It’s been an eye-opening week.
After months of working on and off, I finally said enough is enough — it was time to finish these demos that had been haunting my hard drive for the last three months. Of course, saying “it’s done” is easier than actually declaring something finished, but I needed to draw a line in the sand and upload some listenable music to the website.
To keep myself honest, I set a few simple criteria:
- Does the song capture the mood or style I intended?
- Is the playing tight enough to meet my own standard of “acceptable”?
- Does it have a clear beginning and an ending?
If I could confidently say “yes” to all three, the song made the shortlist.
The biggest challenge wasn’t mixing or editing — it was choosing which songs to include. Some of my musicals have upwards of 50 tracks in varying stages of completion, while others have just a handful of loosely sketched ideas. I had to be ruthless. I limited myself to four main tracks per show, with a few incidental pieces only if they felt cohesive with the overall vision.
Once the tracklist was locked in, the next question was the big one: Are these actually good enough to share with the world?
In short — not really. But that’s okay. These aren’t polished masterpieces; they’re demo tracks. Their job is to show intent, offer a glimpse of the musical’s tone and structure, and give a taste of what could be, if and when real funding arrives.
So, with that in mind, I remixed each track to a “good enough for theatre” level, added a clear “for demo purposes only” disclaimer, and uploaded them to SoundCloud.
And then I waited.
The world didn’t explode.
In fact, the feedback was surprisingly positive. For the first time in a while, I felt confident again. More importantly, I had something tangible out there. Actual digital waveforms, finally supporting the musicals they were written for years ago.
It’s done now — well, “demo done.” I’d love for you to have a listen and let me know what you think. Just remember the disclaimer: these are demos!
The truly terrifying part? If I ever get real funding, I’ll need to convert these tracks into notation and hand them over to actual, professionally trained musicians. That will probably be the scariest day of my life. But hey — we’ll cross that terrifying bridge of public embarrassment when we come to it.
In the meantime, thanks for listening. And thank you so much for following along on this journey. I genuinely appreciate your support.
Eli