Neel is a songwriter, producer, and musician. In his home studio, he writes and records his own songs, collaborations, and produces for local singer-songwriters. You can check out his musical forays at his blog.
I recently finished reading a great book by Marc Myers entitled Anatomy of a Song: The Oral History of 45 Iconic Hits that Changed Rock, R&B, and Pop. Myers interviewed the people involved in historically significant songs from the 1940s to the 1990s. He ended his examination in 1991 because, as he explains it, you …
Our Songwriting Challenge is well under-way, and we’ll be showcasing our songs on the January 28 episode. We really want to hear from our listeners, so please take part in this challenge too – send us your song to be featured on a future episode.
Here’s our first Spotify playlist, our picks for the best songs of the decade! Bonus points if you can figure out who’s choices are Mike’s, Neel’s or Phil’s. And just to mix it up we’ve also included picks from our super-fan Mike MacInnis. Mike will also be joining us tonight for our Best Songs of …
We’re pleased to be named by Expertido as one of their best songwriting blogs. Expertido lists bests for just about everything under the sun, and even some things where the sun don’t shine, like the Song Talk Radio studio. Thank you Expertido!
Thanks to Tony from yesterday’s Song Talk Meetup for bringing this amazing opportunity to us. Toronto Public Library’s Musician in Residence program offers up workshops, master classes, and a one-hour one-on-one with Rheostatics founder Dave Bidini. Check out https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/musician-in-residence/ for details and to sign up. All you need is a Toronto Public Library card!
On this November 11, may we present former Song Talk Radio guest Jeffery Straker and his beautifully haunting Remembrance Day song, Little Red Flower. Heartfelt and earnest songwriting at its best. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=526340348229878
We need your input! Send us your one-liner songwriting challenge prompt and we’ll each write a song based on it. See our Songwriting Challenge page to send us your idea!
Song Talk Radio got listed on Feedspot’s Top 20 Songwriting Podcasts, along with some of our favourites like Song Exploder. Thank you Feedspot, you guys are awesome!
Sometimes, the hardest part of the songwriting process is getting started. Once I’ve got an idea, I can hash out lyrics and music fairly easily. Getting past songwriter’s block usually involves coming up with a title and a hook to the song (Thank you, Nashville). More often than not, I’ll get blocked by wanting to …
The question of the perfect fifth has been simmering in my mind for some time now. It started when we started investigating chord substitutions on Song Talk Radio in 2016. For that show, I looked at the Circle of Fifths as a great tool for making chord choices when writing a song. The Circle of …
I know many of you don’t care for music theory. It’s clinical, it’s boring, and it sucks the soul out of songwriting. Well, news flash: you’re using music theory whether or not you intend to. For myself, I know my theory pretty well, as I learned it at young age. I couldn’t tell you if …
When writing a collection of songs, whether for a album release or in general, we sometimes end up playing it safe and resorting to tried and true motifs and ideas for every song. For myself, when I become a fan of an artist or band, I like to hear a variety of songs. Sometimes the differences …
Often on Song Talk Radio, this question arises. Sometimes, it’s fun for the hosts to try and guess. “Your song sounds very cerebral,” or “Your song sounds very intuitive.” The guests themselves tell us how well considered every decision in their songwriting process is, or tell us “It just came to me.” This question of …
On Song Talk Radio we have a wonderful variety of guests and songwriters, and one way to group them is whether they are professional or amateur songwriters. Often, when we refer to amateur, there’s a negative connotation that implies a less polished, unsophisticated, or otherwise lesser craft. When we talk about being professional, it implies …
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