Lyricist and librettist Stephen Witkin returned to Song Talk Radio for a highly informative hour on writing for musical theatre. Here are some of the topics we discussed: what is the “book” and the role of the book writer for a musical? collaboration with the muscial’s composer the purpose of the book in relation to …
Songwriter, composer, and music teacher Frank Horvat joined us to talk about scales, the different kinds and colours of chords, and using chords as a palette for your songwriting. We covered: Intervals (2 notes) and triads (chords with 3 notes) Major and minor triads and their different tonal colours The hardly-ever-used diminished (or seven) chord …
For our latest theme show, we take a look at some of our favorite Protest Songs and try to figure out what makes an effective one. We looked at River Runs Red by Midnight Oil, Eve of Destruction by P.F. Sloan, and Phil talks about how his band The Parkdale Hookers, went about writing their punk-anthem …
The ever lovely and talented (and what a voice!) Janice Ho, Song Talk Radio’s very own tweeting songbird, talked about two early collaborations she worked on and what to look out for when collaborating. Download the lyrics for the show. We talked about: Muse Songwriters forum – a great online community to meet other lyricists …
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 …
Bruce, Neel, Phil and Janice spent most of an hour on the subject of song structures with 4 different examples. We talked about: the prologue verse (I Left my Heart in San Francisco) writing for musical theatre (My Funny Valentine) the connection between segment style and lyrical content (Band on the Run) Sloan’s song with …
Have a listen to an informative and lively discussion on chord substitutions. In this show we talked about: the Circle of Fifths Nashville numbers one/four/five chord progressions the sixth, seventh, and ninth chords how easy it is to use the Circle of Fifths to add colour to your song Chord Substitution on YouTube Learning on …
For our third holiday special, it was the Song Talk Radio family only – Bruce, Neel, Phil, Janice and Etain (on tech). Phil shared some interesting holiday song trivia and a Christmas jingle from his old punk-pop band, The Parkdale Hookers. Bruce shared a childhood memory of the holiday season with the Beatles, and Neel shared a quirky …
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