Originally Posted by: liarcangelAnother thing to consider is how set you really are on putting words to the music. Maybe its just me, but I often times find it very hard to lower the music enough to let words slip in...Thats not to say a song written with lyrics cant very very full and complete sounding, but as someone else mentioned in this thread it draws attention away from the performance piece. So I guess it would really depend on what you want to showcase, your lyrics, or your playing capacity.

Just a mindset thought about music v. lyrics; I find that if I think of them as having an alternate breathing pattern, it helps balance between the two. Since singing literally requires breathing and even the best singers need to get a full breath at some point, at that point where a singer needs to gather air, should be a little bit of that musical flourish. In writing in this mindset, it seems that instead of thinking in terms of instrumentation, that the writing considers vocal 'instrumentation' as part of the arrangement and part of the ebb and flow (inhale/exhale) between song and lyric. Also, it helps to understand the lyrical flow if you have a vocal melody in mind as your writing...Then it's just a matter of them pesky words and making them cool and not dork-like.

Just a penny of a thought.