It's absolutely criminal how few views this quality video is getting. Thank you lots for this, looking forward to more videos!!

@composingacademy8270

2 жыл бұрын

Haha thank you! I'm over the moon with the amount of views its getting already - hopefully the channel will grow even further in the coming months!

@yongsta210

2 жыл бұрын

@@composingacademy8270 but I agree. This is a really good lesson!! Thank you a lot!!

@Pheicou

Жыл бұрын

Agree, this feels like an actual class in a big film scoring school, I'm so glad there's easy access to this information for all aspiring composers.

Great info here, and the piece is a great showcase for the woodwind section. One thing I'd add is that pretty much all bass clarinets nowadays go down to at least a written Eb, with many professional models going down to a written low C, sounding the same low Bb that is the lowest note of the bassoon. Also, as a bassoonist I would suggest thinking of the bassoon as primarily as a tenor instrument that can play down into the bass range. The bass range of the bassoon is its loudest register and it is a very useful register, but it can sound a bit coarse and the lowest notes are hard to play quickly. The bass clarinet can often be a better bass instrument for the woodwind section since it has a beefier bass tone, and it frees up the bassoons to cover music in the tenor range, but if you don't have a bass clarinet then the bassoon is of course the best woodwind instrument to fulfill that bass role.

@Po1itica11yNcorrect

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for the advice.

Mr. Simon, as a former opera musician I really like your work. Congrats.

I played the clarinet in school and several other woodwind instruments. Just watched to see the take on it. About the breathing.... really none of the woodwinds need long periods or measures or any measure to breath. Breathing really becomes a thing when long held notes or lots of fast playing that may require breathing marks. The little commas that help know an appropriate time to take a breath, otherwise wood wind including brass players are trained to figure out periods when to take breaths without anyone noticing. So you can go nuts if you like with clarinets or wood winds.... oboists and bassoon players it's again with all wood wind, just don't tie a bunch of long whole notes over many measures and expect every player to just be able to sustain long notes forever without a breath... however, an illusion of this can be done via conductor just telling first and second and maybe 3rd and 4th players to mark out different breath markings so the notes are still sustained throughout a long period of tied whole notes, allowing each player to take a breath while other players continue to hold the notes; giving each player a chance to breath. Certain fingering between certain notes can be difficult on some instruments... but again wood winds are accustom to practice all sorts of motion between whatever notes to another. As a clarinetist my biggest weakness was heavily chromatic notation... but again, we can learn the piece no matter how chromatic. Rusty or new players it might take a few stabs to get it down if you right to chromatically or go through many chromatic markings. An expert woodwind player generally shouldn't have any problems with anything. Another difficulty for intermediate or new players is not sounding like they're slurring up or down when it's not notated... slurring is easy for wood winds. What's not easy is normal interval, or staccato, particularly if up a scale or arpeggios. New players generally tend to have issues with tonguing the reed to not sound slurred or to sound overly staccato.... so newbies may have some difficulty playing non slurred and very quick arpeggios or scales; without it often coming out as sounding slurred when they play them. Experts or even intermediates have no problems at all taking whatever direction a composer has to offer; so long as it fits on their scale of the instrument of course. New players and even intermediate players on clarinet have difficulty playing the highest notes without them sounding horrid. Newbies often fumble and squeak at the high notes. Low notes, at least I found, and I think most clarinet players, find the easiest. Middle range to near high range not too hard... the extreme top of the range becomes a challenge for the first 2 years of playing. Just a little depth on writing music if you're considering doing it for various skilled players.

@composingacademy8270

Жыл бұрын

Hi, thank you for sharing this to the community!

You're an immaculate teacher. Thank you so much for these lessons!

@composingacademy8270

Жыл бұрын

Hi Andrija, thanks so much for your kind words - I hope you found the lessons useful!

This is wonderful!!! Would you please please consider doing a series of videos going more into depth on winds??? Like many aspiring composers, Winds are my weakness instrument section.

Thank you. Your videos are beautifully clear and well produced. Some of the best on YT and also a paid course I have done.

@composingacademy8270

2 жыл бұрын

Wow, thank you so much for your kind words!

Another superb presentation!

Perfect materials for passionates again. Thank you.

This was helpful thank you ❤

As a clarinet and bassoon player, I appreciate that you mention our need to breathe. I would point out that, in general, woodwind players are not old asthmatics and can play more than a couple of bars at a time. I wouldn't change a thing about what you wrote here, as the short passages are what the music called for - bits of color. In extended passages, just pay attention to the music and phrasing and create a spot to breathe every so often. A rest here and there works nicely, as does a longer note that the instrumentalist can cut a bit short for a quick breath.

@composingacademy8270

Жыл бұрын

Thank you so much for your feedback and pointers - yes I sometimes find it tricky knowing exactly how long of a phrase a competent player would be able to play in one breath. It can be very easy to forget about that when writing with samples all the time!

@oldguydoesstuff120

Жыл бұрын

@@composingacademy8270 An overly simplified test is that if you can hum the part in one breath, a competent wind player can play it in one breath. A skilled amateur can probably go 20 seconds or more, a good professional can get to 30 seconds and beyond. Loud dynamics drop that time, quiet ones may extend it. Even when working with samples, it adds a bit of realism if there are phrasing breaks where a real wind player would breathe. So it's not a bad thing to consider in those compositions as well. And it's not wrong to do superhuman things with samples, either. Just depends on the goals of the composition.

Thanks man! I already improved so much in one week❤

Underrated channel

@composingacademy8270

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

Love this pieces and video, thanks!

@composingacademy8270

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching!

Great video as always! Helpful and interesting to watch and learn from. Looking forward to the rest of the series!! :)

@composingacademy8270

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching- I'm glad it proved useful!

Fantastic! Great tips! Thank you so much for sharing this!

@composingacademy8270

Жыл бұрын

Thank you, I really appreciate it!

Great presentation. These section overviews have been a great help for me to understand how to work with the instruments. I am wondering if you could share your ideas on how to use what you call flourish or ornaments - these little runs, stabs etc. by various instruments - kind of how to garnish your melody orchestration. Thanks for your work!

@composingacademy8270

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching! A great idea-I'll try to collate my thoughts on how to use these flourishes and put together a video in the near future!

I absolutely love this video! It’s helped me understand a lot!

@composingacademy8270

11 ай бұрын

Hi, I am so pleased, thank you for watching!

Thank you very much. These videos are help me.

@composingacademy8270

Жыл бұрын

Glad you like them!

Hoping this channel grows! Would be nice to have the MIDI available for study

@composingacademy8270

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching! Yes I'm planning on setting up a file hosting system so I can share the midi and DAW files in the future......

Thanks a lot for your vids! It's just impressive and understandable! I have found a lot of useful theory and practice! Just love it!

@composingacademy8270

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks so much - I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks so much! I am just starting to get into composing my own music, and this is an amazing resource to have :) I am a string player, so woodwinds and brass have been a struggle for me to write, but this helped so much without being condescending or gatekeeping information like some other sources will. Many other things I have looked at gave very basic information and ended with "just get a theory teacher if you want to actually learn", so thank you for having a straightforward and highly informative resource available!

@composingacademy8270

Жыл бұрын

Wow, thank you for that positive feedback, really pleased you have found this video useful. Happy composing!

Thanks a lot for giving so much tips and ideas I could add into my new song

@composingacademy8270

2 жыл бұрын

My pleasure - I hope you can use the tips in your composing!

Smashed it again!

@composingacademy8270

2 жыл бұрын

Cheers!

This channel is a real find!

@composingacademy8270

Жыл бұрын

Really appreciate that, thank you.

These videos are great! Thank you so much

@composingacademy8270

Жыл бұрын

Appreciate it, thank you.

Thanks for this content, Simon.

@composingacademy8270

Жыл бұрын

You are very welcome, thank you for watching!

What a fantastic piece of music, here! And further more, you are also excellent at explaining what you are doing to others, which is another rare skill to have! Thank you so much, Simon!

@composingacademy8270

10 ай бұрын

You're welcome and thank you so much for the positive feedback, I really appreciate it!

Top content!! Infotainment level!

@composingacademy8270

11 ай бұрын

Thank you! Really appreciate it!

Thank you SO much

@composingacademy8270

Жыл бұрын

You're welcome! Thank you for watching!

Fantastic video. What a great piece you'd written too. 👏 🌷

@composingacademy8270

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for your kind words and for watching!

Its worth noting that the Basoon can have much the same effect as a barritone saxophone when written low.

@composingacademy8270

Жыл бұрын

Hi John, thanks for sharing this tip!

The piano roll examples helped a lot. Thank you!

@composingacademy8270

Жыл бұрын

So pleased you found it useful, appreciate the comment thank you!

I thoroughly enjoyed this, and as an aside, it sounds lit it would fit perfectly if dropped into the Fable series of games.

Excellent.

@composingacademy8270

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks!

Thanks , Love it ! :)

@composingacademy8270

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks so much!

I come here to learn from you but also to listen to your music. You're very talented.

@composingacademy8270

Жыл бұрын

Hi, really appreciate that, thank you.

Superb quality video, thank you. Best wishes from Argentina

@composingacademy8270

Жыл бұрын

Thank you so much! Glad you liked!

Nice video sir

Great video, this whole series is so good!

@composingacademy8270

7 ай бұрын

Thank you so much!

@timjonesguitar

7 ай бұрын

@@composingacademy8270 you're welcome!

Amazing channel🙏

@composingacademy8270

7 ай бұрын

Thank you! Another video being released today!

that comedy piece is so beautiful. thanks.

@composingacademy8270

Жыл бұрын

I appreciate it, thank you!

Clarinets, oboes and bassoons: our auxiliaries all are lower than the normal instrument Flutes: Haha piccolo go squeak

@mal2ksc

Жыл бұрын

There is alto flute, though. It's not the most common request but it can be a very nice sound. And clarinets have eefers.

@jeannebouwman1970

Жыл бұрын

@@mal2ksc yeah i just meant the most common auxiliary for each instrument

Geat channel and content sir.

@composingacademy8270

Жыл бұрын

Thank you so much!

Those re great looking studio monitors

@composingacademy8270

2 жыл бұрын

Haha yes they are Quested Monitors and are my pride and joy! 😀

Great video! Many thanks! Curious to know what strings you're using for this piece?

@composingacademy8270

2 жыл бұрын

It was mostly Chamber Strings by Spitfire Audio, with a real string Quartet blended into the mix as well

I would quite like to know how one would use woodwinds outside of a full orchestral arrangement. For example I have a song where piano plays chords, upright bass covering the lows, pizzicato strings doubling up on the rhythm . Then a flute playing the main melody and oboe harmonising under that and clarinet doing a counter melody. I know there is probably no rules for use this way but some guide lines may be helpful to make sure I am filling the space.

Very nice. I wonder if you have anything about writing for sax quartet or quintet?

@composingacademy8270

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you! I'll admit that I don't have much experience for writing for Saxophones, so I'm not sure I would be the best person!

@simongross3122

2 жыл бұрын

@@composingacademy8270 Thanks for responding. It might be the way I'm doing it but I find saxophones more troublesome than other woodwinds. Or it could be the VST samples I use - they sound great as solos but terrible when combined with each other. All the best and thanks again.

I like how you go over how you wrote the woodwind section of your piece. I have a question though, does any of this besides the registers and the rests for breathing apply to woodwind quartet writing? Just thought I'd ask since I am composing a piece for a woodwind quartet of Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, and Bassoon.

@nyancs7098

2 жыл бұрын

Use all of the instruments ranges, eg don’t keep the bassoon on low notes

@mal2ksc

Жыл бұрын

The way I approach it is that I have four options for my lead instrument, and then a limited palette of accompaniment that can be provided for any one of those. Sometimes I can't get the lead I want with the support I want, especially if I wanted a bassoon lead. Clarinet is roughly analogous to viola in a string quartet, so the problems are roughly comparable to wanting a cello solo but not having anyone to back them up. Aside from practical considerations like that, this is my approach. I pick my lead for any given moment, then I figure out how I want to accompany that lead and distribute parts accordingly. If I can have someone lay out entirely for a bit, that's another good way to very quickly change the texture. Each instrument has its own character and can be tracked by the listener, which is _unlike_ the string quartet, so rather than having to go to the bag of tricks (pizzicato strings for example), you can change the texture simply by who's out front, and perhaps who isn't playing at all. Within your quartet, you have four different trios, so whenever you can live with just a trio in terms of harmonic content and volume, consider dropping someone out and exploring one or more of the four trios. The drop-outs don't have to be very long, they could even be individual notes.

the composer for a level 4 piece in my high school band needs to see this... im the only oboe (i started 2 months ago too) and i have 40 (60 if you dont count 3 rests) measures of 50 bpm with like 3 solos 😭 idfk how im holding on edit: they also only give 2 breath marks and there are 7 measure slurred parts 😀

Thanks so much for all your work

i had no clue about "transposing instruments". ive always wondered why my orchestral VST has "Bb Clarinet" and whether i should be choosing that as "normal clarinet". i've also wondered why copy&paste notes from one instrument to another sometimes sounds "wrong". so what's the deal: due to historical tradition we're just supposed to know about this, and tweak the written notes so that they sound correct? bizarre

what composiing program does he use?

Thanks so much for this video!!!! What vsts do you use to get the best woodwinds and string section sounds? Got any samples you could share?

@composingacademy8270

Жыл бұрын

Hi, thank you for the comment, apologies for the delay in response. The woodwinds I use the most are Berlin Woodwinds by Orchestral Tools & for the strings it is Cinematic Studio Strings. Hope that helps!

@sentimentalescalade6451

Жыл бұрын

@@composingacademy8270 thank you so much for the feedback! You've got a subscriber for life!❤️

Why am i getting Home alone chase vibes while listening 2 the final piece?

I wish you could indicate each colour coded register on the stave.

@composingacademy8270

27 күн бұрын

Thanks for the feedback, will look into this going forward!

What is this piece called? Also I remember this piece being used in one of Grian's videos and that's where I recognized this piece from

10:02 How can I use Pralltriller in the media? Is it possible in Logic?

@composingacademy8270

2 жыл бұрын

It would depend on the articulations that are included with the sample library you are using. If it doesn't, you could play in/write in a rapid alternation between the original note and the note immediately above it. I hope that helps!

@december8822

2 жыл бұрын

@@composingacademy8270 Thank you so much. I didn't even think about taking turns taking notes. Thank you so much for always being helpful. teacher

Next wishes is writing for a piano and for a chromatic percussions :)

@composingacademy8270

2 жыл бұрын

Great idea - I've added it to my video list!

Just one question, can you help explain why the saxophones don't really play in orchestras?

@composingacademy8270

Жыл бұрын

It's a great question, some find it too loud, brash & does not coincide well with other instruments, it is predominantly known for jazz over classical pieces. I personally love the saxophone (my wife used to play) but it still isn't something you see in an orchestra regularly.

@darktimesatrockymountainhi4046

9 ай бұрын

Most traditional orchestral literature was composed before the saxophone was invented, and the new instrument came to be used in wind bands. A few romantic composers used it sometimes as a solo instrument, but it wasn’t used enough to become a regular part of the orchestra. I personally like the saxophone in my orchestrations, but it will take a long time for the saxophone to come into more use in orchestras - outside of jazz & pop, of course. There’s a tradition that says instruments were used in opera orchestras before making their way into the symphony, but I cannot think of a single example of the sax in opera (but I’m no opera expert!).

The problem I am having is that I can come up with a melody but where to place my different instruments to put in play

can we get the midi somewhere?

@composingacademy8270

Жыл бұрын

Have been asked this a lot recently for some of my other videos as well. I will do this soon, I am currently completing & launching my new course but I will then try and get the midi files setup. Thank you for watching!

What happened to your brass video??

A lot of the highest notes can be exceeded with weird fingerings on woodwinds; there isnt much of a “top note” like piano or something

I really sad I cannot follow these lessons, for foreigners not native-eng-language is quite difficult follow, not eve with subtitles