One of those Arghh! moments...

[Daniel Nestlerode]

Was practicing minor scales yesterday and stumbled on the melody for Debussy's Danse Macacbre (Cm). So I whacked away at it from memory until I had about 8 bars sorted.

I was interrupted by phone call which led me to another room and other instruments to play other music.

Came back to the mandolin a few minutes later and realized I had lost melody. So I looked up Danse Macabre on YouTube. Apparently I was NOT playing Danse Macabre.

Now I can't remember what I was playing and I have no idea what it's called. It's entirely possible I made the whole thing up! I feel like I've lost something important like a wallet or keys.

Arghh!

If anyone knows a melody somewhat reminiscent of Danse Macabre in Cm, I'll be grateful if you could point me in the right direction.

Daniel

[Roger Moss]

Samuel Coleridge was interrupted while writing "Xanadu", and when returning, had lost his train of thought and was unable to complete it. So you are in good company. I have fumbled through songs and not been able to repeat the song later many times. It happens. Definitely "Arrgh" territory.

[Bertram Henze]

Well, it's not Wagon Wheel, that much is certain.

Unfortunately, the likeness of one melody to another totally depends on individual wiring, apart from the fact that Danse Macabre seems to be made up of chunks of different vaguely familiar melodies (hence the name, I guess).

There are two remedies I have:
- always have a recording device running when playing
- never answer the phone when you do that
The effect of these remedies will probably be that
- you never create a spontaneous melody again
- you miss out on thousands of important phone calls

[Ivan Kelsall]

Hi Daniel - Similar things have been mentioned by others on here before,me included. Years back, i read that Bela Fleck said that he 'always' records his practice sessions - just in case. There are so many hand held,compact, digital recording devices on sale for 'not much money,that anybody could afford one,if one seems neccessary. The 'Zoom' & 'Tascam' brands seem to be amongst the most popular - Zoom H1 recorder UK price £69 = $92 US.
Ivan

[Charlie Bernstein]

Daniel -

I've done that countless times. Forgetting a tune I'd been working on used to plunge me into deepest desolation, but I've learned, after over fifty years writing songs, that there are always a dozen more around the next corner.

[Jim Garber]

Just a complete blind guess—I wasn’t there —could it have been that slow Beethoven C minor sonatina?

[Janos]

Could it be The Fossils from Carnival of the Animals? Also by Saint Saens.

https://youtu.be/0TSkIG9lFvY

[Daniel Nestlerode]

You guys are great. Thank you!

I remembered I was idly watching (please don't tell anyone) Superman vs Batman and realised I could have picked up the melody from the film. So I looked up the incidental music. Et voila! Shostakovich's Waltz No.2 from the Jazz Suite.

best,
Daniel

[Paul Busman]

I don't really write tunes but I've had some AAAaaarrggghhh! moments trying to do that. All day I'll have a new Irish style tune batting around my head but when I get a chance to write it down (which takes me a long time longhand) it's gone.I may try my phone audio recorder to make a quick recording while I've still got the tune in my head.

[MikeZito]

I absolutely HATE having to carry a cell phone, 24/7, for my job . . . but it sure comes in handy whenever I am writing. As soon as I get even the smallest bit of structure for a new song, I whip the out the cellphone and start recording - it has saved me, countless times.

Also (touching what Ivan said above) if you don't have a cellphone, good old-fashioned portable tape recorders are very inexpensive these days - and (if you are as absent-minded as I am) they are well worth the minimal investment.

[JeffD]

Its funny. I forget names of actors, I sometimes forget the point of a story i tell, I forget what we were just talking about, etc. But in musical things i haven't noticed it as much. My memory for tunes and names of tunes is undiminished, and things I bump into while noodling seem to stick as well as they ever did.

I am thinking music is staying in the youngest part of my brain.

[Ivan Kelsall]

My own problem first arose when i'd come up with a 'new tune' whilst noodling around. I played it over & over to make sure that i 'had it',then i tried to improvise on it (second break),& got so lost that i forgot the original melody line !. That's happened a few times since - oh well !!,
Ivan

[Bertram Henze]

Et voila! Shostakovich's Waltz No.2 from the Jazz Suite.

I hear the similarity with the Debussy piece. They have that melancholic twang in common.

I once fell for this effect years ago when I thought I had composed the first tune in this set, and much later remembered that I had picked up most of it from this one.

[Willie Poole]

I was driving home from a doctors visit one day and started singing and writing a song and it sure sounded like a hit so when I got home I was going to play it and write down the words and couldn`t get past the first line or two...Another gold record shot to H---

I do have a digital recorder but have lost the instructions.....I`ll find them when I ain`t looking for them...

Willie

[Roger Moss]

I do have a digital recorder but have lost the instructions.....I`ll find them when I ain`t looking for them...

Willie

The best way to find them is to buy a new expensive one.

[Eric Hanson]

The best way to find them is to buy a new expensive one.

And THAT, my friends, would be ANOTHER ARGHH!!!! Moment.

[Ivan Kelsall]

From Eric Hanson - " And THAT, my friends, would be ANOTHER ARGHH!!!! Moment " And oh,so true Eric - been there !!!. Not with a recorder though. My first Fujifilm digital compact camera somehow vanished. I looked all over for it,couldn't find it,so i bought a pretty expensive one. Sometime later,my wife found it in her wardrobe,it had been put in a box along with the Christmas decorations ???,
Ivan