Songwriting - does anyone start with instrumental melody first?

[ghostnote]

I wouldn’t worry about that. ^ At this point almost all music is derivative. And some of my favorite songs are simplistic and have sold millions of copies. Simple is not a crime. I don’t want to insult anyone’s sacred cows so I won’t mention names, but some incredibly talented guitar players can’t write a decent song at all. These folks have nearly unlimited talent, but their albums put me to sleep.

[lppier]

Originally Posted by zuzu

I write melody first about 90% of the time. Usually start out humming and then work the melodic phrase (my usual starting point) out on guitar and capture with my phone. Then I begin browsing related notes and phrases to compliment or "answer" the beginning phrase, as if connecting a chain together, eventually capturing a melody line on my phone, most often for the whole song, end to end. Days...or even weeks...later, I listen back to it to see if it deserves further development or the delete button. This happens several times a week, and I usually have a backlog of a couple dozen melodies in the queue. Once I retrieve one from the queue to work on finishing it I normally won't work on anything else until it is, in fact, finished. Just my normal approach...though, I must say... the 3 best songs (imo) that I've done were nothing like that. With those 3, it was as if the ceiling opened up and they just landed in my lap.

This sounds most similar to what I do. And I agree that somehow the best one are all done in one sitting. Or at least the melody structure is done , with at least a verse and chorus. I struggle to “fit” a verse to a chorus of a song after the fact , it’s more work, and perhaps a bit of it is psychological then you are trying to fit something forcefully.

[zuzu]

Yes. For me it is hard to write lyrics purposefully without sounding contrived.