So I took to listening to music (old tracks on cd) that I had while going from the north to south ontario - and I couldn't help but by the time I laid down for sleep after being in transit for 12 hours that I had music playing in my head still - pretty good stuff I had never heard befor just seemingly spur of imagination. Without really having focus - like emotional seepage to sound?

Anyone just have music playing in their head vividly? Anyone transfer that to a track?

That's how most of my tracks start out, from melodies etc I create in my head. Trouble is, there's not always something nearby to help me make a note of it, so most of it gets forgotten.

Although I have occasionally used my iPhone to record me humming or singing some notes, where a laptop or keyboard isn't available.

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Almost all of my songs start in my head.

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Expanding on this: I've created tracks out of melodies I've had play in my dreams by getting my ass out of bed humming the song and notating it as close as possible.

I don't know why but I seem to have a very keen rhythmic and melodic sense of improvisation, and that's why most of my tracks have a lot of layers. If I'm listening to a WIP which isn't already full of countermelodies I can usually come up with one or two just by humming along with it and notating it into a channel.

I know what you mean when you have an song pop up in your head and you want to create it in the studio. Ive always had trouble finding the right sounds. Or by the time I find something that is close I tend to forget how the song went.

well, you can record "melodies" in your mobile phone, swinged tripletzzz notes for example.

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quote:

Originally posted by BJM I know what you mean when you have an song pop up in your head and you want to create it in the studio. Ive always had trouble finding the right sounds. Or by the time I find something that is close I tend to forget how the song went.

Then, why do you spend time looking for sounds? Why not just grab a basic piano sound or whatever is close to what you're hearing and get the "song" idea down? You can worry about the sound later.

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I can vouch for not being able to transpose stuff because I don't have the right sounds. If I get an idea for this big epic string melody and all I have are boring patches in comparison to what's in my mind, I lose most of my motivation for working on it. I might have the notes down but if it doesn't sound like I imagined, what's the point?

quote:

Originally posted by Kysora Expanding on this: I've created tracks out of melodies I've had play in my dreams by getting my ass out of bed humming the song and notating it as close as possible. I don't know why but I seem to have a very keen rhythmic and melodic sense of improvisation, and that's why most of my tracks have a lot of layers. If I'm listening to a WIP which isn't already full of countermelodies I can usually come up with one or two just by humming along with it and notating it into a channel.

Yay!!! I'm not the only mental who does this!! It works too, one such occurence led to an ambient rework of a collab we had just finished.

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When I was training as a composer, I forced myself to not rely on the piano as much as possible for pitch references and such. You basically learn to internalize everything and with perfect pitch, it becomes second nature. This is sort of why it wasn't really an obstacle for Beethoven to make music despite being deaf as he could conceptualize how it would sound. Of course the actual orchestrations at times were wonky because it was a period of experimentation of orchestra sizes and colour and such and that , he had no reference. But anyways, most composers learn this way and I would say a good portion of the better ones prefer it this way. The piano tends to introduce an element that can taint your musical vision as it tends to emphasize a certain aesthetic.

I regularly go thru scores and can hear the symphony in its entirety just by seeing the notes. I think even those that don't think it is in their heads have to play what they like and then it ends up in their head, and then they make a decision that they like it.