In this continuing series on Capturing Song Ideas, we discuss various methods to help a songwriter keep from losing their great fragments of inspiration.

Ahh … the notebook. Pure old school. But just like Grandmaster Flash, pure old school genious. Not only is the notebook the most reliable method of capturing lyric, ideas, and song structure - it is also the most inspiring to me personally.

I think part of the inspiration comes from hearing about great thinkers and artists from the past two centuries, from Van Gogh to Picasso, from Ernest Hemingway to Bruce Chatwin and others with their Moleskin notebooks. Often, these trusty notebooks held the sketches, notes, stories and ideas before they were turned into famous works of art or prose.

For me, I carry a small Moleskine in my pocket almost everywhere I go. I have a larger Composition-style notebook that my “keepers” go in. But the Moleskin is akin to my “satellite” idea book.

How can a notebook be used?

Singer/Songwriter Mike Doughty talks about the songwriting process for his latest record, Haughty Melodic:

“..what I ended up doing was just journaling; making sure that I spent an hour every day journaling, just sort of free writing.”

He continues:

“As time went on, two things started to happen. One was that I started listening to music really intensely again—being on the road alone in a rental car, I had all kinds of time to listen to music—so I started getting influenced by stuff again. And then the other was that I went back to the notebooks and started picking out phrases, which isn’t something I had really done before. There would just be three or four words together which were sort of mysterious or resonant, so I would take them out and keep them. I ended up with a long list of all these little phrases, and as songs started to come to me, I would just go to the list and plug them in as they seemed appropriate. That’s how the songs took shape.”

The key of course, is to have a notebook with you at ALL times, so when the lightning bolt of inspiration hits you, there is a means to capture the lightning.

Get in the habit of carrying the notebook (and pen) wherever you go. Write down everything that comes to mind - warts and all. Remember, you aren’t “writing songs” at this point. You are merely collecting ideas. We will discuss how to take these ideas and massage them into songs in future articles.

(Editor’s Note: If you are a moleskine fan, check out the article “Moleskine Notebooks Better Faster Cheaper” for more ideas.)

In the next part of our series, we will discuss capturing songwriting ideas with your iPod.

Capturing Song Ideas: The Complete Series

1. Capture song ideas: Capture at all costs
2. Capture song ideas: Notebook Style
3. Capture song ideas: Voicemail Style
4. Capture song ideas: iPod Style
5. Capture song ideas: Computer Style
6. BONUS: Capture song ideas: With washable Crayola Window Markers