I want to write my first song, should I compose the piece or write the lyrics first?

[CateM]

[SnowedIn]

You can do both. If you have a tune or a chord or a note that's banging around your head, start with that.

BUT... if you have a line: start with that and write the story. Songs are poems/stories. My a cohesive story. The music can fit and in the odd case where the word/rhyme doesn't totally work with the music, there are more than a million words in the English language and upwards of 170,000 in active use... you can easily find one that fits. I think it's ginormously harder to squeeze a story into a prebuilt set of music. Not impossible, but I think harder.

[nolabels]

I'm not much of a poet, so my music is pretty much instrumental only.

About the only times I write melody to lyrics is if I hear someone say something in a manner somewhat out of the ordinary and it sounds interesting not because of the meaning of the words themselves, but the way they 'bounce' off of, or 'slide' into each other, if that makes any sense to you. Usually just short phrases, not worthy of entire songs, unless of course one has the skill to expound upon a root phrase. I'm not that guy.

To each his own.

Good luck to you.

[Anonymous]

my girlfriend and I have the exact opposite ways of writing which we debate about constantly. she tends to write the title of her songs first then write the words lyrics then composes the beat which was how she was taught. I write the words for the song then the title then the beats which is how i taught myself. she writes her style because it limits her and focuses in on what she wants to write and sing about. me i write and as i'm writing i try to focus in or limit as i'm writing. our styles are exact opposite. you have to find what works best for you and your style of writing and making beats and making songs/music

[Opinion Owner]

i can't begin to tell you how many times me and her debated about which is better but in the end neither is wrong but neither is right. you have to find what works best for you and your style of writing and making music

[Sevenpointfive]

most musicians have a tune that goes with the lyric. start out small and piece by piece it will form itself

[ProVox]

I always start with a melody, write some lyrics, then the music to that.

[Anonymous]

I'd imagine you follow the inspiration. Sometimes that come in the form of words sometimes in the form of the melody.

[panamared1]

most times the words come first, then the words dictate the music

[Dinosaursandanime65]

Write first.