mawr2016

hi, the song is complete with his chords, I don't know if it would have sounded better with other chords or not. It does sound good but it's not one of my best songs because it's one of the first I ever wrote. When we did the recording, I did the singing and the Keyboards, had full say in these. my brother did the guitar, bass and drums. We both contributed to the arrangement, deciding what went where. I had a lot of input with his guitar parts also. he did the mix. We have decided now that it is my song, but because he contributed with the chords that he had a part in it so: words & music by me. Arranged by him (but the arrangement is part of the song). I will tell him that I have (50% of the lyrics write) and that he co-wrote the music (25% of the music write each)

I've just had an email from my brother and he is upset because he brought the melodica and guitar with us to the camping trip and encouraged me to write a song (because I hadn't written any for the album). He says that he was playing the chords as I wrote the melody and that we did it together. His opinion is that his chords made the song highly original and that no other song in the history of pop music has a chord sequence like it. He also says that when I was writing the lyrics that I kept asking him what he thought and he give me input what lyrics sounded good or not. Thinking back I do remember at the beginning of the song that I wrote some words and the melody and he probably did join in with his guitar and added the chord sequence. The chord sequence was probably added before I had finished writing the words. I just want to know for sure if it's my song or our song..

I don't understand your way of thinking If you had written a song and someone else was declaring that it was also their song would you not want to find out if they are correct or not? Don't worry this isn't a huge fall out or anything, my brother and I argue quite regularly

Hi again, my brother had emailed me and has written: [[[Can chords and beats be copyright? The legals are: Is it original? If there’s evidence it’s been done before it can’t be copyright. Yes, my chord sequence is original, it has a very unusual key change that's probably never been done before. Most chord sequences are NOT original. Is it a copy? A judge will decide if it’s substantially similar and a copy.]]] My point is that I had finished my song, the lyrics and melody was completed. I asked him to put a chord sequence to it, but never in my wildest dreams did I think that he was helping me to write my song and would claim it to be 'our song' instead of 'my song'. for over 20 years he has referred to this song as 'my camping song'. now he has these plans to do a new camping album he referred to it last night as 'our song' and I was in shock at this. he said that we argued about this years ago a few months after we'd recorded it. I don't remember this but the fact that he has referred to it all these years as 'my song' must show that I won the argument. I never asked him to help write my song. I worked for hours getting it right. then I declared that I had it finished and just wanted some chords to fit it. he keeps going on about his unusual key change. If I was aware that letting him add that he would then claim it as his song too I would never have let him add it.

Absolutely John, I don't expect any money to be made out of these. It's the fact that he wants to say it's his song too... it's the principle.. He has written to me defending himself but slipped up and mentioned that: 'A melody line can be sufficient to define a copyright.' Well I had completely finished my song, got the melody sorted than asked him to help me fit some chords to it. What he did with the song was his arrangement, his remix, I agree to this but it is 100% my song. The melody was never changed. I had finished my song before I asked him to fit the chords to it.

Thanks for the reply.. The song has been recorded. we have the recording of it. At that time I had never recorded any of my own songs. It was great that my brother helped me and I learned a lot while we did it. It is just disappointing that he now regards it as his song as well. His opinion is that it was obvious he had collaborated and that it was a joint song?? Good luck to him if he redoes them and makes anything. I'm not going to fall out I just wanted to know for sure what is what. If the copyright laws say that it is our song and he is correct then fair enough.

P.S. he told me that his new plan is to rerecord and rearange all the camping songs on his own, my twin brothers (who has passed away) and my 1 song (ours as he says). He said that if the album ever made any money that the amount I would be entitled to would probably only come to about .5% (half a percent). then went on to say that what we were talking about was about the principle and that he would probably give me the other .5%

Hi, I wrote a song back in 1993 while on a camping trip with my older brother and a few other people. He brought a guitar and melodica with him. I played the melodica during the trip and I made up a song. It's not a great song or anything and was one of the very first I'd ever written. I wrote the lyrics about all the people who were there, they were witty funny lyrics. I asked them all at the time if they liked the lyrics and espicially the ones I'd wriiten about them. They give me input if they liked them or not and I may have changed some lyrics if everyone said they didn't like any. I'd been singing the song a while and got the melody good then asked my brother to play some chords to it and to help me record it. My brother made up the chord sequence and added the bass to it and the drums, he also did the recording of it because he had a 4 track recording studio. We all wrote camping songs and were going to do an album, my older brother had the most songs, my twin brother had a few but I just had the one. Years later and my twin brother has now passed away 2 years ago. My older brother wants to do the camping album again and when we were talking about this he was refering to my song as 'our' song. we have just had a big discusiion about this and he says that because he made up the chord sequence which made a key change and it had a definite effect on the way I sang the song that he contributed towards it and it is our song. My look on it was I asked him to play chords that fitted and at no time did I think the song was going to become ours instead of mine. If I Had been aware of this I would have prevented him from making up the chords that affected my song. I've told him this and he says that that was obvious and he can't understand why I don't think of it as our song. He did the chords, the bass the drums. He even mentioned that because he had played so many instruments and wrote it with me if the song ever sold he would probably get a bigger % than me from any money made. It's not even that good a song but I feel I've been disapointed because when I asked him to do some chords I was unaware that in his mind he was now writing the song with me. He even said that he may have mentioned some lyric changes that I added but that is definitely incorrect. So is it my song or our song. Is it words and music by me and music by him? What are the rules concerning copyright in this situation?