Teach 1 Tuesday
Teach 1 Tuesday
The Art of Fleshing Out Musical Ideas: From Phone Recordings to Finished Songs
Have you ever experienced that frustrating moment when a brilliant melody or lyric hits you, only to vanish from memory before you could develop it? You're not alone. In today's fast-paced creative landscape, capturing and nurturing musical ideas is perhaps the most crucial skill separating hobbyists from prolific artists.
This episode walks you through my proven step-by-step process for transforming those fleeting moments of inspiration into fully realized songs. We begin with the foundational practice of immediate voice memo recording – utilizing the studio-in-your-pocket that most of us take for granted. From there, I share my methodical approach to song development, focusing on one section at a time rather than overwhelming yourself with the pressure of completing everything at once.
We explore the critical elements of song structure – from melody solidification and lyrical development to rhyme schemes and phrase consistency. I offer practical advice for both instrumentalists and non-musicians alike, emphasizing the value of strategic collaboration when needed. Perhaps most importantly, I reveal my secret weapon for never losing creative momentum: comprehensive documentation of every development stage. This simple habit has saved me countless hours of trying to recreate forgotten ideas and preserved the authentic energy of my original inspirations.
Whether you're struggling with half-finished projects or looking to optimize your creative workflow, these practical techniques will transform how you approach songwriting and production. Remember, creativity doesn't require marathon sessions – even 30 minutes of focused development can yield remarkable results when approached with intention and structure. Ready to stop losing your best ideas? Listen now, and don't forget to check out my new album "Kingdom Radio" to hear these principles in action!
The Toni King Experience
All right, all right, welcome back. Good family to Teach One Tuesday podcast. Man, I'm excited about this series I'm doing. We're going to get into some more tools and techniques about producing, creating your music and projects. But before we get into that man, you know what it is let's get to that good theme music family. All right, all right, welcome back back everyone. Welcome back. I'm excited about this new uh episode.
Speaker 1:We are talking about creating music, fleshing out ideas. Idea came about because, um, my new record, kingdom radio, was released last year I believe november, could be wrong about that, forget dates but last year, kingdom radios on all platforms, um, so please go check it out. So, uh, last week we talked about, you know, uh, first getting your initial idea. I just want to jump straight in here getting your initial idea down right, take your phone out. We got computers in our pockets. Please use your resources, capture all ideas.
Speaker 1:Okay, going on with this, uh, the next part is for you to flush out your song, all right, so let's just say that you got. You know, sometimes I get melodies, I just get melodies. Sometimes I get, I get pieces of stuff. Sometimes I just get, uh, maybe a melody line and a few words, a few lyrics for the chorus, whatever it is. Now it's time for you to sit down right and to flush out the rest of the idea or the rest of the song. Take one section at a time. You know, I've really learned in my journey that it's not really about trying to rush and do everything in one sitting, but getting done what you can get done in that time frame and then coming back to it. So let's just say, for this session, this first session, you just want to work on the course, all right. So let's you know, imagine that you have your recorded snippet on your phone. Imagine that you have your recorded snippet on your phone. Go back to that, have a designated notebook and pen that you have for this process, in a designated place where you go to flush out your music and your song.
Speaker 1:And I'm assuming right now, I'm assuming that you at least can play some type of instrument. I'm not saying you have to be a virtuoso, but just you can play some chords or whatever, um, but do not worry if that's not you do not worry about that um, because you can easily. You know, I'm sure if you are um, you are, you desire to be an artist. So you've been doing this for a while. So you have some people around you, some producers, whoever so you've been doing this for a while. So you have some people around you, some producers, whoever, that you can call on to help you flush this stuff out. So do not worry if you do not play instrument, but any who sit down and start flushing out this chorus stuff start flushing out with the melody.
Speaker 1:Solidify what the melody is going to be. All right, get that down. Solidify what your lyrics are going to be, what your rhyming scheme is going to be whether you're going to rhyme every rhyme, each word at the end of each phrase, or you're going to rhyme every other line, or you're not going to rhyme at all. Or you know, maybe you rhyme the first line and maybe the last line if you have four lines in all, four phrases. All that stuff is important to to solidify. I know some people don't understand that. Some people just think that people just sit down, just write anything and you know, hope for the best. No, you need to know and yeah, how many phrases you have in life. So if you have, you know, eight phrases, the next line needs to be eight, or maybe plus one or minus one, but you can't, you know, don't have eight phrases and then the next line, you have 15. Right, because it's not going to match up, it's not going to sound right. So you know. You want things to be uniform, all right. So think about those things. Think about you know again, and solidifying, oh then, solidifying your core progression. What is the core progression going to be? You know, and don't stress too much about this, because there are songs that have the same progression throughout the entire song, so you don't need to stress about too much about that.
Speaker 1:Now, if you are advanced and you are a musician and you can actually play, you have some understanding of theory, go for it, do what you got to do. But if you are not in that category, do not worry. Pick a simple progression or call a friend who is a musician, who has some understanding. And please, if you are reaching out to people, please reach out to people who know what they're talking about. Please don't reach out to someone who's just as green as you. That makes absolutely, absolutely no sense for you to be calling on someone who has just as much understanding as you are, or less. That makes absolutely no sense. Reach out to people who have understanding, all right, as to how the process works and ask them about a core progression.
Speaker 1:Maybe, maybe, maybe, at this point you've already solidified, um, your, your chorus. You have at least the lyrics and the melody. Send that to them and and let them figure out. You know the key and let them figure out what the progression is going to be, all right, and so, um, I want to, I'm going to, uh, stop here because I want you, I want that, to sink in. I don't want to give you too much at one time, but it's important to get these things down. Especially if you are, uh, working with someone. They need everything that you have, have all the pieces that you have, all right, and so, um, get all that stuff down now.
Speaker 1:When you do this, okay, when you actually flush out, you're just flushing out one section right now, all right, um, make sure you are recording. You're going back and you're recording the full chorus. All right, don't do all that work of writing out your lyrics and having your melody and solidifying your progression, even if you're just saying what the progression is. Make sure you record everything. I cannot stress to you how important it was for me to have everything recorded. So if I come up with again, if I come up with a chorus, I'm singing the entire chorus into my voice memos, my voice notes, whatever you want to call it. I'm singing everything, all right. So I have lyrics written out and I have how it's actually supposed to be, or actually how it's supposed to go, in my phone.
Speaker 1:So if I forget, oh, what's the phrasing on that, what's the rhythm on that, I don't have to sit and guess and try to make up something, not unless you just intentionally want to change something, that's fine. But make sure you are recording your flush outs, if that makes sense. Right, you are recording everything, so you don't have to strain and try to remember what you did. This has saved me so much time. The other thing you can do if you are again you're more advanced you have a DAW. If you know what a DAW is Digital Audio Workstation If you don't want to record it in your phone, fine, record it in your DAW.
Speaker 1:Whatever you need to do, make sure you have everything down. I am telling you, it is a time saver and you will not have to sit and guess and try to do an abracadabra because you can't remember how, how the chorus went, how your phrasing went right with the rhythms, what the rhythms were, all right. So write everything down and record everything once you flush it out. And, of course, after that you can go back and and whatever you want to do in your next, next session. If you want to next flush out the verse you know, or you want to flush out two verses. However you want to do it, you know.
Speaker 1:The important thing here is is that you understand. Take the time you need for whatever you're doing. Do not feel like you need to do everything in one setting. If you only have 30 minutes, spend that 30 minutes and move on. Just make sure that you have a time that you are returning. I need to get better at that myself. Have a time that you are returning and you're flushing out the rest of your music, all right. So this is extremely important. You have no excuse. You have your phone, you have a dog, your pen and paper, whatever Record. Write down everything, because the fun is going to continue and the fun is going to get even better and better as we go along in this process.
Speaker 1:Once again, go and check out my new record, kingdom Radio. You can check out my music, check out my style and what I have done, different tools and techniques, and if you have questions about that, feel free to reach out. I believe now you can reach out on buzzsprout, which is what I do my podcast through and you can ask questions about various things. So please, don't hesitate Please, yeah, don't hesitate to reach out. I want to thank you so much for checking this out. I hope you're having a wonderful day. If you're not having a wonderful day, you could change that by your mindset. Thanks so much.