It's so very easy to have brilliant ideas that seem to disappear into thin air. I find that when I'm just falling asleep or just waking up, I have strokes of genius. And I was always confident that I'd never ever forget the idea. Then of course, later in the day, that stroke of genius was nowhere to be found. So that's when I started keeping a small recorder by my pillow. At first, I found that I could hardly understand my words - I was, after all, close to sleeping. But then I started being more careful to enunciate better and was able to have all those brilliant ideas at my fingertips.
It was such a great idea that I carry that little recorder whenever I go out and I use it for my frequent strokes of genius, but also for reminders! It's marvelous. I've suggested it to lots of people, but don't think anyone has taken me up on it. If they only knew .....
A recorder is good. For me, when I'm improvising at piano, I really need to get better with recording my ideas. But it's interesting. When you're improvising and exploring your creativity in real time, everything flows smoothly. When you try to record it or write it down, the analytical process starts to come into affect and takes over the creative side of the brain. I believe that recording your ideas is the best medium for recording in real time so that the analytical process doesn't take over as much.