One problem, or perhaps excuse, I have often heard from many a musician who profess the desire to write songs is that their efforts always ends up sounding like their favorite bands or artists.
I chalk this up to creative growing pains because as derivative as you think you are, you'll never play, write or peel a potato like your idols.
And that's a good thing.
Here's why: Every single person on the planet is constantly influenced by everything around him or her whether or not they know it, or admit it.
The same applies to music.
I owe a lot of the musical preferences (that I'm aware of) to radio and that's something many people can relate to.
As a guitar player, I wouldn't have made much progress if it weren't for the work of others who came long before I did.
But whether you're a modest fan or you like to wear your influences on your sleeve (literally), don't act like you have none.
That's just being lame and a sure-fire way to annoy everyone around you.
I remember once in the studio, my friend asked the band's guitarist what his influences were and the guy actually said he had none but that he listened to a lot of classical music.
I'd like to include that this guitarist's songs had to have been the freaking encyclopedia of lead guitar licks featuring a boatload of sweep-picked arpeggios.
Now regardless of what this guitarist might have thought in his head, he was not the first guy to do these things.
But that's okay! We're all products of our time.
What makes you fake and sets off everyone's BS meter is if you deny that simple reality.
So get that straight first and instantly feel the self-imposed burden of hyper-originality evaporate.
You only get better at things you spend most of your time on.
If you only write music when you get inspired, you will probably not get any better anytime soon.
If the song you're writing sounds like a bad Tool cover then you are merely experiencing some "growing pains" in your writing journey that you will eventually outgrow (sooner than you think).
Finish the song and move on to the next one.
While I do think it is good exercise for your songwriting muscles and creativity, constantly trying to avoid sounding like an influence can seriously derail the progress of a song, especially for a beginner.
You are what you eat musically.
Recognize it.
Embrace it.
If you can't respect your own musical personality, who will? Some songwriters just starting out are scared of plagiarizing a known artist but unless that is your goal, it actually becomes very hard to do (especially for an entire song) once you've been writing for a while (and a "while" could mean weeks, months or years depending on how often you write).
Obviously you don't want to just rip off someone else's work but after the first few times you get stuck with a similar sounding riff (it's gonna happen) you'll start to develop your own rules for dealing with this.
Let's say you write a new riff on the guitar but it reminds you of your favorite Aerosmith, Danzig or Huey Lewis (I couldn't resist) riff.
You want to be original so you alter your riff so much that you only succeed in ruining it.
Follow my personal protocol for overcoming this common quandary: 1.
Tweak your riff for 1 hour (2 if yer green) to see if you can find a more unique version that you actually like better than your original riff AND the famous riff you're trying to avoid copying.
You might be surprised at what you come up with.
But if you can't find anything better...
2.
Replace your original riff with the famous riff and if the famous riff just feels the best for that section of the song then just go with it and look for ways to disguise it.
But I'm not talking about the riff itself.
Just the addition of adjacent sections and vocal rhythms/melodies can effectively disguise a famous-sounding riff in your song.
Recording yourself (which I strongly recommend anyways) will instantly make this apparent.
If you want to get better (and more unique) in your songwriting, you've got to write.
You'll start many songs and probably finish less but it is important that you do finish as many songs as you can.
This takes discipline but it will teach you form and presentation as well as help you develop a style.
Otherwise all you'll have are riffs and ideas.
You need to complete whole songs to grow as an artist.
Songwriting gives you the chance to perfectly express how you feel in ways only music can convey.
Even if you fear sounding like your influences, as long as you consistently write music from your gut, you'll increasingly notice how much you sound like, well, yourself.
Remember, it's not just musical influences that appear in your songs.
It's every place you've been, every person you've met, every dream or fear you've ever had.
There's simply nobody else who can make music like you.
And that is simply beautiful.
*** Have any songwriting tips to share? Tell me in the comments!