This one video is, to me, as valuable as an orchestration book. For the zillions of people composing on a computer with sample libraries these tips about instrument strengths and tendencies, about writing interesting music for all to play, these tips are so much more valuable than most books provide. This is a good video to keep on the “shelf”.

The fact that you take time for these videos while actively working as a composer is unbelievable. Danke schoen liebe Anne-Kathrin!

Great video, Anne-Kathrin! Especially a great basic point about avoiding complex keys for film music. That's something many developing composers don't consider.

5 tips? It's more like endless tips in less than half an hour! Thanks, I learned a lot!

I will add - for those interested, that Alfred makes a pocket-size book that has all the instruments, ranges, tonality and characteristics in their Essential Dictionary of Orchestration, and I believe they also have a book that has the fingerings for the instruments, also another pocket-sized book. Very handy to have on hand.

I’ve been messing around with orchestral arrangements for making music covers. Watching your videos reminds me I’m just a child on orchestration. OMG!

The best demonstrations of instruments I have found here on KZfaq have been the ones by members of the Philharmonia Orchestra around 2013, nearly all are as good or even better than any orchestration book (not necessarily to say the books should be abandoned, of course).

This is, without a doubt, the most practical and well expressed information on film scoring and orchestration I've ever found on youtube. Most videos are ok for people starting off or vaguely interested in the industry, but your channel gives information and advice that is truly valuable and applicable to people who want to take it more seriously. Thanks for your channel! :)

LOL! I love the Google search interlude music! ='D Another great video! BTW, I was so impressed when I wrote for studio musicians at UCLA Ext Film Scoring program...every week real studio musicians from CBS and other shows sight read what we wrote and it sounded as if they had rehearsed it a couple of times-L.A. still has some of the most talented musicians working that I've ever worked with. One tip I found useful in the class was to blend low instruments on low notes of the chord (usually the root or inverted 5th), and blend high instruments on the high note of the chord (usually the 5th or inverted 3rd). For example, I written the lowest note (inverted 5th) for Trombones, Bassoon and Cello...and the highest note (inverted 3rd) for Trumpet, Flute and Violin...and middle note (the root in the inverted chord) for Horn, Clarinet and Viola. I also found it helpful to tell the brass to follow the winds, the wind to follow the strings, and the strings to follow the brass...everything came out well blended.

I could watch this all day.

BTW : to all of you who view Anne-Katrin’s videos : few years ago I purchased an orchestral score template sets for Sibelius and Finale from Cinesamples. I am not sure if they still have it available, but everything is in those templates. Correct fonts, huge time signatures, layout for score and parts, even sizes of sheet music paper for printing. All according to L.A. Hollywood film scoring standards. And yes - violins 1 and 2 (with divisi) on one sheet etc. Everything that Anne-Kathrin talks about here you have in those templates. Priceless... Thanks for those brilliant videos :-)

Simply fantastic. Thank you! Anne-Kathrin you are truly the Pâté amongst a flock of Ducks (no idea quite why I wrote that)....

Great quote: "You're going to get what you deserve ." Truer words were never spoken. // Great tips, explained well, Anne!

I really love these! I get that you don't want to only be doing these, of course, but I sure am grateful for the ones you do make!

#3 tip was invaluable. Thank you so much for sharing your experience.

Thanks for your time Anne it was a great video to watch,,, your a lovely lady best wishes from UK England 👍🙏

Very inspiring. I have a piece where flutes and piccolo are commenting with a sicilienne jig in 12/16 over stately chords in 3/4 and the conductor flatly refused to perform it. Works really great on computer. So your cut and paste idea makes it finally possible with real instruments - at least on record.

Your channel is invaluable for any aspiring composer. Sample libraries can definitely be misleading when it comes to range and timbre of certain instruments. I also appreciate your comments in regards to offering musicians parts that they will enjoy to play. Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to share these observations with all of us.

This was helpful, thanks! Especially the high cello vs low viola distinction.

Anne-Kathrin, so grateful for all that you do. Though I'm not doing much film scoring, your practical instruction on orchestration is still very applicable in my use of orchestral instrumentation in producing tracks for singer/songwriter; pop; rock; and folk focused music! Please continue your endeavor!

these tips are INCREDIBLE. thank you for making these videos!

Very clarifying for every arranger and orchestrator who make their own copyst work. Besides, very helpful instrumentation tips reminder. Great video...Thank you, Anne. Grettings.

At 23:13- that's a LOL!! Thanks for these videos, Anne!

Very interesting, and helpful, as usual. Thanks!

Your EQ (Experience Quotient) is dang impressive!

Thank you so much for doing this video; as a lifelong film music fan it's fascinating to learn about these film scoring methods and techniques.

I just found you. All I can say is... you are a musical genius. This rabbit hole is DEEP. And you own it.

More great tips, thanks. What you're saying makes perfect sense, but I never thought about the different requirements of film scores. Those time signatures are HUGE!

Its all so true about the Instruments and theyr limitations and owen peculiarities and owen characters. I am professional Violinist and studied Filmcomposing by David Angel. He have give us the hint to learn at least one of the other Instrument Familys. In the end i have practised and tryed out EVERY Instrument from the whole Orchestra und played also some of them in Chambermusic for Instrument demonstrations at Musicschool. (Flute Oboe Clarinette Bassoon Saxophon Trombone Viola and Cello at Musicschool Demonstration Ensembles, all Instruments in the same Session) I love very much your Videos, your knowloedge and your composing ! Its impresses me also, you worked on Samples Librarys and you are also audio technicaly so much professional.

All this time I had no idea about no key writing being default. Thank you

Time is money. Thank you for pointing this out. If you are sitting in orchestra or writing for orchestra you can quickly forget how much every single minute of recording time actually costs. Even for small projects. For the fellows who didn't organize a recording yet here a stash of things coming into a recording minute: The rent of the hall, mics, cables, instruments and more The recording technicians and that studio Your wage, times the amount of musicians. Conductor composer Administration of the production. You are so quick to get a frightening €/minute rate. Great video!

I love the relaxed yet knowledgeable way she records her presentations ("I've got s**t to do"?). Very easy to understand.

I love your videos! Mainly because you're upfront with critiques, concise and clear with information and do not cram useless exposition into your videos. YAY YOU!

Wonderful video! One thing I feel I must add, as a horn player the high range of the horn is certainly powerful, and somewhat easier to project in than the low. Difficult above concert Bb5 or so, yes, but not thin.

Thank you for this new batch of tricks&tips, Anne-Katrhin! Loved it!

These are sooooo interesting and helpful! I look forward to more of your experiences, insights (and humor) whenever the next video happens!

Thank you for sharing your experience. I found that very, very helpful.

Thank you for your useful and very digestible tips.

You are just awesome. This is precious! Thanks!!!!

"Not every day, not every week... I actually have shit to do." Instant love!!

I know it's tough at times finding the time to do these vids, therefore, I once again thank you for your efforts and please know you're doing a great service here for many composers, as well as those wishing to learn. Much appreciation and respect from Sydney, Australia.

Great tips Anne!! Thanks so much for these videos and for spreading your experience and expertise for free on KZfaq for all of us to benefit from! Just to add on slightly to tip three, in addition to knowing the ranges and timbres it’s also important to know that just because an instrument *can* play in the given range doesn’t mean it’s comfortable to do so (like you alluded to with the conversation about the horns). I feel like for most people this goes without saying but if you’ve never worked with live players before you might not be thinking about it when writing with samples. Take trumpets for an example, they can play high and powerfully but you can’t have them playing high and loud for a whole piece, they will A. Hate you and B. Blow out their chops so fast and be ruined for the rest of the session. I hear a lot of beginner composers just write high trumpet parts for a whole 3 minute cue like it’s a string instrument or a flute or something and that won’t work that well in a session or even concert setting for that matter! Another example, it’s important to note that on the extreme ranges of the string instrument (super high & super low), it’s really hard to play fast scales/passages since in those extreme ranges they will be on one string and it’s super difficult to accurately hit those notes quickly, so obviously they *can* play high and low really beautifully but you just have to watch out what you are writing in each register because not every register is the same:) *edit* I notice that tip 5 kinda covers this topic a bit, but I’ll leave this comment here just in case!

You are a breath of fresh air. I’m learning so much from your channel. Thank you for doing what you do.

Such a joy to hear about recording with live musicians and session time. I used to do this years ago when the mock-up process was not possible technologically.. and multitrack tape was just getting to 32 track stage. As a fast writer but hopeless player and reader, sessions could be quite scary if it hadn’t have been for helpful players and especially the concertmeister. Was an exciting time but not as exciting as I think it is for you today. Love what you are doing .. Thank you so much.❤

Awesome video, thank you Anne-Kathrin!

Once again you have given us a super practical and helpful set of lessons. "playability triangle" ... wow. Thank you!

You've given me so much to think about. Thanks for the excellent advice.

Nice!

Thank you so very much!!! Invaluable information.

Thank you so much on the description on real instrument dynamics, limitation when writing a mock with virtual instruments!

Fantastic tips! As a composer, I think you're not only a veru good musician, but also a superteacher, very clear and helpful. Thanks a lot and keep up the great work. All the best!

Thank you Anne for these golden tips in film orchestration! This helps a lot for us study this type of art.

Learn so much from your videos thanks.

Thanks for the scoring tips.

Love your videos. Glad I found your channel!

What’s great is that these really help get the ball rolling with learning orchestration. Fascinating as always!

I feel like I learn so much from listening to you share your experience and wisdom. Thank you for your creative generosity, it is much appreciated.

26 minutes? That's gold, I would've been happy even for 5, but 26... thank youuu

Loving the channel and even more this topic...

Thank you for this and all your videos!

Thank you for posting this, I really learned a lot from it!

What a wealth of tips here. You might as well publish a book on the subject. I'm learning so much from your videos Dern. Cannot thank you enough for your generous spirit in sharing these. 🙏🏾🌞💯

Ravels Bolero in the background during minute 3:00! Fantastic piece, but his Symphony Daphnis et Chloé is the most marvellous piece I ever heard. I truly feel intimidated by his compositional skills.

Great stuff! Probably worth mentioning that C4 is the C above middle C i.e. middle C is C3 (and that when you are talking about ranges of instruments, you are talking sounding pitches rather than written pitch)

Thank you for this! It's great to hear about these personal experiences and the positive ways to deal with them.

Another superb video Anne!

Great tips, thanks so much for taking the time!

very nice and interesting video, especially the section about giving everyone something interesting to do. reminds me of mozart.

Loved this video. Great points.

Good point about doubling thirds. John Williams does it all the freaking time. We don't have to follow all the classical rules.

These are the best instructional videos of any kind and subject on KZfaq

Thank you, I learnt a lot from that.

You are such a good teacher and always a great pleasure to listen to. Thank you very much! Greetings from Germany. 🙂

Great Anne … and thank you again

Thanks a lot Anne-Kathrin, this is very handy and practical tips, as I like them! Please Anne keep going on if you have time for it!

Just discovered your channel, thanks for sharing all these tips!

I was there at John Williams in LA! Wow I wish I could have met you

There is so much great stuff here! Thanks for making these videos; so practical and informative!

Thanks for this little series you've been doing. These have been really informative.

These quick tips videos are super helpful, thank you very much for doing this Anne-Kathrin!

I love your videos! they are very helpful. Greetings from Argentina. Saludos desde Argentina ;)

So instructive. I can't thank you enough for all that input you give.

In fact, you are talking about a very important topic that helps players to be easy work. Thank you for this effort🌷

Wieder mal geile Hacks 😁👍 Grüße aus Deutschland aus Hamm

Thank you very much!

Thanks again Anne-Kathrin! Lots of clear info delivered in a short time. Fantastic! Looking forward for the next one... no pressure though... :)

Once again, super helpful, loving these awesome tips!

Thanks for making such a clear and interesting content !

I love these orchestration videos, really. Love the way you explain things, simple, effective and sharing experiences. Immensely valuable. Thank you 👏🏻👏🏻

Really great stuff again!

Thank you!

You’re awesome. Thank you

Amazing advices. Thank you for sharing, Anne. I'm following you here and it's impressive how you made being understandable this tips. I'm a self learner, because a health issue ( difficult to focus ). And your videos are so easy to make me, and for Shure, others here, understand that never is time to give up. Thank you again and again.

Loving the #bolero

Thank you so much for the very useful and very helpful tips. Your channel is surely a gem on youtube. It is clear that you put a lot of thought into your ‘quick’ tips. Greetings from Greenland!

Extremely useful 👍👍

Once again tons of super useful information!

Great once again AK! As well as Composition I also do Orchestration, so it's always great to pick up a few great tips from others out there! Thank you for another awesome video!

Amazing and very informative as usual

Thanks!