# Suggested reading for orchestration details



## mickeyl (Nov 19, 2015)

Hi,

I'm a (hobby) musician composing and arranging mainly pop & wave stuff. Just recently though my interested turned to classical orchestration (both as supporting score for films and "standalone"). I've read a bunch on the subject of instruments, how they sound, what articulations they can play, and the lot, however what I'm still missing is some kind of guidelines as to how to best _use_ them in the musical context to get a harmonic wide spectrum sound and to transport emotion.

Could you recommend any books that contains hints in the style of

"If you want to reach a suspense effect, let the high strings play tremolo and double with flutes playing trills", or
"For lyrical melodies use a violin and double with a viola (8va)".
or am I thinking too shallow and this would get into cookbook style? Perhaps there is none of that and I need to learn through analysis of existing pieces?

Let me add one right away... I've found some of the combination hints in the HALion Symphonica Orchestra PDF (publically available at HALion Symphonic Orchestra — Operation Manual - FTP ...), but this is pretty brief.

Thanks.


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## Lassi Tani (Nov 19, 2015)

Have you visited this site: https://www.vsl.co.at/en/Academy/Instrumentology

Also this is quite good: http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/forumdisplay.php/77-Principles-of-Orchestration-Online


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## JohnG (Nov 19, 2015)

If you want to learn how to orchestrate for live instruments, look no further than the John Williams Signature Series scores. Just a few of those (one, even) has more stuff to learn from than many orchestration textbooks.



mickeyl said:


> am I thinking too shallow and this would get into cookbook style?



That is a risk, but until one knows the "cookbook" techniques it's hard to experiment successfully. So, no, I don't think it's a bad risk. 

You could look at Alexander Publishing's materials, which I understand actually do go into some of these cookbook techniques. I don't own them but you can tell from the menu.

If your goal is midi orchestration only, that actually changes things considerably. Many orchestral doubles that work well with real instruments don't come off as well in midi, for example. Plus if you want you can have 30 French Horns in midi. Never heard that live.

I like the orchestration book by Sam Adler but I am not sure that it (plus the essential CDs / MP3s) are as available as they once were. It's an awesome book and, unlike some, gives both amateur and professional ranges. That's very important.


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## Darthmorphling (Nov 19, 2015)

Alexander Publishing's Virtual Orchestration 1 and 2 are both really great and explain a lot of the basic techniques in a very digestible manner. the Scoring Stages videos are wonderful as well. I don't own any of his books.

Mike Verta's Master classes are probably the easiest to digest, while being very beneficial. He has a couple of free ones. He is a rather controversial individual so be warned you may get offended at something, but it's worth it at the end


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## bcarwell (Nov 19, 2015)

Also:
1) Project Sam tutorials (about 10 or 12 on Youtube) on various emotions. Done with Orchestral Essentials but generalizable to you libs.
2) Thinkspace.com has a "blueprints" course on mocking up "standard" 10 or 12 emotions
(suspense, film noir, comedy, etc.). I have no affiliation with them and no dog in the hunt.

Bob


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## wpc982 (Nov 19, 2015)

Surely the cookbook style is going to give you at best medium-well-done steak. If you want it rare, you have to use your accumulated knowledge and experience and examination of scores done by masters. If you are a beginner, imo, work on developing your musical inspirations first before working on how to cook by recipe. It is so easy to imagine some beginning composer writing whole note chord progressions and then assigning them to "high strings, tremolo, suspense please".


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## JohnG (Nov 21, 2015)

wpc982 said:


> If you are a beginner, imo, work on developing your musical inspirations first before working on how to cook by recipe.



While I appreciate the motivation behind this admonition, I disagree. Too many new composers wallow around without knowing basic orchestration.

I think that's a waste of time for someone who wants to work and make a living at music -- you have to know how you can achieve the sound you want quickly.


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## LondonMike (Nov 21, 2015)

If you can read music and follow an orchestral score, you may benefit by learning techniques of the great masters of orchestration (IMO). Ravel, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Mahler, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky and plenty of others. 
When you hear a passage you like the sound of, study the instrumentation of it and copy the ideas!
Let's face it, a lot of John Williams et al was already done many times over by Holst and those cited above. 

Since you're a hobbyist you only have to please yourself so you're not restrained by what is 'expected' from you and can explore and experiment.


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## JimmyPoppa (Nov 22, 2015)

Here are some cookbook tutorials:

https://www.macprovideo.com/tutorial/music-scoring-101-creating-moods-and-styles

http://www.filmmusicinstitute.com/fmi2110-2120.html





http://mikeverta.com/wordpress/category/masterclasses/

http://www.timusic.net/blog/introduction/#.VlJyJnarT0M

http://orchestrasounds.com/

http://musiccomptech.blogspot.com/

http://www.midi-orchestration.net/

There's a lot more out there if you dig around.

Hope these help.

Be Well,

Jimmy


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## mickeyl (Nov 23, 2015)

Great stuff all over the place, if you know where to look. Thanks a lot, that'll keep me busy for a while. I'll report how it worked out with all these resources in that very thread (could take a bit though . If you can think of anything else in the meantime, please let it coming.


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## just2high (Nov 23, 2015)

Also Orchestration Online a blog by Thomas Goss and he recently released an orchestration tips ebook available on his blog:

http://orchestrationonline.com/


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