[rickd1]

Hi,

I have heard that if you are new to lyric writing and want to get a better 'fit' between lyric and melody, then a good way is to write a new lyric to an existing song that you like and then discard the original and fit a new melody to the lyric.

Does anyone use this technique?  If so, have you had any good results with it?

Rick
http://soundcloud.com/red-planet

[Boydie]

Never used this technique but I can see the benefit as a developmental exercise

I can see how writing to a good (classic) melody would allow you to get used to writing lyrics with long and short syllables "in the right places" and also to write lyrics that don't just follow the chords - i.e. avoiding the classic:

de dum de dum de dum de dum
de dum de dum de dum de dum

By writing to an existing melody you will get used to writing in interesting phrases, different rhyme schemes, metres etc.

I can only see benefits as a developmental exercise

I am not so sure about using this approach to write a song though - I think it would be difficult to separate the lyrics from the pre-existing melody and add a different one

I think it would be easier writing from scratch for a new song - although you could obviously recycle some lyrics / phrases from this exercise

I guess the only way to know for sure is give it a go...

[S.T.C]

I agree, can only be a good thing....it should force you to come up with the right lyrics for the tune.?

[Kafla]

I am off to try this with the middle section of bohemian rhapsody 

[The Corsair]

Never done it, never want to. I can see the potential benefits as a developmental exercise as others have said but I feel like something is fundamentally wrong about it...
I guess if I did a song that way, even as practise, it wouldn't feel like I'd done it properly...

[ComposerZeus]

This is a two-fer!

1. An excellent exercise as a wordsmith.

2. The syllable structure is already a proven hit/winner therefore has potential for another go. (provided melody has changed somewhat)

[Schavuitje]

This is a useful exercise, you are alreasy "Ghosting" something that has been popular before so in theory you should be able to come up with something
that could be a hit again. It's very important to listen a lot to the top 40 if you want to write a pop song. And this is a good method of doing things.
Of course you have to present it differently. Maybe change a chord here or there or use a different beat, use different instruments/sounds and of course the melody
has to be different.
I have only ever done this once with a Katy Perry track, of all people hahaha I don't like her at all! But I did it as an exercise and it can work very well.
I don't aim to write pop songs and I want EVERYTHING I do to come out of my own head so I only did it once.

You can read an excellent book about all this, well worth the money iof you ask me, called - The Craft and Business of Songwriting, by John Braheny. 

[AKingsMercury]

Ghosting, really never heard of it!

I think it is a good starting point, because you learn to concentrate on one thing at a time. I always had problems doing 3 things at once like writing chords, melody and lyrics. But actually that is really hard and quite impossible for a beginner. If you have the chords and melody given then you can focus on lyric writing. Sounds logical to me.

[habiTat]

I sometimes do this, didnt really know it was a thing. I just sometimes hear a song and wish I'd written it so, with that song tune/structure in my head, I write my own lyrics to fit. Once written, I leave it alone for a while, then I take the lyrics fresh at face value and just play about with chords, rhythms and melodies until I have a song. The advantage to this is that you have a good start point with a rhyming structure/verse structure and the song sometimes virtually writes itself.

[vibesville]

I have used this technique once with lyrics and once with melody.

I think it is a really good way of understanding how someone writes and can help in learning to express yourself.
I used 'Someone like you' by Adele but I came at from the angle of a reply to the original.

This was in no way an attempt at bettering the original, just a way for me to think differently.

Someone Like You - http://soundcloud.com/you/tracks?q=someone+like+you

Think it worked for what I was trying to do. I think for anyone new to lyric writing it's a good thing to try :)