May 24, 2019 | Daily Film Scoring Bits, Orchestration
Ten Seconds per Texture The ear/brain needs about ten seconds to adjust to and digest a new musical texture so changing orchestration colours roughly in that tempo is something that feels quite natural/interesting and is easy to digest for our brain. However using...
Feb 15, 2019 | Daily Film Scoring Bits, Orchestration
Highest Note in a Chord In well balanced orchestral chords consisting of several instrumental colours (e.g. a chord that is orchestrated in the woodwind section) the instrument on the highest note will dominate its colour impression. This means that even in a chord...
Feb 8, 2019 | Daily Film Scoring Bits, Orchestration
Doubling Woodwinds Woodwinds usually sound more brillant and characteristic when they’re playing solistically instead of doubling the same instruments in unison. For example 3 flutes playing a line in unison in generally sound thicker and slightly louder than a solo...
Dec 14, 2018 | Daily Film Scoring Bits, Orchestration
OVER-ORchestration Even though you have a lot of instruments at your fingertips when writing for orchestra, that doesn’t mean they have to be all in use all the time. A lot of inexperienced composers and orchestrators often “over-orchestrate” staying for long in a...
Oct 19, 2018 | Daily Film Scoring Bits, Orchestration
Harmonizing Melodic Key Motifs If you have a melody for example in the trumpets (it works in any melodic writing but it is most prominent on brass themes), it creates a very nice colour to harmonize the melody on key motifs or phrases. Coming from all trumpets playing...
