I want someones opinion on the morality of this. There is this cool tune on a video game and i started playing it on my guitar, and i added stuff to it, and it turned out to be a cool little riff. I want to know if it is morally wrong to have ripped it off of a video game. Just about everything has been done before, so its hard to have anything truly unique, and i DID add my own little touch to it. Then again just about everything in the song sounds like something from a song i like. But i have never heard a song that sounds quite like this. I think it sounds cool the way i played it on guitar and all, but i'm not sure if i think its right to have ripped it off a game. Is it a horrible thing that I've done?

While the video game may have motivated you to "write" the riff, you don't want it sounding TOO much like it. Nowadays, a lot of different genres and styles motivate artists to write songs they way they do. If you're going to take something from someone else and have it sound like that same piece, you might wanna think again about calling it yours. Although it may have a funky twist to it, it's not entirely original. What you wanna do is create a style that's all your own. That way, there won't be any conflict (internal or external). Although you may think it sounds different, not everybody thinks alike. I'm sure you can write something that's different and unique. Give it a try.

I don't think its a horrible thing you have done. In fact, quite the opposite. It's really something if you are able to take a tune you hear, play it accurately, then add to it. As long as you play it within the privacy of your home, you don't have to worry about credits or anything. But, I think, that if you play it elsewhere, a show, outside in front of people, on a recording, whatver, you should find out what the name of the original tune is, or who wrote it, or where it's from (the name of the game), and just give credit for it. "I made up this little riff after hearing a tune on this game, called. The tune is called this, and this person wrote it or performed it. I just started playing it and added some cool stuff of my own." That's all you have to say.

That's how artists get their start- by playing other people's stuff and then making it their own. Thats how ANYTHING gets started- its called inspiration. No one's ideas are truly original. They are all compilations of various ideas and thoughts and sights and sounds in the environment they experience, as well as a minor part of "original" ideas.

So, keep playing with the music you hear and keep turning it in to your own. Just be sure, until you turn the little riff into something more or less completely different than the game tune, to give credit where credit is due, even if it is just saying the name of the game where you got the original tune from.

Don't stress, artists tend to "borrow" riffs and change them around all the time. As long as your not ripping the thing off completely by recording it and saying "Oh this is mine", then I think your out of hot water :)

I think it is OK. Something inspired you, and you used it. In a way, all artists do the same thing. They base their art on things that get them motivated.

Morally, there is nothing wrong with it. but, legally, this kind of thing can bite you in the ass. You become a big rock star, and the next thing you know you are getting sued for millions by the game creator for copyright infringement.

I'm sorry, I thought this thread said Borrowed Biff. Now that I see that it's not about that, I'll leave. You got my hopes up. :(

I'm sorry, I thought this thread said Borrowed Biff. Now that I see that it's not about that, I'll leave. You got my hopes up. :(
That's not exactly "advice-giving" is it? :p;)

There are definately some ethical issues to using a riff from another song in your own music, if you play it and try to pass it as your own. However, just as playing cover songs does, doing so helps you grow as a musician. I wouldn't say its horrible or immoral, but I would say knowing that it is stolen, you'd probably want to not play that song publically at all, but simply learn from it.

You're probably safe morally because you didn't just "copy" the song. Your song is just similar in nature to it.