if a song you are writing sort of sounds like another song...

[rich2k4]

do you let it bother you, or do you just continue to write through it?

[Greeny]

This happens to me quite a lot, but it's quite easy (with a few tweaks) to distance yourself from the song it sounds like. Just a little shift in the vocal melody normally does the trick. I'd never scrap a good song or idea because of it.

When it comes to guitar riffs, it's hard to be totally original. And the blues is one giant, revolving copying machine, lol.

[Geir]

I let it bother me even if I don't know which song it reminds me of
If I do know, I try to rewrite or steer it in another direction

[Tony W]

I spent 3 hours, 4 PM's and asked around work about a song that I'm working on. Finally somebody said it sounds like Collective Soul - December. Sure enough its close ( theirs is much better than mine).

I'm an utter novice to creating my own music, Everything I do has been done countless times before. I've let this inhibit me to the point of failure many times. I keep convincing myself that I'll continually get better at becoming a musician and eventually completely original music will come forth.

The problem with the previous line of thinking is simple. I'll never get better sitting on the sidelines, never creating my own music. I wont find my own style, I wont progress in any facet of being a song writer if I don't create, and continue through completion. So if it sounds like something else, yep, tweak it. Learn new variations of the chords or whatever it takes.

I've got loads of ideas, but I'm having difficulty tying in chorus/verse/bridge structure in order to make a song full.

[Greeny]

I spent 3 hours, 4 PM's and asked around work about a song that I'm working on. Finally somebody said it sounds like Collective Soul - December. Sure enough its close ( theirs is much better than mine).

I'm an utter novice to creating my own music, Everything I do has been done countless times before. I've let this inhibit me to the point of failure many times. I keep convincing myself that I'll continually get better at becoming a musician and eventually completely original music will come forth.

The problem with the previous line of thinking is simple. I'll never get better sitting on the sidelines, never creating my own music. I wont find my own style, I wont progress in any facet of being a song writer if I don't create, and continue through completion. So if it sounds like something else, yep, tweak it. Learn new variations of the chords or whatever it takes.

I've got loads of ideas, but I'm having difficulty tying in chorus/verse/bridge structure in order to make a song full.

Many great songwriters started as copyists. Look at the Beatles - they did heaps of covers before finding their own voice. Same as the Stones. It's all part of learning the craft. It's the same for pretty much any art form. If you look at early Picasso works (the Picasso museum in Barcelona is full of them...), he did all kinds of copies of established artists and styles in his search for originality.

There's nothing wrong with taken someone else's song as a template and adapting it into something new and fresh....

[Gnasty]

To imitate is to create.

[FuzzFace]

That's right.

Shakespeare pretty much ripped off all his ideas.

[Gu Djin]

Then of course there's the problem of trying to do cover and realizing it sounds nothing like the original.  I stopped worrying about it to much when I found one of my originals was a copy of me trying to to be original?!?

Leigh

[chip withrow]

15-16 years ago, I decided to stay home one Saturday and write a song. Hadn't written anything for a few years, but I had an idea. So I started playing a slow chord progression, wrote a few verses (looking back, they were pretty bad) about a girl who was on the road, down to her last few bucks.
Man, I kept thinking, these chord changes sound familiar. So I sped them up, sped them up some more, and realized they were the same an "Any Way You Want It" by Journey. Great song, by the way. (Journey's, not mine.)
But, you know, I bet I've returned to that chord progression in bunches of songs since. It's just hard to avoid. So I'll play in a different key, syncopate them, etc. But in folk, rock, and blues (what I usually write), you can't avoid them.
If you "borrow" from, say, "Blue Moon of Kentucky," you're not alone. But if you "borrow" from "Roundabout" by Yes ... now, that's different.

[chip]

This happens to me quite a lot, but it's quite easy (with a few tweaks) to distance yourself from the song it sounds like. Just a little shift in the vocal melody normally does the trick. I'd never scrap a good song or idea because of it.

When it comes to guitar riffs, it's hard to be totally original. And the blues is one giant, revolving copying machine, lol.

 Pretty much sums it up for me. Chords have no copyright.... right. Melody can shape the song even with the same chords as many other songs and make a significant change. Everything has been done before so I don't let it worry me at all if a song sounds like something else. As has been pointed out most originals are part of someone else's original and so it goes on, round and round in circles frorm one era to the next. Keep at it...

[Flash Harry]

12 notes, 4 beats (usually but not always) so how different can it be?

My sweet lord/he's so fine springs to mind

[phantasm777]

i would say, screw it! thats gonna happen even if you werent trying. someone is always going to say it sounds like something. a few months ago a friend and i collaborated on a slow soft 60's type pop song. someone mentioned my vocals sounded like brian ferry. i dont like roxy music nor the singer, so i defenately had no influence from him nor them. at this point in music history, many songs will sound like another, its going to happen. however if you are lucky enough for it to get some commercial airplay, if its too similar, you might get sued!

[beleg]

Embrace it. Last time this happened to me, I added a solo and in the middle of the solo switched my sound alike into a cover, then switched back.

[na_th_an]

It happens all the time. But don't feel down. Your creation is yours. It has a piece of you, and that makes it unique.

[Vaisvil]

Once upon a time, long, long ago in a galaxy far away classical composers often quoted each other and it was took to be a compliment instead of a violation of copyright and a criminal offense.

Though take heart chord progressions are not copyrightable - neither are titles.