Familiar melody

Not sure if this is the right forum, but here goes.
Once in a while I come up with a melody that seems really familiar to me, like a fragment from another song, but I can't place it. I have other people listen to my melody and it doesn't sound familiar to them but I just know I've heard it somewhere before. Maybe it's like a deja vu moment or something, I don't know.

I don't want to record something that's been done before so how do I find out if there's a song out there with the same melody line? I think there's a smart phone app to help identify songs and I might try that but not sure how well that would work.

I think there's a site called Shazam that will use a database to try and identify a melody, but I haven't used it/can't vouch for it.

sven450
"every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief"
 
Words to live by.

That's the refrain of my newest song!

bjornpdx
Once in a while I come up with a melody that seems really familiar to me, like a fragment from another song, but I can't place it. I have other people listen to my melody and it doesn't sound familiar to them but I just know I've heard it somewhere before. Maybe it's like a deja vu moment or something, I don't know. 

That is the very definition of a hit song! Go with it. Unless it becomes a huge commercial success, it's unlikely anybody will ever go he's-so-fine on you.
 

"Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal." - Igor Stravinsky
 

What's it called, subconscious plagiarism? Anyway, people are telling me the melody is unique (and it passed the Shazam test) so I think I'm good.  

 
If it wasn't for this, Hans Zimmer wouldn't have a career.  #LionKing/AveVerumCorpus, #Gladiator/ThePlanets ;) 

Jeff Evans
In the Jazz world the saying is "Giants stand on the shoulders of Giants"
 
 

I didn't know Sir Isaac Newton played jazz

bjornpdx
Once in a while I come up with a melody that seems really familiar to me, like a fragment from another song, but I can't place it. I have other people listen to my melody and it doesn't sound familiar to them but I just know I've heard it somewhere before.

This happens to me all the time. I used to worry about it, but I stopped and I just record those suckers.
 
What the hell? Even if it turns out to be someone else's song, you're in good company.
http://www.youtube.com/wa...nIKUdMI&feature=kp

I've found that most of the time when I've come up with something that sounds familiar, it really just reminds me of another song, rather than being an exact copy. I would just start working on it and see were it goes. Sometimes after working on a tune for a while I'm reminded what song I think it sounds like, or when it's fleshed out more others might find it easier to identify a matching song.
 
And it could be that it sounds familiar because it's a nice catchy melody.  

I composed a tune which people here said it sounded really familiar. Yet, no one here could point to the artist or song they thought it came from....  in case you're curious:  http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=9414184 

 
Reminiscent of a popular church song, probably why no one can pinpoint an artist.  Not nearly an exact similarity except for the chord progression, which is not protected under copyright law anyway.  People have tried to sue over chord progressions before, but all the cases were thrown out.  
 
Melodies from songs under copyright are protected up to a certain number of notes apparently.  At least that was the claim of Stephen Schwartz when using the first seven notes of "Somewhere over the Rainbow" in his musical "Wicked."  

Yeah IDK... I suspect that exact tipping point is up to a jury and which side has the most persuasive legal team don't ya think?

 
I guess you would have to define what constitutes a melody, does it encompass a compete music idea, was the intent to recreate that melody in a similar way, etc, etc.  In other words, rather open to interpretation and argument.
 

I don't disagree in some cases.  For a hypothetical.  Take the NBC theme. (C-A-F).  If another news organization decided to use the same three notes for their theme, that would be a blatant violation, and I say sue away.  If the same three notes were used somewhere in a song with a 10-12 note melody that sold millions of copies.  There would be absolutely no cause for a lawsuit.  You can't sue over notes, only over obvious theft of intellectual property.  
 
If you see the Hans Zimmer hashtag I posted about the Planets.  The Gustav Holst foundation actually sued Mr. Zimmer for the film score to Gladiator because the opening battle scene music was a blatant ripoff of "Mars the Bringer of War."  Even though the notes and rhythms were very different.  http://www.filmmusicmag.com/?p=638
 
I don't really know the outcome of that case, or if it is still in process.  

This happens to me pretty often, most recently just a day or two ago. I was trying to come up with a folk ballad, and was happy with what I had after about an hour of work, only to recognize it as something I have already heard.
When this happens to me, If I DO identify the melody I try to go back further and find an even earlier use of the melody. I regard this as licence to use what I came up with. There's nothing new under the sun.
 
Back when I played gigs I had a fake book I bought that had this weird index in the back to help the performer identify tunes by it the notes went up or down or stayed the same. So "The Star Spangled Banner" might look something like:
D-D-D-U-U-U-U-D-D-D-U-U -S-S-U etc.
Pretty laughable. Us guys use to play "Name that Tune" trying to use it in reverse. Never once did any of us get one right.
 
Here are a couple of my heartaches, one for the tune and a couple for titles.:
 
A lullaby I wrote in the 70's (but never copyrighted) opens exactly like "A Whole New World" from Disney's "Aladdin". Made me feel bad I didn't have it registered, but then I recalled "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" and felt better.
 
I have a song called "Let It Go" copyright 2009, probably before the "Frozen" song of the same name. BTW I'm getting quite a few looks at it on SoundClick the last few days. Also, I just learned that Def Leppard had a "Let It Go" back in the early 80's. Mine doesn't sound like either.
 
I wrote a song called "Come Away With Me", only to learn there was a big country(?) hit of the same name not all that long before I wrote mine....but I felt better when I recalled the barbershop that opens with "Come away with me Lucille - In my merry Oldsmobile" from before you or I were born.
 
I have more that I can't even remember anymore. I don't worry too much about it.