Professional Orchestration Volumes 1 and 2A MP3 Audio & Professional Mentor Package

If you bought the Professional Orchestration.^™ books on their own (not part of a Home Study Bundle), you're going to want this MP3 Audio/Professional Mentor package - as found in the Professional Orchestration Home Study Bundles.

You get the Professional Orchestration Volume 1 MP3 Audio Package the Professional Orchestration Volume 2A MP3 Audio Supplement Package, and the Professional Mentor PDF Workbook for Volume 1, which also includes the Spectrotone Instrumental Tone-Color Chart^™.

About The Professional Orchestration Volume 1 Audio Package

You get around 12 hours of music in MP3 Format licensed from eClassical.com. The Volume 1 Audio Package covers approximately 70% of the musical works used in the book Professional Orchestration Volume 1 (not all pieces are currently available from eClassical). To fulfill listening requirements that many schools have, you’re given the complete work or movement the majority of the book’s examples are found in. Since they’re MP3s and DRM-free, you can download them to your favorite MP3 player and listen wherever you want. Timings for the examples used in the Vol. 1 book are included on a PDF spreadsheet for you.

Click on the Contents tab above to see a track listing for this audio package.

About The Professional Orchestration Volume 2A Audio Supplement Package

Because examples from the same musical works are cited across all the Professional Orchestration volumes, the audio packages are designed so that you only order the new works not previously quoted in an earlier volume. The Volume 2A Audio Supplement Package should be combined with the Volume 1 Audio Package to cover approximately 60% of the musical works found in Professional Orchestration Volume 2A and about 48% from Volume 2B. Not all pieces are currently available from eClassical, but as more works become available an additional supplement pack will be produced to cover additional pieces. The Volume 2A Audio Supplement Package contains the complete work or movement the score excerpt is found in, for a total of more than 17 hours of music when combined with the Volume 1 MP3 Audio files.

Click on the Contents tab above to see a track listing for this audio package.

Why so much music?

Well, it all has to do with the teaching philosophy behind Professional Orchestration. Listening to a snippet that’s only a few seconds long is, on one hand, very efficient. But how does that example fit into the whole score? What’s the dramatic impact when you hear it? How did the composer set up the example? And how did he exit? These are all questions professionals ask when they study a typical orchestration text. With Professional Orchestration you get the complete symphonic movement the example is found in. So, not only do you hear the example, you hear its place and dramatic impact in the work - something every composer not only wants to know, but must know if their writing is to be effective.

All MP3s from eClassical are Digital Rights Management-free (DRM-free), which means you can play them on any device that can read MP3s.

About The Professional Mentor PDF Workbook for Volume 1

The Professional Mentor Workbook is the heart of Professional Orchestration Volume 1 because it turns the book into a complete home study course. It includes a Lesson Planner and seven (7) audio lectures explaining how to study on your own.

With the Professional Mentor, you'll learn how to study a score and create a condensed score of the excerpt being studied in the Volume 1 book. You’re then encouraged to sequence the excerpt to understand orchestration techniques and compositional insights learned from the example, along with basic MIDI mock-up and recording skills. Next, you'll write your own original composition using techniques learned from Professional Orchestration Vol. 1 for each of these solo instruments: Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, French horn, Trumpet, Trombone, Tuba, Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass, and Harp. With this approach, you create 13 publishable works (the equal of roughly a semester’s worth of work at college) and you can also write an optional “final” project – a full orchestral arrangement.

Bonus Gift from the Vienna Symphonic Library
Also included in your Professional Mentor files, the good folks at the Vienna Symphonic Library, and composer Jay Bacal, have allowed us to give you, at no extra charge, 13 solo compositions with MP3 and MIDI files mocked-up by Jay for the Vienna Instruments sample library. Just load the MP3 and MIDI file into your sequencer and see how Jay created the composition by studying velocity, expression, mod wheel data, etc., as you listen to the MP3 file play. You can load your own instrument patch into the track, but you'll need to have the same VSL patches Jay used for the MIDI playback to match the MP3 audio. It will give you an idea of how to approach your own MIDI mock-ups and it's a professional education you can apply to any sample library you have.

Learn Orchestral Color and Balance With The Spectrotone Instrumental Tone-Color Chart^™

Because Professional Orchestration.^™ is the first orchestral scoring series to come out of the scoring stages of Los Angeles, we’re excited to include the Spectrotone Chart, originally created by Academy Award nominee Arthur Lange, who was also music director for MGM and other studios.

This expanded and enhanced 70th Anniversary Editon of the Spectrotone Instrumental Tone-Color Chart^™ is unique to the study of orchestration. Using the Spectrotone Chart you'll learn how to create effective orchestral combinations by understanding which instruments will blend well together in which registers, or which instruments will provide a more contrasting tone-color when placed together. You'll also learn starting insights on orchestral balance within each section of strings, brass and winds.

In Arthur Lange’s own words, the Spectrotone Chart is, "a colorgraphic exposition of tone-color combinations and balance as practiced in modern orchestration."

The Spectrotone Chart has applications to any style of music that makes use of orchestral instruments. It shows orchestral balance and color at a glance. With the Spectrotone Chart, visual colors are used to describe instrumental tone-colors, so you can quickly work out combinations by instrument, by range, and by specific notes. This makes it possible to determine in advance the true balance of any orchestral color effects.

Because the Spectrotone Chart does away with trial and error guessing, you can use it when arranging, composing, recording or mixing. With its color-coded approach, you can quickly work out combinations by instrument, by range, and by specific notes.

Each tone-color has an additional timbre description that changes depending on the type of articulation used. In your PDF Guides you're given a chart of Articulation Tables by tone-color, by instrument that show how the timbre can change, and also how this will affect the intensity and carrying power of that instrument. You'll know when an instrument in a particular register will be strong in intensity, or when it will be weak and possibly need reinforcing by another instrument.

For mixing purposes and applying EQ, Hz frequencies have been added for each pitch under the keyboard shown at the bottom of the chart.

The Spectrotone Chart can be used as an on-screen reference, or printed out on a variety of different sized papers. It's designed for 18" x 24" poster printing, but can be resized to fit a home color printer. A print release form is included so you can print it poster-sized at an office store if you want to.

Because the Spectrotone Chart is a must have for all arrangers, composers and recording engineers, it's now a part of the Professional Orchestration curriculum and incorporated into the Professional Mentor Workbook.

With Professional Orchestration you learn by doing. And you can learn at your own pace as your schedule allows.