Till what extent is it fine to use another songs melody?

Discussion in 'Music' started by barah sherlock, Sep 8, 2015.

  1. barah sherlock

    barah sherlock Noisemaker

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    Well the title is a bit off, but I'm not too sure how to phrase it better..

    Anyways so I've been composing a song, and I've came across this amazing melody that fits perfectly and works for the song I'm writing. However I can't remember which song it was, but I've heard it before.
    But the whole song is different, but there is just one section that has the same melody, (6notes) that goes in the same progression as that song?
    WIll this be fine? Or will it be referred to as stealing? However I have no intention of stealing whatsoever. Thanks!

     
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  3. WolwerineBlues

    WolwerineBlues Platinum Record

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    Be creative do your own shit :disco::drunks:
     
  4. Baxter

    Baxter Audiosexual

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    There are just 34623 trillion melodic combinations left out there. Maybe try another? :)
     
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  5. barah sherlock

    barah sherlock Noisemaker

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    I think that's the best option!
    But like I'm just curious about this, because I know a few songs that's got the exact same progression, and by knowing both the tracks that uses it, it reminds me of each other. But I'll try find another one :)
     
  6. Kwissbeats

    Kwissbeats Audiosexual

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    some people can win a Grammy with it, without flinching during their speech, others don't agree with it morally
    on a legal base and as far as u described it, you are on the safe side
     
  7. xsze

    xsze Guest

    It's not stealing even if you used it, we should really stop using that word that easily to describe tings like this :dont:

    Well, it's your moral call, there's even site where you can play something and it tracks from what song that is (Google it, I really don't know the name), try that and see from where are your inspiration coming from and ask for permission. :yes:
     
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  8. stevitch

    stevitch Audiosexual

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    Best Answer
    Is your concern moral, or legal? Either way, if a melody's so similar that you feel weird about using it, then don't. Whether or not you might be sued for plagiarism (and whether or not you'd lose the case), other people might also pick up on the similarity, if the song is widely known, and at the very least dismiss you as being derivative and unoriginal.

    Myself, if I feel that I've unconsciously "borrowed" a melody or phrase from another song, I ditch it, for the reasons I cited and because I don't want to know that I'd let myself be so lazy or unscrupulous; because I want to push myself to be more original than that. I did once unconsciously use a very familar-sounding medlodic phrase which I knew was from a popular song – without being able to peg the song itself. The melody came to me because it seemed to wrap itself around the cadences and rhyme scheme of the lyric. However, after I'd recorded and released it, I realized which popular song it was from, and I felt really stupid for how obvious it might be to others, and vowed since then to always wipe my feet before entering, so to speak.
     
  9. NYCGRIFF

    NYCGRIFF Audiosexual

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    Hmmnnn... As "Baxter" accurately points out, there are trillions of melodic combinations and progressions out there. The human mind (especially those of 'compositional' musicians) are always seeking newer (and hopefully) entertaining constructs. Unfortunately, no one can be absolutely sure that somewhere, someplace in this vast universe of music, that the composition you've labored on so painstakingly has not been created in some form or fashion somewhere or by someone else. When I was a young boy learning piano basics, one of my teachers said that throughout music history, there has "never" been a melody that has hasn't been done (at some point in time) by another musician. That being said, an 'obscure' piece of music, written and published years and years before, stands a much better chance of not being detected as "plagiarized" than a well-known piece of music. That's why writing music is never an easy proposition. Unless you can know (impossible) each and every lick, melodic turn, chord pattern, etc., ever written or published, chances are you may be treading upon someone's musical territory. "Kwissbeats" alluded to the recent "Burred Lines" song that got Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams into hot water; eventually ending in a legal settlement that awarded Marvin Gaye's family members $7.4 million bucks! Sometimes composers are 'truly' innocent, but at other times, the end music product is the result of aforethought and malice. So, be extremely careful about publishing that song with the infectious beat and catchy melody... You never know when some lawyer will come a knockin' -- especially in this age of Social Media.
     
    Last edited: Sep 8, 2015
  10. Six notes on passing through as you continue on the snakey road of process is at worst case a random act of homage and certainly is not theft. Sweat it not to avoid a stomach knot, you are clear of any wrong doing. Sleep well, the sleep of innocence.
     
  11. Baxter

    Baxter Audiosexual

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  12. Herr Durr

    Herr Durr Guest

    Jimmy Page and Robert Plant totally got away with it... ehh
     
  13. barah sherlock

    barah sherlock Noisemaker

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    Great, Thanks for the reply everyone!
    I do not have any intention on stealing someones stuff, therefore was just checking!
     
  14. xsze

    xsze Guest

    You can't steal it even if you wanted, stop saying that :dont:
     
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