How do bands take notes of their songs?

Question

I've never been in a band, and I'm trying to imagine how the songwriting process goes in a band. Most importantly, I wonder how does a band take notes of their songs and ideas during jams and brainstorming? Do they write things down on paper, using formal notation? Or they just jam, then discuss about the improvisations, then record some draft, without writing anything down? Writing down lyrics with chords on top of them is very simplistic and doesn't cover much of the genre landscape. Also, sticking to a common musical form may make memorizing on-the-fly easier, but it doesn't help when the songs don't follow popular structures.

Answer 1

You will generally find that the songwriting process is largely done by one individual in the band (sometimes two if they're a songwriting team).

Rarely does the songwriting process take place in the rehearsal room. The songwriter(s) will bring in a number with it more or less fleshed out in their mind what the others musicians' roles are and work it up to performance level from there, working out any bugs and putting together the final arrangement.

Answer 2

In my bands we have had jam sessions and if something we came up with on the fly sounded amazing we write down the chords and record it on the fly using some sort of recording device, iPhone, etc. That way we have the basic structure of the song. Not everyone you work with will know notation. A lot of artists only play by ear so it's best to be good with your ear more than anything else. You can always go back listen to the recording write down any lyrics or notation later. Then it's just a matter of perfecting it by working out the details a little at a time until you get exactly what you're looking for with the sound.