Steal ideas you like

Now of course I’m not saying that you should commit copyright infringement. Let’s get that out of the way.

But then what do I mean?

I mean that you should take small pieces of songs. Small ideas. Maybe it’s a chord progression. Or a one bar rhythm. Maybe it’s a four chord loop or a drum beat.

I had a teacher in college assign us an assignment where we did this. He gave us two songs and told us to copy part of the chord progression from one and part of the melody from the other. Obviously you can’t take the whole thing, but you can take one measure.

Use those songs and those ideas as a starting off point. You might even make a melody that you really like.

If it’s a chord progression that works even better. Chord progressions can’t be copyrighted. Someone who knows you like the song that you took it from might recognize it, but that doesn’t really matter. If you create a new piece of music using it then it’s still a new piece of music. Also so many songs share chord progressions already.

If you’re ever stuck and don’t have any ideas then this can be a great way to give yourself some ideas.

ISJ