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 🤦♀️
Definitely! I usually name my files starting with
YYYY_MM_DD(which makes it easy to sort by the date I started making the file), a number for which entry it was on that day (1,2,3,4… plus sometimes a letter too if I want to keep multiple drafts), and a few words if I have other details I want to remember. e.g. “transcribe_song_by_artist” or things like “cont_YYYY_MM_DD-entry” when I continue working on a piece from a long time I ago. Sometimes I add a title after that too if I wanted to give the piece one.
Breakdown your favorite songs by chord on a keyboard until the relationship between chords and moods clicks, then you can recreate feelings rather than duplicate the mere sounds
" An artist never works under ideal conditions. If they existed, his work wouldn’t exist, for the artist doesn’t live in a vacuum. Some sort of pressure must exist. The artist exists because the world is not perfect. Art would be useless if the world were perfect, as man wouldn’t look for harmony but would simply live in it. "
Andrei Tarkovsky
I think that’s a very difficult question to answer. But if you want to be as close to foolproof as you can, consider researching prior cases, such as that of Vanilla Ice and Ed Sheeran.
When I’m writing, if I just listen to the songs I want to take inspiration from the day before a few times (properly listen, with intent) the main ideas/vibe of the songs are far more present in my writing then usual
The secret is getting bored with it while copying so it turns into something different.
To really copy a song takes a lot of patience and work, perhaps more than composing something original. Unless you were blatantly ripping something off, it’s unlikely that you are going to “copy” it, so don’t worry about it too much. Your favourite composer was influenced by some other music that they emulate aspects of without copying. Genres exist and songs within them sound similar, without copying each other.
To answer your question, my solution is to listen actively and take notes. It’s one thing to hear something and like it, but another to be able to describe why you like it. Listen, close your eyes, open them to write an observation, repeat. Now you have a handful of ideas that you can re-interpret in your own way.
Also put the inspiration song in your DAW and use it as a reference as you compose. It will help you notice things like arrangement, instrumentation, and give you a target to work towards.