collaboration

Neel, Phil, Vanessa, Bruce, and Anthony

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 …

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Neel, Bruce, Stephen, Vanessa, and Phil

Book Writing for Musicals with Stephen Witkin

Stephen Witkin joined us again to talk about his career writing the book for various musicals, and shared three songs resulting from his writing. We talked about: The difference between “On Broadway” and “Off Broadway” Prom Queens Unchained available from Samuel French different sub-genres in musicals the nature of collaboration between book writer, lyricist, and …

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Neel, Vanessa, Bruce, Shelly, Phil, and Raphael

Shelly Peiken – writing the hit song

Multi-platinum hit songwriter Shelly Peiken, has written songs for, and with, Ed Sheeran, Keith Urban, Celine Dion, Cher, Reba McEntire, Christina Aguilera, Meredith Brooks, Britney Spears, Natasha Bedingfield, NSYNC, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Idina Menzel and Demi Lovato. Shelly Peiken is also a successful author who has written a book detailing her experiences in songwriting – …

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Phil, Bruce, Brighid, Carmen and Vanessa

Brighid Fry: Songwriting with multiple collaborators

Teenaged singer-songwriter Brighid Fry joins us to talk about her many collaborations and solo songwriting processes. Singer-songwriter Carmen Toth filled in for Neel – thanks Carmen! We talked about: the challenges of being a teenaged singer-songwriter collaborating in different bands songs written for placement in TV, movies, etc are perfect rhymes overrated? Regina Spektor how …

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Bruce, Brandon, Belinda, Sintja, Phil, Vanessa, and Neel

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 …

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Neel, Raphael, Amir, Phil, Vanessa, and Bruce

Pop songwriting with Amir Brandon

Pop music singer-songwriter Amir Brandon joined us to talk about two of his upcoming songs, working with producer Thomas McKay, and the stories behind his songs. We also talked about: Collaborating with other songwriters Battle Royale: grammar vs. lyric vs. meaning vs. melody How to write a really long chorus Chord choices and mixing up major, …

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