Allister Bradley, Canadian singer-songwriter, pianist, producer, and technical director of the Song Studio Songwriter’s Workshop in Toronto, and co-host of the Hooks & Ladders youTube show with Blair Packham, joined us to talk about three songs with great bridges. We talked about: How the bridge differs from the verse and chorus How a good bridge …
modulation
Songwriting Challenge 2022: Listener Songs Volume 2
On this special episode, we share the second batch (of three) of listener answers to our 2022 songwriting challenge to write a song with the title Why Do You Cry? We talked about: The Music Theory Iceberg video Best Free DAWs for Windows video Tunebat: Song Key & BPM Finder app varying your arrangement of …
Poetry, Comedy, and Tragedy in Songwriting with Colm Gavin
Colm Gavin is a Dublin based Irish singer/songwriter currently signed to BEO Records home to The First Lady of Celtic Music Moya Brennan. Colm’s first two solo releases (Your Endless Slumber/A Voice For The Urban Darlings) both reached reached number 1 in the Irish Charts at the time of their release. Singles from his debut …
Writing, recording, and releasing a song in 48 hours with The Sun Harmonic
This week we welcomed The Sun Harmonic (aka Kaleb Hikele) back to the show to share his latest single A Dream I’ve Had with us. Kaleb was challenged to write, record, and release a song in 48 hours, and he totally did it! We talked about: Our latest songwriting challenge and how our listeners are …
Creating a Concept Album with Gilbert Neal
This week Song Talk Radio welcomed Gilbert Neal to our studio. A master song craftsman, Gilbert Neal – on his latest release Mistakes of Memory shows the depth and diversity of his influences: Leonard Cohen, Pink Floyd, ELO, Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Stephen Sondheim. Relying on his mastery of musical theatre and zeal for classic …
Stark Naked and the Fleshtones: classic punk rock band
Stark Naked and Eugene Ripper of Stark Naked and the Fleshtones joined us to talk about their heyday in the early 80s as an awesome live band in Toronto. We talked about: how songs are shaped by band dynamics working with the “right” producer the punk music attitude live vs. recorded music Listen to the …
All About Key Modulations with Frank Horvat
Good friend, manic composer, and musically big brained Frank Horvat joined us to talk all about key modulations, with three example songs. We talked about: the difference between borrowing chords and modulation chromatic alteration, where a single semi-tone difference can change the contour of your chord progression referring to the circle of fifths to see …
Deep Dive: Penny Lane & Strawberry Fields – how do they work? with Blair Packham
Songwriting master Blair Packham stopped by and we gave a deep dive on The Beatles Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane. Friend of the show Mike MacInnes sat in for Bruce. Stuff we talked about: John Lennon / Paul McCartney comparisons Candy Flip’s version of Strawberry Fields Key Modulations Penny Lane Lyrics & Chords at UltimateGuitar.com …