In this video, I'll share five orchestration
tips that will help you overcome that feeling of having too many choices, make your writing
more effective, and save you time so you can write and finish more music. Stick around for
number four, because it completely changed my composing process. Number one is about voicing
chords in the woodwinds. This comes from the book, "Project Lessons in Orchestration" by
Arthur E. Heacox. The problem with the woodwind section is that it's made up of a
whole bunch of different timbres or sounds, unlike the strings which sound pretty consistent
all the way from the basses up to the violins. Woodwinds don't blend as well. One solution is
to think of your clarinets and bassoons as the string quartet of the woodwinds. Clarinets and
bassoons have a warm and rather mellow sound. The oboe and flute on the other hand, especially the
oboe, tend to draw more attention to themselves. In his course, "Secrets of Orchestration," Rovshan
Asgarzade calls the oboe "The Naughty Boy of the Orchestra," which is probably the best line from
an orchestration course ever. But what he's really saying is that the oboe doesn't really blend
well with other timbres and tends to stick out. Let your oboe and flute be the Divas who carry the
melody and use your clarinets and bassoons for the harmonic support. You'll have a reliable formula
for using Woodwinds that works pretty often. Of course, as you get more advanced, you'll
move away from this, but as a starting-off point when you don't know what to do with
the winds and still have a lot to learn, it's a handy shortcut. This brings us to Tip
Number Two. This is from my own observations: I used to think that you wanted as much
contrast as possible between your melody and your accompaniment. So, if the melody is on
the violin but the chords in the woodwinds, or if the melodies on the trumpet but the chords on the
strings, eventually, I found that the opposite of this is actually common and effective. Instead
of always going for contrast, you can actually get effective support from similar timbres. If
your melody is on the violin, try supporting it with the lower strings, or have an oboe
supported by clarinets and bassoons. As we saw earlier, if you've got a melody on the trumpets,
try giving the chords to trombone [Applause]. The next tip is about percussion, and it's
something I've covered in a whole video, so I'm not going to spend too much time on it.
It comes from Samuel Adler's book, "The Study of Orchestration," and from studying John Williams's
scores. John Williams's music is very energetic, rhythmic, and propulsive, and is able to do
that without relying on the percussion section to provide a groove [Music]. Instead of treating
the percussion section like a drum set, he uses the percussion for support and color. I'll put
a card up here and a link in the description for my video about how John Williams uses percussion
in the "Star Wars: Force Awakens" score, because a lot of beginners tell me they don't know what
to do with percussion. That video should help. This next tip is the one that completely changed
my approach to writing music. It comes from Alain Mayrand of Score Club, and specifically his
course, "Orchestrating the Line." One of the first lessons in this amazing course is to completely
mark up your line before you start orchestrating. He has a whole six-step process, including dynamic
markings and articulations. It sounds simple, but if you take the time to really think about how
your music will be expressed and performed, you'll not only make it more effective and musical,
but you will also solve a lot of important orchestration questions right there in your
sketch. For example, if you accent a specific high point in the melody, this might suggest that you
should support that note with a thickened line. Not only do you end up with better lines, but
you also end up with a much more refined and crafted orchestration. You're no longer just
stacking layers like, "Okay, here's my melody, now I'll put the chords underneath, now I'll put
some rhythmic support." Instead, you're thinking about how the music is expressed linearly over
time and you end up with much more sophisticated results. I was always caught by this flute part
in the "Mother Goose Suite" and wondered how Ravel chose to only have it play two notes in
the entire phrase. After understanding how the orchestration is supporting the line, in this case
the crescendo and decrescendo, it all made sense. Tip number five is another one that comes
from Arthur Heacox, and it's about how to get a full and rich sound in any section of the
orchestra. Start by harmonizing your melody as a four-part chorale. For example, this chorale
arrangement on piano will sound great on strings, woodwinds, or brass. But this is just
the beginning. You can then use this as a foundation and double up in higher and
lower octaves to create a huge orchestral sound. To learn how to do this with the
strings and create something truly epic, you need to watch this video here, where we
start with a four-part chorale and build our way up step by step to a massive result. Thanks
for watching! I'll see you in the next one.
