Chicken or egg?

[Salmagundi]

I don't write music, but as a writer of poetry I find myself wondering; for those who do compose music, which come first, the words or the music, or do they arrive in the creative mind together whole and complete? If the words present themselves first, then is it more difficult to 'find' the right notes to compliment them, than to find the right words to 'fit' one's musical composition?

[radfax]

Hello Salmagundi, good to see you're getting your networking together on the music sites.
Personally, I don't think there is a set formula. I’m sure some people create music and lyric’s both ways, and, at times use both ways at the same time in finding the links with the words and/or the harmony. Also there are many ways to express this as we can hear with the many styles of music, including punk. When we are procuring lyrics and songs it's a bit like sculpting or painting. It is a good idea to have an instrument/tool to work your voice against and with. We are lucky enough to have a guitar to check the sound of the lyric’s against the music working together.
When we do music this way, we will start by playing around with some chords, notes & rhythms; we may have several written pieces in front of us and look within the writings for any lines that rhythmically fit with the beat of the music. This isn't always practical, in which case we think of the rhythm and sounds of words, the vowels etc, then we find the pitch for our natural voice and try to let it develop in it's own way to begin with. It is almost like putting pen to paper, it is a blank canvas open to interpretation and inspiration.
Having some kind of musical accompaniment will always help, even if it is just a basic click/metronome, so that one can work out the timing of the words against the idea. Instruments, whether you are an accomplished musician or not, are great door ways to discovering and developing new ideas, all are inspirational, and remember the more you play an instrument the better you will know it. Once you start to understand the basics you will find it and you discovering many new things.
When I write lyrics, without any musical accompaniment, I concentrate on the rhythm, knowing where the one is, as in 1, 2, 3, 4 is very important, even if the beat is 1, 2, 1, 2, or 1, 2, 3, the One is what will keep you in time.
How you say a word has its own timing/rhythm and you can use these lengths to be part of the rhythm. Once you have a line down, read it and follow the rhythm. If you have pitch you can use this to aid in the feel/emotion of the song.
All words written or spoken have some emotion attached to them. When we make these musical it is like adding on another emotion. When these two come together we have unison of 2 very strong influences, both inherently tied to the human condition of the real and the psyche.
We hope this has shed some light on how we do it, and hope that it gives you an easier time trying to understand different philosophy’s on the “Creative”.
The creative is abundant and for all time we are ONE of all.

[Salmagundi]

What a clear description of the creative process for a musician! Thank you so much.

[radfax]