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SongTalk with Roy Forbes PM e $ tor & commercial market or just to sing to our friends and family, it's important to do the job well. Roy also stressed the need to select the right words for the structure of the song and the message to be conveyed. Pure rhymes and correct emphasis in the scanning are imperative for the song to flow. Strong images make for good lyrics. Titles are more effective if they hold a prominent place in the song. Refrains and choruses must stand out from the verses. " B u t w h a t a b o u t this s o n g o r t h a t a r t i s t ? " we wondered a l o u d , citing well k n o w n tunes that didn't adhere to what R o y was encouraging us to do. He smiled and r e m i n d e d us that rules are made to be b r o k e n . A t some p o i n t , after we have polished our song till it shines, we must a l l o w the muse to take over. That's what makes it sparkle. As long as we have the structure to contain the song, there are all sorts of places we can take it. It's a bit of a mystery actually, a delicate balance between inspired creativity and down to earth discipline. T his y e a r ' s S y m p o s i u m (see pages 2 0 - 2 1 ) o f f e r e d an i n c r e d i b l e o p p o r t u n i t y for songwriters - a full day workshop with Roy Forbes, one of Canada's finest songwriters. It began at 10 o ' c l o c k . A g r o u p of strangers, we sat together in the cozy Discovery R o o m at John B r a i t h e w a i t e C e n t r e . We felt a l i t t l e v u l n e r a b l e f o r we c a m e bearing our songs, tiny bits of our hearts a n d souls. O v e r the next few hours we w o u l d share these songs and hopefully learn h o w to make them sparkle. T h a n k f u l l y , they d o n ' t come more gentle and easy going than Roy Forbes and during our time together he made us feel at ease. After a round of introductions and some SongTalk (the name of the w o r k s h o p ) , it was time to begin the critiques. N o one envied the fellow sitting next to Roy. H e got to go first. But as we moved a r o u n d the c i r c l e , each of us felt a little more relaxed. We found common threads and learned from every song we heard. The need for structure came up again and again. Using examples f r o m G e r s h w i n to D y l a n to L e n n o n and M c C a r t n e y , R o y demonstrated the importance of a strong metre, rhyme scheme and progression of verses, choruses and bridges. Although a song may originate in a moment of inspiration, it may take days, weeks or even months of perspiration to craft it, to make it the best it can be. "Songs have work to d o , " Roy says. That work may be to express an emotion, tell a story, or paint a picture. Whether we are w r i t i n g for the 10 M a r c h | A p r i I Our t i m e t o g e t h e r w a s too short. We could have spent the w h o l e day t a l k i n g about one person's song, or about genres, o r s o n g w r i t e r s we a d m i r e , about h o w we w r i t e and why we write. But 4 pm arrived and after R o y delighted us with a c o u p l e of his o w n tunes (in w h i c h he, by the way, bent the rules s o m e w h a t ) , we packed up o u r notes a n d guitars and headed home. I hung a r o u n d the Centre for a while w a i t i n g for a ride. O n e of the other songwriters stayed behind as well and when I heard him playing his guitar, I went back into the Discovery R o o m to join h i m . "I think we were very fortunate to have the likes of Roy Forbes presenting this s o n g w r i t i n g w o r k s h o p , " he said to me. " H e ' s an amazing songwriter. He's so passionate about music and about helping others to write their songs." M y new friend was so right in saying this. Roy Forbes is passionate about music, all music. H e has a dozen recordings under his belt including his latest release Some Tunes for That M o t h e r of M i n e and hosts the weekly Roy's Record R o o m radio program featuring golden oldies from his extensive record collection. Roy's passion extends out to others and those of us who spent a few hours with him at the Symposium on February 3rd reaped the benefits of his casual, off the cuff style of helping us to make our songs sparkle too.