Which comes first, the music or the lyrics?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Senor Cactus
  • Start date Start date

Which comes first, the lyrics or the music?

  • write the lyrics first

    Votes: 35 19.8%

  • write the music first

    Votes: 142 80.2%
  • Total voters
    177
...

I have done lyrics before, and i write music... but I am trying to put the two together, lol

I make music, and in the course of how many times i HEAR a track, from start to finish? *you know the drill*, LMAO... well, here and there, if you listen enough, a small "hook" presents itself...

something in this ONE song, this tiny one part, clearly "says"...

"I love you, you know I do..." (bum-BUM-bum.....bah-bumbahbum...)

and THAT is the hook, prolly teh title, the main part of teh chorus... or, thats one school of thought.....

heck, as many songs have ever been hits out there, almost all probably been written a different way or whatever...

I once had lyrics, tried makign a song around it... (nothign great, trust me...lol) and the aggravating thing to me, was when I wasnt paying attention, teh phrase "hold on, stormy weather...." somehow "sprang out" and ruined the lyrics a little bit for me after that, LMAO (couldnt make the phrase fit, LMAO)

no matter HOW you do it, thosse lyrics and melody have to fit "just so"

*shrugs*

I concentrated on my music fro the past year or three, so maybe when i finally go back to lyrics, maybe it will "mesh" more.

PS - you could try the "ghost song" approach, if you make decent music, just can't make the music and words sit perfect?

also, there's a theory you just "talk the words", slowly... and the natural emphasis's (emphases? sp? LMAO) we place on words will "suggest" a higher or lower "note" for the melody. Its fairly straightforward approach to making what i think of as "bubble gum" melodies quickly. Take the bubblegum melody/strong melody/whatever-you-call-it and use it as the cantus firmus in a countermelody system you develop around it.

hey man, I'm not famous. *shrugs* I'll try anything.

have at it. Nothing is too crazy to rule out.

I'm a HAM (Kilo Bravo Three Oscar Yankee Zulu) and if you listen to random morse code, it will suggest little snippets of "rhythms" and some syncopation even, too, here and there...LMAO

try everything.
 
It varies for me. What ever i want emphasized more. I have sat and written lyrics that i love, and left them. and then later written some killer music. Then remembered my killer lyrics, and put them together and it just doesn't work. And Vice Versa.

Something comes in one from or another, and not in any order either.

And here i sit.....
 
i hadn't seen this threat before posting pretty much the exact same thing, my bad.

btw the other day i randomally wrote both pretty much at the same time. i got like a verse and a chorus done and then added more lyrics once i had the guitar sorted it

hard to explain...
 
It varies for me too, sometimes the lyrics come first and sometimes the music. One morning I woke up with 2 complete verses and a chorus written in my head. Always keep a notebook and pen on my bedside table since then.
 
Well, the way I do it is I come up with the melody first, then I write the lyrics. After that I start composing the music. I think the best solution is to try different methods and then choose one that suits you best.

Cheers!
 
zoetrope said:
Well, I've been writing songs almost 20 years now and I've always come up with a tune first, then added in lyrics. I play guitar as my main instrument, and it's always been easiest to find a new interesting progression, then hum or sing whatever comes to mind, let that crystalize into a few verses, then figure out a chorus, then keep fixing it here and there till it feels right.

So it's more like music, then lyrics, then more music, then more lyrics, then tweak.
Click to expand...

+1...same thing here..I play around on the guitar and sometimes ill hit a note and a melody will hit me..
 
It's all good to have the music, then the lyrics. If you listen to the music hard enough, it will take you and put you in the mood that your song needs to put its listening audience in. The beat will create a mood and tell you what to write the song about. Then the lyrics and music can both be on the same page.
 
So far it's always been lyrics first.
But I haven't been writing long so perhaps that will change as time goes by.

Moksha
 
...

Once you have the final MP3 of the music track, put it "in rotation" on a thumb drive, so when you listen to music driving, you hear it a lot...

if you keep listening to it, ONE PART will reveal a "verbal hook", and once you HEAR it, you cant forget it ever... one or two of them present themselves, then the rest of it will come a little easier.
 
Hmm. Both ways. You might have a awesome riff and you'll write around that. But, sometimes, it could be the other way around.
 
Is it theft?

I had a dream I was in a barbershop in my home town and a buddy was playing acoustic guitar singing a song. It was a great song and I started singing along with the chorus. When I woke the song was so clear in my mind I wrote down the whole song in minutes, words and music, in it's entirety without picking up a guitar. I use a mellotron for the keyboard part.

"Zombie in a Dream"
E- E-sus9 D Dsus9
He lost his identity in virtual reality
C Csus4 D Dsus4
Now he is a ghost in the machine
fell into obscurity out of the community
Now he is a zombie in a dream

C D B- E-
How would it feel to know that nothings real
C D E-sus9 E-
You can't believe a single thing you see
C D B- E-
What would you say to make it go away
C B7
What magic word can make the program cease

Now he just identifies with the thoughts inside his mind
To bad he's limited what he can learn
With no new inspiration he endures mental stagnation
Now he's burdened by the lot he's earned
 
I'll be messing around on guitar and find a chord progression/riff I like... then I'll write a melody to it. Music almost always comes first.
 
Mutations...

Toddskins said:
The chicken








I couldn't resist. :D
Click to expand...

I heard an argument that the egg came first because initially the bearer on the original chicken egg bore a mutation which deviated from the original species of proto-chicken.
 
dogonjon said:
I heard an argument that the egg came first because initially the bearer on the original chicken egg bore a mutation which deviated from the original species of proto-chicken.
Click to expand...

I heard that joke too! <wink>
 
I usually think of little snippets/couplets, always with a tune in mind. Eventually I realize that a lot of these short pieces I've written have similar music to them, and I end up making a song that sounds like them all, modifying the lyrics slightly to fit the song better. But that's just my style, I have super ADD so I can't sit down and write a whole song, nor can I write music without thinking of words to go along.
 
the lyrics come first, you gotta write the lyrics before you can make the perfect beat for them
 
hmm

well i dont really know what to say most of the time the lyric comes first but sometimes i hear a beat and i write the perfect lyric to that beat..
so i'll have to say none of the above.....
:eek:
 
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