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For those who’re a songwriter and also you’re in search of methods to enhance your abilities, among the finest instruments to add to your arsenal is a easy one: maintain a songwriting journal.

A songwriting journal may be something you need it to be. You would possibly use it to maintain snippets of lyrical or melodic concepts as they happen to you. Or it is likely to be a method to maintain fascinating chord progressions. A journal may be a literal pocket book, or a file you retain in your smartphone.

In any case, if you happen to’ve been in search of a cause for conserving a songwriting journal, listed below are 4 to think about:

1. Retaining concepts earlier than you neglect them. By utilizing a note-taking app in your smartphone, you need to use your cellphone’s mic to sing snippets. However you may also maintain fascinating traces of lyric, even if you happen to’re unsure the way you’ll use them sooner or later. As soon as they’re in your journal, there’s no danger of dropping them.
2. Designing your tune earlier than you write it. When you’ve acquired a few concepts written down, a journal can assist you create a design for the way your new tune will work. For those who’ve not performed line drawings or “maps” of songs earlier than, right here’s an article I wrote a number of years in the past which can present you ways you are able to do it: The Benefit of Sketching a Map For Your Music.
3. Describing your songwriting targets. From time to time it’s a good concept to write down what you see your self doing in a 12 months or two. What are your targets as a songwriter? The place would you like to be, and what would you like to be doing three or 5 years from now? Retaining these ideas in a journal offers you a straightforward method to look again and see if you happen to’ve achieved what you set out to do.
4. Discovering inspiration and motivation. There are days if you’ll end up missing motivation to write, however wanting via your journal may be a smart way to regain that artistic spark. Because of this, you would possibly think about using a journal not simply as a method of conserving and organizing musical concepts, but additionally as a place to write motivational ideas and feedback, songwriter quotes, or anything you discover has given you your cause to be a songwriter within the first place.

A journal can and ought to be in any format that makes it possible you’ll use it. So if you happen to’re an old-school pen & paper form of individual, a little pocket book is all you want. However if you happen to’re comfy with at the moment’s expertise, an app that enables you make brief recordings, save web sites, and write concepts is all you really want. Virtually each smartphone has this type of app as a part of the working system, just like the iPhone’s “Notes” app.

Written by Gary Ewer. Observe Gary on Twitter.

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