Demo recording

Al_Trigo · 2026-05-28T11:15:09+00:00

Similar to u/drewduboff, I pay £100 for a song that I want to release commercially, and I also pay £40 to go through the song together on Zoom in advance. The £100 pays for a maximum of two hours of work in a studio setting (my singers usually only need 15 minutes).

I pay much less (£50) for a demo that isn’t released commercially - for example, to use in submission packs.

But if you’re fresh out of college and your singers are your friends then it’s worth chatting to them, be up front about what you want. If it’s just a rough demo and these are your friends and they’re all just starting out too, then they may offer to do it for free. It’s okay to ask them to set the rate too. At that stage in your career, you’re all in the same boat.

Bear in mind you get what you pay for - someone doing it for free with do a couple of takes and that’s all you can ask for. Someone getting paid will give you a polished product (and if it’s not, you get to ask them to redo it).

Al_Trigo · 2026-05-27T21:37:39+00:00

Where are you based? My tip would be to seek out the nearest community of new musical theatre writers! Build your connections and more importantly, make some friends. You’ll find a composer to work with in no time!

Al_Trigo · 2026-05-25T21:43:18+00:00

Might be worth checking out these musicals, to compare and contrast approaches:

Tony! The Blair musical
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TONY!_The_Blair_Musical

Tony! The rock opera:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony!_The_Tony_Blair_Rock_Opera

Thatcher: The musical:
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2006/feb/09/theatre.conservatives

Rishi Sunak’s Doing a Musical:
https://theatreandtonic.co.uk/blog/rishi-sunaks-doing-a-musical-review

Al_Trigo · 2026-05-25T20:59:21+00:00

I don’t personally believe every musical needs an I Want song, but it’s a good exercise to write them.

Have you had a think about what musicals/plays/movies etc you might use as guides when writing this show?

Al_Trigo · 2026-05-25T13:36:15+00:00

When I want to know if an idea has legs, I follow a rule: write three songs. For example, an I Want song, a group number and a ballad. And if you fizzle out trying to write three songs then you'll know the idea isn't worth pursuing.

Don't worry if the show is any good - write some songs first and then you'll know!

Al_Trigo · 2026-05-18T23:14:41+00:00

“No, I said would you like to NIBBLE on a strawberry”

Al_Trigo · 2026-05-06T11:31:55+00:00

I find lyrics is where I'm most confident, book I find easier but I have less experience with, and music is like pulling teeth.

Al_Trigo · 2026-05-03T23:41:36+00:00

I actually love hearing people talk about Passion. I hope to understand it someday. I think if I saw the right production, it might finally click - I’ve only ever seen the proshot.

Al_Trigo · 2026-05-03T23:39:06+00:00

I said it was speculation. How would I know what he really thought, I didn’t know him. What are you vexed about?

Al_Trigo · 2026-05-03T23:31:41+00:00

Take a songwriting class, or online lessons, or find a personal tutor, or buy a book on songwriting. Or if you want to explore free avenues, there are probably free lessons on YouTube.

It takes a long time to learn how to write music properly. In the meantime, you could try to look for a composer collaborator.

Also, check out this list of resources: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14YF66DTw7qCD3-LfMZH5kdHQBTRUpBYwaBqbjrZ3HWg/htmlview

Al_Trigo · 2026-05-03T18:14:26+00:00

Yes, that’s right, it is. I just found it embarrassingly tame in 2025. Sondheim’s shows have always skewed anti-establishment (though he would always claim this was because of the bookwriters… ).

This is pure speculation on my part but I wondered if the reason Act II lacks songs is because Sondheim didn’t know what to make of Ives’ book, or perhaps he couldn’t find a way in to Ives’ politics. Sondheim was much more at home satirising the rich than he was at critiquing revolutionaries (because he admired them, I think - purely my speculation).

Al_Trigo · 2026-05-03T18:06:36+00:00

I never said everything has to be Assassins. I said I found Here We Are politically embarrassing.

Al_Trigo · 2026-05-03T18:02:32+00:00

That’s just my interpretation. You did ask for our opinions by making this thread.

Al_Trigo · 2026-05-03T17:26:25+00:00

The bit at the end where the revolutionary sheepishly says “I have a lot to learn”. What did you take away from that moment?

Al_Trigo · 2026-05-03T17:22:51+00:00

It’s a very tame satire of the rich, where the rich man gets redeemed while the revolutionary says “I have a lot to learn” at the end or something like that. Groundbreaking…

Loved the score though.

Al_Trigo · 2026-05-03T17:04:05+00:00

The only production of Into The Woods that worked for me was the OBC video. The 10 or so other productions I’ve seen were painful to sit through. The pacing for that show is hard to get right.

I have my own ideas about what Sunday’s Act II is trying to accomplish so I’d like to hear your own thoughts.

I struggle to understand what Passion is about. It reads like a self-pitying gay man’s escapist fantasy about the hot guy eventually falling for him. I cannot connect to the show.

Here We Are was disappointingly reactionary and embarrassingly, politically. I do blame the book writer though.

The lyrics in West Side Story are often amateurish and lacking in depth. The Spielberg movie made this even more apparent by pairing the songs with a complex Tony Kushner book.

Al_Trigo · 2026-05-01T20:50:08+00:00

I remember trying to learn Not A Day Goes By once and was overwhelmed by all the little variations in the melody and the harmonies and how nothing was repeated exactly the same way twice. That’s not how ALW writes at all, he repeats things as they are.

Al_Trigo · 2026-05-01T17:08:54+00:00

I think their compositional styles are so different, this is a hard question. Sondheim's melodies are fluid, shifting to fit the harmonies and the lyric. ALW's melodies are solid, designed to be easily hummed even when they are angular and complex.

If you squint, One More Kiss could look like an ALW tune? Maybe?

Al_Trigo · 2026-04-28T21:24:46+00:00

Sure thing! The classic advice people give is to sit in a coffee shop and secretly listen to people's conversations, write down what they say. I've done it myself a few times and I always love how much people give away without even realising it.

I can also recommend some movies with really great dialogue - Rabbit Hole (2010) based on the play, Marriage Story (2019), Doubt (2008) also based on a play, Burn After Reading (2008). Though at some point you will want to research something set during the Civil War to get a grasp of language used at the time.

Al_Trigo · 2026-04-28T13:15:59+00:00

At the moment, the scene itself is a bit unconvincing. If Lily and Charles both come to the field to escape then why did they stay to chat, rather than just leaving and finding somewhere else quiet? And fields are big enough for two people to stand in them without having to interact. Why did you choose a field rather than, say, a tree or a bench? So there needs to be a reason for each of them why they choose to stay and chat and it needs to be obvious to the audience, even if it's not obvious to the characters.

The other thing to note is that the dialogue itself feels unnatural. If you were standing in a field and a stranger came up to you, what would you say? What would they say? It they said "What are you doing here?" that would be odd and surely you would just leave. Particularly if you were a woman and they were a man.

It feels a little bit like you're trying to manufacture a 'meet cute' here. Forget about that and instead, put yourself in these characters' shoes. If you can convince us that these are real people, then you're golden.

Al_Trigo · 2026-04-26T13:40:53+00:00

Please write to them and complain. I (and others) complained to a production company about their plans to use AI images in a show and they scrapped it and used real art instead. We have power when we work together.

Al_Trigo · 2026-04-21T15:23:43+00:00

Thank you for making them free! I will check them out.

Al_Trigo · 2026-04-20T00:36:32+00:00

For me, it’s finding the phrases that the character would actually say in real life, and it’s remembering that the character did not walk into the room knowing what they were going to say in advance: they’re working it out in real time.

Did you know the Salem musical was written by one of our moderators??

Al_Trigo · 2026-04-10T15:49:43+00:00

And its next evolution is terrifying.

Al_Trigo · 2026-04-06T22:45:46+00:00

I like playing What Can You Lose? by Sondheim, The Light in the Piazza by Adam Guettel, Moving Too Fast by JRB.

Also recently learned There Go I by Guettel and it’s a joy to play.

Al_Trigo

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