When composing music, how to be influenced by a soundtrack (of films, video games…) without copying?

  • Deliberately copy snippets of a work you’re interested in as a study – e.g. transcribe it – and experiment with elements you find interesting (rhythm, chords, synths, effects, whatever) in small test pieces to make sure you understand what’s going on. Let the ideas stew for a while and then much later try to use the techniques you learned in a real piece.

    That’s what I do anyway.

    • Clearly mark these as Do Not Use or something!

      When getting into digital painting I copied some of my fav artists works from Insta and stuff and I now have a lot of pics where I don’t remember if they’re mine or not 🤦‍♀️