One of my compositional tools (which I only recently realized was a too) is jamming on my own tune.

The way I do this is to take a new idea, hone the parts and then let the tape roll and improvise and jam with the parts and variations and let the spirit of the tune and the energy of the previous moments or hours of composition flow naturally onto a recording.

Best to let a little time go by before you listen and there will be even more than you realized you had on that tape. ie. all the little variations, improvisations etc. may well end up being intros, outros or even completely different sections (or tunes for that matter!)

After many years of taking some of this stuff for granted I am realizing I should share it as there was no one to show or teach me this kind of stuff when I started out.