Q: I've noticed you have lots of sheets and charts for some of the stuff you write. how important do you finding writing music down on paper to be?  I have a traditional music background and a bachelors degree in music but when I'm actually doing stuff I ~like~ to do like song writing and recording little tunes I hardly ever write anything down minus the words and chords
A: if you're brave enough to believe you can remember the exact melody, then that's fine. i don't like to take any chances with that. i've watched people come up with a brand new awesome idea, and then play the same thing for me again tomorrow and the melody has changed and they don't realize it, and the original was definitely better. Because new song ideas are so new, you haven't heard them very much, so you are likely to forget exactly how it went. i am not comfortable trusting that the next time i look at it i'll remember the exact melody. so i must document it exactly. Whether this is done with notation or not, it doesn't really matter to me. it can be done with recording references, and nowadays i always use recording references, because we live in such a digital world. but for a long time i was using handwritten notation. The only times i ever do it with notation is when i have no instrument near me. i used to go to the library and put in earplugs and write songs that way. nowadays, when writing songs at the keyboard, i just make recorded references and cite them in the lyric sheet. The same goal is accomplished: to exactly document the lyric, melody, and chords