New tune how do I know if it is original

Subject: New tune how do I know if it is original
From: GUEST,Peter C
Date: 14 Feb 16 - 02:07 PM

My wife has composed a little country dance tune - how can we find out if it is truly original, or something that has been in her head from playing other tunes?

Subject: RE: New tune how do I know if it is original
From: Gurney
Date: 14 Feb 16 - 02:31 PM

Play the tune on Facebook and then ask us again.

Subject: RE: New tune how do I know if it is original
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Feb 16 - 03:13 PM

Or on YouTube and share the link.

Don't keep starting new threads. If you join mudcat you can add a tracer to any threads you want to keep track of.

Subject: RE: New tune how do I know if it is original
From: GUEST,Pete from seven stars link
Date: 14 Feb 16 - 03:36 PM

Some of the songs I have written , I have the same doubts. As I sing at a few sing arounds and open mics ,I take comfort that no one has said this or that sounds like whatever. One I,m working on now ,I think a part of it must be from something else , but I guess there will always be subconscious influences.

Subject: RE: New tune how do I know if it is original
From: GUEST,Ripov
Date: 14 Feb 16 - 04:41 PM

you could try the folk tune finder, it might come up with what you think is your tune (It's just had a rebuild and it works a bit erratically for me at present). Otherwise - keep writing them, keep playing them. If one day the lightbulb comes on and something inside your head say "Oh s..t that's by Beethoven!" change a few notes and keep right on!
I write other peoples tunes sometimes. And sometimes I suddenly realise I've written this one before!
If you listen to any amount of music from a fairly short time span but from different composers - say written over 20 years - you'll hear a great deal that is almost identical.

Subject: RE: New tune how do I know if it is original
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 14 Feb 16 - 05:05 PM

Don't keep starting new threads.

I don't understand this comment. If I click on the name "GUEST,Peter C" it would appear that this is the only thread he has started.

By the way, just out of interest, when did 'Stilly River Sage' become 'Acme'?

DC

Subject: RE: New tune how do I know if it is original
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Feb 16 - 05:57 PM

I concur, Doug. I didn't see much of him either

Subject: RE: New tune how do I know if it is original
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Feb 16 - 06:37 PM

You need a very good memory to be a composer. Because nobody has ever composed a new tune- from absolute scratch. Everything, even the most abstruse of avantgarde innovation, has always built on what came before. Even if only to consciously deviate from it.

So, whoever composed this new tune has quite possibly composed as new a tune as we ever have.

Subject: RE: New tune how do I know if it is original
From: Jack Campin
Date: 15 Feb 16 - 10:14 AM

If it's an old tune, it'll be in the National Tune Index (covering the British Isles to 1800) or Charles Gore's Scottish Fiddle Music Index (not just fiddle music, and up to 1900ish). They both use theme coding so you can compare the first few bars.

If somebody at some time might have thought it was Irish, Tunepal should find it (I haven't used it).

Uploading it (not to Facebook, please) as notation or a sound file and then posting the link here and on TheSession might work.

Subject: RE: New tune how do I know if it is original
From: GUEST,Peter C
Date: 15 Feb 16 - 11:43 AM

Thanks for the heads up for the folk tune finder. I will try the others mentioned and see what come up!

Subject: RE: New tune how do I know if it is original
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 15 Feb 16 - 01:10 PM

Run it past a few friends, and if they are at all musical, they will tell you!
Heard a song on the radio yesterday "composed by XYZ" - exactly same tune as a song by another chap he used to sing with 30-odd years ago. May have been mis-reprted by the radio presenter who said it, or may just be that thing of memory popping up odd things from the past.