How To Capture Inspiration - The Travelling Musicians Tool Kit

No matter your level of skill, circumstance or how much spare time you may or may not have. Creating music is ALWAYS within your reach.

Regardless if you’re a professional musician, a hobbyist or just getting started, you need to be prepared to capture ideas when they come to pay you a visit.

You know it’s the worst feeling ever when you know you had a #ST8 FIRE idea, that somehow escaped your memory. A fleeting glimpse of you inner genius, gone

The goal of this post is to help you capture those moments. To make music when inspiration strikes. You’d be surprised how many great ideas unveil themselves in the most unexpected times!

Anywhere, Anytime.

The #1 struggle I hear from music makers is that they simply don’t have enough time to make music. They’re never in their home studio because of their time constraints.

Day job, chores, travel time, studies, a semblance of a social life… sound familiar?

Check this. What if you didn’t have to be in your home studio to record ideas? Even if your not in your studio all day, you can still make music. As long as you inspired (and a little organized) you can create ideas pretty much anywhere.

A huge advantage of this approach is that you’ll be able to make music in a variety of different environments as opposed to only at home or in your studio.

Your Arsenal 

Here is a list of some of the portable items you can bring with you. You might only need one or two things on the list below, depending on your circumstances and what suits your needs.

With only a couple of things from the list below, you’ll be able to make music anywhere!

• Laptop with DAW
• Tablet or Phone with music creation app
• Field Recorder/Sampler
• Headphones
• Mini USB Midi Keyboard 
• Audio Interface
• Battery operated synth, workbox or beat machine
• Power bank

Clarify Your Intentions

It’s crucial that you determine your goals anytime you decide to make music outside of your studio. This will help you stay productive and avoid being distracted. Here are some examples of potential goals to set:

• Work on melodies, which you can save to Google Drive/Cloud, to insert or re-create in your studio.
• Record a series of drums loops and rhythmic ideas, which you slice and dice later.
• Create a functioning DAW template for when you record outside your studio.
• Record some ambient sounds in your environment, or create soundscapes with your software.
• Come up with lyrics and vocal patterns for a pre-existing song.
• Jam-along to a work in progress to improvise ideas.

Set a goal and work towards it. If it helps, try to be extra specific. “Between 2 and 3 o clock, I’m going to create a synth patch to use in my latest song.”

Synchronize With Your Home Studio

It’s important to establish a way to connect your ideas with your home studio. The best way to do this is to have a way to export your audio from your device or share it on a cloud service, such as Google Drive or Dropbox.

• Don’t Lose Ideas - You’ll want to create some sort of system to keep your ideas and files organized. There’s no use in generating and recording ideas if you lose, or can’t find them.
• Collaborations - If you’re working with other producers or musicians it can be very useful to have WAV files or midi data if your ideas to easily share with your collaborators.
• Sample Library - Be sure to link your nomadic fulled ideas with all your other creative musical fragments. Having the main sample library to keep your favorite samples, ideas, presets and riffs are very useful. 
• Synchronize Your Workstations - If you’re working from two different systems (home computer and laptop for example) make sure to find a way to synchronize them easily! Google Drive or Dropbox work great.

Making Music Remotely

There are many ways to capture ideas or make music on the go. Here are some examples:

• Laptop - This is the most powerful option. The advantage of using a laptop is that you can bring your whole session with you and work on almost any part of the music production process. The downside is that you can easily get overwhelmed by a DAW if you’re only aiming to jot down quick ideas
• Phones + Tablets - Got 5 minutes? There are many synths or drumming app in where you can quickly whip out your device and jot down quick ideas. If you’re a guitarist of vocalist you can find a ¼’ adaptor or headphone amp to make the best use of your device.
• Portable Hardware - There are many battery-powered, fully-featured hardware workstations that can serve as an excellent mobile. Some have multiple tracks such as the Teenage Engineering OP-1 or the Acai MPC live.
• Field Recorders - These devices are great for capturing ambient sounds or high-quality vocals. If you often find yourself humming ideas, beatboxing or wanting to include environmental sounds into your sonic experimentations this device might be for you!

Location, Location, Location

Now that you’re all set and ready to on a sonic creation adventure, where do you go? Here are some ideas, along with silly titles:

Coffee Shop - Next level jittery Starbucks hipster producer, with two shots of expresso!

Workplace - Lunchbreak champion.

Outside! - The naturalist sonic shaman. Find the studio within.

Libraries - The 2nd floor, mystery corner explorer.

Commuting - Ze mobile music maker (don’t produce and drive kids)

Hotels or other accommodations - Belligerent bedroom banger.

Interested in learning more? Click here to download your Mindset Map and discover your next steps in your musical journey.

My name is Alexandre Joyal. I help music creators achieve success with their music by teaching them how to produce themselves and adopt a creative mindset.