Thread: What comes first??

a couple of bands i know are having trouble making original songs, what comes first- the music or the lyrics? or should they all come at the same time? do you work around music to shove lyrics in or do you form the music around the words??

Hey Bryce,

i think it's a personal thing where there are no set rules. Each musician should find their preferred way of working and if there's a few of you in a band then you have to find a way to make it work for all of you. Though in some bands there is just a couple of key members who come up with the initial ideas and take it to the rest of the band afterwards.

I have always preferred to write lyrics when the music is in it's first stages, that way the rest of the song can be built around the melodies i've created. however like most songwriters i have a book that i write lyrics in all the time and when i first sit down with the music to write the lyrics i look through these and see if anything fits or gels. It might not be a scientific way but it works for me.

the chicken

Hi Bryce,
like already said, there's no rule as to what should come first. I prefer to have a theme in my mind and then compose the song. I finally write lyrics which fit into the theme and the music. That's how it works for me.
All this, however, is determined by what is dominant in a band - vocals or instrumentals. Prog bands have very little vocal dominance and most of the new age/ commercial bands are vocal dominated.

It depends on what type of music you are making
or which with you are comfortable with

ex. "Linkin Park"

in the album Hybrid theory and Meteora , they actually first made demos, in which they made every thing roughly at the same time. even lyrics and then went to studios and purified the songs.

in this they actually recorded "drums" first then "guitar" then "base" then "scrathing and sampling and effects" and at last recorded the vocals but they already had demo so they knew what to do.


but in Minutes To Midnight

they focused more on Melody and stuff, they first made about 100 song seeds (basically guitar or piano part) and then went step by step and rejected the stuff that dint turned well

in this they worte lyrics at last but while recording demos they used "Gibrish" like "daaada daa" and wrote real lyrics at last.

"METALLICA"

they start with guitar than write chords for the melody than drums and then bass.

That depends...
But for me, lyrics comes first and then the music... Lyrics are my mood, and the music is created accord with that.

They come as a pair - the best ones always have lyrics and music arriving at the same time. i.e. inspired in the same moment.

for anyone reading this, Jeromes surname is McCartney-Lennon

10/10..........!