Repeating yourself.

I was wondering to what degree you guys consider this to be a concern in your songwriting.

I'm talking about having several songs that share common elements, themes, chord progressions, keys, bits of melody, whatever.

At what point does it stop being stylistically acceptable and start becoming "it all sounds the same?".

This is especailly annoying to me at the moment becasue I'm concurrently writing two songs at once, and bits from one that work well also feel like they could in the other, but I know this could ultimately result in two songs with very similar harmonic progression.

I think you have to be comfortable with "how you define yourself" or "your voice". Is the repetition part of "your style" or is it a lack of engagement?

If you are comfortable with the content but getting some pushback from the audience that "everything sounds the same" there are a bunch of things you can do to address the perception while remaining true to yourself - change the key, change the rhythm or groove, substitute a chord here and there, etc.

(however if I were in your shoes I would almost certainly try to take the best parts of the two similar songs I was working on and put them into one, better song)

It depends on what part. I'm comfortable repeating myself stylistically, but I am not comfortable with how often I dredge up the same lyric ideas, even the same imagery.

What are your goals with your songwriting?

When all your stuff really starts sounding the same, just call yourself Coldplay.

Or Staind.

ColdStaind Creamery!

When I'm working on a song, I'm working on that song.

(It's a lot like keeping your significant other of the moment happy. You have to tell yourself it's the most important thing in the world -- and then be prepared to walk away when it's done.)

That said, I think anyone who has written a big bunch of songs will cross the same territory from time to time. And some artists write in pretty deep grooves -- sometimes that's what folks are looking for. You go to tried, reliable sources...

But, to be sure, I think it's good to survey your work from time to time. I know looking back on the late 80s and early 90s when I was highly prolific, that I turned out a lot of filler material. (I was gigging a lot and felt compelled to always have a bunch of new material -- which can actually be self-sabotaging; if people never or seldom hear the same song twice, it's hard for them to bond with it.)

I'd rather repeat myself myself than repeat someone else... like these 12 losers...

12 Songs That Sound the Same

(Or is that 11 losers? Someone must have originally come up with that insipid melody... though it may not have been any of these people.)

That said, I live in secret fear that someone will post one of my tunes next to some 1910 Fruitgum Co. hit and they'll be the same. (That's why I try to never sing with a discernible melody )

12 Bar Blues seems to do ok repeating things over and over...

I'd rather repeat myself myself than repeat someone else... like these 12 losers... 12 Songs That Sound the Same (Or is that 11 losers? Someone must have originally come up with that insipid melody... though it may not have been any of these people.) That said, I live in secret fear that someone will post one of my tunes next to some 1910 Fruitgum Co. hit and they'll be the same. (That's why I try to never sing with a discernible melody )

Listening, its more the voices of the harmony that are the same, rather than the top line melody exactly.

That's what worries me specifically about repeating myself, the tendancy to gravitate towards certain progressions, even the melody is different it will typically end up "feeling" similar.

The singer/songwriter of my old band used to use pretty much the same progressions every freaking time.

Well I don't write lyrics so I can't really comment on that aspect, but I'm always changing the way I approach writing the instrumental part of a song.

I would say for the first two or three years of writing songs, pretty much everything I wrote had bouncing octaves on the left hand of the piano (kind of like "My Life" by Billy Joel or "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five" by Paul McCartney) At that time I wasn't really playing with a band so it was an easy way to keep steady accompaniment for myself. I never write songs that way now.

I've gone through stages of writing songs based on guitar riffs.

I've gone through stages of building certain types of chords on the piano. For example playing triads in the right hand but playing a non chord tone in the left hand.

I've gone through stages of finding guitar chord shapes with open strings and sliding those shapes up and down the neck in particular keys.

I've gone through stages of experimenting with tuning one or more strings on the guitar differently.

I've gone through stages of trying to use a dissonant chord or a jazz chord that I wouldn't normally use and build a song around it.

Sometimes I'll not play the piano for a long time then sit down at it and the songs start pouring out of me then six months later the piano drys up but then I start writing on guitar again.

Usually, once I get into one of these stages I will write a whole bunch of similar style songs but only think one or two are worth keeping.

If you listen to classic rock bands you can hear when they might have been going through their guitar riff stage on one album then the next album they might have a lot of open tuning songs or the next might have chuncky new wave guitars or whatever.

I think changing your approach stimulates your creativity.

This is me too. I have stopped writing songs a lot of the time because of this...I notice I've begun to repeat myself in ways I find annoying and then just have to stop and wait till something new comes along...and hope it doesn't end up repeating itself again!

Don't worry about repeating yourself. Sometimes you gotta take a few bites of the apple, you know?

My view is you write songs in Cycles - you can't escape that your mind is drawn to similar loops & shapes of sound, so just run with it. Your songs are your children, right? That means they're related. Siblings tend to look alike. Don't worry about it. The most important thing is that you find a fresh sentiment or direction of intent - that'll obscure any harmonic or melodic similarities you are bound to

There's a ton of great songs and great songwriters & performers that ridiculously repeated themselves but are only famous for the works that became super well-known.

Ben E. King: Stand By Me vs. Don't Play That Song vs. I'll be Standing By.

Sam Cooke: Somebody Ease My Troubled Mind is basically the same song as Change Gonna Come - but they're equally fabulous. Sam wrote tons - literally - tons of songs that sound the same.

Drifters - Sand in My Shoes Vs. Under the Boardwalk; There Goes May Baby Vs. Sometimes I Wonder....

-Talking great 90s songwriters - Oasis Do You Know What I Mean is a repeat of Wonderwall... Dumb by Nirvana is a fairly obvious Carbon Copy of Smells Like Teen Spirit, which I think he was sorta deliberately but not deliberately doing there.

I mean, you can play this game all day and all night.

Motorhead.

I repeat

Motorhead.

...

I think I'll repeat myself again...

Motorhead.