How Do You Manage Your Inspirations?

Do you ever record them and store them on your computer to be able to easily access whenever you are in the mood of composing and are in need of a theme? That's what I do.

Sometimes I hum the theme into my iPhone to transcribe it later.  At work, I have some sheet music paper and I often scribble out themes or harmonies that pop up from time to time, then if I haven't lost them by the end of the day, bring them home and transcribe them as well.

The ability to record one's voice at a whim on one's phone is one of the blessings of the modern age. I do that often. Whenever I get the chance, I transcribe them into Finale or on paper depending on what I feel like. Also when I'm composing something and come up with an idea, if I decide not to use it, I place it in a special file named "Purgatory" where they all await their final doom. I've got one in the form of a Finale document and one that is an actual manilla folder. New ideas and old ones alike are gathered in either of these. Even ones I think of randomly but have no immediate use for. At times, I've pulled an idea from these files and made something out of it. I like to think of them as my "for a rainy day" supply of musical material.

Now you know how KJ comes up with his ravishingly good music: BY RECYCLING LEFTOVER TRASH :D

I like to immediately put all my ideas into a Finale file for a single instrument chosen at random and upload it to this website without editing it at all.