Lyrics. Then figure out the prosody angle, making the lyrics work out to have some sort of a cadence that aligns with the pulses and punches of the music. Sometimes that calls for a lot of lyric rewrites because of how the accents on the syllables fall. Like if your end of phrase is, oh, lets say "you are the one that makes my heart TICK", that can't rhyme with "roMANtic" because you don't say "romanTIC." So the phrasing of the lyric will determine my melody.

Then the key flavor, which depends on the mood of the story being told.

Major smile
Minor frown

Followed by the key on the keyboard having to be where I can sing it. And that gets lower and lower as I sing less and less.

Once the lyrics are sung into a melody, then I decide if there is even a need for harmony, and if that harmony needs to be male, female, above, below, or both.

All that said, I know people who get a melody phrase in their head and start there. I know some who get a chord progression in their head and start there. I know others who have idea like "Remember that time we were out looking for our lost dog and while we were in the woods someone stole our car and we had to walk home in the rain and from being cold and wet we got pneumonia and almost did. AND the dog was asleep under the bed and never lost." (That would be a frown song!) LOL!!

So the process is going to vary from person to person AND from situation to situation. And none of them are wrong as long as your path takes you to your destination. You can drive from Dallas to Austin via Houston if you want to as long as you end up in Austin, right?


Last edited by eddie1261; 08/30/20 04:47 AM.