The Importance of Musical Sketches
How
many times do we have amazing ideas floating through our minds just to have them vanish forever because we may have been distracted
for a few minutes? We all have cell phones and we have access to various apps like Garage Band or Songwriter, so use them
to record a basic melody to help recall ideas before we lose them. Some musical ideas are comprised of very subtle elements
that can be very hard to recall, so be sure to include them so that you don't lose the original inspiration and feel.
When I'm at home composing I'll pull up a quick Logic Pro template depending on the genre and quickly track the basic
idea for safekeeping. It could be just a piano or guitar track, and maybe vocals if I'm set up for them. For symphonic arrangements
I put together a quick sketch in which I just keep recording parts without getting caught up in small details. The idea is
to capture the inspired moment so that even if you come back to the sketch many months later you can fully recall the original
concept.
Great original ideas are like buried treasures, so leave yourself
enough of a map to find them again!
