jazz

Steven Taetz sharing jazz songwriting tips

Writing Jazz Standards: Songwriting Tips with Steven Taetz

by Phil Emery

Jazz songwriter Steven Taetz returns to talk about creating new “Jazz Standards”.

Listen to the show:

Stuff we talked about:

The Great American Song Book Buy The Great American Song Book 

Charts for The Great American Songbook
A “Fake Book” with just a lead line and the charts for the songs.

 

Bruce, Phil, Michael, Vanessa, Linda, and Neel

The show with more cowbell!

Neel Modi
by Neel Modi

OK, so we’ve got a thing for the cowbell. Or maybe that was just Phil. In any case, the under-appreciated cowbell gets the most love it’s had since Christopher Walken’s fever.

We talked about:

  • the history and distinctive sound of the cowbell
  • the heyday of the cowbell in 70s rock
  • syncopated vs. straight rhythms
  • the Song Talk Radio outtro music (written and performed by our very own Phil Emery!)
  • an interesting 5 minutes on the cowbell, courtesy of NPR’s All Things Considered

Listen to the show:

The example songs:

Other songs that feature the cowbell:

 

Bruce, Sean, Phil, Linda, and Neel

Bridging Jazz and Pop with Sean Bertram

Neel Modi
by Neel Modi

Sean Bertram returned to the show following the release of his debut album, The Right Place. We talked about:

  • Sean’s studies at Humber College in Music Guitar
  • poetics in your lyrics
  • changing chords and melodic centre between sections of your song
  • contrast in pop songwriting
  • self-doubt in songwriting
  • Taming Your Gremlin by Rick Carson
  • how to change up your guitar playing from section to section
  • how to use an AABA structure in your verse
  • Sean’s new album The Right Place
  • Sean’s dad, Allister Bradley and his appearance on the show

Listen to the show

Download the lyrics for Caroline and I Think Too Much

Watch the live performance

Linda, Bruce, Neel, Paul, Vanessa, and Phil

On composing jazz songs with Paul Novotny

by Phil Emery

Paul Novotny (born Peterborough, Ontario, 1958) is a composer, bassist, producer, and engineer. He is the bassist on the international runaway hit video-game, CUPHEAD; over 50,000 sales in 2017.

As a producer, his record label has achieved three Juno nominations and one Juno win for Joe Sealy’s Africville Suite. He has composed music for feature films, commercials and TV including CBC The National, CBC The Hour (G. Stroumboulopoulos) and CBC News Now.

He has a Masters in music composition and in 2017 presented a lecture in Stockholm to the International Art of Record Production conference on music production in immersive multi-channel surround sound.

He owns the independent record label Triplet Records Inc. and audio production company, The Audio Producers Inc. He also works in TV post production as re-mixing/mastering engineer; recently working on Gord Downie’s Secret Path project.

Paul Novotny is endorsed by Universal Audio and HHB Canada.

He will be performing in concert at The Burlington Performing Arts Centre on March 3rd at 7:30 pm with friends Robi Botos-piano, Alison Young-Sax, and Daniel Barnes-Drums.

Here is what we talked about:

Listen to the show:

Connect with Paul

https://twitter.com/Paulnovo

https://twitter.com/TripletCanada

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009135371068

https://www.facebook.com/tripletrecordscanada/

https://www.youtube.com/user/tripletjazz

https://soundcloud.com/tripletrecords

Neel, Bruce, Patrick, Phil, Vanessa, and Anthony

Patrick Ballantyne’s Canadian song picks

Bruce Harrott
by Bruce Harrott

Popular guest co-host and guest on Song Talk Radio, Patrick Ballantyne dropped by the studio to share two of his favourite Canadian songs. “Help Me” by Joni Mitchell is a great example of her unique combination of melody, structure, and lyrics to evoke a casual conversational tone. Includes a great instrumental hook. Patrick’s other pick was a song by Ian and Sylvia, “The French Girl”, in a very unusual version recorded by Gene Clark. As we discussed the tunes, we talked about:

  • Patrick’s new album – “Calendar”
  • Hearing songs of yearning at the age of 13
  • Joni Mitchell’s unique vocal style
  • adding a 2/4 bar in a 4/4 song
  • When the root chord is a 7, it creates tension
  • Led Zeppelin

Listen to the show

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

Sintja Baba – songwriting with a band’s support

Bruce Harrott
by Bruce Harrott

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 program at University of Toronto
  • longterm song development
  • songwriting as expression of longing
  • Brazilian music influences
  • theory versus intuition
  • keyboard as cello

Listen to the whole show here:

Saw The Sun lyrics: saw-the-sun-lyrics

Dirty Streets lyrics: dirty-streets-lyrics

Artist website:
www.thenaivemusic.com

Twitter:
www.twitter.com/sintjababa

Facebook:
www.facebook.com/thenaivemusic

YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6qOAVsw-qknKN5ZDGxqycg

SoundCloud / MySpace:
www.soundcloud.com/thenaivemusic

Scott Neary – Tools, tips, and some very cool things

Neel Modi
by Neel Modi

Seasoned professional guitarist, singer-songwriter, and all-around nice guy Scott Neary shares some of his best kept songwriting secrets. Scott also accompanied the talented jazz songwriter Steven Teatz for his appearance on Song Talk Radio. We talked about:

  • The great chorus debate – to repeat it verbatim or not?
  • Why you should whistle your melody
  • Why, sometimes, you need to ask, “Why does there have to be a chord?”
  • Why you should re-harmonize your chords after you develop a great melody on conventional chords
  • Symmetry, or lack thereof