How To Write an Orchestral Sketch - Orchestration Techniques
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 มี.ค. 2017
- In this episode we explore how to write an Orchestral Sketch. This is an eight stave orchestral reduction of a cue from John Williams 1978 Superman film score. This is how film composers can write a 2 hour score without getting bogged down in the orchestration details. This is what he hands off to an orchestrator. The entire orchestration is contained in this 8 stave sketch.
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Man, I love this guy. He could have easily setup some website and required payment for access to all this awesome content and yet he continues to share it with us for free. What a stand-up guy. Spread the word!
I agree. He's the gift that keeps on giving!
That would help! If you really want to help, share my videos on Twitter, Facebook and Reddit. It helps a lot. Also, buy my book or donate whatever you can to my channel. Even the littlest bit helps. To donate you guys can use my PayPal which is my email rickbeato1@gmail.com Thanks again to all of you! Rick
Thanks, Im learning English... And Im a student composer. Your videos are the best way to practice this art. Thanks Thanks Thanks Thanks
+Rick Beato Have you thought about setting up a Patreon? That seems to be working really well for a lot of people.
+Rick Beato I think you should upload these to an alternative source, just incase something happenes to youtube one day
Knowing that Williams wrote this without hearing a digital orchestra pre-playing. That just didn't exist yet. Thx for this insight, Rick.
Then you remember what Beethoven managed without being able to hear at all. . .
Inky Scrolls But he could hear. He was losing his hearing, it wasn’t gone completely
Correction - he was completely deaf by the time he died, and he wrote his 9th symphony without ever hearing it.
By the time he died is not the same as his entire life. When he composed, he could hear, and even the 9th symphony was composed when he was *almost* deaf
No, he was totally deaf by the time he composed the 9th symphony. He couldn't even hear the thunderous applause as the symphony ended, and a friend had to come up onto the stage to physically turn him round so he could see the audience clapping.
My musical understanding grows with every video you produce. Thank you so much for what you do.
All old skool stuff were way, I mean way way way ahead of their time - It's like the level of genius is beyond comprehension - Man I am humbled by such geniuses and efforts of the many people who added their talents, crafts and skills to making such beautiful products, from instruments to electronics like tape machines, etc... Thanks Rick Beato, you too, are a genius.
Thanks for this video. I am a beginner orchestrator and I have never thought about just doing a rough sketch of what I want for my piece, i always just went straight in with the full score lol. Doing this should stop me from getting lost, I can't believe I never thought of just sketching first.
Ben Mercer That's why I did the video to show people how most pros do it. Thanks!
exactly, I add too much stuff that doesn't connect, where as if it's imploded like the rough sketch there's a good idea on the section buildups. It lets you see the forest for the trees.
This video is a must for film composers!
Reading comments...so it's not just me who get sooo much from your videos. Thank you so much for you unstoppable willingness and capacity to create and share.
You're such a great producer, musician and teacher, thanks for share your knowledge
It's good to see more people covering up their webcams. Incredibly elaborate yet comprehensive content all around, rick. I'm hooked on these videos!
I saw Mark Zuckerberg had his covered and figured he must know something. Thanks!
You know what Rick. I think these vids are great. Came across you by accident looking at metal scales. You teach without patronising and explain without confusing me. Love it all.
I am absolutely loving these. I feel like I'm an apprentice sitting down with a wizard. You're showing me all these little details that make the bigger picture. Thank you so much!
Interesting too that the Krypton theme is comprised of the same notes as the principle theme of the film. Like an anagram. Nice subtle reinforcement.
I'm getting reminded of "Fanfare for the Common Man" a lot here.
The John Williams score is incredibly powerful. I'm inspired to learn so much more about composition. Wow!
Rick, this (along with a cue in Empire Strikes Back, where Yoda uses the Force to lift Luke's X-wing out of the swamp) is one of my favorite cues in all of movie music -- thanks for breaking it down!
Rick, thank you! Thank you! Your passion is wonderful and the information is a thrilling education most of us wouldn't get otherwise. You enrich our lives!
Awesome! I'm so glad I found you on youtube! Please, keep your wonderful teaching.
You’re such a gift Rick. I appreciate you very much. Thank you always!
i always found it funny how John Williams would say the Superman movie didn't take itself seriously and was somewhat tongue in cheek - and then you watch the movie and hear it begin with the Krypton track - one of the most profoundly glorious and sublime sequence of sounds ever composed for the cinema
Very helpful analysis! Hoping for more vids on orchestration.
Thank you so much for this analysis! Was very insightful!
Rick man I learning a lot more from you then I did on my 4 year music scoring education! You are incredible man. Keep it up!
Thanks for choosing this piece of music...you're awesome. Really appreciate what you're doing. All the best to you.
Please do a video on the compositional techniques of Ennio Morricone. Love your teaching style by the way, perfectly paced and thoroughly elaborated
3 notes on a harmonica or 4 notes on contrabassoon and ... you have got a main theme! And he is from the old school guys who don't use orchestrators but do all by themselves.
Thanks Rick! I learned from this--good stuff!
My fav channel. Thanks Rick!
Great Job Mr. Beato. Love your videos.
The orchestral sketch consists of 8 staves and they are:
- Woodwinds
- Trumpets
- Trombones
- Horns
- Strings (2 staves)
- Timpani
And what about the stave above the strings?
MrDevastatorHD Pecussion
Thanks!
But you can be fluid, so long as you mark it. If you need 2 staves for the wws for some time, move the other stuff. The point is to not assign staves to one role, but to have a plan toward setting the full texture in a reduced score.
Thanks for the video, great refresher.
Great video! This is what I do for a living (both generating sketches and working from them), and your information presented was all really on point
You’re the man. Thank you so much. Love this stuff.
Thank you so much for your content! I'm normally more of a Bach counterpoint kind of guy, but your videos makes me want to delve deeper into orchestration when i get the time.
amazing! Rick you are amazing! once again, you've got a huge fan in Dallas!!
Thanks so much, Rick!!
Hi Rick. You are demystifying so many things. I appreciate all the time and effort you are taking with these videos. A few things I am taking away from my past experience learning about learning music in general is that the level was not challenging enough to fully engage me. You've made the more complex information accessible. Now that I have more challenging things to grapple with, I have an interesting context that pulls me through doing the more basic (and tedious for me) of work ear training and getting keyboard fingerings into muscle memory. When the information context was too basic, doing that work was almost impossible to keep on task. I'm thankful you are providing all this information as you do.
Great video rick. Thanks!
Thanks for another fascinating one, Rick. I do feel like a companion video's needed now however, talking about how an orchestrator would pick up a sketch like this, or even a simpler piano reduction, and flesh it out into a full score :-)
Thanks again!
Dear Rick, Thank you very much for your videos. I love music and would like to know more about the techniques of writing music and orchestration. I never had a teacher and could never afford one. Now because of TH-cam and people like you I am getting to learn music. I thank you very much. I especially love the music of John Williams, he makes characters come to life and creates visual imagery in my brain. I thank you very much.
Great video ! Thank you ✍🏻
Thanks for everything you've shared, you've taught me so much already, in the few weeks, since I found your channel. Keep up the good work! :)
Thanks You Sir! Very inspiring! Teaching this old dog new things!
Really Thanks man, you're great
Eye opening. Thank you for taking so much time to do these videos!!! My new business has a need for me to switch to composing cinematic style music and I'm a mere rock guitar player. Thanks so much!!!!!
Another great video Rick, many thanks. I will probably make some of you jealous now because I have the opportunity to listen - properly, as in a live orchestra with real instruments, playing the music live - to this piece. This is because the local orchestra I am in is doing this piece. I play bass mainly but just took up french horn and played the horn part of this (well, an arrangement of it). Its fascinating to see the different harmonies once you're "in the middle" of them compared to playing the bass. And John Williams is a brilliant composer, he certainly doesn't make it easy for us french horn players! But the lines are wonderful and its a challenge to do them justice.
Unfortunately we never quite get the full "orchestra" sound experience when you're sat in one - you obviously hear the instruments around you louder than others more distant, unlike the proper spatial effect an audience member hears. And we're all squished up in a smallish rehearsal hall too.
You are a genius sir. Love from India.
Excellent breakdown as usual! This is such a beautiful piece. I love C-major, I never get tired of it. There are many other great songs to be written in C major.
🤪
Great lesson
Muy interesante... Felicidades y saludos!...
Really good. plz do more of these orchestral reductions
The first time I heard that score was at a museum exhibit about ancient Meso American empires. "That's neat" I thought. And finally a fanfare to rival "Thus Spach Zaruthustra" by Richard Strauss, aka the opening theme to the movie 2001 A Space Odyssey. Only latter did I get to know that it was lifted from a Superman movie and the composer was John Williams.
OMG! Rick! I love this video! Superman (78') is my favorite film score of all time and I love that you're instruction from one of my favorite songs from this piece! OMG! Wow!!! I would love to get my hands on the entire film score sheet music if it is possible. I doubt it though.
Very awesome.
awesome! tx a lot
So damn useful. Thank you.
great cheers again rick
you're on fire, Beato.
Great video! I would call the Fsus2/6 a G/Fno3 since the bassnote resolves like a 7th to the 3rd of C
What ever makes it easier to remember.
Thank you sir...thank you.
Awesome video!
You are a great musician! Thanks you! And the same time you look like Al Pacino!
Rick ! I compose most of my music on organ, this way the bass line played on pedals make initial ideas more complete. Of course one can also “imagine” the vertical result of linear playing, without having that “third hand” but actually hearing it makes easier during composing process. BTW : it’s interesting how the individual composition process looks like with certain people : JW composes most of his music on the piano with the pencil. He doesn’t use any notation software whatsoever ! HZ composes his stuff either at the keyboard or without any instrument: just the inner hearing :-)
Yamaha Electone?
My teacher. My hero.
Great video
More stuff like this Rick. You have quite a few composers who enjoy score reading.
That's a good sound library.
Can't wait to meet you sir
Bernard Herrmann used to loath the idea of doing anything but a full score. However, the idea of getting everything into a sketch that is in the full score is intriguing, and Williams is a master of it.
Great video, appreciations!
Thank you :)
Good video!
Thank you so much, Rick! My 2018 resolution: Watch your videos (diligently) and use that knowledge to work on my own music =D God bless you. Cheers from Jakarta, Indonesia!
Rick I'd saw off my right leg with a butter knife to Vulcan Mind Meld your knowledge. I am currently study cinematic score composition (taking a few online courses). I love the idea of just sketching using the instruments vs creating a straight piano sketch. All courses I am taking almost insist starting from piano (I play guitar, not piano...kind of getting the hang of it though). When I just create my melody then harmony with piano it always sounds off. I cannot quite get the hang off piano sketches?? If you ever open up a course on creating this kind of music count me in as Student. I am always amazed by your knowledge.
Changing the G sharp to A flat in the third measure, the introduction reminds a cadence to a C phrygian with a major third. It's a scale very used by Williams, probably trying to get us into the atmosphere of that strange planet!
This video is mislabeled. It is a great breakdown of John Williams Superman Kryptonite que, but doesn't teach anything about how to write an orchestral sketch. I would love to see a video on how you go about sketching ideas for a score or composition.
Sure it does. Heres the nutshell, reduced score with only 8 (or whatever) staves and your just loosely notating it "Strings" or whatever, with instructions for the copyist to expand it out to the full score (and individual parts)
Gary,
I have just seen your comments and so am perhaps a little late to reply! The way to sketch a work can have several equally valid ways of being done. One can start with several staves (2, 6 8 - but not too many!), start by notating what you have - a few chords, a single line of melody and add as required. Just add to this in your chosen way and complete as much detail as possible (don't forget to delete from time-to-time!).
Remember certain basics such as the range of the instruments, though you can afford to be a little vague at this early stage - perhaps just writing a passage for strings or brass on a couple of staves only and deciding the breakdown later. I would suggest writing all parts "in C" - that is sounding as written except for octave transpositions which can be taken as a given.
The advantage of a sketch and short scores (as opposed to a full - orchestral - score) is that one can compose quickly with a lot more music per page (makes reading easier).
That said, I composed my first four Symphonies in short score format, then from the fifth onward composed straight on to full score without sketches or short scores and that, at least for me, works very well indeed (I a presently working on Symphony No.45, so I must be doing something right!). If you want to write sketches and short scores then I hope the few remarks of mine above are of some help.
thanks Howard
I'm inclined to agree with Gary here. I clicked on this video hoping I might learn a thing or two about how to write an orchestral sketch, or at least hear a bit of insight. Those thoughts manifesting in my mind as well as the decision to click that mouse had _everything_ to do with this video being titled "How To Write an Orchestral Sketch". That makes sense, right?
Now if this video was called - "How to waste 14 minutes of your life waiting for me to finish up with this irrelevant chord voicing analysis so you can waste another 5 minutes of your life in a deja-vu review of my mock-up paired with the orchestral sketch in question which is arbitrary and meaningless without the context of comparison between the sketch and the finalized version of the score as it was heard in the film because of copyright restrictions on the audio" - then I wouldn't have clicked to watch it, but I would have had a good idea of what I was about to see if I had.
With anything presented as "how to..." it is always implied to have some sort of instructional content. And typically that instruction is specific, so the one providing the content knows who his target audience or demographic will be. Having this in mind the provider should tune his content as necessary so that it is effectively translated to the greatest proportion of his intended audience as possible. In this case, that target audience is music makers - and I'm sure Rick knows this. Yet this is precisely where this specific video fails. Whatever instructional material one might find here will most likely be of no use. This is due to what Rick says and how he says it. He speaks like someone who has studied music and knows what he's talking about - which is good, but only for the people who know what he's talking about. Not so much though for those who aren't up to speed on all that music theory. For a novice it might be a little hard to follow. It could very well be confusing, and perhaps even a bit discouraging. And I think it's safe to say that novices out there occupy a sizable percentage of the people most interested in or compelled to click on a how-to video or article.
So basically this video doesn't offer any useful information to those who might need it. The only ones who could really get what Rick was saying already know this stuff, so they don't actually require a how-to video. Therefore, it's a fail..
Agreed, it's useful in its own way, but not what the title implies.
Fuckin' amazin' ! Love to see how they worked all that out.. Thanks and great vid !! Really did learn some new stuff today.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sick as fuck. I love all your film music and composition lessons.
John Williams is a genius.
thx so much
In these demostrations on the RD150 are these stock sounds? just wondering as I've been looking at Berlin (computer kontakt) sounds and am wondering if I really need to buy these?
The fuga movements he have made is also interesting
Its so simple yet so perfect... i gotta stop writing so much garbage 😂 thank you Rick :)
I have been asked by some of you if it would be possible to purchase the stems for this. If you are interested please write me at rickbeato1@gmail.com thanks!
Another great video that helps break down barriers to learning for a beginner like me. Thanks loads for doing this. Now if I can just figure out how to gain 10 more fingers to span an 88 note keyboard, I'll be good to go... :)
Good resource. Thanks.
Could you do a video to comment upon Song Numberings in Film? Reel and Time vs. Chronological numberings (such as is done in Opera and Theatre)? For some reason, this has been of interest to me.
Thanks again.
@Rick, what are you using for your mockups? These sound amazing.
That opening reminds a bit of Pines of Rome
Hi Rick, thanks for sharing this !
Your mockup sounds good, what sounds do you use ?
Those opening trumpets take me right to star trek DS9. Yes, this song came first. It's probably a common phrasing or sequence.
Hi Ricky, thank you a thousand times for your videos.
! Do you use VSL with several computers for orchestrating? Any suggestions on computers requirements and libraries? Thanks!
I like this video
Hi, Rick. Great job each one of your videos. A question: How could I getting the John Williams' Scores, por ex Star Wars?
Congrats for the videos. They're very instructional. I have one question: where can I get the music sheets of orchestrated songs (with every instruments)? Thanks
just found out John Williams grew up in floral park just few blocks from our house..wow
Awesome teaching! Is there an 8 stave orchestral sketch template available?
What virtual instruments do you use for all of your programming? Thanks, I love the channel!!
I regret dismissing quintal and I guess secundal harmony. Thanks!
What software did you use Rick to do this, Finale? If not what software would you suggest to start orchestrating? Thanks.
Hi Rick, what about doing a similar thing with Miles' "Birth of The Cool". Maybe you could tell us about 6 part counterpoint and orchestration techniques that Mulligan and Evans use. Thanks. Paulo
Is that the Komplete Audio 6 device? Also, what VSTi are these?