Wrote a killer riff... but have I heard it b4?

Lukin_oz

I wrote a killer riff on guitar while tuning up at practice the other day... thing is, I can hear how the song will go so clearly in my head, and cant help but wonder if Ive heard it before... but cant for the life of me think where... Ive been trying to think what it sounds like... anyone else have this problem when writing?

elusive_one

I have this problem ALL the time! In fact when I was in a band *sigh* I think I used to piss off the guitarist by saying his songs reminded me of something else... in fact, I had 'other' names for some of his riffs before they became fully written songs... like we had 'the Clash song', the 'pink floyd improv' and so on. But I've written a few songs lately where I've listened to em and just thought 'am I ripping someone off here?' I'm gonna ask a friend to see if he thinks I'm ripping someone off... hehe.

However, I don't see it as a bad thing really. I mean if you're blatantly and intentionally ripping off another song or band *cough*Creed*cough*, then that's another thing... but if u think it sounds like something else, just think of it as your influences coming out... or something like that.

casper leblanc

talents borrow, geniuses steal

seriously, it's all about what you do with it, if you add something creative to it, it's all fine by me.

MissYouAllDay

"I wrote a killer riff on guitar while tuning up at practice the other day... thing is, I can hear how the song will go so clearly in my head, and cant help but wonder if Ive heard it before... but cant for the life of me think where... Ive been trying to think what it sounds like... anyone else have this problem when writing?"

but it's called sweet child o mine. Slash already wrote it.

lostdawg

Happens all the time- (mostly) all of the riffs you hear have been done a hundred times in a hundred different bands- there are only 12 tones to work with. If it's not intentional, don't sweat it. Just don't bust out the guitar intro to "Stairway" and try to call it something else!!

AlterEgo

It's certainly happened to me. I came up with a nice vocal melody and put lyrics that somehow seemed to fit to it, but something seemed off. Later on, I realized that not only was it the melody to a Pete Yorn song, I'd used a few of the same phrases in the lyrics. :rolleyes:

djyman15

umm litterally came up with the exact riff to spin the black circle today. no wonder it sounded so familiar

given to jam

sometimes after listening to a certain album, i'll sit down and write a song that has a similar feel to the band i was listening to. i'm not ripping any of their riffs off, thats just called inspiration. but other times i'll come up with a new riff that turns out to be a hell of a lot like something else, but its totally unintentional. this happened the other day, i came up with some little tune on the guitar that really sounded like going to california during the verses. but i think with a vocal melody that sounds nothing like going to california, the song won't sound like it at all.

Pepe Silvia

This happens to me all the time. I'll work something out and think it's brilliant then later it'll hit me that it was an unintentional rip off from something else. Like someone else said, as long as you don't do it intentionaly and have some variations to it you should be fine.

I read in some guitar magazine years ago Mike McCready said he ripped a riff off of a Kiss song but it was ok because they stole it from the Doors.