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Hey all, I plan to start a few orchestration classes here, I think it's really important we understand how instruments work before we write for them as composers. It's not just about how instruments work though it's about how people work, after all we are writing for people and not machines. I'm going to start off with the Violin this week and move on to the Viola next week etc. I'll also set an exercise for each week to help you understand each instrument, this is not going to be about how to orchestrate your music, but how to understand the idioms of the instruments you write for. The Violin is in many ways like any other instrument in the string family, but its small size, physics and historical prominence make it arguably one of the most important sections in any orchestra. It's a small versatile instrument, the performer can easily get their fingers round the instrument without too much stress and the physics behind the instrument make it perfect to play a major part in the orchestra. The Basics: The Violin has four strings tuned in fifths, which are E, A, D, G as shown below. Each of these strings is tuned using tuning pegs, inserted into the scroll of the instrument. Often a performer will have fine tuners too, on the tail piece, see below. The pitch of each string is changed by the performer using a finger on their left hand to shorten the string, which changes the pitch. The sound is normally produced by using the bow (in the right hand), by dragging it along the string in use which resonates said string, therefore creating sound. Each hand works fairly independently so I will look at them first independently and then show how they can be used in conjunction with each other. First of all the left hand. The range of the violin is shown below. As already mentioned the left hand is used to control pitch and often rhythm. The fingers are numbered 1 (index), 2 (middle), 3 (ring) and 4 (pinky), with 0 being an open string (without fingers). Whilst the thumb sits underneath the neck to support the instrument. Every violinist is taught specific fingering patterns so for instance a G Major scale from the lowest string would be played G0, G1, G2, G3, D0, D1 D2 D3. Notice however that the fourth finger is not used, this is because the fourth finger makes the same pitch as the next open string (in this case a D). What's important to note here is that although the fourth finger on the G and open D make the same pitch, they do not sound the same. The open string will sound much more lively and prominent whilst the fourth finger will sound much duller, it is often useful to mark in a score which would be preferable in each case, however most string players figure this out for themselves. This is only true in first position though. To make things a little more complicated, but the instrument more versatile, the performer can move their hand up the finger board into a different position. (This chart isn't actually for the violin but it's the correct fingerings nonetheless, please ignore the fret thing, the violin DOES NOT have frets). For instance the fingering for a Bb Major scale starting on the G string could be G2, G3, D0, D1, D2, D3, A0, A1 in first position. Or G1, G2, G3, G4, D1, D2, D3, D4, in second position etc. This is very important to the composer again because it means that your piece could be played in lots of different ways. To specify you want a certain part played on a certain string you can put a roman numeral above the part where I is the E string, II is the A string, III is the D string and IV is the G string. A composer might do this when he/she is looking for a particular sound, a rich resonant melody would always sound better in a higher position, whilst something that needs to be dominant is generally better in a lower position, because the higher up the finger board you are, the richer is sounds but also the quieter. Harmonics: There are two types of harmonics available on string instruments, natural and artificial. Natural harmonics are available only on open strings and follow the harmonic series. As you see below: There are also artificial harmonics available: the standard is called a stopped fourth harmonic, this is explained below. Glissandi are very easy to achieve on string instruments by moving the finger up or down the fingerboard. Trills are also very easy to achieve and notated in the standard way. Another lesser known technique is left hand pizzicato, in fast pizzicato passage the left hand can pizz the string rather than the right hand: however this should be used with care and is an advanced technique. The right hand is the bowing hand, it holds the bow and uses it create sound by dragging it on the string. The bow can be moved in two directions, a down bow (from the heel, to the tip) or an up bow (from the tip to the heel). You can mark these in a score using the following but do not put them on every note, only use them when you have a very specific bowing in mind (for instance a group of down bows). A down bow on a crotchet E. An up bow on a crotchet E. The first and most important thing to note is slurs, you can play more than one note in a bow, but bear in mind a bow is only so long. By putting a slur above a group of notes you are telling a performer to play those notes in one bow. This is key to phrasing your violin music. When the bow is used on a down bow, there will be a natural decrescendo, when on an up bow there will be a natural crescendo. Use this to help phrase your music and exemplify dynamics. Other bowing techniques included sul ponticello (sul pont.) and sul tasto. The bow is placed between the bridge and tail piece normally this is the ordinaro position or ord. Sul pont. Is where the bow is placed as close to bridge as possible, and is indicated by marking sul pont. above the passage you require. Sul pont emphasises the higher harmonics, taking the bass from the tone, creating a very particular sound. Youtube it and you can hear it for yourself. To return to the ord. position simply mark 'ord.' where required in the score. Sul tasto is the opposite, you play over the fingerboard. This emphasises the lower harmonics, but also makes the sound much quieter. Again look this up on youtube. It is indicated by again putting sul tasto in the score. Tremolo is a technique where the performer moves the bow as fast as possible, and is shown in the scores by using dashes through the stem as shown below. Other techniques: Double, triple and quadruple stops are difficult to understand. The notes required must all be available in one position. For all stops the strings must be next to each other ie a double stop on the E and G string would be impossible because the middle two strings are above the outer two strings, due to a curved bridge. Use a fingering chart to figure out what is and isn't possible. Generally, thirds, sixths and seconds are all fairly easy, but do it not move between them too quickly. Pizzicato where the string is plucked rather than bowed is easy enough. Make sure there is time to swap from arco to pizz though. Bartok pizz is where the string is pulled so far that is hits the fingerboard upon it's return. Notate it as below. Both Bartok and normal pizzicato reduce the pitch content within a note and can be used as a percussive device. Col legno, is where the wood of the bow is used to create a percussive sound on the string, rather than the hair. It is marked my putting col legno at the start of the indicated passage and normale at the end. This is a very basic introduction to Violin and strings, as I get through the string family I will reinforce and introduce some more techniques. I hope that all makes sense! If anyone wishes to try these techniques out, do the following: Write a one minute piece for solo violin, which includes, 4 double stops. 2 bowing techniques. And 2 other techniques of your choice. The piece must also make musical sense and be in any style. Post the link in the comments at any time and I'll let you know how well you've done! Let me know if there's any questions! Adam.

I'm almost half tempted to believe you're a troll. However, this crude behavior seems to really be characteristic of all your interactions on this forum. Let me count the things I see wrong with all of this: You are averse to the idea of being nice to others (for unclear reasons, I might add). You expect adequate feedback without the willingness to offer the tools by which that feedback would be better and more easily provided (the score, that is). You take every opportunity to be rude to people and seem to enjoy finding excuses to be insultingly vulgar. Despite this little list of grievances against the site, you have done nothing to me. So I will give you this wisdom to ponder: Has it occurred to you that we already do trade review with each other? You could have been doing it already. We do it every day by reviewing other people pieces, responding to their questions, and welcoming newcomers politely to the forum. We show everyone a certain level of decency and the favor is returned when others do the same for us. If you had started off that way instead of being such a jerk, you might not have gotten stuck here bartering for attention. Even if your piece had been passed over anyway, a simple request in the shout box for a review would have been more readily met. But you're being a punk instead. So that's that.

Heh. Remember the days when Mods and Admins had meetings on Skype every month or two? Some of those discussions were actually quite good. Did it do anything? No. ThatGuy is right. It is all about what *we* do as a community, not the site itself. Mike will be forced to fix things if the place is viable; right now it is not. Being a great lover of this site and a member for seven (!) years now, there's been a lot of up and downs with the site. Most of the ups were in the "old days" when the site was on Vboard and all brown and disgusting. It wasn't pretty to look at, but that wasn't the point. We all loved it because the community was viable to be worth one's interaction. Reviews, while rarely detailed analyses, were truthful and helpful, from the heart. You occasionally see that today but its rare. What really needs to happen is the *community* gets working on building a community. The problem is, I feel so discouraged involving myself here (for several reasons) that my contributions will be for naught. Its apathy that kills any community, not a site's design. But, in fairness, that banner has GOT to go...

This is great! I think I'll try composing such a one minute solo violin piece. I should practice it anyway because I'll probably have someone play one of my pieces end next summer in which the violin will play a big part and it wouldn't make much sense if the piece would be unplayable. I don't suppose you will do the same for acoustic guitar, will you? Because I enjoy writing fast guitar solos but I'm not sure if they are actually playable.

This is great! I'm working on something right now! My real problems with solo string instruments are double stops, triple stops and quadruple stops. Not only the execution of a single one of them, but the chaining of some of them. For example: I may know that a certain double stop is perfectly executable, but what other double stops can I add after this one? Is there a study for this other than "try with the instrument"? (because, of course, as I don't play the violin, anything will be very difficult for me, and then seem to be impractical...)

Yeah, you're pretty awesome.

This is a really good basic overview of the instrument's capabilities. I would suggest people listen to the Bach violin partitas/sonatas, and Paganini's caprices as an audio (and maybe visual) reference.

Scores are my LIFE. If you have a messy score, nobody will even look twice at your piece. I refuse to review anything other than a score until it is legible. This is like being handed a "genius" book, but without being able to read the chicken scratch... Nobody will put in the effort.

I really love this idea. It envelops people into the community and gives us a chance to also get to know the person. How do they respond to criticism? How do they take compliments? How do their scores look? Do they provide scores? All good things to just let the person know as soon as they get here. Like a tutorial of some kind. I also suggest that each new member who joins should be asked to review one work before they submit their own, getting them in the habit of reviewing and also understanding the cyclical nature of the site: You review my piece, I review yours. (at least, that's how it works with me) I think YC should begin developing some major items that will attract people. Chopin, as I've read, is making a competing notation software. That's pretty good, but that sounds like it would take FOREVER to complete. What if we began work on a Youtube series introducing young people (not as in age, but in experience composition-wise, which is how the site is named) to composition. Talking about some basic music theory, why composition is good for the mind and soul, and the realities of pursuing it as a hobby or profession. Nothing too technical to start off with. And, maybe in the future, we could do some analysis videos of classic pieces, or try and get premieres of YC works to be put online. Another thing I wanted to do when I was here was hold a composition contest for solo baritone and piano, and have it recorded as the prize. I never got around to it. But, I might some day. We have to provide incentives for people to join and be active. Give them GOOD, scholarly resources other than the musings of a crazy composition minor in college posted to their piece. Give them a platform that is safe, inviting, and yet challenging. This also brings me to my next point: We should be reviewing more. My goal is to review a minimum of 1 piece a day! Get goallllsss! So, in the end, I have to leave but I'll be back soon. Let's keep the discussion going. :)

Don't exaggerate. ;) .

Ok. Seriously. Enough. Both of you see the other as inferior members, composers, reviewers, etc etc etc. We get it. Now shut up and lets actually talk about constructive things for the site.

Be the change you wish to see in this world, even a tiny virtual nook. A church is not made of walls, but rather it's people. Is the dissension among you really all derived from a lack of leadership? Is it that you do not see the colored names of the moderators in the discussions you hold with importance? Is it that when you look at the shoutbox you see nothing but BOOM instead of getting to know the people who you have found a common bond in music? Is it that the focus of this website harboring composers who have chosen a love or passion or even a profession that is lucrative only in pennies has fallen into childish banter, casting the few fingers we have here at each other? Aren't we all to blame? Haven't we all vented our frustrations at others here at times? Is the name-calling really worth it? Are they not all the same grievances? Don't we all have different goals and aspirations in music and life, yet so strikingly similar at the same time? Is it the memories many of you have of a more "glorious" time when logging onto Young Composers? Is it that you miss the friendships you've made while here, as so many have stopped by for miniature increments in their lives only to disappear for random reason X caused by reason Y? I could infinitely go on, but in a society filled with minds clogged with "TL;DR", I'll just get to the point. We don't need meetings, we all know the sources of this site's infestation of problems. I'm glad there are a few people who care enough to point it out, but rectifying the minimization plaguing a once populated site starts with doing what you wish to see yourselves. Be the example. Start commenting on other's music again, especially new members. Surely most have created an account with the self-centered goal to have their music heard and judged by their peers. But isn't that the reason why we've all created accounts? If no one commented on the first piece of my music submitted here 6 or so years ago, would I have become a "member" of a community? Would I have grown into the musician and composer I am today without someone else who knows a hell of a lot more about music taken the time to tell me what they thought of my audio garbage I thought that had attained absolute perfection? There is no glory or reward for the individual in creating a unified community. There will always be those who swim in the waters of vile language and basically sexual misconduct, as just because the repercussions are not directly visible does not mean they don't impact the welfare of this site. Ignore it, don't feed it. With a positive goal in mind (and I know the people commenting in this thread possess that), with perseverance one person only needs to affect one other person, not a thousand. The rest will take care of itself.

And this kind of stuff highlights yet another reason I left. Constant bickering about useless and petty things.

If you were a more active and interested member of this site, you'd know that moderators have no such power: only administrators have the ability to change things here, and they've already made threads dedicated to suggestions for fixing the site (here and here). The issue is that nothing will change in our favor - nothing about the site will change, at least physically, how we want it to - until the admins start caring about our objections. I have no power over that, nor do any of my fellow moderators and reviewers, nor do any members otherwise - except the administrators. And are you really so defensive now that you see me as somebody 'sitting in [a] [highchair]', as someone morally or musically superior or up there who needs to be surmounted - because I'm a moderator or otherwise because I have beliefs and opinions of my own? Do you find me that intimidating? It's not as though I'm the only one here '[casting] about judgments' - and I certainly have a right to; you've just given a judgment, for instance. As has everbody else here, especially once they've started talking about issues as contentious as all these so far brought up. If there's anybody who's thrust themselves up upon a highchair, it's you: you're always unfailing in seeing yourself above everybody, with the utmost pretension, not ever willing to honestly criticize your own pieces, but rather those who criticize you - and your pieces never change, you never make any real progress. Your constant defensiveness, even against the most constructive and benign comments, though they may be critical, makes you seem antagonistic and frustrates most here who are readied and willing to accept and give like criticism - without malice, and then in the name of decency, courtesy, and social-mindedness, in the hope that nothing is so greatly rumbled that we can't all help and at least appreciate each other's efforts. When I say 'egoist', I really mean it: If you want to become good at music-making, or any other kind of creative art, you're going to have to overcome yourself at some point and start listening to what you do. Stop being so self-obsessed and love your craft. Get out of yourself.

Do you really think there's anything about you that I can be jealous about? Or are you looking to brew up trouble? Frankly this rethorical question would be laughable at the very least, if it wasn't so tiresome to keep reading your self-pitying antics. Seriously? Or have you done enough to discourage any kind of criticism or the slightest suggestion for improvement? Also: Do you ever - EVER - review a piece by someone else? Or does anyone look up to you for advice on forms, development, counterpoint, orchestration or whatever? If your answer to any of these questions is NO, I wonder how can you possibly know for sure that you're garnering respect rather than indifference. Get the idea, for God's sake: this site is about cooperation and feedback. This is NOT a showcase site for "composer wannabes", so full of themselves as to blatantly ignore everything and everyone around them (and who would be better served by starting their own website). This IS a site for people who want to share knowledge and use it to improve, so the only attitude that can keep the site alive is that of cooperation and humility.

Certainly the problem isn't that the place is run by an idiot who consistently makes absolutely the worst decisions possible? And I know for a fact that changing the mechanics, layout, and visual style of a website once a year just drives traffic to a website like a double decker bus. So I have no idea what the problem is. I'm sure Mike has the answer, he always has the answer. Oh oh oh! I got it! We need a bigger banner, so that I can only see one line of text when I'm here instead of the 2-3 the current banner allows!

I was active on here for a few years-- but as I was one of the few females on the forum I got rather sick of all the nasty jokes and such. The site seems ok (a bit strange format since I've been here), but for me honestly I just got sick of the sex jokes.