conventions

Making complicated sound simple with Alex Cuba

Canadian Juno and Latin Grammy winning artist, Alex Cuba joined us to talk about his songwriting process and perform a new song, Solo Mia, live on the show.

We talked about:

Alex’s first visit to Canada as part of his father’s band
How a melody-first way of songwriting tells Alex what the song is about
The differences between solo writing and collaborating with others
How to develop unique and rich chord progressions (hint: jazz)
Writing in Spanish vs English
How Alex’s playing style is unique to him, and why this is important – this applies to everyone!

… Read the rest

Get started on composing for films with Jeff Greenway

by Phil Emery

Jeff returns to our show to talk about scoring for films and how you can start on your own journey. From Pickering, Ontario, he has written music for film, worked as a session keyboard player, orchestrator and arranger in Toronto, and has released his own original album Great Expectations, which received airplay across Canada.… Read the rest

What makes a good Protest Song?

by Phil Emery

So are people still writing protest songs? How do the protest songs of the ’60-’70s compare to the songs by Childish Gambino and Kendrick Lamar?

When you start songwriting and your goal is a protest song, how do you start? Vanessa stops by to lend her views.… Read the rest

Be Better At Performing – Tips from Blair Packham

by Michael Proudfoot

One of our favourite guests drops by to give practical advice on performing. Blair Packham – songwriter, teacher, performer and 80’s hitmaker – talks about the best practices to entertain and present your songs to an audience, live or on-line.

Blair also shows off his dulcimer, which is very impressive.… Read the rest

Songs with the same chords throughout

by Michael Proudfoot

This week on SongTalk we look at a simple songwriting technique that may be more complicated than you think – songs with one chord progression.

That’s right, no guest this week just the SongTalk team – Phil, Neel and Mike – talking about the ways songs with just one series of chords repeated over and over have become huge hits.… Read the rest

Throwback Thursday Themeshow: All About Chords

by Neel Modi

Here’s a super informative show from 2016 with Frank Horvat, who told us everything we were afraid to ask about chords and more!

Check out the original show post for all the resources we talked about on the show.… Read the rest

Throwback Thursday Themeshow: Song Structures

by Neel Modi

Back in 2016, we talked about songs with interesting song structures, including Band on the Run, I Lost My Heart in San Francisco, and Fading Into Obscurity. What song stands out to you as one with a unique structure?… Read the rest

Throwback Thursday Themeshow: Bridges

by Neel Modi

Here’s our first Throwback Thursday Themeshow episode from 2014, one of our first theme show all about bridges, with many song examples and how they were used in the songs.… Read the rest