Writing music or lyrics: Which is harder?

[thatcrazycajun]

As I look back over my 2.5 decades and more of musical output, I see a heck of a lot more swiping parodies of other people's music than fully original stuff. I think this stems from my being way better as a lyricist than as a composer of innovative melodies. "A Simple Country Doctor" and "The Singer's Secret" are the only two full originals of mine that seem to have caught fire with listeners at all. (It is true that very few artists, in filk or any other genre, are gifted both in musical and lyrical composition; cadhla,filkertom and jecklar leap to mind as examples—I would give any one of several significant body parts to have such sheer talent.)

(I'm reminded of an anecdote musical satirist Mark Russell tells about the late, great Tin Pan Alley composer Sammy Cahn, who was asked, when he wrote a song, which came first: the music or the lyrics. Cahn's response? "The phone call.")

What's harder for you to write: really kick-ass melodies or meaningful lyrics? Or do you have an equal amount of difficulty (or none at all) with both? And which comes first for you?

Comments

[wolfette]

I can't really write music, but I can write lyrics, when I have a tune. I can also write poetry, for someone else to find a tune for!

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

You know, I've just been struggling with this, because I've been trying to write an original song. And I definitely think the music is harder...though that could be because I've never really done that before.

But without the music, the lyrics are lost. I need the structure of the music (and possibly even the pre-existing words) to run with--especially regarding syllables, sounds, and meter--to write the lyrics.

So I'm screwed twice over, eh?

[the-gwenzilliad.livejournal.com]

First, the idea.

Then a line of the idea.

This lends itself to a tune.

The rest of the song writes itself.

Of course, I think most of my tunes are crap, so *shrug*

But that's how it usually happens with me.

[smoooom.livejournal.com]

For me, they are both equal. I tend to get them at the same time. I've put melodies to some of my Moms poems, and I've accidentally used a melodic line when writing new words.

Given my out put in the last three years or so, perhaps I ought to dom something other than wait for inspiration to hit.

[voiceofkiki.livejournal.com]

All of my stuff is parody. I have a few ideas for more "style parody" type things that would require me to write an original tune. However, since I play no instruments well enough to compose on, I find it very hard to actually compose a tune. I suck at it frankly.

I do want to put some of my non-parody lyrics to music, but I can't find anyone willing to supply the tune. *sigh*

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

I find it surprising that I find it easier to write music than decent lyrics. That doesn't necessarily mean my musice is all that good--it may simply mean that I'm so excited about the novelty of being able to write music that I am geeked up about my music. And it may be that after being forced to write verse as a kid in school it seems prosaic by contrast.

I can tell when chords and melody come together in a way that works and it's a joyful process, and at least I percieve them to be kick ass. Lyrics, on the other hand--well, for starters, I can't really tell good verse from bad verse. I was coerced to read a lot of poetry in school, which I was told was good, and I've read poetry that I was told was laughably bad, and, well, I seem to be blind to the distinction. I'm not even confident in having my own personal taste.

The result is that I've written something over a hundred tunes in the last five years or so, a dozen nonsense songs, and maybe a dozen songs that try to say anything. serious or funny.

So if you give me a song and ask me to write a parody, I'll probably get stuck pretty quickly. Give me a set of lyrics and ask me to write a tune, and I'll probably have something (maybe good, maybe not) in five minutes.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

well, i can't write music at all, so it's an easy question to answer :)

Words and music

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

I suspect that most people who know my work see me as being about even between lyrics and music -- maybe both are equally good, maybe both are equally terrible, but pretty much equal. For me to write solid, meaningful lyrics is extremely difficult, and I've really only managed it a dozen or so times, if that. (I am 58 years old and have been writing complete songs, words and music, since I was 9, though the early stuff was all in Spanish and has not been retained.) Writing music can be an extreme challenge, but generally speaking, if somebody gives me a lyric and asks me for a melody, inside a week or so I'm likely to have one. (And Steve Brust and I have had a few sessions where we finish each other's work, me finding tunes for him, him finishing lyrics I'd started, nine or ten songs completed over three hours or so. This is one of the things that went by the wayside when Steve left the state.) But there have been lyrics, songs I knew I would someday be proud of, songs I felt a strong urge to finish, that even so took me just years and years -- "Hope You'll Forgive Me" took 18 years, just for instance. Part of the problem these days is that when I write some music that has no idea attached, it's likely to be complex enough that writing any lyric at all is difficult.

But, thatcrazycajun and your friends, a large part of what I am thinking as I write this comment is that for those of you who write lyrics well but have trouble with music -- hey there, every last one of you, would you like to collaborate? Please respond to this post, and then maybe we can e-mail each other and discuss it.

Nate Bucklin

[cellio]

I didn't get the lyrics gene, at all.

I've written a lot of instrumental music and a little choral music, and I think I'm pretty good at that. I've only tried songwriting -- that is, creating a melody line for some given text -- a few times. I find it harder than the other music I do (don't know why), but I seem to be ok at it.

[mdlbear]

For me, the hard part is getting started on the lyrics. By the time I have a verse and chorus the melody has usually started to come together in my mind, so I have something to wrap the rest of the lyrics around.

[a-phoenix-afire.livejournal.com]

Lyrics or music or both for a trivial song are easy and I can start with either and get the other, or I can deliberately write each side then cobble them together to form something presentable but not very fulfilling.

I think though, that the people who do it consistently, effortlessly, and with gravitas and prolificness like Carole King, Paul Simon, Neil Young, Ian Anderson, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, Anne Murray (way back when), Carly Simon, Dave Matthews, the Lennon-McCartney team... et al, do it almost in one take and then go back and rewrite, just like any good prose writer does. I know that's what happened with the four or five songs I've written that I know to be of truly professional quality. Sadly, the muse has not come upon me more frequently to date.

[tokyosteven.livejournal.com]

For me, it's very hard to do original music - especially since I've been separated, a state away, from my piano. Every once in a while a catchy tune pops into my head though. Sometimes it seems my friends like (or at least endure) my parodies because it's something they're already partially familiar with.

Both

[sodyera.livejournal.com]

You know, this could be the subject of a panel at a con. IN FACT, IT WAS a Lunacon or so ago. I ought to know, I was on it!

My answer hasn't changed; there are melodies that arrive, play themselves through with perfect harmony and instrumentation, then they VANISH before I can record them. Others will pop in, play over and over for a couple of hours (esp. under the influence) and then disappear, but a day or two later, they'll reappear more or less intact. These are the ones that grow up to be songs, though I have melodies on the mental queue (Internal Audio®) that have not and may never have words and will have to wait for me to master GarageBand® one of these days in my copious free time. Others (Unknown is Unending, for one) had cooked for weeks and months, then the words just plopped right in.

Then there are songs like "The Alternate Side", which assembled themselves in an hour or two. Several lyrics give me Act 1, but go away for six months without Acts 2 or 3, which rush in on the late train when they're good and ready.

But I was supposed to be writing a novel!

Re: Both

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

Crystal here. Just friended you.

Re: Both

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Me or her? Either way, took ya long enough... :-)

Re: Both

[sodyera.livejournal.com]

Cool. Hi!

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

For me, words come much more easily. In fact, many of my songs come from some kind of tension -- either humor or some other kind -- between the concept and and tune I'm borrowing. (Note to self: most Broadway tunes, especially Sondheim, translate to guitar only with *great* difficulty.

The times I have set out to write original melodies, I always scrapped the results because they sounded like bad imitation Fish/Ecklar/SMac or whoever else would likely have written a song of that form and subject. But things may be changing. Lately I've started coming up with melodies I like with no lyrics to put to them. Stay tuned...