[hofnerite]

I am a melody man, I write songs by playing guitar (or piano) while humming a melody line, sometimes I put a few words in to see where I am going but melody ALWAYS comes first. I then sit down when the whole melody and music parts are done to write the words.

How do you do it? Are words or melody the most important to you? In which order do you write songs?

Personally I find lyrics the hardest part of the process and part of me really wants to find a Bernie Taupin so I have something to work from every time I sit down to write. I find melodies come naturally as I find chords. It's fascinating to me to hear from other songwriters as to how they do it, so please post your methods!

[tone]

I'm a melody first writer too, although I have written one or two starting with words.  I also find the lyrics the hardest part, but I think they're a really important part of the song, at least for the kinds of songs I want to write.

I would say the music comes first, because although terrible lyrics can ruin a song to some extent, I think a terrible song is just that: a terrible song, regardless of how good the lyrics are.  I've begun to try not to see them as two separate things.  A song has melody, harmony, rhythm and words. Take away any of those ingredients, and the song loses something essential.

[hofnerite]

I agree with the "all-in-one" view.
It seems that a lot of songwriting sites emphasise lyrics over anything else, often telling people that a sing is rubbish just from a review of some lyrics. There are lots of very very famous songs I can mention that have poor (on paper) lyrics but have gone on to be classics.

I was listening to "Dance Tonight" my McCartney today. On paper the lyrics are atrocious, same with the music if it were an instrumental but together it works, has sold millions and used as part of Apple's world wide adverts. I know it's Macca and all he needs to do is fart and it goes to no.1 but it just proves your point Tone that a good song is getting each part just right.

[Eltoniobonio]

I am a melody man, I write songs by playing guitar (or piano) while humming a melody line, sometimes I put a few words in to see where I am going but melody ALWAYS comes first. I then sit down when the whole melody and music parts are done to write the words.

How do you do it? Are words or melody the most important to you? In which order do you write songs?

Personally I find lyrics the hardest part of the process and part of me really wants to find a Bernie Taupin so I have something to work from every time I sit down to write. I find melodies come naturally as I find chords. It's fascinating to me to hear from other songwriters as to how they do it, so please post your methods!

Hi Hofnerite. My method is the same as yours. Melody always comes first, the lyrics are usually a bit of an issue for me. I hum any ideas onto a small dictaphone and then leave it for a while so i've sort of forgotten what i've hummed. If when i play the tape back (a few weeks or months later) my idea jumps out at me i go with it. If my idea sounds bad i drop it. i have a few bits of songs laying around but when i decide to record one i stick to that one. By the time the backing is all done i'm then cornered into coming up with some lyrics. Do you record your songs?

[Nathan1709]

I tend to focus on the lyrics primarily and then edit them once I have an idea for a melody.  Occasionally I will come up with a melody first but for the most part the lyrics are my main focus.  I have, in the past, written the lyrics for a whole song before even considering the melody.

[miletteriis]

I tend to focus on the lyrics primarily and then edit them once I have an idea for a melody.  Occasionally I will come up with a melody first but for the most part the lyrics are my main focus.  I have, in the past, written the lyrics for a whole song before even considering the melody.

I do exactly the same thing...to me the lyrics are definitely the most important thing and so many times I've found that I have a great tune but no words to go with it. When this happens you end up trying to "fill in" with random, slightly cliche lyrics and I find overall this results in poorer songwriting. For me the first thing is an idea, something to write about that is original and personal to me rather than something everyone writes about and can relate to to an extent. Then generally I'll mess around on the guitar trying to find something that sounds nice and on a good day the song will just walk into my head

[martinheron]

I've tried to write lyrics before I have a tune in my head, but I always fail, and either end up reverting to my usual "tune-then-lyrics" routine or, or it just becomes prose rather than lyrics. What I've not done though, is taken someone else's lyrics and tried to make a song out of it, a la the John/Taupin routine, I'd probably find that a lot easier than trying to write lyrics from scratch without any melodic basis.

[rossanne]

I always write lyrics first. If I'm lucky they come complete with melody and I have to figure out the chord structure and things afterwards. It makes my songs pretty wordy and complicated though, which can be a bad thing. I'd love to be able to write good simple lyrics, I think there is much more art in that - saying more with less - unless you're Leonard Cohen

As an excercise I've tried writing songs music first and I've got a couple of songs now through that, but because they ended up sounding so different, I'm not sure if I like them yet. I had to try something though because I only write lyrics first if there is something burning I have to say, but I haven't felt like that for a while and so trying to find other ways of doing it.

I wrote one song by writing down voice hallucinations. Pretty desperate times! I tend to only hear them when I'm trying to go to sleep - I think it's called hypnagogia. The end result was pretty weird, but a lot of people say it's their favourite slow song of mine. (Weirdest line in it - "So what do you think fills this space? The gaps in the storeroom yard. And if you think the world's a stage, then take it away". Hehe, think I only managed to get away with it because I looped vocals over vocals through the song so it sounded kinda dream-like.

[Schavuitje]

Melody man here I often twiddle on my guitar or, just aquired keyboard, until I find something that interests me.
Sometimes I think I'm never going to fit anything lyrically to it because it's so strange but then when I have recorded the guitar, bass and drums I sit, and listen, and let whatever wants to come out of me, comes out... Melody-wise and lyric-wise.
I think the melody and meter of the vocals comes to me first and then once I start singing whatever lyrics come to me at the time, they usually lead to a subject matter that fits the music.
Or in my ears they do haha

[Peterwork]

always the melody, hardly ever write any stone cold lyrics on paper to be honest, just let it roll off the tounge and store it away in my head - but that's just down to the pure lazyness of a teenager haha :p

[Dutchbeat]

in my case, also melody first, that seems to be the relatively easy part

and then try to find lyrics that somewhat fit to the chords and singing melody i have in mind, not good at that...at all

A friend gave me a copy of Rikky Rooksby's book called "Lyrics. writing better words for your songs".

I enjoyed reading it, some good tips in the book, I think, but it is still hard to come up with lyrics for me

[mihkay]

Speaking personally.
Never lyrics first. I need something to hang the words onto.
But mostly, with the melody comes some "off the cuff" lyrical phrases. And when I'm lucky the words will give me an attitude for the song, and in turn define the phrasing of the melody, which structures the metre and allows me to write full lyrics.   I think that makes sense?  
But always the music will kick off a lyrical idea, never the other way around.

[Dutchbeat]

Mihkay, yes, that makes sense to me

[Peterwork]

Speaking personally.
Never lyrics first. I need something to hang the words onto.
But mostly, with the melody comes some "off the cuff" lyrical phrases. And when I'm lucky the words will give me an attitude for the song, and in turn define the phrasing of the melody, which structures the metre and allows me to write full lyrics.   I think that makes sense?  
But always the music will kick off a lyrical idea, never the other way around.

totaly agree

[Eltoniobonio]

Speaking personally.
Never lyrics first. I need something to hang the words onto.
But mostly, with the melody comes some "off the cuff" lyrical phrases. And when I'm lucky the words will give me an attitude for the song, and in turn define the phrasing of the melody, which structures the metre and allows me to write full lyrics.   I think that makes sense?  
But always the music will kick off a lyrical idea, never the other way around.

Exactly what i was trying to say.