do i have a big problem?

shortlthug

shortlthug

Registered User
Hey whats good? I started this post becouse of a problem i have.Here it goes,it happened to me a couple of thines when i come up with a nice melody for a song and after a short time i realise that the melody sounds very similar to a well known song and i didn't want to copy the song just to cum up with a new melody.Any of you got this problem?(sorry for the bad english)
 
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One time I was messing around on my keyboard and I made this little melody. The **** sounded dope, and as I was about to record it something popped into my head. 'Mary J. Blige would sound dope on this.' Then I kept on hearing her voice over it, so I went through my mp3's. And the only song I had with her on it was "You're All I Need" with Method Man. I replayed the same ****ing melody! I hadn't even listened to that song in a year, pissed me off.
 
yeah same here but with other songs it drives me crazy when it happens usualy im plaing something on the keyboard and after recording it i wanna lay down a beat and as i'm amkeing the beet i go ohhhh da*n i just copyed a song.
 
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Yeah, I worry about it all the time. It's called cryptomnesia, where you might've heard something in the past and you recreate it unknowingly later on.
 
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My advice to anyone who have this problem is don't listen too much to other people's music and come up with melodies by playing different chords and scales. F. e . : pick up a B harmonic minor, find its chords and start to play with it. When you have a key melody, work on it and write the background melodies by the same scale and you'll have a real original stuff which is sounding good.
 
I'd say the exact opposite - listen to other music as much as you can. There are a lot of "melodic pitfalls" in western popular music that have been used over and over, and not listening to other music is a pretty surefire way to fall into one at some point - meaning that you'll come up with overused melodies just because others have done the same countless times.
 
Listening to much music as you can is not smart especially if they're in the same genre. You'll end up coming up melodies written by others and you'll think those melodies are yours that they just popped into your head but you'll be biting and don't even know it.

If you want to take krushing's advice then I'd say listen to music from OTHER genres. That'll be ok.
 
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Do either or...but I recommend continuing to study your genre so you know what direction your genre is going/has been.

The fact that you're coming up with melodies that someone already has had is common. Just because the melody has been used doesn't mean you can't analyize it and change a few notes around. Also, the melody's character completely changes in most cases if you change the chords accompanying it.

Also, try laying down harmonies to the melody. Many times you'll find a harmony that fits what you're going for more than the lead melody. When that happens, you have yourself a whole new song. All you have to do is just switch the lead instrument between the melody and harmony you created.

About the idea of not listening to your genre...I know that Missy Elliot completely stopped listening to music all together when she made her last album, so it definitely worked out for her...but she's not exactly a producer, more a songwriter.

I'd reccommend continuing studying your genre of music no matter how advanced you are in the game. How are you supposed to come up with something new if you don't know what has been done? lol
 
Listen to what inspires you, whether it be hip hop or something else. It's really hard to find inspiration in Top 40 radio, especially when everything sounds the same.
 
Well, that douche from the band Creed also claimed he stopped listening to music when he recorded albums. Didn't seem to really do them much good...

Besides, playing other people's melodies is *really* normal. Before "pop" music in the 40s, pretty much everything was recycled music. Folk music is completely built around the idea that everyone uses the same chord progressions. The blues pretty much began as a bastardization of the folk sounds, and many blues songs themselves sound like other blues songs. Jazz music constantly lifts melodies from other sources. Take it forward into rock music, which created itself out of blues riffs. Psychedelia which rewashed a lot of world melodies. Punk music uses the exact same progressions that 50's bubblegum pop did. Then you've got hip hop which was completely built out of literally "stolen" melodies.

It's the essence of music. Very, very few people have *ever* come up with something completely original, the real genius and creativity comes from the way you recontextualize the music you've been exposed to.
 
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Its not the end of the world if ur melody comes out similar to anotha song. Change it up a bit, use different instruments,etc.
 
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