melody or lyrics first?

[rich2k4]

i'm curious to see which choice people find easier?  having a melody first, or having lyrics first.

i personally find it kind of tough to form lyrics to a already made melody.  I feel like i am constricted to the melody, and it makes things come out cliche.

does anyone know how the beatles did it?

[Oldrottenhead]

i rarely write lyrics first, mainly because people send me music to write lyrics for their tunes. that said i have often written lyrics beforehand and the words inspired a tune or forced me to write a tune to fit. on occassion ive written a lyric for one of my own crappy tunes, and then used it for another better tune by someone else.but there are no rules.

[launched]

I find it more rewarding to already have lyrics for a song and then write music to fit their mood. Unfortunately, I find that in order for the lyrics to match with the music's syncopation I have to make lots of modifications to the point where I'm not sure if I wrote the song or my thesaurus did...

So the melody usually wins over no matter what I try - Maybe odd timings would help, I don't know. But at any rate I'm a lyrics before melody whenever possible, but it never seems to work out for me.

Oh, how did the Beatles do it? I think when Lennon wrote a cool song, McCartney would write a crazy ass bass line unplayable by the normal dude, which made the lyrics insignificant at that point!

[Greeny]

Just to be awkward, my preferred method is somewhere in between. I like to come up with a phrase or a title that usually sits somewhere in the chorus. Once I have that, I think about the mood and style of music required to fit the overall theme. The rest of the lyrics happen very easily from that point usually. Once I have the chords, I'll fix the pattern of the syllables etc in my head and go away to write words to fit. Sometimes they partly arrive on their own as I'm strumming out the chord patterns. 

Having a theme / title is always the best start for me. And I always feel more comfortable knowing that I have the lyric and vocal worked out before I go anywhere near the record button. A few times I've finished a whole backing track only to find I can't sing anything over it, or that it's in the wrong key etc.

Doesn't matter to me how it arrives, as long as it does!

[Geir]

Not akward Tim, .. or maybe ... but it's the same for me in most cases ! But I also have some half-finished lyrics laying around all the time that may or may not end up in a song more or less altered.  

[64Guitars]

I'm not a songwriter but Tim's approach makes a lot of sense to me. Lyrics and music building on each other throughout the creation of the song, rather than starting with one or the other.

[FuzzFace]

I'll go into the studio (read "my kitchen") with just lyrics... no music prepared, and crank out a song.

But I won't attempt anything without lyrics that have been polished a hundred times.



I'm a word guy.

I even modified this entry.

[Ferryman]

It's one of two ways for me. Either I start with a musical idea, could be just a couple of chords or a little riff. Then I think of a theme that fits the music with perhaps a title or chorus refrain, and then I develop the whole song, lyrics and music together. Alternative way is I start with a theme or a lyrical idea (usually a bit of the chorus) then I get some music that goes with that basic idea, then develop  the whole thing together.

I have never written a full set of lyrics without music. I find writing lyrics hard, so the structure of the song is always affected by the amount of lyrics that I can write.

Cheers,

Nigel

[Donna D]

I only write lyrics, so the choice is easy. However, I sometimes write to a particular melody that  appeals to me. That generally takes longer, what with having to fit the words to the metering, and still focusing on achieving a coherent/cohesive and pleasing result.

Occasionally a simple bedtrack will capture my imagination, and I'll write a lyric based on the emotions and images that were elicited. it's then up to the vocalist to create the melody (unless I've provided a rough vocal guide on Audacity).

Donna

[Dmann]

 being a heavy metal guitarist...... it's pretty obvious.....

 1st comes the RIFF OF DOOM!

 seriously though, usually I come up with a simple melody (on guitar), end up adding some complex rhythm arrangment behind it (again on guitar) to milk the melody. Then I try to come up with something that fits. Lately though, I've had to have a bass in there too to fill up the low end gap.

 I wish I was a good songwriter. Unfortunately I am more of an instrumentalist.