As of June 14th, through July 15th my single “New Ending” from the new “I’ll Be Around” EP can be found streaming on the SOCAN website.
“New Ending” is also available for purchase on iTunes and other online retailers worldwide!
SOCAN (the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada) is a not-for-profit organization that represents the Canadian performing rights of millions of Canadian and international music creators and publishers. SOCAN is proud to play a leading role in supporting the long-term success of its more than 100,000 Canadian members, as well as the Canadian music industry.
Tania Joy – EP Preview Track 1 "Shine Your Light"
I am very excited to share this preview of “Shine Your Light” the first track on my Debut EP “I’ll Be Around” to be released digitally on iTunes and other online retailers on May 6th, 2013!
If you like what you hear, please leave me a comment on You Tube, “like”, and share this video with friends!
Much love and thanks for your support,
xo Tania
SAC Songwriting and Blogging Challenge 2013 – Week 4
Lesson 4: Making It Move (Yes, i’m catching up.)
Another round of awesome video lectures from Pat Pattison’s online Songwriting course produced a valuable lesson in the role music plays in creating motion, and how motion supports e-motion. As songwriters, our job is to marry the meaning of language (the clever words we write) to the emotion of music (the feelings we are trying to evoke), enhancing both so that we Preserve the natural shape of language.
Rhythm in the lyric is created by arranging stressed and unstressed syllables. Prosody (there’s that word again) is enhanced when the syllabic rhythm of the lyric matches the melodic rhythm to support the emotion of each lyrical phase. Simple right? Well, maybe after a little practice!
I love the masterclass series of videos Pat included in this week lessons. I came across them a few years ago on youtube, and found them to be a great tool in thinking about the performance of our songs, and ensuring they support the intended lyric. I highly recommend you add them to your video library!
This weeks assignment was to map out the syllabic rhythm of the verse and chorus we created last week, and set it to music, speaking or singing the appropriate stresses and match it with the corresponding melody.
Here is my assignment set to music:
I’m quite happy with the way it turned out, and it was very interesting using the map of my stressed and unstressed lyrics (as i wrote them first) and building the melody from there. then i sketched it out again in my notebook to make sure my stresses were falling in line with the melody, and tweaked here and there until it was all working together. I suppose it might not always go in this order for every song, but it really worked for me in this case! I could see the huge potential for using this technique in my songwriting moving forward… (get it? moving.. forward hehee)
once again hear are the lyrics:
stable verse
– – – / – – / – – / /
She had me calling her name from the first glance
– – – / – – / – – / /
She had me stealing a kiss at the first chance
– – – / – – / – – / / –
She had me counting the days till our next hello
– – – / – – / – – – / /
She had me spending my pay till I was flat broke
unstable chorus
– – – / // – – / / – / – – /
She said the currency of love trades a million to one
– – / // – – / – / / / –
In the currency of love you might break even
/ – / – – / – – / – – /
Spend your nickels, your quarters, your pennies, your dimes
– – / – – / – / – /
If you’re lucky in love you might do fine
– – / // – – /
That’s the currency of love
SAC Songwriting and Blogging Challenge 2013 – Week 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByQv0X8Mg0c&feature=player_embedded
Okay so this online songwriting course with Pat Pattison is in full swing, and after another set of great video lectures on Prosody, we are tasked with this weeks assignment to come up with an unstable verse that leads into a stable chorus primarily using number of lines and line length.
[excerpt:] Prosody, the most important concept in great writing: All the elements of your song should work together to support the song’s central message and emotion. Prosody will make your song stronger and more focused, using structure and phrasing to highlight important ideas, and deepen emotional impact — techniques that have helped Pat’s students, including John Mayer and Gillian Welch, win Grammys and write number one songs.
I chose to continue with the song idea i developed during week one’s assignment using the song title “The Good Old Days” with the influence of a song idea i had for “Horses, Harley’s and Hard Times”. I tell you these last two weeks lectures and exercises have rejuvenated my approach to songwriting, and (to my delight) fuelled me to develop the rest of this song! Now I am certain I’m going to find more and more ways to make it stronger as these lessons continue to sink in, but so far I’m pleased with my progress. (I even took these strategies into a co-writing session this afternoon to revive a song that was stuck, and boy oh boy I cannot wait to continue where that session left off.)
For the assignment I used the Who, What, Where, When, Why, How, to keep me on track as I flushed out my verses and chorus, and was mindful of the POV while I wrote and rewrote new options. Picking up the guitar and discovering a melody for both chorus and verse was like… wow where did that come from?! (insert iPhone recording here so I wouldn’t forget it) Then I took another crack at singing my verse/chorus ideas to the melody… verse: stable? stable? unstable!… ahhh chorus… stable! Note here that i believe i tend to lean towards stability in my writing, and in the past if I managed to write something unstable it was a fluke! Well. No more!!
I should mention that my AWESOME (wait till you meet him) co-writing partner is also taking this course, and we were totally over the moon in our session today at how these tools made us more focused and productive. I’m also looking forward to examining my catalogue of songs ‘in development’ with these new tools in week three.
So now its on to further tweaking of my lyrics (i know, no need to be perfect) and recording Assignment 2 for submission! I’m telling you people, if you are not signed up for this course it’s not too late. check it out here 🙂 and lets toast to your next song!
Happy writing!
Here is my submission for Assignment 2:
(with a little tip from our SAC mentor Debra Alexander on How To Format Lyrics)
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/83577374%3Fsecret_token%3Ds-NWOiW” params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
[unstable verse]
I remember climbing to the top of this hill
on the backside of my steed
never knowing if all this hard work
would break me
[stable chorus]
The good old days are on my mind
The good old days and the hard times
I’d trade in every one
For one more setting sun
WonderFest – Help Spread Empowerment!
I am so honoured and excited to be contributing to this years celebration of International Women’s Week with my participation in Wonder Woman VI In Concert on March the 8th!
But that’s not all! YOU can help us spread empowerment through art too!
How? Like this:
1) Choose ONE WORD of EMPOWERMENT
2) Take a PHOTO with your word
3) Tweet @LMGProductions “I’m spreading empowerment through art! #WonderFest”
or email ImWorthItInfo@yahoo.ca
If you wish, there is also opportunity for you to make it into our next video as well as onto our Wall Of Empowerment at www.WonderWomenWorld.tumblr.com!
MARCH 4-8, 2013 is International Women’s Week, and LMG Productions celebrates by presenting WonderFest, a weeklong series of workshops and concerts that aims to promote an inspiring culture through art; a place for people to connect, cultivate and celebrate. WonderFest is coming March 4-8, 2013 Toronto!
We would be honoured if you would join us in our passion towards encouraging and empowering individuals through art.
For WonderFest schedules and details visit www.WonderWomenWorld.tumblr.com
Dec 8: ADVENTures in gratitude
“If you give a little love, you can get a little love of your own”
– Noah and the Whale