I often get asked about my songwriting process. Do I write lyrics first and then put music to them, or vice versa? Or, does it all just happen at once?
Well, firstly, not all songs follow the same creation process. Without wanting to sound pretentious, I’d say that each song happens fairly “organically”, in the sense that there’s no set method that I follow, and the majority of my songs seem to just “write themselves”.
That said, it is most common that I will come up with a chord progression on the guitar first, and then start “scatting” (i.e. singing a melody using random sounds/words) over the top. Usually a line or lyrical hook will naturally come from this process, and then I’ll build the rest of the song around it (I might even change the original line or hook at a later stage, if the rest of the song goes in a different direction). So, although technically the music comes first (only just), I would class this as “all happening at once”, because all the components come together very quickly and seem to have an immediate relationship.
Sometimes, I’ll write a chord progression (and maybe a melody) first, and will then play around with it for weeks or months before I come up with lyrics to put to it.
Other times, I’ll have a lyrical idea, or a few lines written, and will put them to music at a later stage and let the rest of the song grow from that starting point.
I very rarely (if ever) write an entire lyric (i.e. the words for a complete song) and then put music to it later on. If I’ve done that twice, it’s a lot!
So which method do I think is optimal? Well, I’d say that it largely depends on the individual, but I will say that I think it’s MUCH easier to write lyrics for pre-composed music than the other way round. When you start with lyrics, you have to try and write music that works with those lyrics rhythmically, and that’s hard. I think it’s easier to write lyrics to a rhythm/metre that is pre-determined by the music. (Side note: It can be easy to recognise songs for which the lyrics were written first – the words often don’t “sit” well in the music, due to the emphasis being in a weird place, or there being too many syllables crammed into a small musical space.)
Anecdotally, I do tend to find that my best songs are the ones where it all seems to come together at once. Perhaps this is because I don’t have time to second-guess myself or get hung up on the small stuff.
If you’re new to songwriting, I recommend trying each approach until you find what works best for you!
Are you a songwriter? If so, what’s you’re creative process? Which of the above methods do you follow most frequently? Share your experiences in the comments section below!
Photo courtesy of Lel4nd