Originally Posted by Mark Kaufman
Originally Posted by Fdemetrio
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Yeah now with tracks and beats being so important, writing to a track is probably more important than it used to be but alot of great writers used to work with tracks anyway like Paul Simon for example. Hed write a track and not even know what the song would be called or about.

I always wondered when writing a track without any idea of a melody, how somebody can compose a track and have it work later on. To me melody determines where the music goes, particularly with hooks and choruses. When you write a track, how do you know what you have really? Its a bit of a crap shoot but can work better since the music has already been established and you got a song and a groove.


I do it sometimes. David Bowie did it often—his sessions usually involved getting musicians together to create music, and it was only after the full musical track was finished that he would go off and topline it, then come back some other day, sometimes months later to record vocals.

Melody is an element of a song to me, usually but not always the dominant one. Coming from a rock background, I find chord structure probably leads my thinking even more than melody.



Here is a song I know for a fact was written as a track first. One of The Boss' few collabs at all, let alone writes from a track. But if you listen you can see or hear the track came first. Interestingly, no chorus it's AABA
, I find alot of track first pieces dont have choruses, or at least big choruses. Roy Bittan came up with the track first.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPw8wNrINJ0

Last edited by Fdemetrio; 06/20/19 10:27 AM.