How do I capture that nugget of a moment for song writing

When I get together to jam with anyone these days, I try to record everything that happens (if I can) to use in my song writing.

Then when I struggle through the playback I find a few nuggets/moments that I can use.

• A groove
• A few bars of a cool hook
• A chord progression

This comes in handy for:

• Songwriting
• An idea,  progression to jam on
• A starting point for an improvisational jam

The equipment I use

I have been using an old Sony Mini Disc Deck, and running a few mics through a 4 channel Boss mixer to the deck.

The mics I use are:

• Shure SM
• Realistic PZM
• Audio Technica AT811

It takes about an extra 15 minutes to set up, do a run through and then I let it record until the disc is full or we are finished. (Which ever comes first).

Here is a clip of Jeff (Gauthier) and I doing some on the spot improvising.

How to make something out of the recordings

I usually play back the recordings and make note of the times and titles of those wonderful moments.

Then I put them in a loop so I can play along and improvise to get something more concrete to work with.

Now that’s just me and it gives me lots of ideas for new music to create.

Any ideas or thoughts on how you come up with new music?