What should i write first; Music OR Lyrics?

Advertisements

I'm sure that this question popped up to your head at least dozen of times, well because it's a very controversial question and every songwriting begginer should ask it.

This question actually has no exact answer, because it doesn't matter whether you write the melody first or the lyrics first or you write them both at the same time, what actually matters is the songwriting techniques and the harmony behind them, but i'll give a simple answer to this very annoying question.

The simple answer is "It depends" on you, you don't have to put a restrictive rule to your songwriting, you just have to write down whatever songwriting ideas that came to your head, because you don't know when they do.

For me i like to write the lyrics first and then write the melody or sometimes write them simultaneously, but a lot of songwriters prefer to write the melody first and then write the lyrics. For you if you're holding you instrument, try to come up with musical ideas, write them down for possibly using them later with you songs. In contrast if you think that you have songwriting ideas for lyrics, then you can bring a notebook and also write these ideas down for later use in you songs.

When you assemble your song parts, make sure they fit together and that they have harmony between them, if they do then try to record your song or play it to close friends or family for opinion.