i play guitar i have been trying to compose my own song but it sounds like other bands , any tips on making my music stand out from the crowd?

Been a songwriter for years. It's all a matter of developing your own style, not fashioning yourself on someone else. It's useful to study the songs of others, just to see how they have arrived at their song.

Then you need to find your own 'voice', write songs about what's important to you, that comes before everything else.

With me sometimes the words come first and then the melody, other times I have a melody but no words! Sometimes it takes a long time, to put the two together. Don't force it, let it come on its own.

It may just be that your songs ARE your own, and they sound like everyone elses simply because you haven't spent enough time on them, developing them and so on. Put them away for a while, leave them as long as you can without playing, listening to them, then hear them with 'fresh ears' if you see what I mean. You may just find that there's a few things you need to alter or change, and then it will be totally your own!

Hope I've been able to help!

forgot to mention - take a look at this site, lots there for budding songwriters!
http://www.songwriter.co.uk/

Just study music and how its builded! Many people think there are just a few chords to pick from, and that there arent much variations. But there are hundreds of different combinations and chords, like Ab13, C#3-511, and so on. You just need to learn about them. So i suggest you start reading about music, and also listen alot to dfferent kinds of music. Not anly the ones you like. Dare to listen to strange and also "modern" music like Stravisnkij aso.

I agree with what the others said. You need to study how the music by other bands or composers are written. here's some things to listen for:

1.) How do all of the intruments synchronize with the beat? Listen carfully to the beat, there should be a few places where all of the intruments start a note on the same beat. Look for those places.

2.) How does the bass harmonize with the melody? This is what Im focusing on right now. Different ways the bass is harmonized with the treble. Sometimes the bass kinda plays along with the melody, and sometimes it just has long stedy chords.

3.)Intrumentation. This is the most obvious one, look for what for what instruments are playing, and how they are being played (A.e Plucked, strumed, slured...ect). If there is a singer; the voice of the singer also grabs attention.

4.) The overall style. For example; jazz music uses a mellow Drawn-out tempo, while blues uses a rhythmic change and swing style. The standard rhythm used in Blues is a Dotted eighth note followed by a sixteenth note. Hard rock is very upbeat and energetic.

Hope this helps.