The Song Creation Formula by Signe Miranda

Author:Signe Miranda
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: writing, song, music, musical, formula, songwriting, guide, steps, lyrics, creative, creation, odds, interviews, performer, songwriter, chords, love wins, whitehorse, blue rodeo, craig northey, greig nori, influential songwriters, jeremy fisher, jim cuddy, kat goldman, luke doucet, oh susanna, popular chords, progressions, september night, signe miranda, signe mirandas veranda, taylor abrahamse
Publisher: Signe Miranda

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Greig Nori

I spent the latter part of my teenage years listening to Treble Charger, Greig Nori's band. I was a huge fan, especially of the album, Maybe It's Me (1997) - and still am. That album has the perfect balance of beautiful melodies and high-energy pop-punk, with a 90s indie-rock sensibility. Like Blue Rodeo, it's a band fronted by two lead singer-songwriters with very different styles, perfectly blending together. Bill Priddle's moodier songs, like “Red” and “Ever She Flows” are a perfect balance for Greig's more up-tempo “Friend of Mine” and “How She Died”. “Fade” is a beautifully crafted melody, as well as “American Psycho” from their follow-up album, Wide Awake Bored.

I first saw Treble Charger play around 2001 or 2002 at The Warehouse in Toronto (which later became Kool Haus/Guvernment) and I only saw them play again a few weeks ago at an outdoor festival in Toronto called Roncy Rocks! I got to meet Greig at a songwriting workshop that he was teaching with Mark Zubek. Greig has an amazing grasp on the craft of writing songs and how to bring out the best in songwriters. He can pinpoint what's working about a song and what might make it better, which has led to his career as a producer, working with bands like Sum 41 and Hedley, as well as managing bands and providing advice for artists on MuchMusic's show disBand.

I had the opportunity to witness first hand his vast songwriting knowledge and ability to bring out the best in artists, by getting the chance to have a session with him, going through my songs and identifying what's working and where improvements could be made, as part of Coalition Music's Artist Entrepreneur program, which is a fantastic program that helps musicians grow as songwriters, performers and self-managed artists.

SIGNE: Do you remember the first song you ever wrote and can you tell me a little bit about it?

GREIG: I took a Gordon Lightfoot song, “Don Quixote,” the one that goes, “through the woodland, through the valley comes a horseman wild and free,” and I got a Gordon Lightfoot songbook and learned the chords to that song and then I used the chord pattern and put my own melody to it. It was the first time I figured out anything about how somebody structured a song. Using those chords for a verse and a chorus, I took the pattern and wrote a whole new melody for it and no one ever knew that that's what I had done. I remember it vividly, coming down with that song and playing it for my parents. I remember them saying, “Oh! That’s clearly better than anything you have done, that we’ve heard up to now.” So I thought, “That’s how you do it, look at chord structures from other bands.” It had a really great positive impact on me.

SIGNE: How old were you?

GREIG: I was probably in Grade 6, so I was 11. I started playing guitar when I was in Grade 5. I

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