Whew! We’re back online, and just in time for the October 9 meeting. Our website went down days before the September meeting. A failed update scrambled the database. We are very sorry for the inconvenience to all of you who log in to find meeting and songwriting assignment information.
We thought we’d share some pictures taken at our June 2013 meeting. Eight songwriters attended. Stephen, Chris, Sandra, and Anastace presented new songs.
L-R: Chris, Mike, Robin, Stephen, Sandra, Eric, Anastace.
L-R: Stephen, Chris, Sandra, Robin, Marc, Mike, Anastace.
Eric says something cheesy and snaps the picture.
Stephen presents “happy song”, in which a love triangle plays out during a bank heist.
For more pictures, go to page 2.
The Toronto Songwriters Association (TSA) is a non-profit, cooperative group dedicated to furthering the joy and craft of songwriting. Membership is free and open to singer-songwriters in the Greater Toronto Area and beyond who compose, sing and play their own songs.
The TSA originated with a group of songwriters who met at a Humber College songwriting workshop. Informal extra-curricular gatherings gradually became more consistent in frequency and format. New members originally joined via word-of-mouth or via ads placed in local arts publications. We founded the TSA in the fall of 2004 and officially launched it at a songwriters’ evening in December of that year. We created the TSA website in 2006. The website was redesigned as a WordPress site in 2012.
Membership is based on participation. TSA members are songwriters who attend meetings, present original songs, participate in helpful discussions about other members’ songs, play at TSA events, and take an active role in the affairs and future plans of the TSA.
TSA meetings are friendly in-person or online gatherings where songwriters present and critique new songs in a respectful, supportive, patient and open-minded atmosphere. The goal is always to help each other develop as songwriters. We encourage members to attend meetings even if they don’t have a new song to present that month. At the end of each meeting, we adopt an assignment to write in the next month. Although the assignment is optional and members are free to present any new work they wish, some of our most memorable songs have come from monthly assignments. It’s a simple format that works. Our members consistently report that they are able to write more and better songs after joining the TSA.
The TSA is committed to fostering an environment of respect for the rights, dignity, safety, and sensibilities of its members in all its activities, be they in-person or through online meetings, at TSA-sponsored public performances, or in any situation in which a member is delegated to represent the TSA. In particular, we ask participants at TSA meetings to be mindful that subjects and language which they feel comfortable sharing through their songs may unintentionally trigger stressful responses in others. One person’s innocent clever remark could give rise to another’s painful memory. At TSA meetings, songwriters can lessen such a possibility with a thoughtful word or two about the song before they sing it. Members are also encouraged to point out potentially troublesome aspects of a song directly to the songwriter in a respectful manner, as part of the standard feedback / critique time following a performance, or shortly thereafter. Our aim, after all, is to help each other develop as songwriters.
Members vary in age, songwriting experience, musical skill and style. At our meetings and at public shows, you will hear anything from pop to rock to folk to cabaret to art song, to name a few. The TSA does not promote any particular method or model of songwriting; we draw on the best traditions and rely on our members’ diverse experience. Our members decide for themselves what to write about, how and why to write, and what to do with their songs. As a collective, we offer support and encouragement for our members’ independent songwriting activities through interaction and exchange within a community of songwriters.
The Toronto Songwriters Association is a non-profit, cooperative group dedicated to furthering the joy and craft of songwriting. Membership is free and open to singer-songwriters in the greater Toronto area who can compose, sing, and play their own songs.
A Toronto Songwriters Association
monthly meeting.
Membership is based on participation. TSA members are songwriters who attend meetings, present original songs, participate in helpful discussions about other members’ songs, play at TSA gigs, and take an active role in the affairs and future plans of the TSA.
The TSA originated with a group of songwriters who met at a Humber College songwriting workshop. Informal extra-curricular gatherings gradually became more regular in frequency and format. New members joined via word-of-mouth, ads placed in local arts publications, etc. We founded the TSA in the fall of 2004 and officially launched it at a songwriters’ evening in December of that year.
We created the TSA website in 2006. The website was redesigned as a WordPress site in 2012.
TSA meetings are friendly gatherings where songwriters present and critique new songs in a respectful, supportive, patient and open-minded atmosphere. The goal is always to develop songwriting. We encourage members to attend meetings whether or not they have a new song to present that month. At the end of each meeting, we adopt an assignment for writing the next month’s new song. Though the assignment is optional and members are free to present any new work they wish, some of our most memorable songs have come from monthly assignments. It’s a simple format that seems to work. Our members consistently report that they are able to write more and better songs after joining the TSA.
Members vary in age, songwriting experience, musical skill and style. At our meetings and public shows you will hear anything from pop and rock, to folk, cabaret or art song. The TSA does not promote any particular method or model of songwriting; we draw on the best traditions and rely on our members’ diverse experience. Our members decide for themselves what to write about, how and why to write, and what to do with their songs. As a collective, we offer support and encouragement for our members’ independent songwriting activities through interaction and exchange within a community of songwriters.
The TSA website was created in 2006, two years after the official founding of the Toronto Songwriters Association. It has served us well. A steady stream of people visited the site and contacted us. A number of them came to meetings and became members.
But now it’s time for a redesign. We have some specific goals in mind. We want it to be a multi-author site, so that TSA members can easily contribute; we want it to be more interactive and easy to integrate with social media. We want to keep the best from the past, but open it up to the new. In order to do that, we have to bring the platform up to date so that we can add new features as they.
So we have decided to build the new site on a WordPress platform. We like the WordPress concept of separating content from design. We like the idea of mixing static pages with blogs. It’s a more flexible engine than we had before. And it’s open source.
You’ll see that we are at this point retaining something of the look of the old site. We are trying to keep some continuity with the old site so that visitors won’t think they’ve taken a wrong turn and ended up in Albuquerque by mistake (no offence meant to Albuquerque — it’s just a TSA inside joke). But we hope that you like the new look and that you appreciate the new opportunities it gives us to interact with songwriters.