musician phobias

Mon, 22 Feb 2021 04:42:57 GMT

A common problem if you are a songwriter with a formal musical education is that you know a lot of music and get anxious that everything you write sounds too much like some other thing. There are after all only 12 notes, especially if you are a piano player. (I'm a piano player.) It's so ordinary I can only compare it to how people taking intro to psych think they have every single disorder and personality type.

Anyway I have now ascended to a new level of songwriter paranoia where I have written a song that I'm worried is ripping off another song even though they are in different keys and have none of the same intervals, because if I move my song up a half step and ignore the instrumental breaks and repeat some parts, I can sing it over the other song as a countermelody that sometimes lines up rhythmically and sometimes doesn't. (Which is actually interesting sounding and the texts seem like they could be telling different sides of a romantic mishap.) So for me, they are the same song, half of which I don't own, and the other musician is going to recognize it immediately and be upset.

Except for the part where they are totally different melodies in different keys, are not about the same subject, and use not remotely similar instrumentation.

I'm very paranoid about it. It's irritating Ciro some amount.

comments

Delightful Inconsistent

musician phobias