A Beginner's Guide to Orchestration (In-Depth Tutorial)

I share some basic orchestration techniques when taking piano chords and expanding them to a symphonic orchestra instrumentation. I also analyze the masterful orchestration of the great symphonist, Gustav Mahler, in his transcendental "Resurrection" symphony.

Mahler's 2nd Symphony ("Resurrection"):
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🎹 Who Am I:

Time Stamps:
00:00 - Intro
01:20 - Orchestrating Chords in Sibelius
24:19 - Final Orchestration
25:00 - Mahler 2 Finale Analysis
43:30 - Conclusion

[cherylf]

yo! this is amaing! needed to practice my orchestration actually....this def helped me!

[Roland_Geyer]

Thank you for the detailed and understandable tutorial. It will help me a lot with the orchestration👍👍

[martag.]

Listen maybe a stupid question but I have a problem reading alto clef at 18:45 you talk about viola staying on Bflat but isn´t the note you wrote in C ??? That would be Bflat but in a standard treble clef.

[baris]

My question is, are we using rules of harmony when we are composing a piece as you did here? I mean, it is much harder to check for all possible mistakes like parallel / hidden fifths, etc. I am sorry if my question is silly.
Thank you so much for your effort, great job.

[martiglesias]

Piccolo is not a transposing instrument, its stays in C.

[juanricardosanchezlopez]

Bravo Carlos !!!!. I am impressed by your musical and pedagogical talents. I'm trying to learn orchestration and your video has helped me a lot. I use Dorico with Note Performer and I find it fantastic. I think you should try NP, you would get a lot out of it. Greetings from Seville, Spain.

[neilwatersmusic]

Was it intentional to tie the D and G across in the violins to the Bb sus or an oversight?

[mithramusic]

Isn't that lower C in the contrabass pretty much a given in modern orchestra? Thanks for the video!

[gabrield.cstoica]

I'm really impressed, you could have done other things...but seeing you do that...it's really amazing...Bravo Carlos. I ask you because you can clear up the doubt I have about the orchestration, You know that in almost all vst samples... we have an ensemble to play with both hands, but the normal thing is to go by parts like violins 1 second viola etc..You know that in almost all vst samples... That you can play with both hands so that the musicians can play because, as I said, everyone has to play their instrumentIn other words, if I only do harmony with both hands, can they read or does the orchestrator take care of that?I mean, if I harmonize with the strings with both hands and not melody line...the orchestra can later divide and put everything well for each instrument. I hope you can clarify that for me and again I tell you that I am glad to see a boy like you doing that...and not waste time with other things...you will have a great future if you continue...bravo Carlos

[SWilla]

I havent seen the full video yet but quick thing about what you did for timpani

We notate rolls as tremolos. So from what i heard i probably would've written that as a quarter note with an 8th note tremelo and maybe an 8th note right after.

im not 100% on this part, but i think we notate those grace notes with slurs. That specific one you wrote is called a drag, and ive just never seen it written like that.

And on timpani, drags are played with a space between the down beat but its not like that for singular grace notes or on things like snare drum

[naorsilva]

Hi Carlos. Amazing all your videos. Let me ask you. I'm starting work with Sibelius. I have Yamaha PSR-S970. Sibelius recognizes it as mid out? Thank you.

[farinafranqui]

Thank you for not making a cringe joke on the B flat sus chord.

[martag.]

Thank you ! What a great teacher you are. I should practice my orchestration a bit more. Btw can you recommend any good books on this subject ?

[edgenovese]

Isolate your mic from the desk. Every time you set your hands down, your audio is full of thumping and bumping. Very distracting from an otherwise enjoyable presentation.