Songwriters Ask: What do I do if my original song sounds like an existing song?
By Don • May 23rd, 2006 • Category: Songwriting Advice, Songwriting Articles
I write alot of songs on guitar. My problem is I often end up singing a melody line that is similar to other famous songs. Listeners will immediately recognize these melodies if I were to keep them. I know this opens me up for criticism both legally and critically.
-A.R. Matawan, NJ.
Dear A.R.,
Take comfort in the fact that most songwriters have this problem.
The bad news is this is likely a problem that will NEVER go away as long as you continue writing songs.
The good news is that since most songwriters experience this from time to time, there are many ways to get out of that rut.
Don’t worry that you often revert to famous melodies. In fact, this can be a positive. In Western music there is only a limited number of chords and notes for a given key. Granted, there are occasionally exceptions, but that is all they are - exceptions.
If you are coming up with a melody over a chord progression and the melody begins gravitating to something familiar, change things up by grabbing a capo and moving the chord progression up the fretboard a little bit.
This FORCES you to change the melody because you won’t be able to sing that same melody in a different key - especially if it requires you to sing in a higher octave. Most singers stay in the same middle octave so this requires you to change up notes.
Know what I mean?
Sometimes it is as simple as putting the capo across the first fret only. That might be just the bump you need to lose the old familiar melody. On the other hand, there are times you may end up on the 5th or 7th fret. It just depends.
Look at the problem as an opportunity. One of two things will happen:
Melody variation: You may come up with a cool variation of an existing popular melody - which is always a BONUS because then there is something “vaguely familiar” about the melody. (And they can almost never place it.)
New melody: You might come up with an entirely new killer melody. This is always a bonus times TWO!
With me it happens about 50/50, between possibilities 1 and 2.
Does this seem like an almost “too easy” solution?
Try it yourself. You’ll be surprised.
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Don is the founder, writer and editor of BloggingMuses.com. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina, USA.
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