Hey guys.
In this video I'm going to walk you through my six step process for writing an orchestral track.
Maybe sometimes you sit down to write, you're staring at a blank screen,
you don't really know what to do next.
Or you've been working for a while and you listen back and you think
"Um ,this isn't turning out so good."
Hopefully you'll get some ideas here about how you can get through that.
So let's get started.
The first step is to make a plan.
This might seem obvious, but a lot of people will sit down, start banging away at the piano,
or they load up Logic, load up their favorite samples, start tweaking settings
without actually writing something or without really knowing what they're intending to write.
So the first thing I like to do is actually write down in words what I'm trying to do.
I'll start with the general idea, like is this a haunted house track, maybe a fantasy game menu,
whatever it is.
And then I'll get a bit more specific with things like tempo, meter, key, mode.
Is this going to be major, maybe phrygian?
Any decisions I can make up front before writing music are going to
make it that much easier for me when I'm actually writing.
Writing the plan just takes a minute or two,
It's not a big long list.
Just a couple things to get me started,
make sure I actually know where I'm trying to go with the track.
Once I have a basic plan in place I'm ready to actually start writing some music.
So the next thing I focus on is coming up with the basic idea.
The basic idea is the one or two bars of music that make up the signature of the piece.
It's the main motive, the main driving melodic element.
If you think of the first two bars of any of your favorite themes, that's the basic idea.
So to find the basic idea this is actually the least structured part for me.
This is the part where I'm actually just noodling around.
So usually how I come up with the basic idea is I'll load up a piano track,
take a look at my notes.
I'll think about what kind of harmonies I want to work with, what's the overall tempo,
do I want small intervals, wide intervals.
And with these things in mind I really just start exploring, playing around, trying things out.
Usually after only a few minutes I hit on something that feels pretty good and, because
of the previous step, I know what I'm looking for, it's much easier to know when I found it.
So a good basic idea for me will have an interesting rhythm and an
interesting interval, or an interval shape that I know I'm going to be able
to play with and develop and use throughout the rest of the piece.
Once I have a two bar idea that I'm happy with I'm ready to move forward.
So now that I have the signature idea for the piece I'm ready to actually start writing.
Step three is when I write the sketch.
I usually do my sketch like a lead sheet.
A melody line with chord changes on top.
If I have a really specific accompaniment pattern in mind or a certain counter line that I know I
want to use I will include that, but usually a simple lead sheet is how I like to do it.
The sketch is where I plot out the entire piece,
from the introduction all the way through the coda.
I don't always write it in chronological order
where I start with the intro and go to A, go to B, whatever.
Usually I'm more likely to come up with the opening theme, maybe how it's going
to repeat later, then I'll fill in that gap with a contrasting section.
Maybe then I'll go back and write an introduction.
It's not done in any specific order, but the main point is that the entire
track is plotted out from beginning to end in a single interesting line.
If I can express the entire piece with one melodic line
then I know I'm going to have no problem when I orchestrate it and produce it later.
I try to give as much detail as I can in the sketch, so I do include dynamics,
phrasing, accent marks, even notes to myself about what kind of instruments I have in mind.
But what I try not to do is get ahead of myself.
I don't want to be orchestrating the intro when I don't even know
what the ending of the piece is going to be like.
After i've sketched out the top line and the chords, and I'm happy with the entire piece,
then I'm ready to move forward.
So the next step after the main sketch is the orchestration sketch.
I call it an orchestration sketch because I don't
move from the lead sheet all the way to the full orchestral score.
In between that I work to a four staff Sibelius file
where I actually figure out what the orchestration is going to look like.
I'll put my melody from the previous step
on the second line down, and then I have two lines below and a line above to work around it.
My technique for orchestrating is heavily influenced by the
course Orchestrating the Line from ScoreClub.
I'll include a link to it in the description.
It's an excellent course for anyone who wants to learn orchestration.
So what I like to do is put my sketch from the previous step on the second line down and then
I have a line above and two lines below to work out what all the other instruments are doing.
The bass line, the accompaniment patterns, fills, accents, rhythm patterns, chords.
All the different things that really bring the piece to life .
But because I've been going one step at a time, and not moving forward until I'm
happy with each stage, I'm not relying on the orchestration to carry the track for me.
After the orchestration is fully sketched out then I can move it to the full score,
and usually this is pretty easy to do.
Most of the decisions have already been made, so it's a lot of copy pasting into the right spots.
The only things that really need specific work are moments where maybe I wrote "woodwinds"
over a block chord and now I need to decide which specific instruments that's going to be.
But other than that, this is usually a pretty easy step.
And then the last thing to do is actually produce the track.
How I choose to do this is different depending on the track.
If it's just a demo then a lot of times just Note Performer in Sibelius is good enough.
Otherwise it's time to move it into Logic.
Now I know a lot of people like to play in every individual line on the keyboard,
that's just never really been a great way for me to work.
So what I usually do is export the MIDI file from Sibelius and bring that into Logic,
and then I'll tweak from there.
What always surprises me about this step is how quickly it goes, because so many
of the decisions have already been made and now I'm just trying to make it sound good.
And although this is the last step,
I really think it's important to make clear that it's OK to go backwards.
There is no law that says once you've finished your
sketch you may not go back and change a chord.
The whole point is not about being fixed and stuck, it's about being
very clear with your decisions so you have a satisfying piece each step of the way.
And the other thing to keep in mind is why it's so useful to keep each of these stages separate.
There are so many times where I start writing a track and I think "Oh yeah, this is gonna sound
great with my new brass library," and I pull up Kontakt. and I start tweaking settings,
and half an hour later I've been playing with brass but I haven't actually written anything.
Keeping each of the stages distinct helps you focus on what you're trying to accomplish.
So this was a broad overview, hopefully you got some ideas for your own process.
I will say that this is how I approach writing an orchestral track.
If I'm doing a library music track, or scoring a picture
or something more synth based, I do have a pretty different approach.
But this is how I do it when I'm going for an orchestra based track.
Please leave a comment.
Let me know if you have any questions or what you think.
If you found this interesting I do teach private lessons.
I'll put information about that in the description.
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it'll really help this new channel get going, and I'll see you in the next one!