Since that's going to be the part most people will remember. If you're opting for the verse-chorus form, I'd recommend starting off writing lyrics for the Now it's time to start writing, and craft your words into lyrics. Otherwise it's like trying to decorate a house before it's been built. Is it going to be your typical verse-chorus form? Or a less common AABA structure? The structure itself doesn't matter, but the song does need to have one.

Now you've got some words together based around a theme, start thinking about your song structure. Then it becomes more of a hybrid approach (see below), but that's ok! While you're doing so and just start singing the song. An alternative to writing lyrics down is to record them in a voice memo (handy if you're walking the dog). I prefer writing using pen and paper words and lyrical ideas can more easily be thrown around the page that way. Jot everything down you can always come back and edit later. They can be fragments of lines, interesting things you've noticed about your theme, or random words. Once you've settled on your theme it's time to sketch out some lyric ideas. There's nothing wrong with noodling (lyrically or musically), but at some point you need to start your journey. It's important to know where you're going in order to get there. What's the song about? What are you trying to say? What emotion(s) do you want to convey? The first thing to establish with the lyrics first approach is your theme, ideally in the form of a title. Sometimes this may mean sacrificing a great line to avoid over-crowding, but that's part of the craft of songwriting. Is to leave space for the music to play its part (pun intended). Lyric writing is a craft that can be studied and practiced for a lifetime. We're going to look at this thoroughbred approach right now. They wrote many songs together before they even met in person, and even then continued with a words-first collaboration. His collaborator Bernie Taupin would write a complete lyric, and Elton John would set it. Most of Elton John's early catalog was written lyrics first. , and how each one can subtly affect the development of a song. In this article we're going to take a deep dive into the different approaches of It can be a matter of personal preference, but also circumstantial being stuck in a noisy bus terminal with only a notebook may lead you down the lyrics first route for instance. Put ten songwriting teams in a room and you'll have as many responses. There's no one-size-fits-all answer to this. It's a question that gets asked a lot of songwriters: do you write music or lyrics first?

Get lyrical alternative