Failed Experiments

I started humming randomly and came up with a four-bar melody I liked (a bar is roughly equivalent to one line of lyrics).  I hummed it a few times, then started putting words to it.  It ended up sounding like a song that would totally fit in a musical.  But I had no idea ow to expand it.  The story started with the first line and ended with the last.  Anything else would be filler.  Well, what if the song only was four bars?

Musicals are always kind of odd because they often have these extended numbers that detract from the story.  When the point of a song is that the bad guy is telling the hero that good will never win, it doesn't really take 5 minutes and a half dozen backup dancers.  All it takes is four bars.

So, what if I made a musical that only had four-bar songs?  The melodies would all be unique, and lyrics couldn't be recycled.  There could be 40 songs in the show, maybe 80.  It would certainly be an interesting experiment.  But would it work?

I think it is not guaranteed to fail, but it would be a stretch.  In a musical, there is expected to be a certain amount of extended glitz and glam.  A four-bar song doesn't allow the audience to get into the spirit.  Instead, it comes off sounding like all the characters in the story just have a strange penchant of singing their thoughts or opinions.  It's hardly something people can rock out to, so there is a large amount of people who wouldn't go for it by its very nature.  And musical theatre only has so many fans in the first place, so splitting them into smaller groups is pretty sparse in numbers.

But does this mean I shouldn't do it?  I don't know.  On the one hand, it would certainly save me a lot of time and energy on a project I didn't intend on following through.  If I already believe it will fail, it is almost guaranteed to do so.  However, there is so much that could be gained from it.  On top of the fact that it would be practice in writing, which is always good, it also would give me a chance to understand the mechanics of what I am trying to do better.  Even if it ended up being a lousy product, I would know exactly why it was lousy.  I would be able to take that knowledge and apply it to all situations similar to it in the future (not to mention the fact that I would be able to identify similar situations far more easily).  These are skills and abilities that may actually be worth the trouble.

It's ok if you have an experiment and it fails.  You may not use the product, but you will always use the knowledge.