So you're a lyricist and you want to write some words to a tune I've already written?
Okay, e-mail me at collaboratoratdarkwinnerdotcom. I'll send you back some MIDI files of me tinking tunes out on my keyboard. I'll send you 3-4 songs. Pick the one you like best and let me know which one you'd most like to work on. (So no other lyricst will be working on that one song while you've got "dibs.")
If you don't like any of the 3-4 songs, let me know what you're looking for. (I've got about 60 tunes in various styles at various levels of completion.) I can eventually find you something you'd like.
I prefer sending MIDI files because:
1. They're small and easy to e-mail. (And Windows Media player can play them, so anyone can listen to them.)
2. They're devoid of human expression.
Basically, I might be thinking "techno song" when I wrote the melody, but maybe the sequence of notes says "country" to you. That way you can write lyrics that are appropriate to how you hear the melody, not based on what I'm saying the lyrics should be.
That's also why I send MIDI files with just the melody line. If you hear a techno accompaniment, you'd force tecno lyrics to fit. You wouldn't write the natural country lyrics you would have written otherwise. Also, it takes me a lot longer to write an accompanyment than a melody ;)
By the way, I'm not "hay-nal" at all about my melodies. You can change one long note to two short notes if they fit the lyrics better, etc. Feel free to double up any lines, or cut lines out, move them around or whatever.
Most MIDI files are in a "ABA" format. I give "ABA" files so you can hear how the A section moves to the B section, and how the B section goes back to the A.
You can make the chorus be the A or B section, whichever feels most natural to you. Or maybe your lyrics won't have a chorus: it'll be one of those AABA songs. That's cool too. Or maybe you feel like the song needs a bridge: ABACB. Go ahead and write the words in, and I can write a C section when it's needed (or you can write the C section's melody yourself, if you're so inclined.)
So anyway, the MIDI files are just a starting point that can be modified however the song needs. If you need more to go on than just the MIDI files, e-mail me and let me know what you need. Odds are good that I've got the sheet music, which I can send as a pdf file if you care about that sort of thing. If you'd prefer, I can also give some directions on how I hear the songs, and let you know that I think it could be a great techno song with the B part as the verse and A as a chorus, etc.
If you want the MIDI's of some original tunes I wrote, so you can start writing lyrics to them, go ahead and e-mail me.
I'm looking forward to hearing from you!