We featured songs on this episode that use the unique “talk singing” technique. For the most part, we agreed that talk-singing meant that the singers were using short notes without too much melodic range, but still consciously in the key of the song. We talked about: how the ends of talk-singing musical lines work the …
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Creating songs when you have an unconventional singing voice
You don’t necessarily need to have a fantastic voice to write or even perform songs well. We looked at some of our favorite songwriters with unusual voices and how they did it. Listen to the episode We talked about Is pitchy the same thing as unconventional? Newtonbrook SS Rush-Stick-It-Out lyrics https://www.rush.com/ Neil-Young-After-The-Gold-Rush lyrics Whistle-Down-the-Wind-Tom-Waits-Lyrics Playing everything …
Sintja Baba – songwriting with a band’s support
Multi-instrumentalist and back up vocalist Sintja Baba has been playing alongside various Toronto acts and is currently playing that role in Marlon Chaplin’s band. She started her own band THE NAIVE, where her music has taken the shape of various genres. Her EP, “Saw the Sun” is a medley of catchy upbeat hooks and mellow ballads. We talked about: Jazz …
Movies have songs too. Here’s our favourites.
This week we picked our favourite songs from movies. We talked about: La La Land (the movie) People bursting into song for no reason vs. singing in sensible places in the story The Big Chill Movie Musicals key modulation Quentin Tarantino’s unique approach to picking songs for his movies Listen to the show: Our selections:
1972 revisited with Kirk Felix and friends
Kirk Felix arrived at our little studio with a whole band; bass, violin (fiddle), and cajon. As we did our sound check the Song Talk crew all savoured the gentle, soothing and heart-warming sounds of a folk ensemble. Patrick Ballantyne sat in for Neel Modi who was on assignment. In addition to two very authentic folk songs (Dusty …
Writing the emotional gamut with Beige Shelter
Indie rock band Beige Shelter stopped by to talk about forming the band, producing their first album, and performed two songs. Our very own Neel Modi took the co-guest seat as producer, drummer, and co-writer. A good friend of Song Talk Radio, Patrick Ballantyne filled in for Neel’s host spot. Beige Shelter is: Adi Aman …
Thoughtful lyrics and music with Allister Bradley
Pro songwriter Allister Bradley joined us for an hour to talk about two of his catchy, thoughtful songs and his process for getting them done. Stuff we talked out: Toronto’s Song Studio Making it in the music industry Writing with your secondary instrument Using session musicians Why you should whistle your melody Chord progression tip: make …
The unusual world of songs with unusual lyrics
For this special theme show, each of the hosts presented a song with “unusual” or hard-to-decipher lyrics. We delved into a discussion around understanding the intentions behind and interpreting the songs. Download the lyrics here: Unusual Lyrics Neel’s selection: A Self Called Nowhere by They Might Be Giants Bruce’s selection: McArthur Park by Jimmy Webb (performed by …