Recording Ideas And Making Rehearsal Demos

Let’s talk about the importance of recording your ideas and making rehearsal demos. Whether you are a solo performer, rapper, or play in a band, recording when you practice and archiving your rehearsals can be very beneficial. You should do this as often as possible, when you are just messing around at home, when you are practicing with your band, if you are free styling and trying to come up with rhymes, etc.  If you have a phone, tablet, computer, or smartwatch, chances are you have access to apps that can record audio. These apps vary in terms of quality— some are free, some are not— but learning how to use them and implementing them when you are writing, playing, and rehearsing can be very beneficial.  

You never know when you may come up with an incredible beat, riff, rhyme, lyric, song title, or catchphrase. If you do not record or archive those moments, you may forget them. Don’t lose these valuable nuggets. If some of your archival recordings do not contain anything useful, you can delete them. However, it is very possible that when you go back and listen to these recordings, you will find ideas, riffs, and lyrics that you like and can expand upon. Give yourself a head start on the songwriting process by creating a bank of ideas that you can work with later.

Learning about recording your own music in various environments and using digital audio workstations will be very beneficial when the time comes to actually record material you will eventually release. Saving creative moments, when you are practicing, rehearsing, or trying to come up with new musical ideas, will ensure that you retain spontaneous moments that can be worked on, enhanced, and turned into finished tracks down the road.