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New day and time - Saturday, 3 p.m.
A train song |
Who Will Walk |
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Last Ride |
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By the Depot |
March 9th, 2008
These are also the topics for the 16th annual Great Canadian SongAlong ....Ottawa's annual songwriters' performance event at Rasputins Folk Cafe. Writers can perform on either Friday April 11 or Saturday April 12, 2008. let Tony Turner know which you would prefer.
searching (or a search) |
Long time, no see |
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heroes and villains |
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the colour of ... |
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Soaring |
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My Friend the Book |
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The First Sip |
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Write a melody for these lyrics - written by Ann Marie Bourgeois |
A.M. Bourgeois © 2008
White water, sparkling, breathtaking and chill
Blue river gliding languid and so still
Black water brackish pool so much to hide
Camouflaged danger and sinister pride
Chorus
How did we all fail to hear or notice
Through confusion and oblivious years
That in this quiet land of tender lotus
Black water spills into our fears
Black water spills into our tears
She was a treasure her mothers daughter
Born into priviledge, and a loving light
He was a lost boy just like his father
Troubled and angry .. eager to take flight
Chorus
His spirit was crushed in the urban war
He found solace when he met his lover
But he was a child born in black water
And found little salvation despite her
Chorus
They found mothers treasure one Sunday morn
Lying with him at the foot of rock face
Unable to break from him she adored
She did succomb to black waters embrace
Chorus
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Empty Boots |
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Black Water |
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Flying Rubber Boat |
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Meanwhile, on the other side of my brain |
| Technical Challenge | |
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Write a song using Nashville Radio Structure: Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Bridge-Chorus, with the title in the last line of the chorus |
| Pocket Watch |
| Cookie Cutter |
| Wild Flower |
| Pocket Watch |
| Can't Read the News |
| Sounds of Summer |
| Changing Sides |
| Spirit of the City |
| Accidental Gem |
| Enemies of Freedom |
| Story of a Painting |
| "Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time" |
| Falling Stars |
| Traffic Signs |
| Albert Einstein |
| Put Music to a (well-known) poem |
| Story of a Painting |
| "seemed like a good idea at the time" |
additional topics include
| Something for the winter holiday season - since it will soon be time for submissions to Festive Goose (nee Christmas Goose) |
| A song about Rasputin's, which is coming up on a significant anniversary - 25, I think. |
Last month's meeting was v. small because of the Harris farm event, so we did not in fact pick topics. You can use the topics for that meeting, or what we used to call the "default" topic - whatever you were working on anyway.
| Nobody Cared |
| Throw it Out |
| Wanted: ... (Musical classified or Personal Ad |
| Used Cars |
| You Could Die (nobody told me) |
These will be the same topics for the 13th annual Great Canadian Song Along
, April 1-2, 2005 at Rasputin's Cafe. | River |
| Circus Performer |
| Cold Feet |
| Worst Case |
| Neighbourhood |
| Use the name of a province in a song |
| A song that requires (or contradicts) a Writers Bloc excuse |
| "Head of sawdust, feet of clay, Hands of Promise and heart of gold" |
| Technical: use a latin rhythm |
| Sacrifice (that'll be me, pretty soon) |
| Finish a half-written song |
| "I changed the chords, I changed the tune, but I'm still singing your song." |
| "Meanwhile, on the other side of your brain" |
| All the excuses / no excuse |
| God, no |
| according to ...(or) they say |
| a headline from a newspaper |
| Seasonal songs |
| a difficult journey |
| Big Buck Moon |
| Slow Down |
| 18 years |
| penny pinching grannies / out for a stroll |
and, for style.
| Take an existing song's chord structure and write new tune and lyrics to it. |
| Use the word "boink" in a song |
[please note change of date - avoiding the second Sunday since it's Thanksgiving]
| Waiting at the Station (airport, bus terminal or even comfort station, but *not* a railway station) |
| My grandmother's pantry (or attic) |
| Goodbye, thank goodness (or good riddance) |
| An animal song |
| Sing along songs |
| "Something dangerous" |
| Faith in Humanity |
| Surfing 2004 - what the Beach Boys would be writing now. |
| The other side (of the story) .. or ... "Why you left me" - the story of a breakup from the other person's point of view. |
| A military drinking song |
| Belonging |
| Fire |
| Five and Dime Store |
We also had a number of topics we liked but did not include, and want to remember for later use:
| Etiquette |
| Neighbourhoods |
| Regret |
| Shield Me |
| Smells of Spring |
| They're closing the libraries down |
| Ceremonial trees (trees that honour a person or a story) |
| "take it to heart" |
| "what's the difference ..." |
| these hills |
These are the topics for both the meeting and the upcoming Song-along, which will take place on a Thursday and Friday night - April 8th and 9th (just before Easter week-end)
| For those of you who don't know, The Song-along is an event (usually two
nights) where all comers get to sing a newly-written song on one of the topics
- above - and one other song of their choosing in front of a live and
appreciative audience at Rasputin's cafe
on Bronson. It's a great event - like a festival of new songs.
To sign up, send a note to Tony Turner at tturner@cyberus.ca. Tony writes: "Performers need to specify the date they want and whether they want to play early or late or don't care. We usually start at 7:30 pm." Good luck and good tunesmithing! |
| Write a New Tune to the lyrics for " We can work it Out." |
| Write about the thing (place person, whatever) that mattered most to you at the age of 15. |
| Rumours |
| A municipal slogan |
If you do #1, then next month you may write new words to your new tune, so you'll have a complete song.
| Saddam |
| A time - but one not usually in songs. Like 2:30 in the afternoon. |
| Sidekicks |
| A song to celebrate one of the under-represented holidays (in song, at least) like Halloween, Groundhog Day, St. David's Day (no relation), or the August Civic Holiday. |
| A Gospel song, or a shuffle song. |
| Outrage - a protest song, maybe? |
| a municipal slogan - e.g. "Amityville - the ghost capital of the eastern seaboard" |
| prayer (2) |
| in-laws and outlaws (1) |
| careless ... |
| Between Hallowe'en and Christmas ... |
| Scarecrows |
| Party Line (in any of its four meanings) |
| Bobby McGee - the sequel (1) |
that is, what happened to Bobby after he/she just slipped away somewhere near Salinas, lookin' for a home? (Better use new music ...)
Next meeting will be Thanksgiving Sunday - the second Sunday as usual.
| Rideau Canal (1) |
| Beginners (1) |
| Rumours |
| Technical Topic: Modulation |
| Fall |
| Rideau Canal |
| a song in waltz time (3/4) |
| "If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?" |
| A job, other than your own / a job you wouldn't like to have. |
(acknowledgment to Bernard Pivot on Inside the Actor's Studio for the last two topics)
OK - so this meeting didn't really happen - Greg Kelly turned up and met with himself. Our collective apologies to Greg. Guess we were too ambitious in thinking we would meet through the summer. On the plus side, the comments on Greg's songs were exceptionally sympathetic and intelligent.
| Professional Help |
| Messy |
| Favourite sweater |
| The Moon (no common rhymes, e.g. croon, June, spoon, soon, etc.) |
A summer project - to do anytime - is to
You could do it in the other order too. And in two stages, both of which can be brought to WB.
| Substitute or Stand-In. Something that is a placeholder for something else. |
| a round (in the musical sense of a "round", like "Row, row, row your boat") |
| a raunchy song |
| a children's song |
| "Looking over my shoulder" |
If you are interested in rounds, there are good examples at this website.
| the voice you never hear |
| which way to Brennan's Hill? |
| ...for one |
| Emerald City |
No one wrote to Brennan's Hill, but the others were all well represented in the two nights of Songalong performance, with 27 songwriters represented. OFC music recorded the event and we hope to see a disc emerge from it, as happened in previous years.
Again, much thanks to Dean Verger at Rasputin's for hosting the event.
| .... could change it. | ||||
| Risky. (aka the riskiest thing you've ever done, defining that any way you like) | ||||
| "east". (Or another direction if you prefer, like WSW (west south west) | ||||
| A mirror | ||||
| "Wonder"
| | Last-minute topic: "If walls could talk" | |
| a musical theatre song. Pick a character and a plot fragment, and write a song for this character (or characters I suppose) at a point in the plot. |
| A torch song. Some discussion about what this meant. Most of us felt that it meant the old style pop or jazz tune that basically said, "oh, he (she) hurt me so bad but I love (her/him) anyway." |
| Appliances. refrigerators, stoves, toaster ovens etc. |
| A song for an instrument you don't usually play - or a song meant to be a cappella (unaccompanied) |
I had a request last time to select a topic and send it out the night before the meeting. Seems we have a few people who live for the rush of the last minute panic. And good for them, say I. How many times have I found myself scribbling the last lyrics on a bent piece of paper ten minutes before I go on?
I've thought a bit about how to write something specific without being too restrictive, but then some people thrive on restrictions - it reduces the number of choices. So here's the routine. I'll set up several things - you can write your song so it does all of them, one of them, or the ones you like.
| Write about the thing (person, place, being, idea, object) you cared most about at approximately the age of 15 |
| Use the phrase, " ___ can change it" (replace the blank with "you", or "I", or "time", or whatever appeals to you) somewhere in the song |
| Make the verse 5 lines or 3 lines long, so it doesn't feel like it completely closes. Don't cheat by splitting a line in half - keep the line lengths the same. (If you find this makes the song feel contrived and unnatural to you, forget it for now) |
| The melody should cover a range of at last an octave, but don't use a lot of different chords, say 4 or 5 at most. |
Like I said, if some of these ideas seem dumb or contrived to you, or the song just doesn't want to go there, that's okay, ignore them and just do the ones that work.
| Sunday dinner |
| A place you've never been |
| "devil, help me out with this" |
| (technique) write a song with a "lift" or "pre-chorus" |
| A Christmas song (A Christmas Blues perhaps) |
| A song that seems to be about one thing but is actually about something completely different |
| "underneath the hood ..." |
| New beginnings or new resolutions. |
| Old Friends |
| I know that you love me |
| Where do the crows fly? |
| "I forgot my ….." |
