General full workflow of song writing for commercial Pop/Rock artists?

[soumil0702]

Being an avid music fan I was curious what is the workflow for song creation in general. Things like:

1. What comes first: Lyrics or the chords/music used in the song?
2. What notes is the singer supposed to sing in the song or How is the song supposed to be sung? Who decides this and at what step of song creation?
3. Is there a difference to song creation of pop/R&B songs, and how does it compare to song creation in Rock bands for example? (or is it fundamentally the similar)

Would be great if anyone has any idea on this and would like to provide feedback?

[roger_holland]

Hi Bharatendu,

Starting Writing Songs

View the full lesson at Starting Writing Songs | JustinGuitar

Johnny Dowd on ‘How to Write a Song’

Those who know me are probably starting to worry about my recent obsession with the above-mentioned artist, but all is good and it is highly enjoyable enthusiasm, as opposed to an inescapable rabbit hole… After receiving confirmation that he plans on playing a housegig for me in March, and after me murdering ‘God Created Woman’ on Saturday night’s OM, I present you with the final instalment of the trilogy: a lesson on songwriting by the man himself I was trawling the we…

https://community.justinguitar.com/t/help-in-writing-an-r-b-song/165568https://community.justinguitar.com/t/take-aways-from-a-songwriting-workshop/275541

I haven’t read it through, but there’s probably a lot for you in there…or enter in the top right corner of the search box ‘song writing’

Have fun

Greetings

[Jozsef]

Hi there,

Based on the things I’ve read and watched about music, the answers to your questions are along the lines of:

Q1: it depends on the particular artist’s method of working
Q2: it depends on the singer’s vocal range and what the songwriter has in mind
Q3: it depends on the particular artist’s method of writing

[stitch]

To add to what Jozsef said.
It depends on what the producer does in the recording studio. Most songs evolve from conception to finished product.

[Lisa_S]

Hi Bharantendu,

to add to the others (“it depends” - which is very much the truth, it’s all about personal preferences), there are some tools, you can use to begin with. I got to know a few of them in a songwriting workshop last year, shared the experience here:

Take-Aways from a Songwriting Workshop

Hi folks, as suggested by @DavidP (thanks again for this excellent suggestion, David!), I want to provide some insights and main take-away messages I got from a workshop on songwriting (6 weeks with 1 session of 1.5 - 2 hours per week in person with one online exception due to weather circumstances). We were 5 people and 2 teachers, probably that ration itself was a reason for the great sessions we had. The 5 of us had quite different background songwriting and playing wise with some very expe…

[brianlarsen]

Haha, I had forgotten that post
There’s some interesting food for thought there, but I wouldn’t follow it like a recipe

[DarrellW]

The usual way for me is initially to decide on a subject and get a few ideas on structure, then I would usually write a backing track with drums, bass and rhythm guitar and then write the words to fit. Then when it comes to a singer’s range adjust to suit their capabilities. Then finally add any other instruments to the mix (including the vocals).