Copying someone's else song?

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WRDolphinX

Will Ran
So there's people that listens to other people's music to get an inspiration for making a beat. But what if you use SOME of the same notes that in the songs you were listening to in the beat you're creating? Would that be consider copying? I mean the beat i made doesn't have the same drum pattern or instruments but it feels like i copied the song
 
It depends... That's why they have lawyers, judges, publishing executives, and intellectual property rights experts that get insane hourly rates.
You can be inspired, but try not to steal...

GJ
 
rhythmgj said:
It depends... That's why they have lawyers, judges, publishing executives, and intellectual property rights experts that get insane hourly rates.
You can be inspired, but try not to steal...

GJ
Click to expand...

Thing is, i'm not trying to copy it or steal it lol
 
I get inspired from other music all the time. As long as your using it in a different creative way, I wouldn't feel bad about it.
 
there are some guidelines but no hard and fast rules - in most legal cases you have musicologists battling it out at 10 paces - transcriptions and other analytical tools come to the fore in this kind of action

the rule of thumb used by courts has been that there is a significant number of notes with the same absolute pitch relationship (sequential intervals) and rhythmic relationship shared between the two tunes - usually the first 12 notes are enough to distinguish one tune from another, but some courts prefer more data on which to base their judgement....

You cannot copyright a chord progression as they are too generic in nature

Some lines that are in the accompaniment likewise cannot be copyrighted simply because of the vast amount of prior art using the same material - any arpeggio or scale run (whether executed quickly or slowly) is automatically uncopyrightable because they form the basis of technical exercises for any instrument
 
realistically, you probably wouldnt get in trouble for using the same notes, its when the notes rhythm and tempo all mirror that you end up in a bad situation. I'd advocate that when you listen to music, think of a song as a problem solving exercise where you listen to how the other write solved a puzzle. Some of the sub components are things like how did they transition, how did they build momentum, how did they make parts interact, what sorts of voices did they choose. I'd recommend not copying, but letting yourself be informed by the work.
 
Look at music as an evolutionary process. Ideas don't come from no where they have to be taken from the world around us then slowly churned around in our mind to suit our personality and bring them forward into new light. Your going to make some stuff that sounds similar sometimes. As long as you haven't just strait copied the rhythm and melody you will be fine.
 
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I often get ideas from songs. Just don't use the same melody. Sometimes, what I do is I have a melody in mind that I heard somewhere. I just focus on it and create something that would follow this melody and then just forget the actual melody that I created the second part from. You've got something unique right there from the inspiration of another song.
 
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