Things You'll Need:
- Basic Chord Theory
- Choir
- Musicians
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Step 1
Songs: First decide on the songs you need. Make sure that they are all appropriate to the occasion or people will spend more time analyzing it unnecessarily rather than watching and listening. A helpful tip here is to have the songs follow some sort of logical progression whether that is a time-line or an actual telling of a story.
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Step 2
Instrumentation: What instruments do you have available? Write the music around that. Most musicians are comfortable reading off lead sheets so if you don't have the ability to set-up a full blown orchestration, then just write up lead sheets and chord charts and let the band do the work. Most will probably prefer it that way. Make sure that if you have any instruments in another key that you transpose their parts so they don't have to (ex. up one full step for trumpets).
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Step 3
Choir: This is probably the hardest part. You have to have harmony for the choir. A standard method for writing harmony is to have the Soprano sing the lead; the Alto would be a 4th below the Soprano; the Baritone would be an octave below the Soprano; the Tenor would be a 3rd above the Baritone; and if you want a Bass, put him at the root of the chord below the Baritone. All notes have to be analyzed to make sure that they fit in the key. A 4th could easily have to be adjusted to a 3rd or a 5th depending on the song. Obviously if you want to get creative, you don't have to follow this guide. As long as the vocalists stay within the chord and within their range, it doesn't matter what the intervals are.
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Step 4
Actors: It's not necessary to write a full blown musical but, the audience will appreciate the contrast of a monologue or dramatic reading between songs. Again, none of this has to be original work. Try not to make it horrificly long or people will get bored.
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Step 5
Direction: Wherever possible, try to recruit people to oversee parts of the performance. You probably will not have time to give enough attention to every area so, let someone else do sets and see if someone can coach the vocalists while you are working with the musicians (for instance).
