Join us each week for songwriting tips and techniques, and the occasional gumbo recipe. But seriously, take a listen! You’ll have so much fun, you won’t know you’re learning stuff.

Show date: Jan. 23, 2022

Chad Shank is a songwriter and music producer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has been writing and recording his own music since middle school, heavily influenced by artists that made the “Minneapolis Sound” famous like Prince, Janet Jackson, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and The Time.

As an adult Chad worked in radio for many years, and operated his own independent record label.

Since then Chad has discovered that he has a true passion for the craft of songwriting and after studying songwriting with Berklee College of Music, he started sharing his experience and songwriting knowledge with other songwriters through The Minnesota Association of Songwriters (MAS), and his own YouTube Channel and Meetup Group “At Home Songwriting.” Chad leads monthly online songwriting workshops for both groups and released weekly songwriting videos on YouTube.

Chad also had released over 300 of his own songs online.

We talked about:

Song Talk Radio’s 2022 Songwriting Challenge
Berklee College of Music online courses
The Minnesota Association of Songwriters meetup workshops, led by Chad
How counting syllables relates to your melody development
How learning about songwriting and music theory improves your ability to write good songs
Chad’s own “At Home Songwriting” Meetup group and YouTube channel

Show date: Dec. 21, 2021

Described by UK critics as “one of the most innovative of their era” and that “even to this day they sound brave and fresh”, Martha and the Muffins emerged from the early punk/new wave/art pop scene in 1977 – which was centered around various clubs along Toronto’s Queen Street West and the Ontario College of Art.

The band was the first Canadian band to sign to a UK label and recorded their first album, Metro Music at The Manor Studio near Oxford, England. After “Echo Beach” became a top ten single around the world in 1980 and earned them a JUNO for Single of the Year, Martha and the Muffins toured extensively in Britain, Europe and North America. Since then, the band has released 9 studio albums, three of which they co-produced with Daniel Lanois (U2, Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel). Their newest release is ‘Marthology: In And Outtakes’.

We talked about:

working with producers for their new release Marthology
exploring different musical styles in your writing
giving long-time fans what they want and something new

Show date: Dec. 17, 2021

This week SongTalk welcomed Pop-rock artist Greg Wyard – a singer-songwriter, guitarist and bass player who has been diligently working at his craft since he was ten years old. Greg moved to Canada from his native England at age 13 and settled in Toronto, earning a reputation as one of its most hardworking solo performers. Greg has a music degree from McGill University, and released three original CDs from which his songs “Something I Made Up” and “What Are You Trying to Prove” both placed in the Standard Radio National songwriting competition. An international performer, he has toured the United States, England, Malta, Australia, Norway and most recently Goa.

Unapologetically melodic in his writing, Greg’s songs can’t escape the influences of the music that shaped him – The Beatles, Crowded House, Squeeze – and he loves to write pop songs that surprise you with an intricate little guitar line here or an unexpected key change there.

As a cover performer, Greg has an encyclopedic knowledge of popular music. Known for his faithful reproductions of intricate classic rock songs such as Bohemian Rhapsody and Baba O’Reilly using just his voice and guitar, he can play any one of a thousand songs off the top of his head.

He released his third CD entitled Encore in 2014 and is currently writing songs for his fourth album and performing around Canada and the rest of the world.

For us, Greg brought in his new song – Working Like A Charm. Lyrics here.

Aside from playing his song live, we also talked about topics like:

the role of cover songs for an artist
how to write a song for streaming
how re-working is the key to a complete song
tricks for getting over writers block

Website: gregwyard.com

Facebook

YouTube

Twitter

Show date: Dec. 01, 2021

On this special episode, we decode the ins and outs of the Circle of Fifths and how to use it to create interesting chord progressions.

We talked about:

Why the fifth is so important in music
What does diatonic mean?
How to expand your musical palette
Which chord is your “home” chord

Samples songs we used in this episode (follow along):

Something by The Beatles
Light Your Way by Beige Shelter

Some related articles and videos:

The Perfection of the Perfect Fifth – Song Talk Radio

Show date: Nov. 25, 2021

Gather ’round kiddies for our Annual Holiday Gift Guide! with Special Guest Mike MacInnes!

Full of stocking stuffers, friendly little gifts and great big wowsa! gifts. Buy them for the songwriter/musician in your life – or get yourself something nice, ’cause you deserve it.

Is there anything that you’re hoping to find under your holiday-appropriate gift-finding place?

Let us know in the comments.

These are affiliate links – we get a small commission for anything sold here and it doesn’t affect the price you pay – neat huh?

Prices are in Canadian ’cause we’re in Canada.