Question on Orchestration

is there a right or wrong answer?

like wether you write the peice in piano first then add the instruments

or all at once?

Sure. Take something you wrote for piano, and orchestrate it. Easy as cake. As long as you know how to orchestrate well. I think somepeople write out the orchestral score on a piano grand stave and write in what instruments will play what. This makes things easier to see and fix if neccesary.

I say there is now right or wrong answer, as long as the result is music.

Best to work toward thinking orchestrally. Sure, still work at the piano and in short-score but if you develop an ear for the orchestral sound your eventual scoring will sound more effective.

Personally, I write for the instruments I'm writing for... it doesn't make any sense for me to assign instruments to something I wrote on a piano. Writing for a piano is completely different than writing for another instrument. A lot of bad orchestration comes from composers not being familiar enough with the instruments they are assigning to musical lines... they check the notes against an instrumental range chart instead of learning about the instrument.

(My Opinion. Yours may vary.)

I think that it is important to distinguish between

"writing for piano then orchestrating it"

and

"writing on grand staff in condensed form before rendering the orchestration".

Actually writing for piano means that you are writing music that is pianistic - ie: idiomatic music for the instrument.

Working from a grand staff means simply that many of the musical elements have been reduced to a form of short hand.

That is what I meant. ;)

It's like writing a novel. You don't just start writing, (usually), you have to plan it out first. Using a piano to first write your piece helps you organize your thoughts and ideas. At least, it does for me...

~Kal

Personally, I write for the instruments I'm writing for... it doesn't make any sense for me to assign instruments to something I wrote on a piano. Writing for a piano is completely different than writing for another instrument. A lot of bad orchestration comes from composers not being familiar enough with the instruments they are assigning to musical lines... they check the notes against an instrumental range chart instead of learning about the instrument.

(My Opinion. Yours may vary.)

so what attendend orchestras to see how instruments sound or what?

how do you learn their ranges and stuff?

Get an orchestration textbook. They generally have information on the ranges and techniques of all orchestral instruments.

Get an orchestration textbook. They generally have information on the ranges and techniques of all orchestral instruments.

I count. Have any general questions (or something specific), I might be able to help.

There is a masterclass on orhcestration going on, read through it, it may help.

Here you can find the three threads devoted to it:

http://www.youngcomposers.com/forum/masterclasses.html

Well, I found if I write something for piano I tend to prefer it to stay on Piano. Its always hard to me to orchestrate my piano stuff, mainly because it just wouldn't sound like.

So I just...keep it seperate.

I also can't work of condensed scores. Don't like it.

But to orchestrate well, you need to know the instruments and how well they work with each other.

Get an orchestration textbook. They generally have information on the ranges and techniques of all orchestral instruments.

Here's a good place to start:

Principles of Orchestration On-line - northernsounds.com

Actually, that one has very little information on the instruments themselves. I would recommend Walter Piston's Orchestration, having read it and learned a lot from it.