I'm currently in the process of writing a song. I've got a tune and I'm putting the lyrics together but I'm always concerned that any tune I think of might just be another song I've heard somewhere randomly that I don't remember hearing.
Do I just have a shitty memory or is this a problem that other people have too?
Nope, happens a lot to me, too. Worst part is that whatever you're accidentally plagiarizing, will immediately sound great and will be really easy to write, because of course, you've listened to it before. And it can be nigh impossible to distinguish between accidental plagiarism and just being in a flow.
No, you see it's: "dun-dun-dun-dudu-dun-dun dudu dun-dun-dun-dudu-dun-dun"
not
"dun-dun-dun-dudu-dun-dun, dun-dun-dun-dudu-dun-dun"
I simply don't think about it. If Chino Moreno can get away with using the chorus chord progression of "Hit Me Baby" in one of his songs and the most that happens is laughter about it in the comment section, it's not an issue.
Alternatively, there is nothing new under the sun. Music has seven fundamental notes that can only be arranged so many different ways and still sound pleasing to the ear. It's an inevitability that somewhere, you're going to use the same chord progressions as thousands if not hundreds of thousands of other composers, you're gonna write the same licks, you're gonna play the same riffs. The difference is in atmosphere, genre, and performance. Don't stress it too much.
Deftones have so much staying power, like they keep making good stuff after 30+ years now. I know Koi no Yokan is like over a decade old, but it's so good, and that was wayyy after their popularity peak.
Don't worry about it. There are only so many progressions. Everything else is just variations within them, with bass lines, melodies and rhythms.
Everything is derivative of something else. Thag made that drumbeat on a rock 20000 years ago and it has passed down in oral history to eventually be in a Nirvana song.
This sometimes results in songs like Dani California that are almost certainly overt or unintentional copies of another song. When you find out your song is subjectively too close to another song you do the right thing, whatever that may be between you and the original musician.
Why worry when you are just writing a song ?
Write the song about the song sounding like another song.
I've done this. Yes, they did exist. That's one of the risks of creating songs from melodies stuck in your head
It's normal.
Especially if you're writing in a popular style, tons of musicians just use the same chord progressions over and over .
Once you start layering things on the melody, it's pretty unlikely that it will resemble anything too closely.
As long long as you're just using your own creativity, I think it's very unlikely you'll just clone a song.
If you're really worried about it, you can just change a few notes in the melody on the page in a way that you wouldn't think to sing "naturally"
You don't lol. There have been instances in the past when pro musicians did this
When I come up with something particularly good, I take a screenshot of the melody + chord symbols and send it to a couple of my musician friends to ask if they recognize it as anything.
One time, they identified an idea as the bridge to an old pop song, but otherwise I've thankfully been in the clear.
