Unintentionally copying melodies.

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DAS19

New member
Whenever I write melodies sometimes they sound like they came from somewhere else or just maybe they are soo good that it just sounds like it is already a song. I am afriad of unintentionally ripping off songs ive heard on a commercial or anywhere else. Maybe the melody just sticks in my head and whne I go to my guitar and jut happen to strike those chords thr melody may come out. This happened recently, I wrote a song and im just afraid it might be another song but i am not sure.

I heard Paul McCartney felt this way when he wrote yesterday. It took him a couple of weeks to finally feel that he didnt copy it from somewher else but maybe he did?

I had a talk with a couple of my friends at my music school and we came to the conclusion when it comes down to it everything in music is copied.

What is the word for ripping off a melody or song unconsciously? What are your feelings on this topic.
 
Unconcious Plagiarism....unless I make it big, I'm not worrying about it. And if I do I'll have enough money to hire a good lawyer .... lol....
 
I play in a Praise Band, attempt to write music we could use live, and I can not tell you how many times I have written some lyrics, and what I think is a great melody, and then it hits me. I just copied...(fill in the blank on any song) the melody completely!! Needless to say, I have to come up with another melody.

I read once where good artist copy, great artist steal.

Charlie
 
plagiarism

When you copy someone else's work, it's called plagiarism. It doesn't matter whether it is subconscious or deliberate, you can still be taken to court. However, it's unlikely that you would be taken to court unless your song had some commercial viability attached to it. Nevertheless, I would not be happy knowing my song was the same as something already written, and would abandon it. You may have concluded that "everything in music is copied", but that is patently untrue, and you have to be careful that the phrase doesn't serve as a justification to copy with a abandon (not that you would).

But I do agree that people get inspiration from other pieces of music on many occasions, and will use chord sequences or bits of melody to weld into their own pieces. And, of course, how many 12-bar blues are there?
 
gecko zzed said:
But I do agree that people get inspiration from other pieces of music on many occasions, and will use chord sequences or bits of melody to weld into their own pieces. And, of course, how many 12-bar blues are there?
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I own the rights for the I,IV,V chord pattern. It's time you all paid up!:eek: (Laughs demonically.....)
 
there are only twelve notes.

Not a single thing that is written doesn't sound like something else.
I wouldn't worry about it too much
 
cnix said:
I play in a Praise Band, attempt to write music we could use live, and I can not tell you how many times I have written some lyrics, and what I think is a great melody, and then it hits me. I just copied...(fill in the blank on any song) the melody completely!! Needless to say, I have to come up with another melody.

I read once where good artist copy, great artist steal.

Charlie
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So is (fill in the blank...) here more often "Louie Louie" or "With or Without You"? :D

I've heard songs played on the radio that had almost the exact same melody as songs from a few years ago. Some even had the same lyrics. As long as it's not an exact copy, you'll probably be fine.
 
I guess you really cant help it as long as you are making the song some what your own then it should be ok.
 
I think you have to allow for some copying, but try to keep it to a minimum so it's not obvious. I've had a real bad habit of coming up with stuff that ends up being too much like other songs, but you also have to realize that there is often going to be certain things in a lot of songs that sound really familiar. There are a number of popular songs where I can pick out certain melodies and such that are almost exact copies of other songs, but if you listen to tons of music, and since there are only so many notes/arrangements, everyone will overlap at some point in their creativity. Hell, I've heard songs on the radio that are frightening like some of my unreleased work. As long as the over all feel of the song is not way too much like another, don't worry about it. I hate copying other people, and I will ditch a song in a heart beat if it's way too much like something else, but I've learned to accept that certain elements will be repeated through out creation.
 
i've heard a couple of pop songs that have similar melody

weezer "hashpipe"

lita ford "kiss me deadly"


"anyone but you" - juno soundtrack
"fringe on the top" from oklahoma
 
I heard in commercials you could go to up to 7 notes without paying copyright - I assume that would be on the melody - not the riff - I think Microsoft probably fronted for 'Start me up'.

Not only do I hear other people's tunes in my songs, when its late at night I hear their voices of the songwriters' attorneys' telling me it was all licensed under Creative Commons anyway. I'm just inserting evidence for when I go for the insanity plea!!!!!
 
cnix said:
I read once where good artist copy, great artist steal.
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Led Zep was famous for that. They stole Dazed and Confused (a.k.a. "I'm Confused"), and the original songwriter just let them keep it.


cello_pudding said:
i've heard a couple of pop songs that have similar melody

weezer "hashpipe"

lita ford "kiss me deadly"


"anyone but you" - juno soundtrack
"fringe on the top" from oklahoma
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Yes, Bon Jovi "You Give Love a Bad Name"(verse), Bush "I Don't Wanna Come Back Down From This Cloud" (verse) and En Vogue "Free Your Mind" (chorus) all have the same bass line/melody, and in the same key if I recall correctly (but different tempos).

Check it out (go to youtube, paste after youtube dot com in the url since the forum won't let me post links):
watch?v=11Xd-Iq2tN0
watch?v=GccfzxHIXaY
watch?v=rtqv31p5M6k

You may be amazed.

Not to mention all of the reality shows and commercials who hire score "artists" to create sound-alikes that are just different enough not to be legally actionable......but you can tell anyway because they copped the feel and vibe of the song without technically infringing.

I think you'll be fine.

I accidentally wrote "Mama, I'm Coming Home" 3 years before Ozzy did. I wasn't sad because his version sucked just as bad as mine. ;)
 
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DAS19 said:
I had a talk with a couple of my friends at my music school and we came to the conclusion when it comes down to it everything in music is copied.

.
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Well, there is nothing new under the sun!
So it is quite possible that you are so inspired consciously or unconsciously by some melody or song that you reproduce it in your own version.
this is true for any type of creative process - I like to think of it as expanding on someone elses exansion on yet another persons idea and so on.
As long as you are not doing it intentionally and the result isn't blatant (if it is and you can recognize the origin then dump it)
then its ok
 
Even if what you came up with is from another song, you can use it to your benefit. Change the melody, timing, etc...a little bit, and before you know it, you're working on an original piece. If nothing else, it's a good song-writing exercise.
 
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