How NOT to Lose Your Next Great Song Idea

If you’re like me and you constantly have new song ideas floating around your head, I’m sure you’ve been in that situation where you suddenly have a great idea – but you are nowhere near your guitar, piano, etc., don’t have a notepad to write anything down, and you are worried you are going lose it forever – you know the drill. You sing the idea over and over in your head until you’re pretty sure that you’ve committed it to memory. Later on, when you are in a place where you can capture the idea more permanently, you sit down to do just that – but you can’t quite recall it the way it first came to you. You try a couple variations of the rhythm you had, or alter the melody just slightly, but it’s a foregone conclusion: It’s gone… and you won’t get it back.

Over the years, I’ve used a bunch of methods in an attempt to keep this from happening. I used to carry a handheld cassette recorder with me everywhere I went – then graduated to a digital handheld recorder (the MicroTrack II - which I still have and use for live rehearsal recording); and most recently, I’ve been using the Voice Memo app in my iPhone for a quick way to capture a melody or lyrical concept when I’m in the car or traveling for work. That works pretty well for a quick snapshot of ideas.

But last month, I got a tweet about a new iPhone app called Voice Band. It’s a $2.99 download and totally worth the 299 pennies. It’s a multi-track recorder that translates in real time any rhythm or melody you sing - into an instrument that you select within the app. What does that mean? Choose the drum kit and sing a rhythm into your phone… like “buba ba BA, buba ba BA” and at the very instant you sing, the phone plays back the drum sounds in real time. For drums, it analyzes how loud or soft you sing and places the bass drum on the softer sounds and the snare on the louder ones. Add another track for a hi-hat rhythm. Add another for crash cymbals. Then another to lay down a guitar track – you just sing the melody, and again, the phone plays back the same notes you are singing (as you sing them) but with a rock guitar sound. You can add a couple of different guitars, bass, horns, organ, keyboards, vocals – all on different tracks. You can pitch correct your work, add effects like reverb and delay – and even jam along with tunes in your Pod library. It’s really quite amazing.

The user interface could be more slick – it’s actually designed in a colorful sketch layout that looks “hand drawn” (see the image to the right) – although that look and feel supports the fact that this is really for capturing “scratch” ideas on the fly. It’s not a hardcore studio recording app.

But as a tool for capturing ideas in a more comprehensive way, it’s fantastic. Two tips if you decide to download and use it: you are going to want to use headphones if you really start laying down a bunch of tracks; and don’t be shy about you’re volume when you sing into it. If you don’t sing loud enough, the tracking isn’t great and it misses some of the notes you sing.

If you want to see Voice Band in action, check out the video demo below – and then think about the possibilities. You’ll never lose your next killer idea!