Writing someone else's song?

Mick Doobie said:
Crap. For some reason I can't edit it out. I click edit and it's not there to remove. Confused, and now I feel the llama is mocking my impotence.

En garde, you loathsome beast! I shall pen a shanty which will forever more scatter your seed in the highlands far from the sea.
Click to expand...

Incapacity. Strike the im and po with the tence word. I believe the word I was actually searching for was incapacity. I might have gotten a little carried away with the dramatics there. I blame the damn Llama. 😳
 
I can't say. But I do know they have 2 Ls, and i'm pretty sure one of the Ls stand for lips. Spitty lips. Foul, belligerent creatures, Llamas.
 
Idle mind here...
It was Jason Isbell who once said he runs his lyrics thru the "Cliche Meter" (his wife). <ggg>
But for my simple ears, I get a little nervous if a friend of mine says "that sounds like xxx". I know they mean it in a good way. But it gives me pause the times I've heard that "compliment". I end up revisiting it.
 
What's really spooky is when you're writing and you suddenly think what you're playing and/or writing has already been done, and you're sure of it. You know you've heard it before by.. some band on the radio. You don't just know it, you feel it. But you can't think of who that was and, as it turns out, that other song doesn't exist. You just wrote it!

And you can't stop wondering why no one has come up with that before.
 
Here is a good thread on the topic on Quora

The takeaway is fagetaboutit! There is no easy way to see if your melodies are from something you may have heard somewhere, sometime, somehow. Do your thing and do it good..."IF" by some freeking act of God you are so lucky and blessed to actually make REAL SERIOUS money from YOUR creation and someone else thinks you infringed on theirs, then worry about it. Until then JUST DO IT! You, like most of us average old aged Joes at this juncture in our lives and careers have a better chance of winning the lottery. Go make your hay while the sun shines and if someone says you used their hay seeds and they can prove it, you can give them a piece of the bundles of cash you made from using them. ROCK ON!
 
TAE said:
Here is a good thread on the topic on Quora

The takeaway is fagetaboutit! There is no easy way to see if your melodies are from something you may have heard somewhere, sometime, somehow. Do your thing and do it good..."IF" by some freeking act of God you are so lucky and blessed to actually make REAL SERIOUS money from YOUR creation and someone else thinks you infringed on theirs, then worry about it. Until then JUST DO IT! You, like most of us average old aged Joes at this juncture in our lives and careers have a better chance of winning the lottery. Go make your hay while the sun shines and if someone says you used their hay seeds and they can prove it, you can give them a piece of the bundles of cash you made from using them. ROCK ON!
Click to expand...
Its funny to hear the old "what if I get sued" thing, it boggles my mind how many billions of notes have flown by now.
Is it even possible if someone thinks they wrote a new 3 chord blues song? How could it be possible?

I agree it'd take a huge hit to get attention. It would be a strange court case and highly unlikely I'd think?
Even a full outright cover song might not get court time if theres only $4 cash in it from 10,000 plays ....whatever.

good luck. roll the dice?
its like drinking in bars, you risk a cop catching you, but bars are full all over the place and most dont go to jail, and drive drunk.
so you play Copyright music and most dont get court time.
an original song that makes little money if any, and isnt even a full xerox copy, it "kind-of" sounds like...is probably pretty safe.
maybe one drunk in the crowd will yell "hey that sounds just like <song name>!!!! did you steal that!!??

what are the odds?
 
  • Like
Reactions: TAE
CoolCat said:
Its funny to hear the old "what if I get sued" thing, it boggles my mind how many billions of notes have flown by now.
Is it even possible if someone thinks they wrote a new 3 chord blues song? How could it be possible?

I agree it'd take a huge hit to get attention. It would be a strange court case and highly unlikely I'd think?
Even a full outright cover song might not get court time if theres only $4 cash in it from 10,000 plays ....whatever.

good luck. roll the dice?
its like drinking in bars, you risk a cop catching you, but bars are full all over the place and most dont go to jail, and drive drunk.
so you play Copyright music and most dont get court time.
an original song that makes little money if any, and isnt even a full xerox copy, it "kind-of" sounds like...is probably pretty safe.
maybe one drunk in the crowd will yell "hey that sounds just like <song name>!!!! did you steal that!!??

what are the odds?
Click to expand...
And even a cover is *ahem* covered these days. At least on Distrokid there’s an option to click if there’s a cover you’re doing and it won’t post it on places where you buy the song. Just stream it.
 
Mick Doobie said:
Wasn't sure what to call the thread....

What to be done to determine whether something you've made-up/written has actually already been written by someone else? What to do? What do you do?

Context: At least fifty percent of the time I write in my head before even picking up an instrument. I was riding down the road and my mind went to one of my nephews who is a musician and actor, he has a wonderful voice. He tends to sing/play things such as Ed Sheeran type stuff. Within seconds of my nephew entering my head the song pretty much wrote itself in about 30 seconds. Admittedly it is a bit out of my wheelhouse, so to speak. I stopped by the house, verified the bass line/chord structure, played it for my wife, and she loved it. Left the house again and the thing bounced around in my head for a couple of hours. Then, poof, it was gone. Tried not to force it, but couldn't get it back. Alarm went off this morning and as soon as I turned the alarm off, boom, there it was again. Weird, but thankful.

I'm a bit suspicious for various reasons. Namely, although i've been pulling from many genres lately,, influences, this is different where as I don't typically gravitate to that sort of music. Besides the obvious, I just don't want to waste any time or invest anything into this thing if it's not mine.
Click to expand...
When I feel like something is too familiar I just tweak it until I feel better about it. Some song elements like chord progressions are always going to be done before.

I imagine every melody we think of was once hummed or whistled or sang by one of our ancestors. Our job as songwriters is to bring that same energy to life again with something unique we bring to the table. We can play the same notes but still do it differently.
 
What if every song was already written, and every ‘new’ song was just a variation of a previously written song?

What if there were no new songs to be created?

Would you stop writing? Or would you get creative within the parameters?

Remember, in western music, there are only 12 notes. That’s quite limiting, don’t you think?

Yet complex musical creations have come out of those 12 notes.

I dunno, silly but deep thoughts at 1am.
;)
 
RFR said:
What if every song was already written, and every ‘new’ song was just a variation of a previously written song?

What if there were no new songs to be created?

Would you stop writing? Or would you get creative within the parameters?

Remember, in western music, there are only 12 notes. That’s quite limiting, don’t you think?

Yet complex musical creations have come out of those 12 notes.

I dunno, silly but deep thoughts at 1am.
;)
Click to expand...
12 notes until you bend them 😉
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top