I travel a lot. My carbon footprint is pretty unhealthy. So it’s really tricky to take my instrument of choice (guitar) around with me. And yet the time spent in airports and on airplanes is actually quite fertile for the thinking machine. So, for some time now, I’ve been using my iPad as a writing tool. This has also enabled me to combine my tech geek with my music nerd! There’s a huge number of tools to help. However, I’ve also found that there’s a drawback or two that I need to overcome

• The plethora of tools leads to a paralysis of choice
• My keyboard skills are sadly lacking
• I’m not into electronica much so the DnB focussed sound libraries are not particularly helpful

So my resolution is to:

• Focus on a limited set of apps to write with – onenote for notes, GarageBand for sketching, Auria for recording and mixing but using BS-13 and Beathawk for their amazing sound libraries – oh and digistix for customising drums and percussion
• Practice my keyboard skills with purpose. Got a great book on songwriting on keys for the guitarist. I’ll post the link here
• Stop spending ages browsing sound libraries I’ll probably never use in the faint hope that one day I’ll find that magic chord – or whatever!

I’ll let you know how I get on