I almost will always create a backing track first, and then try to create a melody to fit.

Once that's done, I try to - as David said - figure out what fits the "vibe". I imagine what person might be singing the lyrics, how they're feeling, what is causing that feeling.

I'll often work out the "story" first in the verse, and then try to come up something that summarizes that in the chorus.

And then it's time for endless rewrites to make it conform to a structure - moving lyrics about, discarding ideas that don't support the focus and replacing them with something that hopefully works better.

It's a pretty backwards way of doing things, because I'll often start with no idea what the song will be about. It's a long process of discovery.

-- David Cuny

My virtual singer development blog
Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?

BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.