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Neel & Phil

Happy New Year and some random stuff

For our first episode of 2023, Phil and Neel hung out to talk about a bunch of things on our minds.

We talked about:

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Allister, Phil, and Neel

All about bridges with Allister Bradley

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 changes the viewpoint, the key signature, or uses something you haven’t used in the song yet
  • How do you know if a song needs a bridge or not?

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Neel, Phil, and Susan

Getting Past Writer’s Block with Susan Cattaneo

Singer-songwriter and music educator Susan Cattaneo joined us once again, this time to talk about tips for overcoming writer’s block for songwriters. We talked about:

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Neel, Phil, and Mike

Songwriting Challenge 2022: The Hosts Revisit their Songs

We welcomed the return of our ex-co-host Michael Proudfoot, joining us to review our updated answers to the 2022 Songwriting Challenge.

We talked about:

  • Our new Songwriting Challenge webpage, featuring the original versions of our songs, plus listener song episodes
  • The Song Talk Meetup
  • Mashing up various styles and instruments
  • Reaching out to other songwriters to help make sure every lyric lands with the most impact (Neel would like to thank Sarah Peterson for her review of his lyrics and her great suggestions!)

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