Music or lyrics first?

[idssdi]

I watched Rocketman on Friday and apparently Elton John’s friend wrote lyrics and brought them To Elton and Elton wrote the music over it after he got them. Now, I always write music first and write lyrics afterwards. What do you guys do? And what do you guys think is the better method?

 

[Flynn Edwards]

That’s definitely the better method in my opinion. You can write lyrics to suit the sound and rhythm of the instruments. Although, it is important to keep vocals in mind while writing. Take this with the grain of salt because it’s coming from a 13 yo metal guitarist.

 

[Kfir Yaakovi]

I think it depends but usually I expect lyrics to come first. You create the music and tone it based on your lyrics.
but I guess sometimes it is the opposide and sometimes you do both seperatly and they match.
I still think you usually write the lyrics – and then create the music around it. But I have no experience, it is just my thoughts

 

[Anna Taylor]

I used to always write lyrics first and then the music to fit them, but it often got me extremely frustrated because sometimes it just didn’t add up at all and I had to rewrite most of the lyrics to fit the sound. Nowadays I tend to write music first and then the lyrics, but it’s really up to what suits you best in my opinion. Both ways work, just depends on what works better for you personally.

 

[Firsty Lasty]

If you want the highest quality results then hiring a top-line songwriter is basically guaranteed to be best. It ain’t free, but it can cost a lot less than collecting guitars. Of course that’s not really what you were asking, but it’s always important to have perspective.
Melody, Rhythm, and Harmony are all so intimately connected that it’s good to always be evaluating and improving how the elements of a song interact. I can’t imagine doing a whole song by just putting vocals over music I wrote or trying to write a vocal melody without some idea of its context.

 

[Ed Seith]

Elton and Bernie have always had that arrangement, all the way back to the beginning. It was always strange, but it clearly worked for them. How was the movie?

 

[idssdi]

Aah Bernie, that was the name I was looking for.
The movie is pretty cool. The music is great(obviously) and it gives some insight on his life. They handled it differently compared to bohemian Rhapsody which is pretty cool. The only thing I feel is that it is kind of your classic rock n roll story where someone is talented, doesn’t have an easy childhood, get famous, becomes alcoholic+drug addict but gets sober and gets his shit together towards the end, which is kind of same old same old when you have Bohemian Rhapsody, the dirt and in lesser degree A star is Born all within a year.

 

[The Raven]

Personally, in my music writing, I find the tone of the song is often driven by the lyrics. I find it is much better to have the lyrics before the music so that you are setting a proper tone to the music with the lyrics, rather than vice versa.

 

[Calvin Phillips]

I dont plan anything. I just sit down and write.

 

[Filip Tomiša]

I don’t think that one way is better than the other, it’s just what works better for you. I personally do music first because i only do instrumental music

 

[AGA]

I’ve had both situations, sometimes I come up with a melody and lyrics and write the music according to that. And sometimes the music inspires a melody line with lyrics. To me it’s most important that the melody is good and the syllables fit it well regardless of what comes first.