Which first: lyrics or music?

Elton John and Bernie Taupin

Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber

Rodgers and Hammerstein

Steve Tyler and Joe Perry

Gilbert and Sullivan

etc...

-Laz

Wow, how did I get over here? :o

If I don't write both at the same time I usually don't finish. Music by itself is hard to put lyrics to, but lyrics are also a hard starting point. I usually start strumming a rythem or playing a riff and hum the melody line. Magic ensues...........sometimes.

i put a post up and no one replied how long does it usually take if any of you would look at it i would apreciate it thanks ;D

I usually start with a musical germ that sets the mood, write some lyrics to go along then go back and finish the music.

I have a large store of poetry/lyrics, which I occasionally re-write when I have music and no lyrics. I write lyrics without music constantly, and I write music without lyrics constantly, putting the two together is the thing I can't do well. Usually when the gods smile upon me, I'll hear a little bit of the song in my head, a melody or chord progression, then I'll add a rhythm and drums/bass to it in my head, then I'll hear the singing...No lyrics, just the word shapes and phonetics and inflection, if that makes any sense at all. About 1 minute after I start imagining all this, my brain crashes. I need more memory, or a faster cpu...

Definitely the lyrics first because it sets the tempo. ;D

I am a bass player but i write on an acoustic even though we are a hard rock band. I almost always come up with a chord progression first. After running through the progression a few times and varying it by adding a transitional chord here and there a melody will start to creep into my head. Once I have some kind of melody it will spark that dusty index file I call my brain into developing some kind of lyrical idea and, voila, another masterpiece!

I used to start with a short chord progression and write both music and lyrics simultaneously: The music sets the tempo, I find, and brings about the lyrics, then the lyrics influence the next line of music, etc.

Nowadays I generally write the music completely, I occasionnaly get a line or two of lyrics that jump out at me, then I sit back, listen to the music and listen to what the music is telling me: It's sort of like a sculpter who says the sculpture is already inside the rock and he's just removing the excess song: the song is already there, you're just removing the excess chords, notes and words and are left with the final product.

I always used to do music first, but then I ended up with loads of music, but no lyrics, which is annoying. Ive now got a load of songs and ideas that I just cant put lyrics to.

Recently I started doing lyrics first, and the songs Ive done are miles better than my old stuff.

Doing the music first is restricting for me, but songwriting is a very personal thing, so whatever works for you ;)

Lyrics first in almost every case.

A :-)

Hey This is my first time here  ;D
I write lyrics first but the music is in my head when I'm writing. I have learned to meter out my lyrics so they fit the structure of music. This is a skill that takes time to develope, until then you have to deal with a little rewriting.

I'm with the cowboy.
uh...I mean... I agree with the cowboy. :-[

I'm one of those people that just gets 'words in my head'. However, they're always accompanied by noises in my head. If the words don't meter-out to the noises I'm hearing, one or the other will get changed until they do. This all takes place before I ever put pen-to-paper.

Does that mean I write both at the same time? Sorta. I'm no stranger to completely rewriting a song 6 months later. Not often, but it happens.

I have tons of funky little riffs and progs that I've come up with over the years that need words. I have boot-boxes and notebooks full of one-liners and lyrics that have no music, or that I forgot how they originally sounded to me. Both are my Problem Children.

Let me go dig one out...

All of the things that I say
When I'm with you,
Are the same as the things that I think
When I miss you.

I came up with that on Sept 5, 1998. That's as far as it got. I can't even recall what I was hearing in my head. >:( It just got jotted down in a notebook in my kitchen.
Somewhere, someday, maybe I'll need that line?

IMHO, it's much more difficult....NO. Let me start over.
For ME, it's much more difficult to put good lyrics to music than to find good music to go with my lyrics.

I guess everyone has thier own style and methods. Whatever works for You is the best way.

If i do music first I can never do the lyrics. So Im a lyric first guy. I figure a melody out from the lyrics and fit chords to the melody. I almost never change lyrics to fit music.

-Marv