Conference napalm::guitar

    This may sound crazy but....
    
    	I find that I can usually find phrases in tracks well known to
    me that if strung together make my "new" melody/riff.  I think of
    a song which may have afew notes like the beginning & then maybe
    another that has the next few & I write the titles down with perhaps
    a line stating whereabouts the bit I want appears in the track& how 
    many notes of it I want.  Later I hum through the bits using the
    titles as a memory jogger & usually once I find the first few notes
    again the whole thing comes back to me.  Silly isn't it.....but
    it works for me.
    
    	Cheers
    
    		Pete "I can't afford a dictaphone either" Evans
    

    This happens to me....the "muse" bites in often inconvenient times
    and one must be ready or lose the line of creativity. Lately I've
    been working on memory, mine to be specific, trying to remember
    the punch lines for more than an hour. It's often hard but rewarding
    to get to the point where you can recreate the mood and get back
    into the swing of writing at a later time/date. This doesn't always
    work though...just yesterday I lost some interesting acoustic doodlings
    to my daughter's wet diapers....
    
    Other times I get started real good writing everything down and
    just wander off into the haze of old guitar bashing unconsciously.
    
    What I really hate is getting 3/4 of a song written and blanking
    out for the duration....
                 
    dbII

    I find that when I try to write on a guitar, I'm very much restricted
    by what I can play and what I'm familiar with.  Which means that
    if I write that way, what I come up with tends to be pretty simple,
    cliche and (using one of my favorite adjectives) too "guitaristic".
    
    Thus, I generally try and put the thing down when I'm writing, or
    I write on keyboards.
    
    I just find that even having a guitar in my hands tends to shift
    me into a different mode that is not optimal for writing.
    
    I share Dave Bottom's problem of not being able to finish songs.
    With me, it's not JUST a problem of writing, it covers all aspects
    of writing, playing and recording.
    
    For example, I have been "blocked" on the drum programming to a simple
    sappy love song for about 3 weeks now.  Unfortunately, I'm not the
    type who can easily "put it away for awhile and work on something
    else".

    >I find that when I try to write on a guitar,
    
    My pencil often breaks, or even worse, damages the finish.  for
    this reason, I never write on the FRONT of the guitar until the
    song is quite complete.  I keep notes on the back, and whitewash
    it whenever necessary.
    
    Jon

    I agree that the sameness of a particular instrument causes the
    same things to spew forth. I have found that Every time I pick up
    something new (like those cheap Casio synth's that you see a K-mart,
    with everything buit in, or a banjo, or a violin), I play something
    that sounds unique, Usually 'cause I don't know what I'm doing &
    I hear somthings that are interesting. These are usually brought
    back & played on the guitar & now a new inspiration that came from
    some other instrument is in my mind. My kids really limit my time
    to late evenings, so, like everything else, I have to shut off the
    creative memory dumps during the day. I do keep a mediocre cassette
    deck in the car at all times (the ones with the cheapo microphones
    in them) so I can hum ideas & any words that spew out of my mind
    at that time. This has only been useful twice, but that's 2 more
    times that I might have lost an idea.
    
    							Jens

    Dave don't be discouraged by the drum machine programing problem,
    I spent three years trying to program one song (on and off of course)
    until I finally got it pretty close to what I wanted. Then I sold
    my 707 and the HR-16 hasn't shown up  yet and that program is lost
    unless someone with a 707 lets me load my programs in and dump to
    the HR-16....
    
    Writing: I have 6-10 unfinished songs for every complete one. I
    think this is normal, at least for me...
    
    dbII

    I guess that the *REAL* solution is to become familiar enough with
    written music and hearing intervals to be able to write some reasonable
    facsimile of what I'm thinking without an instrument.  That just
    takes a long time and I'm *very* impatient!
    
    I share Dave Blicksteins problem, in that I find when I sit down with
    the guitar, I change "modes" into something not well suited for
    writing. His solution is good, write on another instrument. But I don't
    play/own anything else.  Perhaps that would help, getting and learning
    another instrument.  The problem with that is that I don't play guitar
    that well yet, and I wonder if trying to learn something else too will
    spread me too thin and I'll not improve at anything.  Anyone have any
    recommendations about this?
    
    Maybe carrying around a little recorder isn't such a bad idea, for now.
    Digital seems pretty flexable, but I think they'd have a problem with
    someone carrying a guitar around the office.  Can you say "Bad PA?",
    I thought you could.
    
    Greg

    One of the things that I do to avoid the 'blow off writing and just
    jam out what's easy' syndrome is when I think I'm going to write
    I'll either use an acoustic or not use my amp. When my notes don't
    soar and sustain forever I tend to get less interested in just jamming
    about...
    
    dbII