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SurfGuitar101 Forums » Surf Musician »

Permalink Almost a musical geeenius... d'oh!

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So there I was, noodling away at random waiting for inspiration to strike, and I hit this combination of notes. "Ooh ..." I said, "that sounds pretty nice." I spend about 15 minutes developing it, and after coming up with about four bars of more good stuff, it hits me.

It needed a horn section. I was "composing" Herb Alpert's El Toro Solo, aka The Lonely Bull
Embarassed
Now I'm willing to believe that George Harrison was telling the truth when he denied consciously plagiarizing "He's So Fine" for "My Sweet Lord".

Do you often have that experience?

I'm not a complete idiot. Some parts are missing.

Yeah... About 8 years ago I came up with a real barnburner of a fingerpicked piece. Real fast. Then I played it slow to work on one particular hard part. House of the Rising Sun Embarassed

I often catch myself doing this, so many licks and riffs sound like something then turn out to actually be something.

I've done it with miss heard lyrics too.

Yes, done it many times.

Some people just don't worry about it and use it anyway. Oasis for one - there are so many blatant rip-offs in their stuff but they just don't care - after all, they were/are selling it to an audience who'd never heard "All the Young Dudes" or "Get it on" 'cos it was 20 years before their time. But as Oscar Wilde said:

"Talent borrows, genius steals" ......

After all - if you steal something that is at the back of peoples memories, it will just sound familiar and you've got a head start in getting them into your tune.

http://www.myspace.com/thepashuns

Youth and enthusiasm are no match for age and treachery.

estreet
Yes, done it many times.

After all - if you steal something that is at the back of peoples memories, it will just sound familiar and you've got a head start in getting them into your tune.

There's something to be said even for single notes, opening chords, etc. being familiar.
It's mostly a subconscious thing for people... not all listeners know that all those guitar songs in E sound similar because they're in E.

...
I had a song that turned out to be most of the same chord changes as "If you don't know me by now" by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes.
My song was in 4/4, though, had some more-extended harmonies, and I modulated three more times.

Cheese is great.

I wrote a song once,
it sounded so cool
the chords were different
there was an Fmin in it...
I played it for hours,
too bad it turned out to be a Pixies song...damn

Wave of Mutilation

i wrote a song..played it for the band and the drummer pointed out that i was playing Unchained Melody..man was that embarrasing or what..

The reality is that we do not wash our own laundry - it just gets dirtier.

www.myspace.com/tumbleweedofsurf

if you listen to our song Cuban Cigar in our myspace and then compare with NESgame Kung Fu you will find the main riff to be almost identical, i didnt know that when i wrote the song..

The reality is that we do not wash our own laundry - it just gets dirtier.

www.myspace.com/tumbleweedofsurf

About 30 years ago I wrote a song in B minor that was supposed to be along the lines of Windy and Warm. I just used it as a way to practice my fingerstyle without the embarrassment of trying to actually copy Chet. A few years later I was playing it in front of someone and they called it Stray Cat Strut.

After I checked it out I realized that the songs had little in common except for the descending bass line and the feel, which was identical. A few years ago I saw a clip of Brian Setzer pleying Stray Cat Strut in concert and when he took his solo he quoted Windy and Warm. I've always wondered if Brian Setzer wrote Stray Cat Strut with Windy and Warm in mind.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

Even before I truly got into guitar, about 17 years ago by now, there was a bit of "something" that I'd bang out on the only guitar I owned, at the time, being an Epiphone PR-100 (acoustic 6). One day, a buddy had me play it, and he exclaims "you're playing 'Raunchy!' Granted not very well, but that's what you're playing." For me, this wasn't so much "embarrassing," or "oops, I'm copying somebody else," but "wow, I can actually play a song!" Over the past 17 years, all of the songs I can play I've come by out of pursuing a cool, interesting or familiar riff during a jam session.

The worst I've done, over the past 17 years, is when I was writing lots of poetry. One day, I was working on a frivolous piece of lyric poetry (rhyming at the end of a line), and as I was reading through the first two stanzas I'd written, looking for further inspiration, I got to paying attention to the syllabic beat of what I'd already written. I grabbed my guitar, and started strumming the first original piece that I'd composed, then read the developing poem again. It was then that it hit me - Damint! I've accidentally written lyrics to my surf instrumental piece!

In the future, I may revisit the poem, and see what I can come up with in the way of a different music composition. Or I might go ahead and record the surf instrumental, then later on record it with lyrics and a different name.

Matt

Fast Cars & Loud Guitars!

Surfabilly
One day, I was working on a frivolous piece of lyric poetry (rhyming at the end of a line), ... I grabbed my guitar, and started strumming the first original piece that I'd composed, then read the developing poem again. It was then that it hit me - Damint! I've accidentally written lyrics to my surf instrumental piece!

I've always liked rhyme, but then, I'm not a poet. Wink

Don't be too hard on yourself. There are only so many meters. Even if you weren't a poet you'd probably know most of them implicitly. Which one was this? I'm curious what works well with surf music! Something Iambic, I bet.

Since I'm interested in the connections of songs, I often wonder if a given tune is a conscious adaptation of another one or not. My feeling is that if the similarities are extended there must be a connection. However, the connection could easily be unconscious. The flip side of this is that if someone actually refers to a song by the same name and credits the original composer, then you have to assume any similarities are deliberate, but even so there are often fairly serious differences. The question of when a song is the same as another is something of a vexed issue. Especially if there are no lyrics.

Cheer up, DP - at least you wrote a great Pixies song.

synchro
I've always wondered if Brian Setzer wrote Stray Cat Strut with Windy and Warm in mind.

I figured it was a rip of Richard Hell & the Voidoids' "Blank Generation."

-Warren

That was excessively violent and completely unnecessary. I loved it.

Serpico
if you listen to our song Cuban Cigar in our myspace and then compare with NESgame Kung Fu you will find the main riff to be almost identical, i didnt know that when i wrote the song..

its also reminiscent of a DD song in the fast parts.
but I wont tell him.
Smile

Jeff(bigtikidude)

Jeff(bigtikidude)

Question Question i really thought i wrote "spoonful" but maybe not. and maybe another 10,000 blues songs too Exclamation Exclamation

Rolling Eyes Last night I just realized that a lead part I was writing bears an uncanny resemblance to the beginning of "The High Wall", which is now my current earworm.

I'm not a complete idiot. Some parts are missing.

Earworm! I love that term. So true though.

My current earworm.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=l2dDcCakpX8

Since I put rounds on my jazzmaster, which also have to have a plain g which I didn't have before, my trem dips are also sounding just like those this guitarist use. Former Tremolo Beer Gut brains in case you are unfamiliar.

Hey Jake, I don't know them, are they big-time? Pretty amazing production values on that vid if they aren't!

They weren't big time then. That was the first single off of their first EP. If you are interested check out their Love in a Trash Can video. Very surfy song.

They just released their third full-length. Their first since they chose not to resign with Colombia. They are on an indie label now and the new album, which has only been out a couple months, has outsold their first two and the EP.

this happens to me eveyr time i try to write a song..... i always figure out that it soudns llike some other song so i just give up!

-Zanti

Instagram:

My IG

Combo Tezeta IG

Curses. I did it again.:evil: (see my first post in this thread)
This time I spent over half an hour and again it was turning out to be The Lonely Bull.
The first two notes were different, and higher up on the fretboard, so I didn't recognize it right away.

AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!

I'm not a complete idiot. Some parts are missing.

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