Has this ever happened to you?
 

I was trying out a new capo and I was moving it up and down the neck to see how well it works. I was at the fifth fret and idly plucking and playing different chords. Suddenly, under my fingertips, a chord progression magically formed. To my ears it sounded great and I thought I might have something here. I also started fleshing out some lead fills and it all was working.
It occurred to me that the placement of the capo might be making it sound better than it really was so I removed the capo and did the progression in the first position. It still worked so excitedly I got my notebook out and jotted down some notes so I wouldn't lose this magic. After I captured it on paper I went back to my guitar and continued fleshing out this little song fragment. I kept working on the progression and a possible intro and I decided to work out a melody. I started humming over the progression and like a lightning bolt (to my dismay) it struck me that I was writing "Knocking on Heaven's Door".

LOL!! Not exactly that, but I have "written" songs, and when I play them for others, someone will say, "Is that [insert name of song]?", to which I reply, "No, it's something I wrote.", but later realize that it is.

a similar progression to Knocking on heaven's door, played at the fifth fret capo'ed with a different melody and inserting fills/intro, might be a mighty fine original song. As there is a finite number of chords/progressions/notes, ect., there are many songs with the the same chords in progression, so long as the inspiration is yours; see where it goes.

I think what disguised it for me is I was playing it nearly twice as fast as "Knocking on Heaven's" generally is played. It was kind of a punk rock version of it. It wasn't until I slowed it down to work out the details that it jumped out at me.

I've done that before. Lol
I usually don't get to far though. I usually recognize it right away.
For example, a while a go I put a capo on the 4th fret. Not for any particular reason. Just to see what I could come up with. Well shortly after I started playing a melody that I knew was an intro to a song. After some humming of the lyrics and a little bit of thinking, I realized it was California Dreaming. So I then went online and learned the rest of the song. Haha.
Same with Lola. I started strumming a few chords (no capo) and realized I was playing the intro to Lola.
I don't mind when that happens though. It sucks when I'm trying to write new original material. But other than that I don't mind. I just gives me something to learn the whole way through.

Not quite the same but many, many years ago I was failing to come to terms with open D. 'What happens' I wondered, 'if I don't retune the G string?' It worked... I felt so clever. It was a few years later that I realised I had 'invented ' DADGAD.
Pride before a fall and all that!

That thought did occur to me. Like I said, my version was uptempo and not a dirge like the original. There is not much truly original in this world so there just might be something there. It was just funny to see my excitement dissolve so quickly once I recognized it.

Something like that has happened to me, but then I realize that there is hardly any song that doesn't sound like something that has been written before, so I don't sweat it and proceed. Have you seen some of the mashups on Youtube? Here's one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY8SwIvxj8o

cotten

Has this ever happened to you?
 

I once wrote a derivative song that included the lyrics
"And if it sounds like something
Well forget all that
Because it's this now"

I am self taught so most every chord I played seemed to come out of the thin air. Only knew it was a G something or the other.

Ssshhh! We won't tell anyone, write some new lyrics, layer some reverb and chorus, keep it at your speed. Will be a big hit. Promise.


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Very, very funny! Well told.

Pinetreebob dylan?

Ha... They are all The Four Chord Song!

I'm glad everyone is getting a kick out of this. I figured I would get some funny stories and comments from you folks when I posted my experience and you didn't let me down. I have to admit I have chuckled to myself when I think of my initial excitement when I thought I was onto something significant only to have my hopes dashed.
It's especially funny to me because I don't really consider myself a songwriter and barely a guitarist. For about a half an hour I was completely absorbed furiously trying to develop my "new" song. For a brief moment I even had a vision of me performing my original composition to a rapt audience.