v.i. control forum

[Peter Alexander]

Updates for December 5, 2006
A) Registration has been extended to Wed, December 20
B) Class officially begins on Monday December 18
C) Two light assignments are planned through the holidays, Lessons 1 and 2 ONLY.
D) We are now developing a recording workshop module to add to the program
E) Listening assignments have been posted. These are to expose you to different composers in different styles. Listen, learn, enjoy.
F) Please see the Professional Mentor thread. This is a PRE-PUBLICATION copy to get you started and WILL CHANGE before class starts.

WHEN REGISTERING FOR VI-CONTROL!!!
In your VI setup, please be SPECIFIC with your geographic location as I'm setting up local networking/study groups

PLEASE! Use your complete name when setting up. I'm haveing a difficult time tracking everyone's "handle." Also, some have the same first name.

For your AVATAR, please post a picture of yourself. This helps build relationships in a global online community. As soon as my camera gets repaired from trying to take my last picture, I'll have mine posted.

If I can do it, you can do!

Peter



To Register please follow these steps:

1. Register for membership here at www.vi-control.net/forum. When registering, please add what city/state/province/country you're located in so we can, where possible, set up local networking/resource groups.

2. You'll need to order the class text, Professional Orchestration, book or PDF download, at this link:
http://professionalorchestration.com/titles/volume1.php

While at www.professionalorchestration.com, please take the time to read the section labeled SERIES OVERVIEW, and in White Papers, please read the three I have posted, as they're all germain to this class.

3. Once the text has been purchased, you'll be sent login info for the Naxos Music Library where we have specific playlists setup, and the major playlist for this class being setup.

Sometime after Thanksgiving in the US, you'll be sent a link to download the Professional Mentor syllabus/workbook.

4. The only outside materials you'll need are the Dover Scores to The Planets by Holst and Mozart Symphony #39. You can order these from Amazon if you don't already have them.

5. After you've purchased the text, please send us your login name by PM so we can set you up in the forum.

6. Once you enter the Professional Orchestration forum, please go to the thread labeled MY NAME, WHAT I SEQUENCE AND RECORD WITH, and add your name to the list. Please also add what instrument you play, your MIDI keyboard controller, and your sequencing software.

7. Please go to the thread labeled WHY I AM PARTICIPATING IN A PROFESSIONAL ORCHESTRATION CLASS, introduce yourself, and tell us your goals.

8. I will be posting a thread labeled: GUIDELINES FOR PROFESSIONAL CLASS CONDUCT & COMMUNICATION. After you've read the thread, please PM me that you've read it and accept it.

I am a coach. I am here to build into you, to encourage you, to help you reach your goals, and to help you build healthy professional networking relationships with other composers who have similar goals as you. We build people by encouraging them. We build ourselves by receiving encouragement and acting on positive critiques.

In this class, it is completely unacceptable to build yourself up by tearing others down. Anyone engaging in a disrespecting manner will be immediately dismissed.

This class is setup in a private forum so that class members can feel free to be themselves, ask questions and make comments. No post from the Professional Orchestration forum is to be copied and posted on any other forum on or off this site.

Everything you write you will record. Our goal for this Orchestration Class of the 21st Century is for you to create your first album with publishable pieces to accompany it.

Class offiicially starts, Monday December 11. In the meantime, I'll post starting work you can begin. These will be labeled pre-assignments. We'll do light work during December, but really dive in after January 1.

Throughout the class period, we will work out the details to post MP3s of your work and showcase that with a series of virtual concerts that we'll promote.

Finishing is completely voluntary, but those who do finish can move to level 2, Orchestrating the Melody in Each Orchestral Section beginning in early May.

A note, many of us here are parents. Many of us work two or more jobs to make ends meet. Things happen. If you can't finish by early April, but have a desire to, I'll work with you.

At the end of the class, I'm bringing in judges (details to be worked out after the holidays), and there will be three winners for an EastWest QLSO Platinum (First Place), Gold (Second Place), Silver (third) and eight winners of Tascam's NEW GVI. Prizes are provided by the supporting companies, not Alexander University, Inc.

NOTE: If you have the ORIGINAL Revised Rimsky-Korsakov's Principles of Orchestration by PETER ALEXANDER, you DO NOT need Professional Orchestration Volume 1. Instead, follow the registration guidelines here AND order the Naxos Music Library at http://www.truespec.com/naxos-music-library-p-670.html BEFORE December 1, 2006.

Jump in, learn, and above all, have fun.

Peter Alexander

[sbkp]

Peter Alexander @ Mon Nov 13, 2006 10:53 am wrote:

To Register:

I followed steps 1 through 7579 to the letter, but it didn't work. Since I live in California, should I have followed step 855(a) or 855(b)?

Or in other words...

[Peter Alexander]

sbkp @ Mon Nov 13, 2006 1:03 pm wrote:

Peter Alexander @ Mon Nov 13, 2006 10:53 am wrote:

To Register:

I followed steps 1 through 7579 to the letter, but it didn't work. Since I live in California, should I have followed step 855(a) or 855(b)?

Or in other words...

I have an email in to Fred. You got a link and a password.

It would be better for you to PM the results to Fred as I got it to work and so did one other person.

Maybe I did something wrong in the setup.

Peter

[sbkp]

Will do. My post here was in response to your empty post.

I'll PM Frederick. The link took me nowhere.

- Stefan

[Hannes_F]

Peter Alexander @ Mon Nov 13, 2006 6:53 pm wrote:

To Register:

I do not understand this post. Is there an invisible link anywhere?


Hannes

[synergy543]

You have to press the button on your Dick Tracy watch (the blue button)....then you can see it.

(notice, no smileys.....)

[Frederick Russ]

Anyone who has gotten the login info, please try it now. There were some problems in the setup - hopefully those have been dealt with. If not then please let me know here, thanks.

Also - very important - you need to refresh you browser and see if the changes took.

[JonFairhurst]

Still the same response... When I click on the link that Peter sent in a PM, Firefox takes me to the default forum page, and IE takes me to a page that says "The forum you selected does not exist."

The e-mail that you sent earlier about the "group" works fine though. I can see the group page with the members and various PM, e-mail and WWW links.

-JF

[Frederick Russ]

Okay the problem should be fixed now. Let me know, thanks.

[Dr.Quest]

Working Now.
Cheers,
Jamie

[mathis]

I still get this message:
"The forum you selected does not exist."

[mathis]

After deleting cookies I don't get this message anymore but it jumps simply to the forum start page. How come it works for others?

[mathis]

JonFairhurst @ Tue Nov 14, 2006 5:04 am wrote:

The e-mail that you sent earlier about the "group" works fine though. I can see the group page with the members and various PM, e-mail and WWW links.

I don't seem to have gotten this E-mail, can my problems come from lacking info through that?

[sbkp]

Try taking the "www." off the beginning of the URL. (not sure if I can post the URL here...)

Without the www, it works. With the www, it takes me to the forum index page.

[spoon]

hi
I have no problems...occasionally I have to type in the password 3 to 4 times but it works.

[mathis]

sbkp @ Wed Nov 15, 2006 1:33 am wrote:

Try taking the "www." off the beginning of the URL. (not sure if I can post the URL here...)

Without the www, it works. With the www, it takes me to the forum index page.

No difference.

[Jeff4h]

copy it into your url and erase the period at the end

[JonFairhurst]

Here's a tip on shipping: If you want Peter's Orchestration book quickly on the west coast, upgrade the shipping method from the USPS default. It took more than ten days for mine to arrive.

It's no problem for me, as I ordered well in advance of the start of the class, but if you put it off until the last minute, plan to pay a bit more for delivery.

I can't give USPS high marks for their quality. Rather than take the twelve extra steps to our front porch, the driver left it just outside the garage in the rain. To make matters worse, my wife ran it over on her way out!

Fortunately, the book is made of indestructonium, as it's in perfect condition! It is 842 8-1/2 x 11 inch pages (spiral bound, so it can lay flat) with the highest density of full score snippets that I have seen. (I have Adler, Fosythe and Blatter.) If this were print alone, I'd be quite intimidated, but with the Naxos Music Library subscription to accompany it, I can focus on reading the most important staves while having the rest for context - and I don't need a full notation sequencer in my head to "get it".

I can't wait to dig in!

But not until I finish writing my letter to USPS about our local driver. I'm sure glad that wan't fine china!

[khorv]

While at www.professionalorchestration.com, please take the time to read the section labeled SERIES OVERVIEW, and in White Papers, please read the three I have posted, as they're all germain to this class.


I don't see SERIES OVERVIEW on:

http://www.professionalorchestration.com/

[JonFairhurst]

khorv @ Wed Nov 29, 2006 6:00 pm wrote:

I don't see SERIES OVERVIEW...

It's hidden at the top of the list. (Don't worry about it. My wife loves to point out all of the things that seem invisible to me. )

Here's a direct link: http://www.professionalorchestration.com/titles/overview.php

[goodtimes]

What are the prereqs for this course. I'm excited to take it on, but I have no education in notation and nothing formal in music theory. However, I have been producing with Cubase(4yrs) and Ableton(1yr).

[synthetic]

I think music theory could be important. Can you read a score? Can you identify the melody, figure out what chord the strings are playing, write out a G dominant 7th chord with a third in the bass? Peter can correct me, but this seems to be the sort of thing we'll be doing.

If you haven't looked at a score before, I found some public domain (free) Rachmaninoff scores here (check out Piano Concerto #2, great piece):

http://www.sheetmusicarchive.net/single_listing.cfm?composer_id=54

[JonFairhurst]

Hi Goodtimes,

Peter is focussing on listening and writing for specific instruments using MIDI samples. You don't need to read music for that. On the other hand, the book is probably 80% - 90% notation. If you can't read along, it could be frustrating.

I don't sightread worth a darn, but I can follow the orchestration in a score, and I can notate music - well, slowly. If you're in this camp you should be fine. If you really can't read music at all, I would think that you would be better served studying notation and basic music theory first. (BTW, the college music theory class that I took was as much about notation as anything. We did spend some time on pure theory, but almost always in the context of notation.)

Anyway, that's my opinion. Peter can offer the best guidance for your decision.

[goodtimes]

hmmm. Well, all those are things I know I should do but haven't. I guess the question is - will it be possible for me to learn notation and scoring at the same time?

If so, how can I prime myself before the class starts?

[JonFairhurst]

goodtimes @ Thu Nov 30, 2006 1:25 pm wrote:

If so, how can I prime myself before the class starts?

One option is to take piano lessons. You will be force fed notation, improve your chops and have somebody to whom you can ask questions.

Maybe others can offer a text or online resource for learning notation and theory.

[Sepheritoh]

I registered for the course and is waiting for Peter to reply to my PM. In the mean while can somebody tell me what is the required software? Is Sibelius or Finale required? I use Sonar 6 with GPO that includes Overture. Would that be good enough or should I get EWQL? Are there special prices for students of this course?

[JonFairhurst]

Sepheritoh @ Sat Dec 02, 2006 12:54 pm wrote:

I registered for the course and is waiting for Peter to reply to my PM. In the mean while can somebody tell me what is the required software? Is Sibelius or Finale required? I use Sonar 6 with GPO that includes Overture. Would that be good enough or should I get EWQL? Are there special prices for students of this course?

Peter hasn't said anything about Sibelius of Finale being required. Sonar and Overture should do the trick.

Regarding sample libs, we're going to be hearing exposed and refined lines from a variety of libs. Personally, I'm waiting to hear the various libs in detail, and am saving up until then. There may be some new stuff announced/released at NAMM as well. Not that EWQL is a bad way to go. But you might hear some other stuff that suits your taste better - or not!

[Sepheritoh]

Thanks Jon

That sounds like great news. For sound libs I am waiting in agony for the GPO advanced to be released soon. I have been using GPO with Sonar for some time and and is happy with the sound. However your advice on waiting to hear the various libs and making a choice then sounds like great advice. Thanks.

[Sepheritoh]

Does anybody know if this course is still going on?

It has been a few days now since I paid for it and has not yet received any response. Is Peter OK. Is this just a temporary glitch?

[spoon]

hi
äh, the course hasn´t even started yet.

I think the official start will be next monday.

Please ask Peter for details.

[Peter Alexander]

Sepheritoh @ Tue Dec 05, 2006 4:31 am wrote:

Does anybody know if this course is still going on?

It has been a few days now since I paid for it and has not yet received any response. Is Peter OK. Is this just a temporary glitch?

It's called "please be patient" as I get everything setup. Also, there is no charge for the course, which other wise would be a separate fee. There was only the required text.

PA

[synthetic]

I think he reduced it to one for each of the ranges (low, med, high, very high). The first one took me a while since I'm not used to reading transposing instruments anymore. Is it possible to erase more than you write?

[myles]

Signing up

[Robert Farrell]

See you on Monday. Added EWQLSO to sample library. Just getting started with it.

[Minimoog4]

I ordered the text this a.m. and wish to register for the online orchestration course. I'm not terribly proficient with computers, so would appreciate advice on how to proceed. In the meantime, I'll keep digging. Thanks, Minimoog4