Orchestration Masterclass, Part 1: The Strings and The Winds

Every aspect of composing for the orchestra whether you are working with real players or sampled orchestra libraries.

4.60 (181 reviews)
Udemy
platform
English
language
Music Techniques
category
instructor
1,405
students
5 hours
content
Feb 2023
last update
$69.99
regular price

What you will learn

Compose music for the strings and for the winds

The unique properties of every instrument in the orchestra

How writing for the orchestra works, including scores, parts, shared parts, and more.

Making your synthesized orchestrations sounds great!

Description

This course is certified 5-stars by the International Association of Online Music Educators and Institutions.

100% Answer Rate! Every single question posted to this class is answered within 24 hours by the instructor.

Are you a music maker, performer, composer, or aspiring songwriter looking to up your game? This is the place to start.

It's time to learn orchestration to give your music the power, the passion, and the prodigiousness that it deserves.

Orchestration is the study of each instrument in the orchestra, how they work, how to write for them, and how each instrument collides with the others to make new sounds. Think of it like painting: The orchestra is your palette of colors. But you don't want to just mix them all together. You need to understand some principles of mixing those colors together before you put your brush on canvas.

In this series of classes we are going to work on three things: 

  • Instrumentation: Knowing how all of the instruments in the orchestra work, and how to write for them in an idiomatic way.

  • Composition: Using the orchestra to write powerful music. Learning how to blend the different sounds of the orchestra to make a new, unique, sound.

  • Synthestration: Using common production software (Ableton Live, FL Studio, Logic Pro, Pro Tools, Cubase, etc.) to create a realistic orchestra sound using sample libraries.

In this first class, "Part 1: The Strings and The Winds" we are going to focus entirely on instrumentation - learning how to write for the strings (violin, viola, cello, bass/contrabass) and the winds (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and saxophone).

If you don't know me, I've published a lot of classes here. Those classes have been really successful (top sellers, in fact!), and this has been one of the most requested class that my students (over 1,000,000 of them) have asked for. I'm really excited to finally be able to bring this to you.


Here is a list of some of the topics we will cover:

  • Transposition

  • Score Order

  • Tips for Reading Scores

  • Preparing Parts for Players

  • Page Turns and Cues

  • Bowing

  • Pizzicato

  • Double Stops

  • The Violin

  • The Viola

  • The Cello

  • The Bass

  • String Effects

  • Harmonics

  • Col Legno

  • Ponticello

  • Glissando

  • Vibrato

  • Scordatura

  • The Winds

  • Sustained Tones and Breathing

  • Tonguing and Rhythm

  • Types of Flutes

  • Types of Oboes

  • Types of Clarinets

  • The Break in the Clarinet

  • Types of Bassoons

  • Types of Saxophones

  • Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Bari Saxophone, and Soprano Saxophone

  • Woodwind Effects

  • Multiphonics

  • And Much, Much, More!


My Promise to You:

I am a full-time Music composer and Educator. If you have any questions please post them in the class or send me a direct message. I will respond within 24 hours. And if you find this class isn't for you, I am more than happy for you to take advantage of the 30-day money-back guarantee. No questions asked.


What makes me qualified to teach you?

In addition to being a composer and educator,  I also have a Ph.D. in music, I am a university music professor, and have a long list of awards for teaching.

But more importantly: I use this stuff every day. I write music professionally, I am an active guitarist, and I stay on top of all the latest production techniques, workflows, and styles. As you will see in this class, I just love this stuff. And I love teaching it.

Let's get started! 

See you in lesson 1.

All best,

Jason (but call me Jay...)

Content

Welcome and Introduction

Introduction
What is Orchestration?
What is Instrumentation?
What is Synthestration?
Ranges and Synthestration
Suggested Texts
The Format of this class
My Orchestra Music

The Score

Big Beautiful Scores
Transposition
Instrument Order
Rehearsal Letters and Numbers
Tips for Reading Scores

Instrument Parts

Shared Parts, and "Desks"
Page Turns
Cues

Transposition

What is Transposition?
Why Do we Do that?
Muti-key Instruments
Some Sneaky Tricks Around Transposition

The Orchestral Strings

Instruments in the "orchestral strings" section
Bowings
Pizzicato
Fatigue
Multiple Stops
The Violin: Range and Sound
The Viola: Range and Sound
The Cello: Range and Sound
The Bass (Contrabass): Range and Sound
The String Section
String Effects
Harmonics
Mutes
Col Legno
Ponticello
Glissando
Vibrato
Scordatura

The Woodwinds

How These Work
Sustained Notes and Breathing
Tonguing and Rhythm
Transpositions!
The Types of Flutes
The Flutes: Range and Sound
The Types of Oboes
The Oboe: Range and Sound
The Types of Clarinets
The Clarinet: Range and Sound
The Break!
The Types of Bassoons
The Bassoon: Range and Sound
The Types of Saxophones
The Alto Saxophone: Range and Sound
The Tenor Saxophone: Range and Sound
The Baritone Saxophone: Range and Sound
The Soprano Saxophone: Range and Sound
Special Woodwind Effects
Key Clicks and Air and Mutes
Multiphonics

Wrap Up

What Comes Next?
Thanks For Watching!
Bonus Lecture

Screenshots

Orchestration Masterclass, Part 1: The Strings and The Winds - Screenshot_01Orchestration Masterclass, Part 1: The Strings and The Winds - Screenshot_02Orchestration Masterclass, Part 1: The Strings and The Winds - Screenshot_03Orchestration Masterclass, Part 1: The Strings and The Winds - Screenshot_04

Reviews

Willard
July 27, 2023
As always with Jay's courses he feels more like someone you are having a meaningful chat with that your typical tutor. I like that a lot and that's why I learn so much from his classes. He and Thomas Goss on youtube are my single most important resources for orchestration and music theory.
Michael
July 11, 2023
Great course, have a bachelors in music with a focus on composition. Covid began during my orchestration classes in college and I feel like it hurt my orchestration study’s, this has been an amazing class to review and reapproach the subject of orchestration. I can truely say this is very close to if not as good as the college level courses I took for my BA. Great instructor!
Whitney
February 5, 2023
Definitely. I'm a recording artist and I want to use some orchestral instruments on my next album, so I'm excited to learn how to do that.
David
January 1, 2023
was a very interesting lecture will be getting part 2 soon a really good in sight into the layout of the orchestra very pleased thanks have learnt a lot
Elizabeth
April 29, 2022
I have a music degree from Berklee College of Music, however, it's been several years and I'm using your 3 courses as a refresher.
Hayden
April 29, 2022
Yes, so far, but really looking forward to synthestration techniques as my main interest is composing digital music
R
April 9, 2022
Presentation is everything, and this course is not presented well. It seems quickly put together and weak on content. The strings section has no classes on staccato or spiccato which are common and integral techniques. The woodwind section lacks sections on altissimo and staccatissimo. It shows unfamiliarity with the subject matter that a college level course would not leave out. I'm also surprised there is no pdf material to support the course. Overall this course needs to be remade to better provide the material promised. There's no excuse for the low quality of production and lack of essential concepts. The instructor says this is the equivalent of college level courses, but I would drop any class that was this poorly constructed and presented.
Robert
March 22, 2022
I didn't learn much from this course only because I already knew most of the instruments. I did learn something I did not know which was how to read a score. Since I am an electronic musician using solely samples I would have no need to do that. I do not mean to imply that the professor was in any way deficient. He definitely was not deficient. He's very very good. It's simply that I knew most of these things. I believe I will benefit the most from part 3. I will however take part 2. Congratulations on producing something really great for us.
Alberto
February 27, 2022
He goes slowly and looks like he has doubth on the topic. At least, that's the feeling I get from him
Jenna
February 8, 2022
Learned so much, great that he's explaining the context first before getting into the details of the instrument groups. It would be great if he could play samples of the instrument ranges as he is talking about them
Emma
February 7, 2022
Jason's classes are super clear to follow. I'm using his courses to supplement my learning at a conservatoire. V highly recommended.
Julie
February 4, 2022
I am so excited to learn about orchestration! Jason Allen is a down-to-earth, highly qualified music teacher. This course is like sitting down with your favorite teacher on zoom and having him talk directly to you. I guess I didn't read the description carefully enough... This is only Part 1 of a series. Now that I'm done with this course, I see it stated in the description that it's a series. But, I had assumed I would be learning about the ranges of ALL of the instruments instead of just strings and woodwinds. So just be aware that more course purchases will be necessary to give you the tools you need to compose for an orchestra.
Paul
February 1, 2022
So far it is fantastic! I really hope that you will develop that course on synthestration too! Absolutely fascinating, and very much needed!
Jon
January 31, 2022
Very fun attitude from this teacher, great information and direct experiences with working with orchestras. Really fascinating.

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4521266
udemy ID
1/28/2022
course created date
1/30/2022
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