Avoiding Plagiarism

Avoiding Plagiarism

28 March 2014 10:16

By Justin Ryan

 

“Wow, I want to write a song like that!”  ..... it’s best to avoid this.

It happens all the time: you write a great song and you’re over the moon, only to realise that you’ve just ripped off a pre-existing song by accident. It can be extremely frustrating, not to mention embarrassing. It’s often enough to make you want to put your guitar in the attic and never look at it again. However, it’s a common problem and thankfully there are ways to deal with it. Creativity can be a tricky thing sometimes, but there are many ways in which you can avoid plagiarism.

 

Test The Waters

It’s always a good idea to play your song for friends and family before you make it public. It’s easy to spot when you’re stealing a melody from a really well-known song, but sometimes you could be taking ideas from something a lot more obscure without realising it. This is why it’s advisable to play your song for lots of people; the more people that hear it and tell you it’s not plagiarised, the more confident you’ll be about it. Plus, friends and family will be kind and tell you in a constructive way if they think you’re picking up the material from a pre-existing song. Allegedly, even Paul McCartney often played new songs for his friends and family to make sure he wasn’t using somebody else’s material.

 

Avoid Getting Inspiration From Other Songs

This is often one of my biggest downfalls. It’s all too tempting to listen to a great song and think “Wow, I want to write a song like that!” – but in my experience, it’s best to avoid this. Odds are that if you sit down to write with a certain song in mind, you’ll end up writing a song that’s much too like that particular song. It’s fine to hear a certain mood in a song and try to write something with a similar mood, but it’s best to be extremely careful and aware of the pitfalls. Also, it’s often a good idea not to listen to any music directly before trying to write something; it could be stuck in your head and you may not be able to break away from it.

 

Tweak Your Melodies

This is probably one of the simplest ways to avoid plagiarism. If you can’t give yourself peace of mind over whether or not you’ve been influenced by another song, changing your melodies around can help. Slight changes to your original melody can make a world of difference, and you could end up coming up with something better than you had originally planned, not to mention coming up with something original. For example, try switch a rising melody to a falling melody, or even completely invert your melody and then tweak it.

 

Play Instead Of Sing

By this, I mean compose your melodies on an instrument rather than trying to create a new melody from thin air. Ok, singing a new melody does work for a lot of people, but for some of us it can be a challenge to create something really fresh and new this way. Pick up a guitar or sit at a piano (or whatever your choice of instrument is) and just play around. Pick out some random notes and try to form them into a melody. Or alternatively, choose a starting note and an ending note and try to fill in the gap as best you can. It’s really surprising how this can get the creative juices flowing, and you’re less likely to copy something that already exists.

 

Be Aware Of Your Chosen Chord Progression

Ok, so you have a chord progression ready for your new song – that’s great! However, it’s of vital importance to be aware of other songs that use the same progression. If you use a common progression, there are going to be a multitude of songs that you could possibly plagiarise. Even for lesser-used progressions, there’s always a possibility that you’ve heard it somewhere before. So, if you realise you’ve heard your chord progression used in a pre-existing song, you can be extra careful not to steal its melody or rhythm. This is why it’s good to think about where your progression may have been used before – you’ll be more in tune with what you’re writing and what you’re merely copying; this will lead to you writing something that is entirely your own.

 

"... it's often a good idea not to listen to any music directlybefore trying to write something."

 

Constantly Question Yourself

 

It’s great to be confident in your songwriting abilities, but it’s always important to take a step back and ask yourself if you really believe you’ve written something original. It’s a great feeling when you’ve finished writing a song, so it’s tempting not to poke around the possibility of it being plagiarised. However, having real faith in your song comes from knowing that it’s yours and yours alone – and that will only happen if you question every aspect of your song. It can be an extremely tough thing to do, and it’s devastating if you realise that you have plagiarised something, but it’s better in the long run and it will help you to grow as a songwriter.

 

Justin Ryan

A graduate of Music in NUIM, Justin is currently studying for an MA in Musicology; his main area of research involves the impact of popular musical styles on the development of musical theatre.

Justin has studied under the guidance of established Irish composers and has examined popular music at length in both a musicological and compositional context; he also teaches guitar, singing, and songwriting to aspiring musicians.

Connect with Justin on Twitter

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Previous Articles about Songwriting from Justin;

Adding String Accompaniment to your Song

5 Genres You May Not Have Considered Before

Writing a Catchy Melody

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