The Tune or the Chords: Which Comes First?
Why alternating your approach can help keep the writing and recording regimen fresh
When trying to get a song idea down, do you typically start with a melody and then fill in some chords a little later, or is it chords first followed by the melody, or perhaps both at the same time? Naturally there are no real rules when it comes to songcraft, and however you go about it doesn’t matter if it ultimately leads to something good.
Using your recorder, you can make that call on a case-by-case basis—put down a progression, then try laying out different melody and/or harmony ideas across a handful of neighboring tracks. Or maybe you’ve already got a fragment of a tune that you crooned into your phone on the way home that needs a set of chord changes behind it. You might find that simply alternating your approach helps keep the writing and recording regimen fresh.
Tune first. One obvious advantage of leading with a melody is that you can capture a tune anywhere, using your phone’s voice-memo app or other porta-recorder, versus having to run to an instrument to get started. And when later adding accompaniment, you can try varying the supporting chord sequence on your recorder—perhaps changing a major chord to its relative minor on one take, or using a capo to alter a guitar’s chord voicings on another.
The opposite is the chord or riff driven approach, where the emphasis is on a repeating groove or set of chord changes, with the melody coming later. Here you just set down a basic chord sequence and then gradually experiment with different melodic ideas until you find something that fits. This method is often preferable when looping in a word collaborator—that is, one person focuses on the song’s main musical structure with or without a suggested melody, to which the co-writer adds a set of words (and/or melody).
Making rough sketches. So where does our recording apparatus fit into this? As mentioned above, we can start by demoing a chord progression in progress, to be used as a reference for gradually working out tune, words, and possible vocal harmony ideas. It’s a good way to keep a low flame under the writing process—rather than hunkering down at home for hours on end, you can send yourself an mp3 of the chord backing track and let the song develop while you’re on the move. You could also make several variations of the work, using your recorder to slightly increase or decrease the tempo on one mix, or your editor to tighten up an intro or bring a chorus section closer to the front on another. Now’s also the time to try recording parts of the progression on an alternate instrument, such as a keyboard in place of guitar (which can often suggest chord inversions you may have otherwise missed), or maybe a bass or synth bass instead. And never rule out adapting the work for an entirely different genre than the one you’d initially had in mind.
Save all your stuff! You can also use your recording platform as a repository for stray bits and pieces of song ideas that, for whatever reason, never fully came to fruition. To that point—unless it’s really awful, never discard anything! At the very least, make a dedicated folder for voice-memo demos, multitracks and rough mixes of orphaned intros, choruses or chord progressions, or anything else that may be worth revisiting at another time. Under the right circumstances, artists have been able to stitch together whole songs entirely from remaindered parts. Even if you ultimately need to re-record certain sections, for the time being you can use your editing toolbox to import and match the tempos and keys of disparate parts to see how your Frankenstein song might sound when complete.
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