Study Instrument Registers

Study Instrument Registers Just as important as knowing the ranges of the instruments that you are writing for you should also have a clear idea about their registers and dynamic possibilities of them in these registers. There are a few charts out there which show one...

Natural Phrasing of Brass Sustains

Natural Phrasing of Brass Sustains Orchestral Brass players will always execute a natural decrescendo on sustained notes unless otherwise indicated by special dynamics. Many sample libraries come with absolutely flat sustains on the brass (in order to be loopable) and...

“Bells up” on French Horns

“Bells Up” on French Horns For French Horns there is quite often seen in score sheets a request to put the “Bells up” which is supposed to give them some extra volume and brassyness. Even some sample patches are available that cover this technique. Among...

“Simile” Mark in Film Scoring

“Simile” Mark in Film Scoring When you’re writing a score sheet, especially when for a film score, rather prefer to use the word “simile” or “sim.” (meaning “in the same way”) where you can instead of articulating/marking everything. This has a massively...

Dynamic Shaping of Sustained Brass

Dynamic Shaping of Sustained Brass Brass instruments have the greatest timbral change over their dynamic spectrum. Therefore swells, crescendos, sffz, fp are highly dramatic and very effective on them. If you use long sustained brass chords or tones on key parts of...