Category: Orchestration

A short video demonstrating the sound of doubling, in unison, various combinations of instruments. I thought this video would make a useful reference. The instrument combinations demonstrated in the video are:

Brass & Woodwinds

• Trumpet + Oboe -or- Flute -or- Clarinet
• French Horn + Clarinet -or- Bassoon
• Trombone + Bassoon -or- Bass Clarinet
• Tuba + Bassoon

Woodwinds & Strings

• Violins + Oboe -or- Flute -or- Piccolo
• Violas + Oboe -or- English Horn -or- Clarinet -or- Bassoon
• Cellos + Clarinet -or- Bass Clarinet -or- Bassoon
• Double Bass + Bassoon -or- Bass Clarinet

Strings & Brass

• Violins + Trumpets
• Violas + French Horn
• Cellos + French Horn
• Cellos & Double Bass + Trombone & Tuba

Strings & Woodwinds & Brass

• Violins + Oboes + Trumpets
• Violas + Clarinets + French Horns

Doubling Orchestral Instruments (by Global Composers Network)

To me, this is a great video from Pete Whitfield showing essential ways to create realistic string parts. It covers:

• Voicing of the chords –  to help break away from the limits of initially performing a string part on a piano. You can only spread your fingers so far on the piano but a string section has no such restriction and can play chord voicings that you can’t play on a piano.
• Sustained notes – if one a note from one chord does not change when playing the next chord (for example, playing C E G, then C F A), make it one long note. A real player would sustain the note rather than playing it twice.
• Passing notes – instead of just playing one chord note and then playing the next chord note, add a note in between to lead one note to the next. For example, if you are playing a G, and the next note in your chord progression is a C above that G, perhaps add in a short B note just before the C.
• Scale fragments – going beyond passing notes, consider playing part of a scale to move from one note to the next.

These are just some of the paraphrased ideas presented in the video below. This video is about the string parts themselves. As a result it leaves out one more essential tip. To make your string library sound more realistic, when moving from one sustained note to the next, ensure the midi notes overlap a little. The first note should end a little late and the next note should start a little early. A real string player allows one note to flow into the next. There is no hard break between the notes so the midi notes need to overlap.

Introduction To String Arranging – Pete Whitfield

This is a 5 minute video by Alan Belkin that takes a short piece of music consisting of a melody with accompanying counterpoint written for flute and trombone and shows how to break it up to be played by a full string section, woodwinds and timpani. The point of the video is to show what makes for good orchestration.

What is good orchestration by Alan Belkin

Garritan Interactive Principles of Orchestration by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov is the place where I went to begin studying orchestration. This offers the free “Interactive Edition of Principles of Orchestration based upon Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov’s celebrated text”.

This provides easy to follow tutorials on how to use, mix, and match all the orchestral instruments with animated conductor score examples in each lesson.

I read through the entire course before I started doing anything with orchestration and I took a lot of notes. I intend to revisit the tutorials and see them again with a more experienced perspective.