese restaurant.

What kinds of songwriting ideas should you capture?

I capture anything and everything that might help me write a song.

I capture both good ideas and not-so-good ideas, because I never know when I might want them later.

I write down lyrics and titles and record guitar riffs and chord progressions.

If someone shows me a cool sounding guitar chord, I’ll record it. Then I’ve got that chord in my bag of tricks to pull out later and use in a song.

The folk singer Donovan showed John Lennon a folk guitar finger-picking pattern while they were both on a spiritual retreat in India. John later used that guitar pattern to write The Beatles’ songs “Julia” and “Dear Prudence“. You never know where an idea might end up.

Here are some of the kinds of songwriting ideas you can record or write down,

Lyric ideas

• Song title ideas
• Story ideas
• Words and phrases
• Quotes and dialog
• Rhymes
• People’s names
• Place names
• Names of things

Music ideas

• Melody ideas
• Rhythms
• Drum beats
• Chords
• Chord progressions
• Guitar and piano riffs
• Guitar finger picking patterns
• Guitar strum rhythms
• Weird sounds
• Anything!

Why it’s important to record audio

Written notes work great for most lyric ideas, but for music ideas you’ll need some kind of audio recorder.

Even if you can write music notation you should consider recording your music ideas. An audio recording captures the feel and sound that music notation misses.

Sometimes you’ll even want to record your lyric ideas. Some lyrics have a unique sound or phrasing that is hard to get across on the written page. For example in the David Bowie song “Changes”, Bowie stutters the word “Changes” by singing “Ch Ch Changes”. The phrasing of that lyric is a large part of what made that song memorable. It’s important to record lyrics with unique phrasing like that.

How capturing songwriting ideas helps prevent writers block

The big pay off from capturing all these songwriting ideas comes when you sit down to write a song. Instead of starting with a blank page, you’ll have tons of good ideas waiting for you.

The blank page triggers writer’s block in many songwriters. In the past, I would start a song with a blank page and have no idea how to begin. I’d try to come up with ideas, but nothing would sound good. I would often get discouraged and wonder if I lacked some kind of magical songwriting talent.

These days, I start a song by going through my list of ideas. I always find many good ideas I had forgotten. This makes me feel relaxed and then I find it easier to come up with even more ideas.

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All the best!