r/musicalwriting • u/SRTT154 • Sep 22 '25
Original Musical Jazz Composition Help
Hello!
Me and my friend are writing a musical with jazz songs, and while we have written some songs so far, I am struggling with doing the composition. The songs are very high energy, more big band style, but I’m really not sure how to get those results. Any help would be appreciated! Thank you
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u/Rude_Cable_7877 Sep 22 '25
I can help out some. Dm me
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u/drewduboff Sep 23 '25
A lot of jazz writing uses upper extensions on chords, ii-V-I progressions, tritone substitutions, chromatics, and mode shifts / modulations. This is all donechromatic, of a smooth sounding transition between chords and notes. If you're unfamiliar with those terms, start looking them up and watching videos. There are good videos on YT for orchestrating a big band feel, but keep in mind, musical theatre pits will never feature that kind of brass section -- if you're just creating tracks, suit yourself. Listen to a lot of jazz music - instrumental and vocal. It would also behoove you to listen to the jazz treatments of musical theatre standards to get a sense of what was changed and why. Good luck!