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  [Music]

I use subversion religiously at work to keep track hardware designs that are in progress. Subversion and other version control systems have a simple process:

1. Check out a document out of the repository to make changes to it
2. Make the changes, to hopefully better the document
3. After the changes are made, do a "show diff" (if the document is a text file) to review the changes that were made
4. If you're happy with the differences, commit the updates back to the repository, and pick up where you left off at a later point in time

The same methods can be used to write music:

1. Take an existing idea of a song, whether from memory or a recording
2. Re-write sections as necessary, with the goal of making it sound more fluid and/or groovy
3. After sections are rewritten, review the song, and compare it to the previous state before changes were made
4. If satisfied with the changes, record the changes on paper or recordable media, and continue the writing process at a later date (do NOT use floppy discs)

Without using version control with hardware, it's easy to lose track of the changes someone makes to a design. Similarly, if an musical idea isn't recorded on paper or tape/CD/minidisc, it becomes more probably that the progress will be forgotten.

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