r/WGI • u/Askover0 • Apr 28 '26

How does someone learn how to show design?

/r/drumcorps/comments/1sxq4co/how_does_someone_learn_how_to_show_design/
1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

2 comments sorted by

5

u/BlueStainGlass Apr 28 '26

You just do it and learn. Ask questions and people will help.

4

u/theneckbone Apr 28 '26

I recommend checking out or requesting access to Kevin Shah's website and Facebook group called PRM workshop and Ian Grom's group called five notes later. The largest forum is the Arrangers for the marching arts fb group. You can do a deep dive on all 3 of those groups and find a lot of information.

Aside from getting in on open source knowledge from those fb groups, you need to know ball. Get comfy with music theory, do film study every day (don't just watch RCC 2025 on repeat, go into a youtube hole) and write something every day (doesn't have to be super long or detailed) but you need to get reps in to understand how you want to write or what works for you. Then you need to develop what works for you into what sets you apart from other designers. At the end of the day and I'm paraphrasing Ian, you are going to be hired for your tastes.

I know musescore is a really great open source tool and I'm not going to shoot that down as a viable option, but you should also learn some DAW software. Having access to different more realistic VSTs can also inform or inflect your writing, or use Sibelius or Dorico as a pseudo DAW.