What do you think of the course so far?

[His Frogness]

This course is awesome!

I love the examples. With the more complex classical music it's sometimes hard for me to understand some of the fast rhythmic passages but seeing the notation gives it context. That in turn leads to a better understanding of the meter and pacing that the composer is directing. I wish I could listen to all my classical music with this presentation.

I also appreciate the abridged and concentrated format. I've perused this book enough times that the examples are what really really benefit me.

[Ron St. Germain]

I think you should continue posting the courses at your current rate--those who feel they are ready can study them and those who feel they need more time can further study previously posted courses. The beauty of this online course is that every one can study at their own pace. I'm eagerly awaiting the new installments! Just my two cents.

[grenal1]

Hi Gary
For now , I'm not able to hear mp3 in real time, so I've not
yet begun the course, is there a way to download the mp3 examples ?
Thanks
Alain

[Crazykeys]

Hello Gary,

This course is outstanding. It also shows very impressively how much "sound realism" is possible with GPO. Obviously not everybody, even good readers (but only keyboardists) can achieve such a sound quality. In Part 1 - Stringed Instruments "GPO Exercises" offer the possibility to better control GPO while following the course and emulating the work of the sequencing pros involved. It would be great if you could give us PLENTY OF GPO EXERCISES with expert advices about sequencing and specific approaches for the instruments involved.

Many thanks

[Beverly]

Dear Gary, and all who are involved in creating this forum...Thank you so very much! I am a 'lay' person (as in non-musical professional) with an interest in composing, who has been trying to develop my musical 'tool box' over the last two years. I have been slogging through old music theory classics from the library and there have been many times I yearned to ask a question or 'hear' an explanation about what was being described. Often there were flat statements made in the texts with little explanation as to WHY that was a rule (i.e. parallel fifths and parallel octaves.) I am having so many light bulb experiences on this forum as I hear things explained in different ways.

As I don't have classical musical training, I felt some anxiety at first about asking what might be considered a 'dumb' question. I do not have that concern any longer. After seeing the kind tone in the responses of the contributors to other people's questions I know it is safe. Thank you for that!

I believe I read somewhere that orchestral score submissions could be made in the future for a competition. Maybe I have an inaccurate perception, but my assumption here is that you are looking for a totally instrumental score. Have you considered creating a category for a score that includes the human voice instrument as opposed to only mechanical instruments? Essentially an orchestrated arrangment with the voice as the melodic instrument.

Also, I have not gone through all the teaching segments yet, so please forgive me if this is covered, but I would love to see a special lesson on what role the human voice can play in a musical piece and how to orchestrate around it.

Thank you again! Beverly

[Cantabile]

Ouch- I didn't realize the transposition thing. Maybe someone could come up with a quick reminder table to show the instruments involved and the amount of transposition. Now I have to find out if there's a way in my sequencer (Sonar 3) to change the sound of the instrument without changing the midi staff notation.

The course is great- but I'm a little disconcerted with how fast the lessons are being released. I feel like I'm two weeks behind already! I realize its a "do it at your own pace" thing, but still you like to be working on the same thing that everyone else is posting about. Hopefully, there will be only one lesson released per week.

Carl

I believe, but correct me if im wrong, in sonar you can do this by going into track view and lets say it is clarinets in A transposition(down a minor third). I think if you set the initial transposition in the track view/transposition then input via the staff it should come out as sounding pitch. I may be wrong as I have never tried that as I just simply transpose it. When writing things out for personal use I find it just a nuisance to use transposition/staff and prefer concert pitch.

[DeTuneTinker]

I was elated when I dropped by Harmony Central ('haven't done that in awhile) and read about this course.

I'd misplaced my R-K book which I never cracked, and recently felt compelled to run out and buy another. I've been compiling graphics summaries of R-K's voice combinations for my own knowledge assimilation/retention. I'd tried to find audio recordings of the cited works with only partial success. Your course is a heaven-sent time saver!!

The biggest problem for me is a slow-as-sludge dial-up connection- ok for the text, pitiful for the media (I live in rural broadband-free USA). I'd love to purchase a dataCD/DVD version of this course!

I won't say which sampling synthesizer orchestration package I have, but there's a real performance problem getting more than a few voices off the hard drive simultaneously. One thing you sample providers could do to make learning easier is to pre-combine the R-K voices so the PC doesn't have so much work to do----sort of equivalent to video wire-frame animations. I started to do that myself, but it is a lot of work I'd rather not have to do.
What carpenter wants to forge his own hammer?

[aro]

What do you think?

That must be a rethorical question, right It's great!

I believe that this course is a great presentation of orchestration. It's not just an introduction, and the generous input of the professors is invaluable.

I think the best way to complement this course is to study scores and listen to the music with an analytical ear. Even better, studying scores with the help of a book that analysis deeply a certain piece is extremely helpful. I am personally learning a lot by using books from Cambridge University Press, looking at the scores and listening to the piece.

P.S. For those of us still learning GPO it would be certainly interesting to have the midi (or notation) files of the examples. This is in fact not related directly to the course, but it would be nice.

[jaythansparks]

Hello Community,

Gary, these courses are so terrific... I can't express the gratitude I have beucase I've been looking for this for a couple of years. I have several books on orchestration but this has lighten me up to really understand this wonderful art. I pray that these lesson will be here and up for a while to come because I have a lot of work to do. Thanks again, and also to this community, thanks for the input, suggestions, comments and opinions......


Jaythan

[Garritan]

Also, I have not gone through all the teaching segments yet, so please forgive me if this is covered, but I would love to see a special lesson on what role the human voice can play in a musical piece and how to orchestrate around it.

Beverly,

Thank your for the kind comments. I am glad you're having many light bulb experiences on this forum probably a result of many bright people here who are so helpful as well as encouraging.

We will be covering the human voice in the last lesson (#26).

Thanks for participating in this course.

Gary Garritan