32-BAR CUTS
🧮 What if your 32-bar cut is actually 33 bars? Good. If it tells the story better, that’s the cut.
📜 “32 bars” and “16 bars” is outdated language. It’s a leftover from the Golden Age, when composers wrote in strict 4-section song forms.
⏳ But today’s musicals don’t work like that. Time signatures vary. Styles vary. And 32 bars of a ballad is very different than 32 bars of a patter song.
⏱️ So stop counting. Start timing.
🎵 32 bars ≈ 90 seconds
🎵 16 bars ≈ 60 seconds
🎵 8 bars ≈ 30 seconds
🎵 Brief selection ≈ 2 minutes
🎵 Full song = Full song
⭐️ But those time frames are just guidelines, not rigid limits.
🎯 Your job is to craft a clear beginning, middle, and end. Not to shove your artistry into someone else’s math.
✋ The bar-counting era is over. Tell the story and demonstrate your craft.
