When people write songs, are the lyrics or the music written first?

Answer 1

sometimes when you write the words. there is a melody in mind. You can can write music to a beat of a track. Or you can take a poem and create a track for it. Creativity is very personal. Dont let anyone tell you it has to be a certian way. some of the best song were written for a idea or crazy thought in the moment. Example: call tyrone. I like that song. Because it was written in like 15 minutes just on what was happening at the moment. So, create your moment and take others with you.

Answer 2

Generally the lyrics are written first, so that they come out in the way that the person writing them most purely wants. Then a guitar accompaniment is generally added next, which may take a short time or a long time, it all depends. Then either bass and rythm guitar(or just secondary guitar) or drums are added. Last, whatever has been left out will be added in and final tweaking and perfecting will be done. With all that done, the song is then ready to be either performed or recorded.

I know it sounds really technical, but that is a general breakdown of how it works. This is typically a LONG process, which is why bands take so long to get new CD's out; but it is generally very rewarding in the end. But, honestly, you can't really put lyrics to music. You can, however, put music to lyrics.

Hope this was helpful! XD

Answer 3

There's absolutely no pattern or formula to it. I usually get a lyric idea with music at the same time, just a single line or something, but it will contain lyric AND melody, and that will get me started on really writing the song. (In fact, I usually "hear" arrangement and orchestration all at the same time, too.) If I like that first idea, I'll try to build upon it, usually fleshing out the melody first, then completing the lyric.

I have never really written a lyric by itself (without having an idea of what is going to happen musically) and I'll tell you why; Good lyric writing is a very specialized craft that goes WAY beyond normal poetry, in terms of things that need to be considered. For example... You could write a beautiful poem and put music to it that makes it very difficult to sing, or it might sound weird as a lyric. I mean... Popular contemporary poetry is not highly meter-dependent, gives no consideration to syllable count, or even rhyme (in many cases). You can simply write down a sentiment. GOOD, well-crafted song lyrics must take into account the syllable count, rhyme (although rhyme is getting really "loose" in contemporary songwriting), it has to consider that the words will be SUNG (because not all words and vowel sounds will work on every note, and there's also the tempo; certain words may not be able to be sung as quickly as the song is moving) and then there's "prosody", which is the matching of the words to the stresses of the syllables. I'll use the song "Billy Jean", by Michael Jackson, as an example:

"Billy Jean is not my lover."

Now I'll capitalize the stressed notes:

BIL-ly JEAN is NOT my LOV-er

You follow that? Now... What if the famous line was about a girl named Regina, who left him, and he wrote instead:

"Regina never did come back."

When you SPEAK that, the stresses are: re-Gi-na NEV-er DID come BACK, the exact opposite of the original line. Now, even though it's the same number of syllables, just TRY singing that over the melody of Billy Jean:

RE-gi-NA nev-ER did COME back

That sounds about as ugly as you can imagine! (And it sounds like you're singing "Reggie Nun averted combat"!)

In a spoken poem, that line might have worked just fine, but it defiinitely does NOT work over that melody. There is NO WAY you can use the name Regina in place of Billy Jean. And a skilled lyric writer must constantly navigate those constraints and parameters.

So... There's no correct or incorrect order of doing it. I think "music first" is much more popular, though.

Answer 4

I think it would depend on the person that is doing this, I have heard people who wrote the music first and then other people wrote the lyrics first. So either way most of the time we wind up with a good song to listen to.

Answer 5

That depends. A member of my family is a song writer and often a phrase or a "hook phrase" will come to his mind and he can work the music around an entire lyric. Other times, a melody will develop and then he will write the lyric to it. I understand that the melody to the Christmas song was "melody first". (Mel Torme) and lyrics were later written by a lyricist.

Answer 6

I usually get the chorus down first with music then lyrics. Then I work on the rest of the song.

Answer 7

When I write songs, I rarely do the music first, unless I have a really good melody in my head. I almost always do lyrics first.

Answer 8

it depends. but usually people write the lyrics and then write the music to follow the lyrics

Answer 9

it depends.
if they wrote the song with no tune in mind then the lyrics were written first. if they had the melody then wrote the song then the music was done first.

Answer 10

It depends on the person. SOmetimes it is the lyrics first and sometimes the music.