I’ve admitted before that I personally have problems writing lyrics especially in a group or band situation so have concentrated on doing the musical side of things in the past.

I’m now wondering whether it’s a case of songwriters being split into two camps, one of the jack of all trades (writes lyrics and music) and the other being of the distinct lyric writer / distinct musician combo with one taking responsibility for one aspect and the other partner for the next.

While songwriting partnerships are legendary throughout time, Lennon and McCartney (or McCartney and Lennon as Paul has tried to change it to) are perhaps the most famous in popular music but even then it was hardly a collaborative effort after the first couple of year with each of them writing solo and then bringing their efforts into the band to be picked over and amended.

One partnership that has been rekindled and has stood the test of time is Elton John’s with his lyric writing partner Bernie Taupin. While Elton composes the music, Bernie does the lyrics and the amount of hits they’ve produced since the late 1960s stands testament to the success of their partnership.

Should we be without ego and allow our bandmates/writing mates in on our songwriting process or are these songs so completely our “babies” that we have to keep them all to ourselves before delivering them whole to the rest of the world?

What do Blogging Muses readers think?

Feel free to join the conversation over at the Songwriting Forums

This article was contributed by Alan of SongwritingForums.com.