Can a lyricist who doesn't compose be taken serious as a songwriter?

[Shelly Holley]

I always wonder if songwriters who compose and write lyrics tend to look over writers of lyrics alone. I often feel silly posting my lyrics with karoake music as a background on the same site as those talented artists that compose the music themselves. At the same time am proud of being able to put the lyrics to a background to put together a song.

[Shelly Holley]

Thank you Carmella. You make a great point. Appreciate your insite. :)

Carmella Inchierchiera said:

Hello Songwriter Friend, If I may be honest here without hurting anyones feelings. I see it like this, If you were going to a job interveiw and there was another person also looking to be hired at the same time as you for the same position. The job called for lets say a waitress. You are a great waitress but so is the other person only thing she can cook too and sometimes the cook at the dinner stays home instead of going to work.
Well that other person has an advantage Waitress + Can cook... Hope you see what I'm Trying to say.
Go buy a nice keyboard. They are great today so easy to learn and play.
Create your melodies and then take your rough demo and get it produced by a pofessional
Demo up all you can. Main thing Promote your music.
No good if it sits somewhere and no one hears it. Get it heard , Out there
But all in all, A great set of lyrics can and do stand alone. Many hits are out there by someone who only wrote the lyrics.
Good Luck in all you do.
Hope This Helps you a little.
Your Friend In Music, Carmella

[Travis + Julie]

Shelly,

Who cares if a songwriter who does both looks over a person who doesn't do both. It really doesn't matter. All you have to do is find a person who complements your weakness and there ya go!! Me, I 95% of the time just write melodies. Julie handles the lyrics, 95% of the time, and it's a perfect match for us. Case in point, Remember Foster and Rice? Foster handled the lyrics, Rice handled the melody.

[Shelly Holley]

I envy you. Would love to find someone to be my melody person. What fun you guys must have together. Thank you for you insite. :) Travis + Julie said:

Shelly,

Who cares if a songwriter who does both looks over a person who doesn't do both. It really doesn't matter. All you have to do is find a person who complements your weakness and there ya go!! Me, I 95% of the time just write melodies. Julie handles the lyrics, 95% of the time, and it's a perfect match for us. Case in point, Remember Foster and Rice? Foster handled the lyrics, Rice handled the melody.

[Travis + Julie]

Go out to writer's nights, listen for the melodies that you like, and get to know those people who write the kind of melodies that you like.

[David L Graham]

There you go. You gotta find that partner or partners that make it a whole. Plenty of situations where the lyrics come first... Elton John has made a living taking other people's lyrics and running with them...and made a living for others as well. LoL. However.. a lyricist without the partners is not there yet. I'm a lyricist primarily, and I work at finding others to make it work.

David

[SongwriterJim]

A very interesting topic! As a singer/songwriter/musician, I used to 'look down' on lyricists only because the ones (the few, the proud...;>) I had limited contact with either locally or via the net, expected to not have their lyrics changed and have music written around their lyrics. For me (at least) both lyrics & music need to be written together with nothing in stone.

I've had the wonderful oportunity recently, to team up with an older gentleman who has started to write lyrics and together, we've written some great songs. Yes there's some tweaking of his lyrics by me (save, change, re-order, add, whatever....) and I write & record the songs. I've also taken (with permission of course) some online poems and 'converted' them into songs. Overall, these things have helped me become not only a better songwriter, but a musician too.

I'm even attempting to write a song from another persons mp3 where she's 'just singing the lyrics'. She's in tune throughout and I can hear the melody and can concieve of many directions to take the song in. So if you're a lyricist, find a good songwriter (local if possible) to team up with. Listen to their songs to see if you like them (ya gotta be compatible!) and then dive in!