Help with writing Theme Music orchestration
Hi there.
I've been using Musescore for almost a year now and I've created a theme for a video I'm working on. I have scored the opening section and I'd like to have the second section be a faster, orchestral version of the first section with a military feel to it. I'm thinking snares, bass and brass but I don't know how to score the individual instruments.
I have some music theory training from my piano days, but I'd like some help with the orchestration. Can someone point me to a resource on how to learn this, or would someone like to collaborate?
Thanks!
Statik
Comments
Could you clarify what you mean? What is it that you don't understand?
In reply to Could you clarify what you by rj45
I understand music notation, harmonies, etc. but I don't understand what portion or harmonies are commonly carried by different instruments to get that sort of feel.
For instance, what do the horns normally play? What horns should be there? The bass drum would normally do a simple pattern on the down beat with an ornamentation every 4 bars or so, but I'm not really sure how to build on my theme to arrive at a full orchestration.
I downloaded the Star Trek TNG theme and loaded it up in muse score, but with 20+ individual lines, I was a little overwhelmed. I'm still searching the net for a tutorial on how to build up a score from my theme.
In reply to I understand music notation, by Statik
and I have used many, but in my experience, the most i have learned is by finding the "sounds" I like and doing lifts, direct from recordings. More work but more value, I find.
Regards,
One of the more practical books I've found is "Arranging Music for the Real World," on Amazon at this URL.
The book comes with a CD that is really intended to be listened-to right along with each example as it comes up in the text, and doing so helps a lot.
Not being a commercial arranger myself, it also occurs to me that maybe you could "audition" the various instruments with MuseScore itself. Look online to find the appropriate ranges for the various instruments (also noticing the "red notes" warnings of MuseScore), select the sound-font you intend to use, and score a few passages of the various lines, then listen to see what sounds good to you. Try different things out, taking care to add things to your various working documents and not to throw information away. (You might want to listen to it again, after all, and having put it together once, you may as well keep it. In fact, I've rather gotten into the habit that I never throw anything at all away, ever.)
Sound fonts seem to have a lot of variations in them ... velocity, pressure, and so on ... so there's room to experiment, not only with what notes are played, but how they are played. I'd really try to let your ear drive the process...