melody or lyrics first?

[Speed Demon]

I usually start by writing lyrics first, then arranging meter to match tempo.

Once this stage is complete the music starts to create itself. Just listen to that melody in your head.

Before you even realize it you'll be shredding with the best in the west, and the beast in the east.

Of course, it helps a lot to understand how music is constructed, modes, cycle of fifths, etc. but don't let that get in the way of your style.  

[Hook]

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!

True Dat!

warning novella post!
I started writing lyrics in the 7th grade. Love songs mostly in the 8th grade I started writing with a friend who could play piano and we had finished songs. We wrote together for many years to come, me-lyrics & vocal melody, him- music and harmonies, as a duo or in bands. I used to quote Morrisey often by saying "the music plays 2nd fiddle to my lyrics" rather pompously. At about 16 I was getting tired of my band mates not understanding my lyrics, and wanting to help write, complaining, etc., so I taught myself how to play guitar with a chord poster and some songbooks from my favorite bands and began writing & performing solo. I still wrote with my buddy and had some bands but found the freedom very rewarding. I always approached my tunes with an emphasis on my lyrics, usually written 1st, sometimes at the same time as the music, never complete music 1st. Perhaps flexing my new solo status subconsciously but mostly  because I considered myself a sub par guitar player.
Fast forward 20 years, a couple 100 songs forgotten, a wife, a year in Nashville, kids...still writing the same way. Even as I began recording seriously 5-6 years ago I never embraced the equipment as a writing tool.  The last year however, I have been challenging every aspect of my songwriting and found it extremely satisfying. Through collaborating with bruno, I began to write lyrics to a finished piece of music and that has seeped into my own songwriting. I have lately written most of my music first and lyrics after. I have also attempted a few times to step away from the lyric/vocal duty all together, very hard for me as i apparently love the sound of my own voice, and have been extremely happy with the results.

After 28 years of song writing, my opinion is that when you decide you have a formula or a procedure that dictates your writing you are only creating limitations for yourself and your art. I don't see any difference in poetry or prose as lyrics, words become lyrics once put to music or melody so I guess the music has to be there in some way to even consider them lyrics. I'm certainly not suggesting anyone abandon there proven method, but shake it up a bit, you'll be surprised at how inspiring it can be!
Rock On!

[Vaisvil]

FWIW

I like starting from words because they often suggest a song. Usually when I don't have words but have a song I end up just improvising something to sing.

I guess I'm pretty impatient and I'm always wanting to run off to the next thing...

[Oldrottenhead]

i very rarely write lyrics first, i might occassinally scribble some words down on the back of a fag packet that i think might come in handy at some point..

like hook tho, i love getting sent music to have a free reign over. i find if i get a good well structured piece of music in my email, i can have a lyric done for it in next to no time, if i cant come up with a lyric within in an hour . i usually never do and if i do the lyrics sound forced or even false.

but if i get something sent that speaks to me.........pow! the words just come of their own accord. i cant explain it other than the mood or whatever in the music speaks to me in some way and the words come out. i like to be spontaneous cos i don't have a lot of free time, but i try to use my free time productively.
just had a free hour will be posting the results in a minute.

[phantasm777]

i just realized, i started writing lyrics in 73 so im 39 yrs into it. also i used to, in my younger days, write a song based on lyrics or on a musical piece i wrote, so i used to do it either way.
now so far it seems most comfortable to do most of the complete song musically and then write the lyrics. all the many lryics i wrote from 73 on  i never use. for one theyre all 30 lines long, some longer. would be a lot of long songs i suppose. but since i've been making music again, it seems easier to add lyrics already into the song just like adding an instrument to an already written song. plus using fresh lyrics rather than grab old ones and re-use them seem to be better for now anyways.
for now it seems rather than letting the lyrics dictate the song and writing it around the lyrics, i am more comfortable at letting the song dictate the lyrics. this way i dont have to stretch out how many more verses in music i need to fit in the verses of the lyrics. since i know i can, for example if i have space for 8 lines of lyrics i can then sit and write the 8 lines rather than trim some from the lyrics i wrote some time ago.
i rarely do a "chorus" thing,  on my own music but i suppose it will happen from time to time. i have done a couple songs of repeated lyrics, those sung again later in the song but i really do not like that and won't be doing it much. i prfer not repeating and instead making new lines of vocals - lyrics in it's place.
so it looks like for the most part, my 1800+ lyrics and poems will just be poetry, some i will re-use some day, but so far it's looking like they're better suited for books of prose and poetry. even on my song, tales of yesteryear which goes back to 75 i wrote new lyrics for that. yet the whole time i wrote all those lyrics and poems i planned on putting most of each one to music. so far it is not working out that way. BUT it forces me to write new lyrics which i dont so much anymore unless i make a new original song, being so busy being a one man band most of the time.
just goes to show how you can change through the yrs.
each original song i record i name, what, which, whatever as a temporary name. so even as i am close finishing the song far as the music, i still have no idea what it is going to be about, and i like that cause when i write lyrics i mostly do not pre-think out what it will be about or say. sometimes you get inspired by a few words and want to incorporate it into some music but not too often for me.
being i would have the music near done or done, then i know where i can place lyrics and how long they need to be, i need 8 lines here, 4 here, 8 here, 6 here, etc. then i just put the pen down and write it. always keeping in mind themelody of the song and the melody and cadence of the lyrics. once in a while the lyrics are the same melody as the song melody but i typically prefer to stay away from that and use counter melodies for the lyrics.

a good question also is, what instrument do you first use when working on recording a song. so far for me it is mostly guitar and sometimes keys.

for me it is always about the music, thats why you can write a song with no lyrics and it is still music - song. but if you just write lyrics and add no music to it, its not a song it becomes a spoken or sung lyric. by "sung" i mean if one put a melody line to the lyric and sung it accapella, then it might be considered a song if doing accapella but it has no musical accompaniment. even for as long as i have been writing lyrics and poems and as many as i have written, for me it still is - all about the music. the lyrics are secondary to the music. even IF i did write the lyrics before the music. but that's just me!