If you are like most songwriters, you probably have notebook after notebook of tidbits that just didn’t find homes. I have one notebook of just riffs—drum, guitar, bass or keys. Another tome is made up of scraps of paper with lyric ideas on them, all tucked inside vinyl protectors for safekeeping. Near my drum machine is a tiny notepad with various ideas for stringing different patches together. Several other notebooks are filled with completed poems, many with rough chord progressions sketched over the proper syllables. Don’t even get me started with the cassette tape collection—lots there that are slowly being cataloged, but need to be listened to so I know what’s on each one. Once in a while, one of these catches my eye or ear and ends up in a finished piece. Many tryouts, my notebook of completed poems provided the lyrics the group was looking for to complete the song they were working on—I just needed to firm up a melody line to go with the poem I already had so it would match their arrangement. It isn’t hard to take this same approach with your own material, though—perhaps you just need to reorganize, find the pieces of the puzzle that fit together, and finish the job. Here are a few ideas to get you moving.
NOW WHERE DID IT GO?
I have to admit, I love to move to a new apartment, simply because I always end up finding a bunch of important musical bits that I’ve lost since the last move. The vinyl sheet protectors help a lot, as has putting the sheets into that notebook or a box, both plainly marked and shelved in an easily accessible place. Putting all on their own shelf next to the rest of the music books, near the tapes and instruments helps a lot. This way, when I need them, I actually know where they are. Don Henley of the Eagles jokes that whenever he starts to write an album, he needs to clean his house first to find all those old napkins and other scraps of paper he’s written his lyrics and musical ideas on. It’s nice to know that we disorganized types are in such good company. Whenever I find a bit, I try to at least land it into one of the boxes, since I don’t always have time to actually catalog my lucky find. At least, now, it’s somewhere I can find it—that is a start.
