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

[Geir]

I did it recently, in the middle part of "The synths of our fathers" I deliberately used a well known chord progression and tried very hard to create a new original melody. I went through all the songs I remembered that had all or parts of that chord progression and couldn't find anyone that was too close. Yes I did use Pachelbel's Canon, couldn't wait for a fest ....

And I was quite happy ...... until my brother pointed out that the melody bears close resemblance to "Streets of London" ...... I can of course not claim that I never heard that before, so I guess I'll just sit in the corner for an hour and hide my embarrassed face. ..... Well next time I'll try harder. I WILL use that chord sequence again !!

[na_th_an]

I don't bother so much, but changing a couple of notes and a chord in the sequence (in an easy way, using the minor or major relative) WILL do the trick.

And if you are afraid of not being original, try weird (unusual) stuff. Me and my band do QUITE a lot of ternary rythims, 3/4 and 6/8 can result in some quite interesting phrasings. Also, trying to change a 4/4 song you've created over a chord sequence and melody which sounds simmiliar to another song to 6/8 usually works WONDERS. You can twist the melody just making every odd or even note twice as long (in general), as in creating some kind of swing, and it will make your song different and interesting.

Also trying more elaborate patterns such cas 5/4, 10/8 or 7/8 is something everybody should try. Specially 5/4 is quite interesting and the extra step works wonders.

[Satchwood]

Yup, all the time... you just tweak here, tweak there...  add a little, slide a little... feel a little too much, over the horizon.   Right?   Splash down and fib lol

[maxit]

ok, let me add somthing to this interesting topic LOL. For my own songs, for each one I can point out at least 2 or 3 songs that have something in common, be it a melodic phrase, or the chord prog, or the song 'idea', or, terribly, a whole section LOL the things get worse as I listen to more and more good music. I can remember one time a friend of mine telling me: hey man, that's a song from billy joel, it's been already written (wow, it was really so-and the song was nothing less than 'piano man', one of the best known)! What's the point? I don't mind, just try to change the song to make it a little different. I mean, why the hell "me and bobby mcghee" singed by Janis Joplin cant be considered a totally different song from "me and bobby mcghee" as composed by kristofferson (and guess what I love the best)?

[Bluesberry]

Change the chords to jazz chords and make it sound like a Steely Dan song..............

[Oldrottenhead]

i've got a song going on in my head, but i'm worried i've been listening to too much of the twilight sad and it's really an earworm of one of their songs.

 as usual after a long sleepover shift, i came home and lay in a hot bath for a while and songs come to me, like this one today.

i even had a lyric scribbled down, before i was dry from my bath.

i just hope the tune in my head is not theirs and also something that i am able to play. lol.

[T.C. Elliott]

I don't worry about it. I just write it. If it turns out that it'd been done before then I figure out if I should worry or not. If so then I try to figure out if it is worth the effort to change it.   I know at least one song I was writing turned out to have a melody straight out of a conway twitty song. My wife pointed it out to me. I just recorded a rough demo and forgot about it. 600 songs later and I don't even know which song it is.

For me the rhythm is the best way to differentiate songs. There are literally thousands of rock songs using the same basic three chords (with some small changes) but you put a different rhythm behind it or a different rhythm in the guitar (or any lead instrument part) and it suddenly becomes less recognizable.  And conversely, all my songs start to sound the same when I don't differentiate the rhythm. Same old strum pattern turns into lots of mush, even if there is a different chord progression.