Lyrics? Melody? Which One First?

[rfoss]

thats how it happens for me too, ill write a song in about half an hour, ill find a phrase i like then go with it, mumbling words sounds nonsense until its all out of me. the i go back and piece it together

[JLiRD808]

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.

Edited February 13, 2013 by JLiRD808

[AnthonyCeseri]

I've been struggling with my songwriting lately, maybe I'm just not at all inspired, I don't know, but I'm having trouble coming up with melodies nowadays, and I couldn't really fit them into the lyrics. Even the lyrics seem off. I dunno why, maybe I'm doing something wrong? Anybody out there who could give advice?

Like, is it easier to create the melody first then lyrics or the other way around? Or it's up to me whether which one to compose first?

I write the melody first, because a lot of times I find if you write lyrics first your melody can become wordy. Especially if you don't write out every line to a singable rhythm.

I find it's easier to come up with catchy melody and then figure out how to get the words in afterwards

Hey Red! Hope you don't mind, but I attached a poll to yor topic. I thought it might be interesting to get some kind of overall member consensus on your question.

good call

[Zarin]

lyrics or melody?

 

melody or lyrics?

 

lyrics or melody?

 

It is a thing most difficult to decide about. I have not enough wisdom to choose.

[wtf audio]

I write most of my melodies while at work doing my day job, screen printing allows me to come up with song ideas quite easily, then i note those on my phone on ever note then when i get home i record them roughly into my DAW. The lyrics are initially just padding for the melody but sometimes I come up with workable ones straight away. I find that trying to force the creative process never works for me. Ig it's too hard/not working for the writer then it won't work for the listener. So i would probably say melodies first :-)

[RowdyReece]

For me it varies... Typically a songwriting session is my book of poems/lyrical ideas that is write in daily in front of me and i'm fishing couch-side with my guitar. Sometimes I'll start with a melody or music idea then end up about 50 miles away from what i started with: rewrites, chord changes, melody change. Most of the time im not too inspired to hear new melodies with out a fresh set of lyrics that speaks to me. It seems like it all comes together quickly if it's going to. Haha not too sure if i helped but that's my routine : )

[MikeRobinson]

Probably both at the same time.  

 

And, for what it's worth, there's a lot of good-idea in "the 'scrambled eggs' story."  Maybe you start by writing nonsensical lyrics (like "scram - bled - eggs") that more or less match the rhythm of the tune that's in your head.  Likewise, when the thing that you're certain of is "a particular snatch of lyric," you write (and carefully keep ...) a "nonsensical" bit of melody to go over it, deciding e.g. whether the flow should be going up or down, whether a note should be sustained or short, and so on.  In this way, you keep going.  (And in my case, "don't stop and think about it, just keep it and write another one.")  (There'll be time enough for countin' // when the dealin's done.)

 

I guess I can't respond to either of the two poll-choices because, most of the time when I'm being creative about anything, I say that I "sneak up on it," freely bouncing between one and the other. A snatch of melody might be drifting through my head; a cool line of lyric; and maybe it doesn't entirely make sense at the time.  Grab that butterfly out of the ether and glue it to the page, then shove a pin through it.  ("Gotcha!")  But then, looking across all of these bits, I start figuring out ways to possibly fit them together.  And, as with Tinkertoysâ„¢, there are lots of ways to do it.  Eventually I have to be sure that all the scrambled-eggs are gone, but not right away.

 

Another fun (and useful!) trick is something that I learned from a book, The World of 'Star Trek.'  You might think that it was always the case that Captain 'Kirk' would fly the 'Enterprise' with 'Spock' and so-forth ... but what they actually did was to fill many typewritten pages haphazardly with words.  Just banged them out.  Then, went back and read what they had written, finally making their now-'obvious' choices after many committee meetings.  (In the first pilot episode, "James T Kirk" was named "Christopher Pike.")  I've read similar stories about lyrics being developed that way.  Get an idea of the rhythm you want and then start hammering away.  (Notes, or words.)  Capture everything ("gotcha!"), then go back and read over what you wrote.  Now, the task becomes like that of assembling a jigsaw puzzle.  Nothing in the finished work gives any clue to the brainstorming process.

Edited February 11, 2014 by MikeRobinson

[White Soul Black Heart]

Looking back I would say both, but I don't believe I've ever thought of lyrics without their being some basic melody behind, so maybe the melody comes first...

 

but it really is a "same time" kind of deal

[boninsongs]

I always write the music, then the melody, then slowly fill in the lyrics. When I write lyrics first it seems difficult to match the rhythm of the prose to the music after.

[The S]

Music first. lyrics second.

[snabbu]

It used to be simultaneously for me, but now it's lyrics first.

[cisco]

always lyric first for me.