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So, what I'm doing this morning... I've gotten to the point on a piece where it's mainly sorted out and I'm trying to decide about nit-picky details of the organ part. Doublings, what octave to put something in to best lead into the instrument/voice that enters next... (Orchestration for organ if you will.) I've got my piece I'm working on open on my laptop and a stack of scores next to me on the couch. Rather than studying composing in general, and studying scores in general, which feels dauntingly huge, I'm looking at the scores of the masters to address specific questions in this specific piece. I know I want to have a moving bass line in the organ here that does this certain thing, but that makes it dissonant with the vocal bass part and that feels like a no-no just listening to it. Flipping through my Bach and Handel, can I find a spot where their notes are flowing similarly on the page just at a glance? Yes I can! So what's different about the way they handled the situation from the way I'm handling it here? Ah! Yes, the dissonance is there in Bach's score too, but only on the weakest division of the beat. I have dissonance on, not a strong beat, but a medium-y strong beat, and that's what's sounding off. Change that... I have a place where all the parts build and then drop out, and we're left with a solo line over an organ pedal. What octave should I put that pedal note in for best support of the solo while keeping a feeling of sudden simplicity emerging from complexity and bombast? Glances through some Handel... well, just looking at the way the notes are flowing on the page, I can find a spot where he did something similar... He flips the inversion of a chord in the orchestra parts at a convenient spot a few beats before all the parts drop out, allowing him to put the pedal note in doubled octaves down an octave from the solo line. Let's try that! Sometimes it's easier to go hunting for the answer to a very specific question about your own work than it is to try to learn all the things that make someone else's work great.

Rachmaninoff is also pretty good. His orchestration sounds really good and its not hard to analyze and understand. Also give Mahler some special attention. His orchestration technique is phenomenal, it almost feels like every note is used to its full potential. His 5th symphony is the easiest symphony to listen and to get into.