Counterpoints to avoid bad harmonies

Greetings.

When I start to compose a piece, I start writing the melody, usually for instruments like flute or violin. Then, when writing melody is done, I start thinking of orchestration and arrangement.

I usually harmonize violins like this : Violin I plays the melody I wrote, Violin II plays the same melody one octave lower (and when musescore or other software warns me about notes which are not on the instrument, I just replace them with rests).

But, when It comes to other instruments, like Cellos, or Violas, or any other instrument, I really don't know what should I do.

These are things I done before :

1. Playing the third of first note of each bar in the viola section (for example if I started violins with G, viola played B for whole bar)
2. Playing the first note of each bar in the Cello/Bass section
3. Playing the fifths in double bass section .

And the same for other instruments. And for keep it working well, I just tried to keep my compositions "one chord per bar", at least when I try to write classical music.

Is there any tips or advice to improve this?

Regards.

Well, I think there are too many options to mention them all here.

Millions of possibilities for combinations of instruments are there. A great source for orchestration is the YouTube channel OrchestrationOnline.

Check it out!

10 minutes ago, Maarten Bauer said:

A great source for orchestration is the YouTube channel OrchestrationOnline.

I'll check it out, thanks.