Hey, I'm pretty new to the guitar and have only been trying to write music more recently. I've run into a problem a lot where I'll figure something out on the guitar and about 30 seconds after playing it, I'll feel like I've heard it before, and I get nervous about whether it's something I originally came up with, or had already heard and just accidentally figured out on the guitar. This happens especially when I figure a tune out quickly, and it becomes naturally right out of the brewing pot, so to speak.
I understand that nothings completely original, and everyone's copying someone to some degree, but I become fearful that I'm copying someone EXACTALLY as they wrote it, and become tempted to just abandon that path and try to find something else that sounds less familiar.
Does this happen to anyone else? Do you have any ways of working around it if it does?
"Like the coldest winter chill. Heaven beside you. Hell within." -Jerry Cantrell
for starters yes I would bet my hat that this has happened to everyone who has tried to make a song at some point.
one thing I do is that when I get in the mood to try to write out lyrics or a song I try not to have any other music playing in the backround. This helps me concentrate on my own ideas.
Also I think that even though many songs and styles sound the same they are not necisarily copying each other. I think that when you write a song that you truly like what you have done is to put what you feel in music format. In short, your song is a musical representation of your thoughts, feelings,opinions, or experiences. All of which are your own. Even if you can describe the song as sounding like this artist, or written in the same form as another artist, It is still a song that you feel represents you.
wherever you go, there you are.
That happens to me too...With me it's more lyrics that I write and I tend to scrap them thinking that someone else already wrote it :shock: but usually with the guitar part if I can't figure out what song it sounds like or other people don't tell me that it sounds like something I usually don't care :roll: It happens to other people I know too kinda strange. I don't think i'd worry about it and keep writing :D
"People Suck, Music Doesn't"~ Mick Mars
You, know, I was going to post the same question! It happens to me all the time. Sometimes I even think I know who I might have copied and I try to find it, but to no avail. So I just go on and ignore it. What more can you do?
You, know, I was going to post the same question! It happens to me all the time. Sometimes I even think I know who I might have copied and I try to find it, but to no avail. So I just go on and ignore it. What more can you do?
I know!!! It's that whole "tip of the tougue" feeling that makes it invigorating. If it was just a passing notion then I would mind so much, but it's that recognition with uncertainty thing that drives you insane.
I'm glad other people go through the same thing. To be honest I don't know anyone else who plays guitar in real life so this is a foriegn and disturbing concept to me. Especially since I think stealing someone else's creation and taking credit for it is one of the most abhorible acts out there, so it makes me very uneasy to think I'd be doing it.
Regardless, I suppose it's useless to get caught up in it. Thanks for the responses.
"Like the coldest winter chill. Heaven beside you. Hell within." -Jerry Cantrell
Yeah I have the same problem, but i just write anyway.
Saber ...absofrigginlutley......hell I even stopped listening to store bought music for fear I was sub-consciously rewriting their music and didn`t want to take a chance of being influenced by it.......we all are subject to that aspect of writing..it is bound to happen.
I try to think of it this way..we are influenced by everything we come in contact with from our earliest recollection to the present..we had to learn from something....chances are what you write will sound like someone else when you first start out.....
Try some apple pie.....how many ways are there to bake apple pie..it`s just a crust and filling right?...plain edged,ruffled edged,slit on the top ,not slit on the top,green apples,red apples,small pieces,big pieces and so on,,I bet two different people could use the same recipie and come up with two distinct pies because of the variables....(it`s not just the taste,it`s the look too so to speak) but it`s still apple pie...
You are unique...that fact alone makes it different and as you progress along you will become more aware of this in your playing,writing and singing. At the very least try thinking of someone who has redone someone elses material whether it be amatuer or pro ...they don`t sound completly like the original... but you say "my song sounds just like so and so`s song"...well I say you are on the right track... the fact YOUR brain has spun out something similar sounding to published material is probabaly not coincidental...musically speaking there are only so many notes... (but the way they can be arranged is in infinite) so to me it makes sense that it sounds as if it were "already written"...
For me when I statred "writing" it was just chords to lyrics I jotted down..my own experiences explained in the written word, and I still thought they sounded as if some one else had written it and I had unknowingly copied it..how could something that personal sound so common?...Some one famous once wrote" One mans invention can be another mans discovery"
Taken at face value in the professional world this would be equivilent to stealling...something we all try to aoid,but in laymans terms it could mean "great minds think alike"...something to aspire to when writing I suspect for I believe it is our individualism that sets us apart from each other and makes us unique!
Think Positive...don`t chuck it... my guess is as you get better aquainted with your playing it will reflect in your writing and vise versa and you will be surprised at how original you are ...
I sometimes do this: if I have some lyrics I want to set to music or make a song of (which I am not great at... yet) there was generally an emotion or two that the lyric was derived from...get a hold of some percussion( drum machine,midi keyboard,back of your guitar or if your really lucky a drummer)and experiment with some basic beats,,,try fitting your guitar and lyrics with a few different flavors of emotion and you will see they take on lives of their own, each seperate from the other..they may even spark a totally new idea within the same concept!
It takes practice to be comfortable with your own skin sometimes...
Hope this helped..cooker
You can sleep when you`re dead!
"and baby all you need...is just a little more love"
