JLiRD808

I feel like its the same progression as "Wild World" by Cat Stephens but not sure if it starts at the same root. It would be awesome to hear back soon.. THANKS! J

Who here knows about the Paul McCartney/Beatles "Yesterday/Scrambled Eggs" story? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yesterday (there's more stuff abound via Google) Melody first for that one obviously lol.

I usually start with watching television first. After that, I look at my notepad and maybe hum a few notes, fiddling with my pen (sometimes chewing on it.....ew). Then I'll go to the fridge and stare into it for a good 3-4 minutes, knowing already that there isn't much in there to satisfy a craving (though there is a slight chance that something I didn't notice before will catch my eye). Then I go to the cupboards and scan some more, here I will usually find chips, cookies, popcorn, sometimes even some spicy beef jerky. Then I head back to the living room/studio and turn the tv back on. If I cant find something good on within a few minutes, I'll check email. By this point, I would have to have some napkins handy to keep me from spreading the salt/grease on my remote and laptop. If there is a pillow nearby on the couch I may decide to lay down for a few minutes, vowing not to actually fall asleep though. 1.5 hrs later I awake and will finally reach for a guitar. Then I will start to sing something....a melody will come out, but no SET words. Sometimes I use an app on my iphone to record interesting melodies/off-hand lyrics. Then I'll jot down a few lines and set that piece of paper to the side for 6 months. <Repeat> LOL.....

Ive been playing music on/off for over 20 years. I play sax/bass/guitar/vocals and some keys n drums. In high school I wrote A LOT of poetry but I STOPPED. I think it was bcz I got into partying and it fell out of my routine. Ive spent the last 3-4 yrs teaching myself to sing. I'd get instrumentals from DJ's, off the internet, or make my own and would come up with melodies and just sing whatevz...the content didnt really matter. I'd have concepts in my head but usually I'd just rattle off whatever came out...it was more about the physical/musical act of singing and the lyrics usually didn't make much sense lol. During this time I also got really into home studio recording and ended up, thru time, building quite a formidable setup and have developed a decent skillset. But now the problem is, I've recorded myself singing these melodies over these instrumentals and realize that it's now time for me to WRITE LYRICS. Having the background in poetry I felt like it would eventually come back to me naturally, and it kinda has...sometimes hasn't. But I want to cultivate it further, interact with other lyric/songwriters and dive into it. Looking forward to great interactions with ppl here

Totally agree...great question! I had/have a "habit" of listening to an instrumental that someone or myself created and coming up with a melody first. One reason was, though, was that I was trying to teach myself how to sing too. The content wasn't very important so I just made up lyrics on the spot. But yes the melodies definitely came out first. I even recorded a bunch of them and would try to edit the vocals so the song made sense....it wasnt easy, took a lot of time, and in the end, the lyrics still wouldn't always make sense So lately, I've been really trying to turn those melodies into lyrics and I gotta say, sometimes it comes out easy and sometimes its tuff. But when u can match a melody in ur head with a message "in ur heart" (I know it sounds cheesy) then that is TOTAL VICTORY...the best feeling in songwriting I believe. What was great about the freestyling (and even recording) period was that a few lines would often kinda "pop-out" at me and I'd realize that I really wanted to keep them. So then I would pretty much just wrap a whole song/story around those one or two lines. That line could have been in the 2nd verse or anywhere...but I would draw from its inspiration and elaborate on it. Sometimes it just takes one line.... However, I'm also looking fwd to starting the other way around....instead of fitting lyrics to a melody, come up with a message and then give it a melody. We'll see how it goes. Red---what's ur typical songwriting routine?