At 1/11/26 09:47 PM, BroSkullEmoji wrote:Generally, whenever I'm writing songs I do the instrumentals first before anything else (whether it be a riff, a bassline, a drum beat, or whatever else) and worry about lyrics and vocals later down the line, which is a bit of a bad habit if you aren't too knowledgeable about vocal placement.

Now, I'm trying to do the opposite, I came up with lyrics first (and a rough idea of what I want the overall song to look like) so I can go from there, thing is, it feels even more abstract than if I were to do it the other way.

I'm aware that newgrounds is dominantly intrumental music wise, but for those who also partake in the lyrical and/or vocal aspect, what's your thoughts? Do you relate? How do you approach it?

At 1/12/26 01:07 AM, Troisnyx wrote:

At 1/11/26 09:47 PM, BroSkullEmoji wrote:Generally, whenever I'm writing songs I do the instrumentals first before anything else (whether it be a riff, a bassline, a drum beat, or whatever else) and worry about lyrics and vocals later down the line, which is a bit of a bad habit if you aren't too knowledgeable about vocal placement.

Now, I'm trying to do the opposite, I came up with lyrics first (and a rough idea of what I want the overall song to look like) so I can go from there, thing is, it feels even more abstract than if I were to do it the other way.

I'm aware that newgrounds is dominantly intrumental music wise, but for those who also partake in the lyrical and/or vocal aspect, what's your thoughts? Do you relate? How do you approach it?

I am generally a lyrics first person these days in the sense of


and so on and so forth

Prosody is the placement of natural stresses and weak points in speech. It lends itself well to melodies that emphasise these strong and weak points. It's also why when we hear "accent upon the wrong syllable" in languages like English or French, it just doesn't sound right

Get that prosody tied in with a melody that works, and the rest will follow

As for what serves as subject material... I don't know, write what you want. I write based on things that matter deeply to me

At 1/11/26 09:47 PM, BroSkullEmoji wrote:Generally, whenever I'm writing songs I do the instrumentals first before anything else (whether it be a riff, a bassline, a drum beat, or whatever else) and worry about lyrics and vocals later down the line, which is a bit of a bad habit if you aren't too knowledgeable about vocal placement.

Now, I'm trying to do the opposite, I came up with lyrics first (and a rough idea of what I want the overall song to look like) so I can go from there, thing is, it feels even more abstract than if I were to do it the other way.

I'm aware that newgrounds is dominantly intrumental music wise, but for those who also partake in the lyrical and/or vocal aspect, what's your thoughts? Do you relate? How do you approach it?

At 1/12/26 01:07 AM, Troisnyx wrote:

At 1/11/26 09:47 PM, BroSkullEmoji wrote:Generally, whenever I'm writing songs I do the instrumentals first before anything else (whether it be a riff, a bassline, a drum beat, or whatever else) and worry about lyrics and vocals later down the line, which is a bit of a bad habit if you aren't too knowledgeable about vocal placement.

Now, I'm trying to do the opposite, I came up with lyrics first (and a rough idea of what I want the overall song to look like) so I can go from there, thing is, it feels even more abstract than if I were to do it the other way.

I'm aware that newgrounds is dominantly intrumental music wise, but for those who also partake in the lyrical and/or vocal aspect, what's your thoughts? Do you relate? How do you approach it?

I am generally a lyrics first person these days in the sense of


and so on and so forth

Prosody is the placement of natural stresses and weak points in speech. It lends itself well to melodies that emphasise these strong and weak points. It's also why when we hear "accent upon the wrong syllable" in languages like English or French, it just doesn't sound right

Get that prosody tied in with a melody that works, and the rest will follow

As for what serves as subject material... I don't know, write what you want. I write based on things that matter deeply to me

At 1/12/26 02:34 PM, MYYA-DYNAMIC wrote:

At 1/11/26 09:47 PM, BroSkullEmoji wrote:Generally, whenever I'm writing songs I do the instrumentals first before anything else (whether it be a riff, a bassline, a drum beat, or whatever else) and worry about lyrics and vocals later down the line, which is a bit of a bad habit if you aren't too knowledgeable about vocal placement.

Now, I'm trying to do the opposite, I came up with lyrics first (and a rough idea of what I want the overall song to look like) so I can go from there, thing is, it feels even more abstract than if I were to do it the other way.

I'm aware that newgrounds is dominantly intrumental music wise, but for those who also partake in the lyrical and/or vocal aspect, what's your thoughts? Do you relate? How do you approach it?

Everything Troisnyx said! But I have something to add.

Listen to a shit ton of music in the genre that you're doing. Get intimately familiar with it. You'll start to absorb the sorts of intuition that compels great artists to make great music over and over again. There's not always a formula you can use per se, but there are going to be commonalities and familiar aspects in good music that you will start to pick up on.

As you're listening, it can help to articulate verbally what you like about any particular lyrics. Maybe you like the unusual emphasis of one phrase, or the call-and-response in the melody.