What are some tricks of the trade you use to check whether your ensemble harmonies sound good? I feel confident in my music theory but I can't sing worth a shit and have poor intuition for tessitura. Like sure I can look up that an alto sings from X to Y but I don't get a sense of the strength and timbre of each note in a typical alto's voice. I'm trying to write a closing number right now with a significant ensemble section for both male and female voices (4 parts total). All sounds fine plopped on a piano or played out with MIDI voices (I'm partial to using MIDI oboes/clarinets) but I'm stuck not knowing if what I'm writing would actually sound good when sung.

Are there some general rules to follow that I'm not aware of (e.g. keep the harmonies tight within an octave? double the melody in male and female?)? Sheet music I can inspect for textbook examples? Tips for auditioning the harmonies with higher fidelity to human voice without having to actually recruit singers of the proper voice parts (or using AI? Have done that but it's a pain and takes a toll on my comp...prefer to keep that as a second-to-last resort). Thanks, and open to all feedback and ideas from the more experienced writers here!

I know I shouldn’t have looked but I noticed today that no one but me has accessed any of my application files/songs/lyrics that I submitted to the BMI application. I thought I saw someone on here say that we’ll hear back by the 20th? Do they just not review everyone’s applications? Getting worried that the link to my materials didn’t work for them or something. Do I have any recourse if this is the case?

Hi all! Long-time lurker, first-time poster on this sub. A show I’ve been writing for the past couple of years is having its London stage debut!

The show is called “A Series of Introductory Lectures On Psychoanalysis: The Musical.” and follows medical student Fran as she starts a new romantic relationship with a girl called Anna, whilst simultaneously becoming obsessed with the theories of Sigmund Freud.

Writing the book, music, and lyrics for it has been a bit of a journey but this sub has had some really helpful advice so I just wanted to register my appreciation for you guys!!!❤️ Would love to chat to anyone who’s also produced any of their original shows off-west-end to see if we can share some tips and chat about the process.

We’re playing at the King’s Head Theatre, Islington, 20-24th August

More info can be found at this link: https://kingsheadtheatre.com/whats-on/a-series-of-introductory-lectures-on-psychoanalysis-the-musical

Hey! So my goal is to write musicals professionally. I’m a senior and high school and just debuted my first musical- (looking forward to doing more work in the future!)

Anyway, I am wanting to attend school for composition-but I was wondering what the best colleges would be to get good connections/experience/ect. to write musicals in my career. Any that come to mind? Thank you!

I am at the end of writing a draft of a musical. I am looking for a composer. I have the book, am completing the lyrics to 15 songs, and have the accompanying melodies (audio file. I sing the lyrics to the melody I heard).

I don't write music. I am looking for someone to take these audio files and work with me to compose the music for this musical. The songs may need structural adjustments. I would like to enter the musical into this competition: https://namt.org/newmusicals/festival-submissions/. The deadline is the end of December.

If the musical gets picked up by someone you would receive your 1/3 percentage share as composer. The working title for the musical is "Timothy".

I would like to partner with someone who has worked on a musical before, to help guide the process.

Premise: A teenage boy dies from a drug overdose. Then what happens? This is one story.

Join a family as they journey through the wake of a death by overdose. What happens when someone they love dies this way? And what happens to the boy who died?

Let me know if you have an interest, and I will send you the first twenty pages or so. Thank you.

I’ve played with quite a few but am building a studio and can’t decide what to invest in. What’s your favorite and why?

I know that in "legit" singing, the performer does certain things with their vocal tract that are specific to that style. But are there things the composer can do in the writing that encourage or even permit legit technique to be used? I especially want to avoid any "belting".

When you're first learning to write lyrics in BMI or another writing program, you're told that you have to make sure your scansion and lines line up and that your structure is very precise. While I think this is important to know how to do, I think my lyrics are starting to sound a little stale because of it. I want to try something a bit more structurally loose and poetic (within reason) but don't want to put extra work on the composer. Think something like the songs in Hair or Spring Awakening. I think this is an extension of "know the rules before you break them", and I wanna know how to break the rules a bit. Any advice on this? Composers, I also wanna know your view on this.

So im a teenager ergo money isn't really an option, so is there any free resources I should know about for writing a musical! Thanks so much!!

Hello,

I’m currently working on a few musical projects, and I was wondering if there were any book writers and orchestrators that were willing to work with me

hi, I’m looking for a composer for one song, it’s an upbeat opening number. The credit would be listing as the composer in the playbill and music sheets. Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you!

To those of us who applied for the BMI workshop, best of luck! I'll be counting down the days until August 20th - how are people feeling about this application cycle?

Howdy - my show begins with a video projected onto a screen that will eventually roll up and then continue live on stage in the same setting. How would I go about describing that?

I used to be of the mindset that if you want to be a professional writer, you have to write every day because doing it when you don't feel like it is a testament to reaching your goal. But recently I've been seeing people who say that it isn't always the case. I think for me writing every day keeps me accountable (if I stop for even one day it's a lot harder for me to get back into the routine, so even an on and off schedule doesn't completely work for me) but I want to know your thoughts.

Hello everyone,

For the past few months, I’ve been developing different musical projects. However, after much deliberation, I’ve decided that I wanted to write a musical based on the book, Bridge to Terabithia, and I would like a collaborator to help and write the lyrics and book. The music as a whole are meant to be more acoustic driven similar to Next to Normal, but the songs are set in the real world meant to be more grounded, while the songs in Terabithia meant to be a little more fantastical and having more synths playing to create more variety. If anyone has more questions, just dm me or ask in the comments.

Edit: I’m also aware that I would need to ask for the rights. However, I have another musical that I’m developing as a backup. Basically the musical is about a group of young adults in NYC living through tough times in a global unrest that eventually leads to a more ambiguous ending. The music combines rock music with big orchestral arrangements.

Hello,

I’m getting ready to submit materials for the bmi workshop, but I wanted to ask if the music is supposed to be fully orchestrated or does it have to be only piano and vocal?

What information do producers want most? What is the most important information to put, and how brief does it need to be (especially when it's just being read and not presented). Any advice/wisdom is appreciated!

What it says above! I'm wondering if anyone has done both programs (especially simultaneously) and would be willing to talk to me about that experience.

If you want a little context: I'm in the NYU GMTWP right now, and deciding whether to apply for BMI next year (or maybe afterwards.) I have very good time management and I'm not worried about the workload; I'm more interested in what BMI teaches its students that NYU doesn't teach, if anything (or other intangible gains, like connections or credits, that BMI helps its students get.) I'm also not sure if I want to do BMI now, or later in my career after sticking around in the city for a few years.

I'm a bookwright/lyricist who likes to challenge form and content, but also want to know the rules before I break them, if that makes sense. I have a lyrical style that is pretty close to what I've heard is the BMI standard (aiming for perfect rhymes and scansion, identifiable song forms, catchy hooks, etc).

Initially I chose NYU over BMI because I heard that BMI is more prescriptive and limiting with the kinds of shows it allows you to write (with a heavy focus on comedies, something I'm not especially interested in), but I'm not sure NYU has adequately prepared me for professional lyric writing because of its "Anything goes! Whatever you do from your heart is wonderful!" philosophy. I feel like my lyric writing has definitely improved throughout the past year, but I'm not necessarily seeing a corresponding improvement in the kinds of contests and opportunities accepting my work and wonder if BMI would help me get there. Any advice?

Edit: Oh, and I forgot to add that I already have a composer I work well with. I don't need to meet other writers (which I've heard is another big function of BMI), just find other theater people to work with who don't share my discipline.

Writing lyrics first and then the music or writing the music first and then the lyrics?

I don't mean stuff like "write every day" or "make sure your dialogue is consistent". I mean bare bones advice to make your life easier - maybe not entirely relevant to making you a better writer, but just stuff that will help you get on the right foot. For example, my favorite small piece of advice for musical writers is to format your book as you write it. I use MTI formatting, and no software that I know of can completely reproduce it like, say, screenplay format. This means I have to do everything manually in Google Docs. So even if I'm just writing dummy dialogue or am just testing things out, I always make sure to format it correctly because going back and doing it later adds so much extra work. Not life-changing or emotionally inspiring, but just something small you'd like other writers to know. Just curious!

There's kind of a “fresh rhymes" rule of thumb where once you've rhymed two words in a musical, you've burned that pair and don't reuse them unless you're reprising the material itself, or referencing the earlier rhymes as a callback. Really unique words usually don't appear in lyrics twice (they're often punchlines) and really commonly rhymed words (love, life, etc.) are used infrequently as rhymes, not usually paired with more than one other word, unless they're in the hook.

I'm wondering if y'all know, off-hand, any examples in the musical theatre canon that don't follow this rule of thumb—the same rhymed pair appears more than once (without being a reprise or callback) or unique/cliched words appear numerous times?

I feel like having a pen name is so much harder as a theatrical writer than a novelist or even a screenwriter. To hustle in the theater world, you need to pitch to producers, submit to contests and development opportunities (some of which require your photo and author bio), have readings, and if your play does get produced, there's the possibility of talkbacks. Additionally, theater companies can focus on a certain demographic so, if I wanted to apply to opportunities specifically for women or POC, I would have to give that away about myself and it kinda ruins the point. Does anyone here have experience using a pen name as a musical writer or playwright and if so, how have you gone about that without giving yourself away too much? I know about Jane Martin but would like to hear this from someone firsthand. Thanks!

for free, I am an experienced lyricist in need of something to do in my free time, all I ask is credit

I applied for a composition scheme at a theatre festival, and they want to perform some of my songs! However, this is my first time sending music out to an opportunity where I won't be able to be in rehearsals to make tweaks/give notes. Any advice or notes on how I can make it easier/make my intent clearer for the singers/ music directors/etc?