Student Blog: Living the Life Bo-Bo-Bo-Bo-Bo!: How I’m Getting My Musical Off Its Feet!

As mentioned in my latest article, I’ve written a musical! I’ve written several chunks of musicals and more MT-style songs than I can count, but for the first time, I’m actually doing it! This is the one I want to be my first composer/songwriter debut, as opposed to the several plays I’ve already put out– so the next big project I’m working on is going to be recording a demo of all the songs in the show. What this means though, is that I’m gonna be faced with a lot of new work and challenges I haven’t had to face before as I double down with getting this show into the eyes and ears of the public. Here’s a candid look at how I plan to do this as a beginner!

“This is the one you should finish” was the first thing my old vocal coach told me when I sang him the first written song of the show. I really took his words to heart, as this particular show really sparked something in me that other projects I worked on hadn’t. It had heart and a real message I wanted to get across. I gave the show a placeholder name, Blink, while I agreed I would come up with a “better” one later. I then spent a year writing and drafting 30 minutes of straight music that adapted into Blink, a musical cut short. The tricky thing about this draft is that while it lives fleshed out and fully composed in my head, I’ve yet to get it down onto paper. 

As it stands right now, I don’t have the current skills to fully orchestrate sheet music for the half-hour of music that makes up my show. However! Rather than being discouraged by this fact, I’m choosing to embrace the scrappy charm of doing things the way I’ve mastered doing them– unconventionally! While I’m not a master of piano, I can plunk my way through some chords and very talented friends who’ve offered to help me with the music, as well as practicing drumming on my own time. All that being said, I’m building the score from the ground up! I feel very called to do this project on my time and my way, so if that means tons of voice memos and memorizing chords, I’m up for the challenge!

That being said, I’m recruiting a ton of help for this project. I already have several people who’ve offered to help me create sheet music in the future as well as current friends who are helping create and play the score. As Blink is a two-person show, the most exciting recruitment of help thus far for me has been casting someone to sing one of the characters alongside me in the demo. I knew that I was going to need someone who not only fit the vision and vocal type of the character, but also who was hardworking and committed to putting in the effort needed to build a new work from the ground up. I posted fliers at a nearby arts school, bought online ads, and reached out to as many people who might know someone up to the task as I could. After a few different interviews and many DMs, I landed on a friend of a friend who I believe is the perfect partner I was looking for in this project! 

My Joel– the character's name– and I rehearse the music once a week, as well as talk through both our ideas and thoughts on the script and character relationship. While this is only a demo for the show, I believe this is an important step to the process even without a staged production, as I really want the heart of the piece to shine through the music. On the other side of things, I have a friend taking a recording class at her college who graciously offered me the use of her school's recording studio to record the music. And with such a convenient and generous offer… I couldn’t refuse! That means the plan as of right now is to teach and practice the score for the next few months and then take an eventual trip to record.

I won’t lie, I’m very daunted by all of these tasks. But I really feel like Blink is not only a project I want to create, but a project the world wants created. Will the demo be perfect? Probably not. But it’ll be the first version I get out into the world, which could lead to who knows how big a future for the project. I really put a lot of love into writing it, which means I want to put an equal amount of work into getting it off its feet, even if that means facing new challenges. And even with that, the amount of support and interest I’ve received on it already has been overwhelming and I couldn’t be more grateful to be in the opportune position I am to bring the show into the world. If you’d like to follow along with the show's journey, follow @dontblinkmusical on Instagram for sneak peeks and updates! Who’s to say where the road ahead will lead with my musical, but I know no matter what happens, it’s a road regardless! Stay tuned!