if working on a proper song, recording it is a great thing to do when it’s just hit the stage where all the band members kinda have down the chord changes. then listen back to it. you only need to listen back once, preferably with all the band members to get some really valuable often unspoken information.

if you are doing more of a jam, and when done you really felt like the thing had at least a few minutes of greatness. listen back to it and highlight areas you like. this one I’m not sure if it really has any merit. it might simply be a fun thing to do. although i really feel everybody i do this with becomes a better musician in the process.

That is an interesting point with the samples; I suppose they, like other snippets, can be the germ for a song – an accidental kernel that makes its way into a song somehow. And on live shows, I definitely appreciate the point that that’s where you can discover more about a band than in any controlled recording environment. It definitely points out what bands see as “breakages” or happy accidents when you hear them on the recording, but it may be even more telling what happens to a band live. Or, as Maggi says above, what happens to the sound in particular acoustic environments.

The interesting thing about the digital revolution is the positioning of the happy accident front and center what with sampling and looping and all. Also the idea that bands must be more committed to the live show; which paradoxically is beloved not so much for the artist’s ability to deliver a more genuine message but for the happy accidents.