How to Write A Musical (STEP-BY-STEP) - Book, Music, and Lyrics
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ก.ค. 2024
- #MusicalTheatre #HowTo #Writing
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One of the most common questions I’ve gotten in my career writing musical theatre is: How do you write a musical?
It’s a complicated question to answer because there is no one way to do it, but there are definitely a few sign posts in the writing process. So let’s talk about what you need, where to start, and how to go about writing a piece of musical theatre!
Time Stamps:
0:00 - Step 1: The Idea & How to Begin
1:27 - Step 2: Who’s Involved & Navigating Collaborative Relationships
3:39 - Step 3: The Frame - Why, Structure, & Musical Sound
5:40 - Step 4: The First Draft & Getting Going
6:32 - Step 5: Listen & Revise - The Hardest Step
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Michael Radi (all pronouns) is a Composer-Lyricist, Librettist, Performer, Vocal Coach, and Musical Director currently residing in New York City. He is an alumnus of the esteemed Lehman Engel BMI Musical Theatre Writing Workshop as a lyricist, and has written four full-length musical theatre pieces in addition to ongoing projects. His original musical The King’s Legacy, which received its world premiere production in August 2019 at the Bristol Valley Theater in Naples, NY, and has also been presented in Industry Reading format both in fall of 2019 as part of the Dramatists Guild Friday Night Footlights and in November 2016. More recently, his original one-man show ’S Wonderful: An Evening with George Gershwin just played its premiere production, also at BVT. Other current projects include a musical adaptation of The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow, a one-man show soon to be announced, and a family-oriented musical comedy set in the world of competitive baton twirling, based off his family's history with the sport.
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I’m only 14 but I have always wanted to make a musical. I decided i am going to write one even though at this age it probably will never see the light of day. I got time on my hands so I might as well use it! I couldn’t believe the like count, you are so underrated! Thanks so much.
I love this! That's a great age to start getting your hands into this, even if it doesn't see the light of day. Like anything, the more reps, the better. Thank you for sharing and for your kinds words!
@@musicaltheatrewriterguy Np I’ve already watched many of your videos and they are helping lots.
I am doing the same. Same age
@@hawkthekaratefighter2584 I LOVE this teen energy and desire to create musicals!
@@musicaltheatrewriterguy thanks for the support. My dad thinks it will fail
My friend and I are writing a musical that honestly started off as a joke and then we felt like for fun, we should write it and see what happens and the title of our show is Kroger: The Musical and it’s basically the story of how Kroger became a thing and about the guy who founded it, but with a couple of interesting and fun twists
I love that! I wonder if Kroger might approve and even want to get involved (or provide funding???)
wow thanks Steve! Gnomeo and Juliet the Musical is going to take over broadway!
Make sure you acquire the rights you need!
YEEESSSSSSSS
As a poet and short story writer now taking an MA in screenwriting and working in features, I’ve always wanted to develop musical concepts I’ve had but, knowing nothing of this particular craft, assumed it was all tied together and honestly didn’t know of the book/librettist element. I’ve recently had my eyes opened to the wonderful behind the scenes and am excited to develop notes that could form a book. However, no idea where to begin looking for collaborators. Still, good to be reminded nothing is out of reach
That's fantastic! We've got a TON of resources available in the MT Writing Collective, which is also a lovely place to meet some potential collaborators. You're of course very welcome if that sounds of interest to you!
@@musicaltheatrewriterguy interest piqued. Where can this be found?
@@robhardingpoetry You can see all the information about it here:
www.michaelradi.com/musical-theatre-writing-collective
Bro, this helps so much I’m a theater kid/director kid and I’m always directing the musical in my theater club and this helped a lot to write one that was perfect for my friends that are in the club and for the people in the club
I love this!! I'm thrilled the video was useful, and congrats on devising a musical for your club!
Amazing video! I’m a high school student, and during our annual school musical, a few friends and I pondered the idea: “What if we were the characters?” I think we were sick of always getting casted as ensemble year after year 😂 Regardless, what seemed like a goofy idea shortly came to life. I took on the role of creating it, and casted my friends and myself as ourselves in the musical about some fictional lore about our school. Eventually, to make it interesting, I added a murder mystery element to make it even more enticing. The plus was it was extremely easy to design the characters because, well, everyone was themselves! The hard part was making a complete plot from scratch. Making a murder mystery was a completely new endeavor for me… the rational evidence and slow suspense was extremely hard to execute. I still don’t know if I did it right, but I made a rough draft! It’s around a 60 page one act musical, and I’m going to film it after school sometime with my friends (we even convinced a few of my teachers to be in it, which i find absolutely hilarious) Right now, I’m done with the rough draft of the script and have completed 6/9 songs. All of this is to say is that your video helped start it all for me when I began my extensive research, frantically googling, “how do I write a musical.” Thank you so much!!
I love this so much!!! What a fantastic way to choose to dive into writing a musical - congratulations on having the draft and songs! I'm honored to be included in your journey 😄 I hope this goes smoothly and you have an absolute blast!
Im Writing a musical with piano and guitar right now with my friend. Iv tried many times making songs and trying to make musicals. Iv never finished one. Im way better at writing music now. Iv gotten another friend to help with lyrics and dialogue. Planning of just planning songs on a google doc with the guitar chords and then ill try to write a piano vocal score. Very important to do than. Never finished one. But super excited to workshop it.
Congrats on continuing to work on it and for choosing to learn and improve! Keep us updated as you go along!
@@musicaltheatrewriterguy cool! I will!
@@kylerchristensen4509it’s been 7 months how was/is it?!?
Thank you! This channel is EXTREMELY underrated, so I wish you only the best!
Thank YOU! I appreciate you being here and these lovely words!!
I'm a 21-yr-old Malaysian gal whose always had an affinity for musical plays and movies since 2017-ish. But I never got around to knowing how to make one cuz I only loved the craft, but I've recently fallen in love with the crafting process itself; the thoughts and feelings that go into making a musical. The state where I'm from (Penang) doesn't really support performing arts, that's more in the capital state, ie KL, which is like the Hollywood + slight Broadway of Malaysia. Maybe when I have the time, I'll utilize this video and see if I can make a banging musical too! Cuz I don't want regions to be a reason why I can't and shouldn't make musicals.
This video is extremely helpful, gave a like and subscribed! Looking forward to watch your other stuff to guide me on writing musicals. ❤
Welcome! So glad that you're here! I certainly hope you decide to follow your passion at some point to write that musical, and I'll be here when you do 🙂
I am currently working on a animated pilot of my original characters and it’s musical based and I’ve been stumped on some things
Thank you!
I love it! So glad this was useful!
This is such an amazing channel! This video helped me so much! Im writing a musical about 2 explorers ( vivo and Ian) and it is going REALLY WELL!!!😄
I'm *thrilled* the channel has been such a big help! And I can't wait to hear more about the musical!! 😃
Thanks for the video !
My absolute pleasure! Glad you found it!
I gotta make a musical start to finish in five days
Wow - That's a big task! Is this for a program of some kind?
rusrev musical gonna go crazy 🤑
If I was looking to write a musical adaption of a novel I had read, would you advise drafting the musical book first and then finding a way to contact the author, or would you contact the author first to pitch the idea and potentially collaborate on turning the novel into a musical?
My understanding is that whatever you're most comfortable with is probably the best way to go. That being said, going in with a clear concept and plan seems important, and I wouldn't think it would hurt to have a full outlined treatment, some script samples, and some song samples. It helps clarify what your idea is and allows people to have a taste of what the final product might look like!
Is there any specific program you would recommend for audio/editing the music (preferably something free)? I'm just writing one musical-style song, rather than a full musical.
Surely! If you're looking to write in a sheet-music type software, I recommend MuseScore. If you're more looking for a DAW solution, I would suggest Garageband. Both will get the job done!
@@musicaltheatrewriterguy Alright, thank you!
Very helpful video! I have been writing this musical for over a year now. I have just released the first song of the musical "Maybe If I Was A Dad" and I would love for everyone to check out!
I also have a question, I have the story, the characters, the songs, but I am struggling with the script and making it sound natural. Any advice? And thoughts on the song too!
I'm glad it was useful! And congrats on your song release! Feel free to post the link in the comments for the community to check out.
As to making the script sound natural, I'm working on a video about musical theatre dialogue that will drop in 2 weeks, so hopefully that helps. But let me ask: What is currently making it sound UNnatural to you? Is it word choices? Flow of dialogue? Meandering scenes? What are you picking up on?
@@musicaltheatrewriterguy Thank you!! Anyone who wants to hear, please my new musical-song: th-cam.com/video/Bpojj7HXvVM/w-d-xo.htmlfeature=shared Thank you!!
As for the script, I feel the vocabulary and speech structure does not match the characters. So trying to get into the character's heads is hard. I appreciate the help!
Just for some clarity for anyone who wants to hear! "Maybe If I Was A Dad" at: th-cam.com/video/Bpojj7HXvVM/w-d-xo.htmlfeature=shared
@@maxlautner5242 Is there anything that already exists that you can liken the speech to that your aiming for? Another musical, a film, a novel, a TV show? Or specific characters that exist who have a similar speech pattern and vocabulary to what you would like to write? If so, you can gather some resources and study them, and see if you can analyze them for what makes the sound of their speech as specific and effective as it is!
Oh that makes a lot of sense!! I can definitely do that.@musicaltheatrewriterguy Thank you so much for the help!!
I Hope it works out for me😊
As do I!
quick question, do you think it will make sense to change different style of music through out, im writing based off a book and at the beggining i was thinkking more theatre music like traditionally i think, and then maybe switch to sea shanties for most of it since it takes place on a boat in the ocean for most of it
My instinct would be that if it's serving the story, then it absolutely could work! But it also sounds like the sort of thing that might need some experimentation along the way. And you may not have to fully switch genres, but could begin to introduce different flavors into the show's base sound.
I also made a video on genre in musicals a while back. Not sure if it's useful to you, but here's the link just in case! th-cam.com/video/rAr78b4qjfw/w-d-xo.html
I just casually want to make a musical for the book Song of Achilles😃
*Just chilling over here, casual-like...writing a musical* Love it!
I was thinking about making one for that book recently! if you ever get serious about this, I'd be down to collab! I can't compose but I can write lyrics and a book
@@spidune Cool! I might be doing something over the summer, but it's undecided yet. If I don't contact you again, I mostly likely have not done it.
@@gnabnxhc What's this? Collaboration potentially coming from the comments section?? I LOVE it!
One day.
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THE BURNING AGES
the musical
About the witch burnings
I look forward to learning more about it as you write it!
gonna bring the turkish representation i want into the musical community myself
Always a fan of more representation!