by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website:
Many songwriters are not aware of this, but chord progressions, as such, are not protected by copyright, and can be used by other songwriters. This makes sense, because if you had to come up with a unique progression that the world had never heard before for each song you write, you’d be out of songs very quickly.
It is a very useful songwriting exercise to take the chord progression of a famous song, and then apply a new rhythmic pattern, tempo and/or time signature to see what else can be done with it. You’d be very surprised to know how often this happens. Did you know that the famous musical theatre ballad “Hey There” from “The Pajama Game” follows, for a while, the chords and even the melody for Mozart’s Piano Sonata in C Major?
You won’t be able to take copyright melodies and doctor them for your own needs, (unless you do a considerable amount of doctoring!) but try this: Find a song that you really like, extract the chord progression, and then try playing it using a completely new tempo and new basic rhythm. To use the same chords with the same rhythm as the song you found it in starts to move into the copyright infingement area. So be sure that your use of the progression is unique.
This type of borrowing works better for songs that use standard progressions. The more unique a progression, the harder it is to hide where you got it.
This is a completely legal use of another chord progression. You can’t do this with another songwriter’s melodies: they are subject to copyright, and are protected from other people “borrowing” them. And infingement is essentially a cumulative thing: borrowing chords is legal, but borrowing the rhythms, instrumentation, and any other identifiable aspect of a song starts to look like stealing. Just be careful.
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Alice
/ February 26, 2010Actually, copying a chord structure and using the same tempo of an existing song is perfectly legal, and deos not infringe anyone elses copyright whatsoever. If this was illegal Spice Girls and various other pop acts wouldn’t have ever made a record. All their songs are ‘influenced’ by other hit tracks. Creating new songs over exisitng hits goes on all the time in the pop charts. One listen to the top 40 and this will become obvious.
garyewer
/ February 26, 2010Right.. I believe that’s what I said. I only suggested using a different tempo as a way of generating something unique and creative. Chord progressions are not protected by copyright, and most certainly tempos are not.
-Gary
Matt
/ January 23, 2011Hi Gary,
Thank you for this post, but I would also like to ask about rhythmic motives, are they protected? Because I often find my melodies sound a bit familiar to what I’ve heard somewhere, mainly not because of the melody (the notes are different), but rhythmic melodic motives are close to something already published. Sorry for posting it here, just did not find an answer so far
garyewer
/ January 23, 2011The issue of rhythmic motif is a tricky one to answer. Personally, I’ve not heard of someone’s authorship being challenged based on the similarity of the rhythms to another song. In general, you’ll want to avoid anything that reminds someone else of another song. The only exception to that would be song title and chord progressions, both of which are not protected by copyright.
I’d recommend playing it safe. If your song’s rhythms come close to reminding you of another song, see if you can get the same effect by altering your song’s rhythms. It’s usually quite easy to do this, and avoids having anyone think you’re trying to ride the popularity of an already-established song.
-Gary
Matt
/ February 17, 2011Thank you for the reply, Gary
I work in a dance genre and use pretty much the same instruments as everyone with the same sidechain pads etc. I already discovered I used the progressions from existing dance tracks, with a lot of instruments similar actually, though my progressions are a bit modified…As I understood with the borrowed chord progressions as long as one is using different melody (with occasional similar leaps, cos the notes will be the same anyway because of the key), different rhytmic motives, evidently different lyrics:) and more or less different beats everything is completely legal, am I right?
As dance music got into mainstream, everyone is trying to copy the sound and almost any pop record I could hear recently is similar to some other songs….. And in the world of club music the same chords are just normal….
Anon
/ August 26, 2011This post is very useful- thank you. I would like to ask a similar questions about groups of notes as part of a tune. There have been times I have been writing and there was a song in the background because someone was watching the TV. I heard this and thought: if I had those notes to work from, I would take the melody in this or that direction and then I got so carried away that I forgot all about how I got these ideas until years later. Sometimes I have used 3 of the same notes in a row but at a different tempo and in the context of a tune that goes of in a different direction. I did the same thing when I heard a film soundtrack. Twice we have 3 of the same notes in the same order but whilst I was listening to it, I said to myself, “I would take those notes in this direction” and wrote a melody with a tighter structure as opposed to the soundtrack I heard that does not have regularly repeating choruses and verses. This particular song has words which the soundtrack doesn’t, but although my melody is faster, has words to go with is and is more structured, they both have a similar cultural sound. Is this allowed?
garyewer
/ August 26, 2011In general, the issue of whether or not a song has been plagiarized relies heavily on whether or not a song sounds like the original. It is usually fine to take 3 successive notes from an existing song, because those 3 notes will not necessarily lead anyone to say, “This new song is just a copy of an old one.” In fact, what you describe (taking an existing song, changing the tempo, etc., has been done quite often. As I mentioned in the post, “Hey There” from “Pajama Game” uses the same first notes (considerably more than 3) of a Mozart piano sonata. So if you’re plan is to take 3 notes, and develop them in a different direction than the original tune, it should be fine. It gets trickier, of course, if the chords, rhythm, instrumentation, and other elements, are also used from the original. The best advice is to play your creation for several people, and see if they notice a similarity.
Good luck!
-Gary
Anon
/ August 26, 2011Thank you Gary. It is an unusual song to consider in a way because it does not have the ordinary verse-chorus repetitive structure. It only uses the same notes for about 15 seconds and then the writer changed the phrases, style and instruments. Thank you for your insightful post. It gives me a few things to think about…..
Thanks again : )
Martin
/ February 8, 2012Hi, a guy sent me some music and I wrote the lyrics and vocal melody to his music. His music is keyboard based r&b sound.He’s decided to mess me around. Can I take my vocal melody/lyrics and use the same chords but make a use a rock backing myself and release the song or a ballad?
garyewer
/ February 8, 2012This might be a little complicated. When you say that he sent you music, I’m assuming that he sent you something like chord progressions with rhythms. You then added a melody and you had a product that was considered finished, correct?
If this is the case, it really all depends on whether you and/or he have a finished song. If he’s got a recording of your melody and lyrics added to his music, he is probably thinking that the song is complete, and it probably is. In that case, the best course of action would be to try to work out an agreement with him regarding sharing copyright, royalties, etc. It also depends on what you mean by him “messing me around.” Do you mean that he’s taken your melody and lyrics, and now considers the song to be his? If that’s the case, and if there is potential money in this, you need to get some legal advice to see what you can do.
All this serves to remind us that it’s always best to get an agreement in writing before partnering with someone on creating music. I hope this situation can be solved for you, because it’s usually a bit messy, and it can be very stressful.
Good luck!
-Gary
GW
/ April 22, 2012I recorded a melody with the lyrics on a small type recorder and took it into a music store in a local mall and asked to have the same played with a piano to see how it woudl sound. The pianist played it on a piano that added cords, etc. and I really loved it. It was exactly what I mean’t for it to be, but of course I can’t play it. The piano recorded it all on a CD for me to keep. Can this version be the official version for my copyright?