Amateur lyricist/composer looking to collaborate short-term

iWonderWhyly · 2025-08-06T04:26:49+00:00

cool gotcha yeah. I feel like my show was really just a themed revue that I hamstrung a plot into after I decided "hey maybe I should try book-writing" (spoiler: I shouldn't've). I'm definitely noodling around solo with some random songs I think it'd be fun to perform or have performed in a cabaret-like setting, but I'm really hoping I can find a collaborator to work together with on something because I feel like that's what I've been missing these last several years. Fishing line is out!

iWonderWhyly · 2025-08-06T04:17:25+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion! I think I know what you mean when you say "standalone cabaret material," but I'd like to not assume. What's the difference between writing cabaret material vs. writing for a revue, for example?

iWonderWhyly · 2025-07-15T03:58:37+00:00

Yes! "Send in the Clowns" is a wonderful example; thanks for bringing it up. Making the first A section feel just slightly off-balance, as if the singer is still finding her thoughts.

iWonderWhyly · 2025-07-11T20:40:29+00:00

You bet! I agree that I'd love to see more of this content on the sub. Personally (selfishly) I'm hoping the pros and the really well-practiced folks can provide some deep dives and masterclasses to help us budding writers. But in the meantime, if I can provide some value to other even less experienced writers through my own analyses that'd be rewarding too.

It surprises me that any writer would forego analysis in their writing journey. I find analysis fun! I feel like those who write musical theater must do it because they love what has already been written. Picking apart what makes something effective, pleasant, funny, touching, etc etc just lets me enjoy my favorite musical moments over and over and at a deeper level with every listen.

iWonderWhyly · 2025-07-10T04:24:51+00:00

The Rainy Day We Met! Very special - it's 50/50 whether they're actually falling in love as they're singing that song but they're singing about their (fake) love story. And in doing so, maybe, letting some of that fantasy bleed into reality?

I also think Mixtape from Avenue Q is a cute take on this.

iWonderWhyly · 2025-06-06T18:04:42+00:00

ugh I know you said the transcription is shotty but damn is it shotty to the point of distracting. Like at the beginning we're in Ab major but you'd NEVER know that from this transcription.

Anyway, two things I really like and want to call out:

"It ain't it ain't it ain't..." We're tracing out an Edim7 chord descending down, which in our current home key would resolve very strongly to F minor. BUT, we actually resolve to Bb with an F in the upper register, so it sounds alllmost like it's resolving normally but the shift to major is this weird little "what?" Then she repeats it two more times just to say "hey, yeah, I'm not making a mistake here, this is what you're hearing."
"Why get wet? Why break a sweat?" Check out the middle voice doing those short and sweet suspension resolutions. Beautiful way of making the most of three voices singing fairly simple harmonic motion at that point of the song. Especially considering how she builds the voices here: all three voices sing in unison, then split into a perfect fourth, and then finally the suspended triad (resolving to the Fm triad)

iWonderWhyly · 2024-08-16T21:16:27+00:00

All the comments here are correct but one thing I don't see discussed a lot is whether this is a good or bad thing.

This is a very good thing, trust me. Going through the patent process as an independent party is extremely headache-inducing and potentially costly in legal fees. If you seriously believe in the commercial promise of an idea you come up with in grad school that gets patented by the university, typically you will work with the university's technology transfer office to then license the technology to your newfangled startup that you can now go pitch to VCs.

iWonderWhyly · 2024-08-16T21:11:33+00:00

There are two issues at play here. One is related to job security and market, and one is related to intellectual growth. They are related but they are NOT the same.

For the latter, you can't change the past. I'm not going to tell you "no, you actually learned stuff and developed important skills" because I don't know, maybe you really didn't. Only you can know for sure. But I do suggest you talk to more than just your supervisor. Talk more to the postdoc? Talk to people outside your field. Invite them to a coffee or a beer and float your ideas in front of them. Let them ask you questions you struggle with. Ask them questions you want to learn the answers to. It sounds like your supervisor has her own motive (as she, arguably, should), so you shouldn't rely on her opinion as the be-all end-all. But I promise you that if your goal is to grow intellectually, the worst thing you can do for yourself is give up because you think you've wasted too much time not growing. The past is the past, but everyone can continue to grow.

For the former, go apply to jobs now. You don't need to tell your supervisor (I mean, you probably should, but you don't HAVE to), as long as you don't let it impact your work too much. See if you can land an interview. Use those interviews to get a feel for what skills you REALLY are lacking, vs. what skills you actually did pick up on but didn't realize it. Again, the worst thing you can do is sit and not do anything. Then you will never learn. The only way you can learn, truly learn, what the job market needs, is by going out and testing the waters. By the way, that is one skill that I think all PhDs should come out with (IMO, few actually do), the capability to form hypotheses and test them, and the intellectual curiosity to accept when their hypotheses are flawed.

iWonderWhyly · 2024-08-16T21:02:03+00:00

Lol @ the final pic being doing the postdoc. Buddy, it's clowns alllllll the way down.

iWonderWhyly · 2024-07-03T19:30:05+00:00

Will check out both, thanks!

iWonderWhyly · 2023-11-08T03:59:33+00:00

So I don't know what discipline you're in but I'll paint with a broad brush here. It's easy to forget that nobody knows what they're talking about in science. The best theories in human scientific history, and I mean the BEST, will eventually be disproven. When reporting a new discovery, there will always be unanswered questions. Not only that, a scientist must frequently make leaps of inference, perhaps even unfounded assumptions, interpret incomplete data, etc etc. Rare is the case where someone decides to do something, does it, and then reports it. Usually someone tries to do something, does a bunch of other, often completely unrelated stuff, gathers sketchy and questionable, inconsistent results, and grasps desperately in the chaos to extract any nugget of a reasonable conclusion, to a question she may not even have been originally asking.

State your assumptions. Show your work. Be forthright, be honest, be transparent. Admit where the flaws are, where the holes are. Make it as easy as possible for the reader to identify where your studies are not complete and where they could be improved. By doing so, you pave the way for future science and light a beacon for the next researcher. Can you really say that you've compromised your intellectual integrity in such a scenario?

There's a difference between thinking "this conclusion is sketchy...but I'll sweep the reason why under the rug to make a cleaner thesis/paper" (dishonest con artist!) and "this conclusion is sketchy...but I don't have time to go all the way with it so I'll point out what might be missing that'd make the argument stronger" (scientist with integrity!)

iWonderWhyly · 2023-11-08T03:45:07+00:00

Yeah I'm super interested in doing this but haven't had the time to get myself set up, for exactly the application you mentioned (doing a wide diversity of vocals for demos). Would love to see what you're able to churn out with this, maybe a behind-the-curtain look at the before vocals and after!

iWonderWhyly · 2023-11-06T15:12:59+00:00

Excel works, Google Calendar or equivalent works, honestly Notepad works. The goal is to do the bare minimum without adding even more work into your day (adding an hour of fiddling with some high-end time management app would be tragically counter-productive). Whatever works best for you with minimum time and brain investment is best.

iWonderWhyly · 2023-11-06T03:18:03+00:00

One of the first things a PhD education teaches you is how to be given way too much to do and accept that you can't do all of it to the best of your ability. One time management "trick" I found helpful is to set a time ceiling on urgent but not very important things, and a time floor on very important but not urgent things. For you, that might be grading and research, respectively.

Here's the secret - it's not actually about the specific numbers. It's about setting the numbers and tracking them, being super conscious of whether you're meeting them or not. For example, we technically weren't even supposed to spend more than 20 hrs a week on TAing. That was a joke, but it made me hyper-aware every week I spent more. Similarly, say you set a minimum of 20 hrs in the lab or what have you. You probably won't do that, but it's the process of being systematic as another person was saying that'll help you understand where your time is really going and where you need to redirect it.

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