How do you remember a melody you just made up?
Record it within seconds, before you play it again. A melody you have just invented is held in working memory, and the second and third time you sing it you are already editing rather than remembering — so the version you eventually capture is a copy of a copy. One take, sung badly into a phone, keeps the original better than an hour of trying to recall it later.
Why
The first take is the evidence, not the performance. Its job is to be a record of what you thought of, and it does that job whether or not it is in tune, whether or not the room is quiet, and whether or not you sang the whole thing. Songwriters lose melodies by waiting for a moment good enough to deserve one, and that moment does not arrive on a bus.
What it does
- Capture it in the first few seconds, in whatever state you are in.
- Sing the shape of it even if you have no words — nonsense syllables carry a melody perfectly well.
- Say the chord out loud at the start of the take if you know it. Your future self will not remember what you were holding.
- Record a second take afterwards if you want a better one. Keep the first anyway; it is the one with the accident in it.
What it deliberately does not
- Practising it a few times first so the recording is decent.
- Waiting until you are somewhere quiet enough.
- Recording over the take you already have because the new one is tidier.
- Trusting that something this good is obviously unforgettable. It is the confident ones that go.
What that leaves behind
the bus one
- nothing written yet
- First take
- 0:24, sung, no words
- Named
- chorus?
- Confidence
- Promising
Related questions
Is a phone recording good enough to work from later?
For a melody, yes. You are keeping a decision, not a master. What matters is that the notes and the rhythm survive, and a phone in your hand at the moment you thought of it does that better than a good microphone you fetch ten minutes later.
What if I only remember half of it?
Record the half. A fragment with a real beginning is something you can finish; a description of a melody you can no longer sing is not.