Registration

Register online 24/7. Course fee is $295. Textbook materials are a separate purchase.

Class Schedule Winter 2011
Last day to register: Monday, January 31, 2011
Solo Violin Composition Due: Wednesday, Feb 9, 2011
Solo Violas Composition Due: Saturday, Feb 20, 2011
Solo Cello Composition Due: Monday, Feb 28, 2011
Solo Bass Composition Due: Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Required Text Package
Professional Orchestration Expanded Basic Home Study Bundle available either in printed book or digital download edition.

Class Meeting
You’ll be admitted to a private forum on the Alexander Publishing web site. Here you can ask Stephen Hill questions, along with constructively critiquing each student’s composition.

Details

Professional Orchestration Writing For Strings is writer’s class where you’ll write and produce a 2-minute composition with no accompaniment for solo instrument. The 2-minute composition is based on a literary work included in your Professional Mentor™ workbook picked specifically for each instrument. Each work must include specific articulations as listed in the Professional Mentor. Each composition is due approximately every 10 calendar days. The composition is your test.

To build your composition technique list, you’ll analyze a minimum of four examples per week from Professional Orchestration Volume 1. You’ll then reduce the full score to a six-stave concert score with two staves for woodwinds, two staves for brass, and two staves for strings.

You’ll apply a Spectrotone Chart analysis to each of the examples studied.

After submitting your composition, Stephen Hill will play through (but not record) your composition and critique it from two perspectives: composition and playability.

Stephen Hill

Stephen heads up our orchestration classes. Besides his compositional skill, Steve was asked to teach because he plays many of the instruments covered, thus giving you the player’s perspective on what you wrote. He received his Bachelor of Music in Theory and Composition (1980) from Ouachita Baptist University, Arkadelphia, Arkansas where he studied with Dr. W. Francis McBeth, and his Master of Arts in Music Composition (1984) from Cal State University, Los Angeles where he studied privately with the noted composer, Dr. Byong Kon Kim. Steve teaches full time, composes, and in the summer, likes to fish.

FAQ

I only have a notation program and the orchestral library it comes with. Is that good enough?
Yes, that’s more than enough for this class.

Can I use any orchestration book?
The Professional Orchestration Writing for Strings Class is built on the Professional Orchestration series and its Professional Mentor workbook.

Are there other orchestration books you recommend?
Orchestration by Cecil Forsyth (available from Dover books), Textures and Timbres: An Orchestrator’s Handbook by Henry Brant (Alex North’s orchestrator), and Sound and Scores by Henry Mancini.

Why is the Spectrotone Chart part of the class?
Once you learn how to use it, the Spectrotone Chart teaches you advanced tone color and timbre concepts, coloristic writing approaches, and is an aid in mixing and EQ’ing.)