LEVEL UP your orchestration skills with these 5 hacks!

there are so many orchestration hack videos out there each and promising a trick or a tip or a shortcut to Great orchestration without too much work but which video is the right one which one has the best information so what have we done to fix this information overload well we've just added another one but we can definitely promise you with absolute certainty that this one contains the best five orchestration hacks on the planet [Music] foreign [Applause] doubling instruments the most basic concept of orchestration and the most common technique doubling is really simple it's two or more instruments or sections of the same instrument playing the same part there are a couple of reasons why we do this the obvious one but it sounds good one of the most common doublings is having the flutes and violins played together in the higher register the addition of the flutes to the violins gives you a wonderful flowing quality to a line and it makes the violins a bit more choir-like it's so common in fact that we even have samples of the doubling with the flutes and violins recorded in the room together thank you very cool sound but they're not limited to playing in unison another common doubling is having the flutes and octave above the violins now this really makes the violins float but without the need for them to play at the extremes of their register [Music] we'll give you a few more doublings horns and cellos is a super common combination this combination sounds great because they blend so well in the middle of their registers plus they have real weight and power if you want a Melody to blast its way through the orchestra this is another doubling that's so common that we've sampled them together [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] thank you however the combination of horns with the strings isn't just for epic music they work really well at softer Dynamics too I've got another example here that starts with the cellos and a solo horn in unison and then the violas and the horn section play the second half of the tune as the violas also blend really well in their lower register with the horns [Music] Okay so we've seen some stuff that combines in order to really make a part stand out and give a melody or musical pattern more texture we can take that effect one level further to create really original blends of sounds let's look at one of my favorite examples of this doubling a flute oboe and clarinet together to melt them into some sort of woodwind Hydra what we've got here again is a patch where they've been playing sample together playing staccato there are two parts so we can imagine one Flute one oboe and one clarinet on the first part and the second flute second oboe and second clarinet players on the second part it's a cool way of coming up with something different for the woodwind section this Trio of instruments doesn't need to just play rhythmic stuff though they can also combine to play a melody in unison they form a really fascinating blend because you can never quite tell which one is shining through sometimes it's a bit more flute-like sometimes the oboe pokes out but together they're kind of like a new instrument [Music] what's really interesting about this combination is that they don't even have to play in unison to create this new timbrel effect even if the flute and the oboe play in harmony or in a melody and chords together they can still fuse together somehow have a listen to this example where the winds are playing a melody in parallel chords [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] and then just to finish this off we've got a doubling that isn't in our standard sections of the orchestra harp doubled with vibraphone by the way as the harp is a sort of special instrument we have a video on it that you can check out but let's listen to the final example for doubling before we move on combining the harp with a vibraphone creates a texture that has an intriguing sound foreign [Music] how to best describe interlocking interlocking is an arrangement technique it's a way of Distributing pitches across various instruments let's make that a bit clearer we have different ways that we can arrange a chord the normal way would be to distribute pitches from high to low in score order so in the woodwinds that will be starting with the flutes then the oboes then clarinet and then lastly bassoons so in this example the highest note is on Flute one then the next on flute 2 descending down to OBO one oboe 2 clarinet 1 clarinet 2 bassoon one and so on but we don't have to arrange every chord or every passage like that in score order there are three other ways of arranging the parts the first is that we can literally interlock the parts of the two sections so to use a simple case of two flutes and two oboes the order would be Flute one OBO one flute two oboe 2. this is probably the most common way that we change the arrangement of the woodwinds and provided we aren't picking notes that really stick out in the register of each instrument or notes that don't sound or speakers easily the result here is that there's not as much distinction between the two sections and the chord feels more homogenous the second way that we can mess around with the woodwind Arrangement is by enclosing one part within another so in this case the order would be Flute one OBO one oboe 2 flute 2. this can work well but again you just have to be aware of which register you're using and whether things are sounding unbalanced as a result [Music] and the last is very simple it's just where one instrument overlaps with another so in a chord we have Flute one on top flute two below but oboe 1 would play the same note as flute 2 and oboe 2 would be below in an example with just these four you'll find that the middle tone sticks out a bit but imagine this across the whole section where every note of a chord is doubled up and then there will be a bit more balance [Music] of course you don't have to use these all one by one they can all combine so one chord could be interlocking the next overlapping the next enclosed or whichever way you like [Music] and to make the point a bit better music isn't always just chords you can have lines and moving parts and still make use of these principles to create interesting Textures in your music laughs that was a short example where the bassoons enclosed the clarinet and it has a nice choir-like feeling to it we can look at the same Melody with an interlocking example where each instrument is less distinct and more homogenous in texture even when they're playing separate lines and to finish this interlocking section off another very common and very useful tip the combination of french horns and bassoons [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] the horns are like the bridge between the woodwinds and the brass and when you combine them you can make bassoons sound like horns so if you're orchestrating for two horns and two bassoons then you don't need to worry when you need three or four notes in a chord for the horns the bassoons will sort you out foreign [Music] now this Arrangement sounds all right but it can definitely be more creative and maybe more original so how can we add a bit of punch and texture to what's going on we can do this by combining the parts with other instruments first combination strings and marimba together so the marimba there is just playing the quarter note beats of the same pattern as the violas and it's a cool sound that beefs up and accents the strings a bit we can do something very similar in a higher register on the violins by adding a xylophone hmm it's not common and the xylophone can end up sticking out a bit if you're not careful but something like this works really well but that's not all I've done here I'm sharing my personal favorite here low flute like Alto flutes or bass flutes in combination with staccato violas or violins adding the flutes gives you this chiffy but kind of murky addition to the strings which is a really cool texture okay one more then it's not all about short notes or epic music you can still have creative orchestration in soft music as well now one of my favorite combinations is adding vibraphone to the starts of tremolo string nodes tremolo strings might not always have a distinct attack especially if you're playing softly adding the vibraphones gives them that attack [Music] thank you dovetailing [Music] dovetailing is a way of joining different parts together overlapping them in a way so that they connect up and everything flows better let's have a look at how you might do this on a string Passage we have an ascending figure starting in the Chelly then moving to the violas and then the violins each section in this example is clearly defined the change from Chile to violas and violister violins is really obvious but what if we want to have the impression of the whole string section doing the run without the obvious blocks well we need to overlap the starts and ends of each part if the Celly carry on for a couple of Beats and then the viola start a bit earlier and so on then they overlap much better and they blend together have a listen to what that's like [Music] [Applause] we can do this with sustain notes or melodic Parts too let's look at an example on the woodwinds here's the part with no dovetailing now the first thing that we always want to do is give some musicality to the line and that means adding the downbeats on the final bar of each part and just overlapping the last note with the first note of another part like this this has a subtle effect but it's there it feels connected up and it makes more sense for the musicians if we don't want things to be so obviously a new part or a new instrument then we can disguise things by overlapping the parts and Feathering out the dovetailing [Music] we can also do what we just did here for the strings too well there you go there are my five favorite orchestration tips for you wait that was only four well we have been a bit sneaky here there is a fifth tip but only those of you who've watched this far are gonna get it and I promise you it's a good one click here to watch this secret video with our fifth and final orchestration tip and let us know in the comments what your favorite orchestration techniques are so see you over on the fifth hack video [Music]

Channel: Virtual Orchestration

Views: 46,238

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Id: JW0QnmzWUlY

Length: 15min 52sec (952 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 04 2023