Originally Posted by John Lawrence Schick
Originally Posted by pathardy
I remember seeing a website where you could submit an original song, and it would
come back with songs that sound alike or similar, leaving you with the decision if
it is an infringement or not.
(too bad that site didn't exist for George Harrison on My Sweet Lord when he "wrote" it.
Personally, I think he heard it as a teenager and it was in his subconscious -- he was a 50s/early 60s child, like me when the Chiffon's "He's So Fine" was a hit in i think 1963-ish ).

has anyone seen this website or know what the URL is?

I think most of us wonder, in the back of our minds, if our new "gem" has been done before, or I know I do.

By The way, some trivia, "He's So Fine" was shopped to 10 different labels before it was accepted by Laurie Records. Many of those who rejected it thought it was "too trite". So, if you have a catchy but trite song lyric-wise, there is hope smile

Pat


Nah, I don't even consider that any longer Pat. It puts a damper on the composing process. With 12 half-tones and millions (maybe billions) of songs it would be impossible for any website mechanism to be accurate. Probably would come up with thousands of similar songs (that really aren’t similar). Being filtered by lyrics would probably find even more similar songs. Besides, if you compose from your heart and not intentionally copying someone else, it is your original work. Just that maybe someone else was having similar feelings. That being said; there just ain’t enough dissonant sounding songs out there. Let me hear the clashing of tones!

John smile


I hear ya, but I still would like to listen to possible songs that might be similar, but only after I finish the song so it won't, as you say, put a damper on the creative process. There is always the possibility a song bubbles up from your subconscious, which you think is yours, belongs to someone else, This actually happened to me. I wrote a beautiful song, though it was different overall, but the best parts of it were actually identical to "Soon" by Gershwin. After thinking and thinking about it, it finally occurred to me the childhood memory of my dad playing a record with that song on it, that, apparently, moved me as a child, and thus i retained the melody, forgot the experience, and all the while I thought it was my song. I didn't find out it wasn't my tune until I played it for a jazz aficionado friend of mine who was familiar with every known standard ( I know quite a few, but not all ) and recognized it, so I went on youtube to listen to a few versions, and sure enough, "my tune" was just too close to Gershwin's that I would even dare claim it as my own. I think this is hat happened to Harrison, but more completely, his tune is identical to He's So fine much more so that my tune was identical to Soon. This is the type of thing that I want to prevent.

As for dissonance, I do love dissonant chords like the MinorMaj7 and dense cluster chords ( like bill evans plays ) and so on.

Last edited by pathardy; 03/20/17 08:43 PM.