Lyrics First vs Melody First - Which is best? (Songwriting Tips)
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- čas přidán 30. 06. 2024
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On the macro level, there are essentially two ways songwriters approach their songs...
On one hand, Some artists prefer a lyrics first approach. So that would be having a well-articulated lyrical theme and concept, even to the point of having the lyric completely finished before ever thinking about melody.
Conversely, some artists prefer to start their songs using melody and groove, before ever thinking the lyric.
I think this is quite an interesting dichotomy that's worth looking into. So let's dive in and compare these two approaches and hopefully this will give you some clarity as to which approach is best for you.
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Sodajerker On Songwriting Podcast - Billy Steinberg Interview
www.sodajerker.com/episode-1-...
Analyzing Sasha Sloan
• Analyzing Sasha Sloan ...
Analyzing The 1975
• Video
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0:00 Intro
0:55 The Case for Lyrics-first
2:54 The Case for Melody-first
4:08 Benefits & Drawbacks of Lyrics-first
5:57 Benefits & Drawbacks of Melody-first
8:46 My personal approach and WHY
11:44 Outro
#songwriting #musicproduction #indiemusic
My background is poetry so that likely has an influence but I definitely find it much easier to write lyrics first because if I get them right, they already carry an intrinsic rhythm, beat and melody. I can then choose if I want to match the music to them or go counter to create dissonance
Very well said 💯
👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
You can always be flexible and work both ways. You can change the existing melody to fit some different lyrics, or you can change the lyrics to fit better in a new melody.
really fantastic video! it's interesting to think of it as a spectrum
Your videos always hit bro! Keep it up 💪🏽
I appreciate the kind words my friend!
This is high quality content that needs more love and support to it
Great video. Thanks!!
I prefer the Melody first approach because, following your concept of football rules, you need the framework set. To me, the lyrics - melody binomial is like the façade of the edification, but need the structure or the frame or skeleton of it, which goes along with harmony. A single note, I feel, is meaningless until it belongs to a chord. Therefore, the progression of feelings along with harmony mark the path to the word expression of such same feelings.
Good luck!
Cool vid thanks. I guess I flip between both, usually start with music but if I’m feeling boxed in i go to more lyric generation. Great to be more conscious about it’ll the process
Lyrics first because the message is most important and the message sets the happy melody or the sad melody it’s kind of a combination of both because you can try several different melodies after the lyrics are written and you can also change up the lyrics that are written to match the melody and groove that best fits the lyrics and story
Cool video, I don’t think many people that don’t write music themselves consider this sort of thing. In my mind it is certainly a case of a person being innately wired one way or the other.
Of course both ways work, but I could never imagine coming up with lyrics prior to melody, and it’s what I focus on listening to songs in general.
I tend to think that a great melody/harmony can save some mediocre lyrics, but not so much the other way around. Even if a person doesn't know the lyrics they can hum the melody. Lyrics in a bad music is just a text. Of course this is not the definitive truth, just some of the reasons I focus more on melody and sounds than words.
@@rafaelsantosxI agree. You could have as much fancy words as you want in your lyrics, but it doesn’t matter if the melody is bad, and you could have lyrics with simple words but have stronger effects because of the great melody.
Great explanation
7:15 I had an idea, based on how I’ve done composition in the past. You can place constraints for rhythm. Once I have my lyrics I count up the syllables and figure out if it better belongs to 3/4 or whatever time signature, then I whip out Ol’ Reliable I IV V I. I line up my cadences with the ends of my phrases and will at this point work in the beat before I try to time out the words. Then it’s slip and slide around until I find a melody I like and I can adjust the chords if I need to for inversions and such.
But I’m also super neurotic and methodical with my creativity. I had no instrument training, but I aced the written portion of the AP music theory test because of how naturally harmonizing melodies came to me. Flunked the aural part tho
I like to write down poetry, lyrics, or one-liners I'm thinking of, and use that as a tool when doing melody first writing. I'll hum or sing jibberish, then assign lyrics from my 'databank' which gives me the theme I'm gonna write about, then fresh lyric ideas start falling into place.
Love that. Thanks for sharing!
U've got great contents here
Thank you very much!
Thank you
Good video
Hi i really liked ur content as a new composer i prefer to write my songs first and then creating a melody that helps me out a ton (currently) as making melodies becomes easier but when i create melodies it's often a lil tough to make a good melody and write a good song out of it but when it happens it definitely happens greatly for me i personally prefer to write songs first as tbh i get songs ideas like literelly whole day and write best of em on the paper it would be a waste for me throwing away those fantastic Melodie ideas and really liked this video and i suprisingly write good songs and as ll of my songs come from my heart somehow lol but i would still request u to suggest me after telling all this that shall I continue writing songs first ?
I think everybody does what works best for them. No rules.
Personally I prefer Lyrics first. The reason I do it that way is because of a combination of the example of trying to figure out lyrics for a given melody is restrictive for me. Plus getting those mathematically constrained syllables to feel natural and vocal in the melody. If I write the lyrics first I can use the natural rhythm of the lyrics spoken with ornaments added onto it to spice it up and make it more melodic. The words naturally guide me both rhythmically and pitch wise to create the most conversational melodic content that I can think of.
This is a really good argument for the lyrics first approach. Well said, my friend.
i used to do a fair bit of ghostwriting back in the day but I've always wondered how they find a beat to pair to the lyrics. I know most mainstream rappers pay to make their own beats so I'm assuming that they would get the rhythm of the lyrics down first & then send it to the person making the beats. I think it's the way to go imo, but then again I've never tried writing lyrics to a melody, i just feel its too restrictive when you're trying to actually feel what you're writing. Appreciate the video & your thoughts.
Thank you. I've been stuck on the same song, my first song, for two years. I have the melodies down and what not, but for the life of me I can't translate them to lyrics. I've tried it all...
Ouch that’s no fun. You may be holding yourself to too high of a standard. Don’t forget the value of writing bad songs. It’s more important that you write more songs than it is to get 1 song just right. Be ok with writing lyrics that you don’t like. That’s the only way you’ll better.
@@theindiemusiclab Thank you! Will do
I've just finished writing my first Song Lyrics today...Here, in my place, songs are usually composed with tune(melody) first-lyrics next...but I think this approach limits the creativity & liberty of writing lyrics...especially when the song should match to the scene/theme/tone of the Movie(oh yes I'm writing the song for a feature film)... now that I've found your video, I'm happy & very much convinced to follow and make things as I wish.....true that there is no exact pattern to be followed, it all depends on the choices & ability in making/writing songs... GREAT EXPLANATION AND REFERENCES...thanks
So glad you found it helpful!
If your focus is on the lyrics, then yes, write them first will give your more freedom. I use lyrics mostly as a way to vocalize the melodies, and I don't let them get in the way of the melody too much. But its useful to be able to do it both ways.
Not to be that guy, but there isn't only one football. There's American football, which is based on Rugby and competed in the NFL, and there is International football or fútbol, which is referred to as soccer in America and is competed in the World Cup. (Trust me, I'm not a stickler about these things and I don't even play sports. This is just things I know. Great video!)
Great and helpful video! But if I'm being honest, you get the like for the Eagles! 😁
Lyric first have big problem with plagiarism melody . Most of song write like poetry lyric first then melody is sample of some famous song
Okay and how to make the melody from lyrics 🤣
Nobody will listen to your song twice or even care to pay attention to your "special lyrics", if the melody sucks ass.
Melody first. Always.
Rap music
@@i_want_a_day Just rap. Music it's not.
@@beatdownby ok ben shapiro