Orchestral Fundamentals - Instruments & Their Roles

Software used:
MuseScore 4
Kdenlive

[@Hugo-pf9cm]

Thanks, Andrew! Very clear and concise explanation. Just how I like it 👍 I'll be glad to hear about the percussion section 😉 Thank you very much 🙏

[@stevenpittman8668]

This was fantastic. Thank you so much 🙏🏿

[@davidpickens6916]

I’ve heard some great Bassoon solo locally…

[@profundus8946]

Awesome guideline video!

[@robertrhea3365]

Excellent explanation - Thank you!

[@mikes_work]

Helped me a lot, thank tou

[@JudgeFredd]

Great video - the sounds come from MuseScore too ?

[@andrewbversfeld]

Yes. Muse score has some great soundfonts.

[@jrtspace7945]

I want to clarify something myself out of something you said at 10:50 , You said that you dont need to divide up violins. But in reality you dont 'need' to divisi any instrument in the string section, However you made it sound like divisi on the Violins is stupid, but it aint, Its Really Common Actually for all of the strings(Except less common for Contrabasses), Either way Divisi also dont of course mean just doubling the octave, they can be entirely separate voices playing separate rhythyms even.

[@andrewbversfeld]

You're right. I didn't mean for it to sound like I was saying that doubling violins was a waste of time. Also, that's very true that you can do much more than just doubling the octave of the other string instruments. I appreciate the info though.

[@jrtspace7945]

@@andrewbversfeld ofcourse and i appreciate your response!

[@111ENTERTAINMENT]

Thank You So Much, for posting this information and making it so easy to understand. You just cleared up so many things that I never quite understood during high school orchestra class. For example, the Bb instruments needing to be written a whole step higher, the French Horns a fifth higher, also placing the fifth of a chord with the cellos and the third with the violas...Thank You! Thank You!! Thank You!!! I did have a question to get clarification and make sure I understand correctly, at 10:00 in the video, where you don't want the chord to be as open in the string section, the Contrabasses, Cellos and 2nd Violins are all playing the root "C", and the 1st Violins and Violas are both playing the 3rd "E"... is the 5th "G" omitted because it is being played in the Brass or Woodwind section at that time? Thanks again for such a wonderful tutorial.

[@andrewbversfeld]

Yes. If, for example, woodwinds are carrying the melody, you can use brass to fill out the chord. But it's not a hard rule. You don't have to omit the 5th from the string section if you don't want to. I'm glad you enjoyed the video. I'm trying to make this stuff more approachable for people.

[@111ENTERTAINMENT]

@@andrewbversfeld Thank You So Much, for the fast reply and explanation!!! I've always been fascinated by orchestral composition and arrangement in classical music, as well as it's use in movie scores and various genres of popular music. Especially how it can be used to evoke very specific emotions, in the listener. For example, how orchestration in the genre's of popular music by British composer/arrangers Sir George Martin, Film; John Barry, have a very distinctive sound and feel... from that of American composers/arrangers.. examples being Clare Fischer, John Williams... Thanks Again!!!

[@user-eu7xd8ed7y]

✍👌

[@Hakabas01]

Great video! I don't understand why some instruments are tuned weirdly AND then the notes are not written as they sound, seems unnecessary and confusing, what is the reason for writing something as a G to make the instrument sound like a C for example?

[@andrewbversfeld]

This youtuber explains it better than I could: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eoDZfHyYeL9op7M It boils down to giving certain instruments easier fingerings. The easiest scale to play on a clarinet for eg, would be Bb. It gets written in C to make it easier to read. I know its weird, but a lot of orchestral instruments were invented before sheet music. The trumpet and clarinet were both invented before scientific pitch notation (The standard sheet music notation we all use today). I hope this helps. I'm not fully familiar with the history of these instruments myself. Thanks for your question though!

[@Hakabas01]

@@andrewbversfeld Watched the video, understand it now, still a little bit confusing, anyway, the answer for composers seems to be: "Musescore converts it for you"

[@Yello96486]

Sup so I play oboe and English horn (big oboe) and for English horn, C = F. The reason why they change it this way is like said before, it makes the fingerings the same so it's easier for me. If I were to use the same fingerings for C on oboe to English horn, it would sound like an F because of the way it's made.instead of having to teach myself new fingerings for the instrument, the music basically adjusts for me so I can use the same fingerings. I prob explained that bad but I hope u get the idea 😅

[@andrewbversfeld]

@@Yello96486 I've never played oboe. I did a little clarinet to learn about the woodwind section. I appreciate your explanation. Its kind of how I understood it, only you explained it better than me. Always interesting to hear from other musicians.

[@Yello96486]

@@andrewbversfeld yea it's always confusing 😅

[@AustrianSynthesizerSchool]

This is a good tutorial, but you could have much more instruments and better animations like this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n2nbeIKZrcybZrc