Orchestration
for Beginners
Orchestration for Beginners is a video tutorial series, available on Youtube and my website, for composers and performers currently orchestrating their first orchestral work, or want to get ready to orchestrate their first orchestra work within 2-3 years.
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Orchestration Competition at Composition & Its Allies
My fellow composers and performers, if you would like to get better at orchestration and want feedback, I have a launched the first ever Orchestration Competition at Composition & Its Allies. Make sure to read through the Announcement first, so that you can follow all of the proper steps.
The deadline for submission is April 30th, 2026.
Tip: for the highest chance of winning, make sure to read through the Grading Rubric with care: extra points will be awarded for a early submission and getting an exceptional mark in certain categories (see the Grading Rubric)
Best of luck!
-Barney
A video guide of the competition is available at the end of this section (for visual learners)​​​​
Announcement
(read first)
Worksheet for Solve/Fix
Problems in Your Orchestration
(required for entry)
Submission Form
(required for entry)
Grading Rubric
(read through with care)
Before submitting, make sure that you have read through the Grading Rubric and have attached and properly labelled all documents
Video Guide to the Competition
(for visual learners)
Orchestration is a lot of work, especially re-orchestrating. If you want to get a feel for all of the steps required for this competition,
then watch this video I made that walks you through the steps.
If you have any questions, please first make sure that you have read through all of the documents, then leave your comments in the video. Best of luck! -Barney
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Chapter Guide:
0:00 Introduction
00:27 Rules & Regulations
2:44 Worksheet (required)
6:11 Submission Form (required)
8:15 Grading Rubric (required)
11:24 Win the Competition
How to Build Chords, ep 1
In Today's Episode:
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Today we will look at a tutti chord from helpisontheway. First, we will make a complete piano reduction of the woodwinds, then the strings. Second, we will learn what is the essential harmony, then make a piano reduction of the essential harmony for the chord for woodwinds, strings, and finally, the tutti orchestra.
In part 2, we will look at 2 different orchestrations of the same chord, and discuss, using the work that we did in part 1. The theme of today’s class is the ambitus.
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0:00 Introduction
3:29 Piano Reductions
5:42 Essential Harmony
14:07 First Orchestration
26:22 Second Orchestration​​​​
Homework​
For composers & performers who want to practice what they learned, and who are hard workers. This will not replace a teacher or a formal orchestration class, but it will allow you to
get moving. Please submit your work to me by August 25th, 6pm EST, so that I can include it
in the next episode.
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Instructions:
-review the video starting at 29:44 for a detailed explanation with examples
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1) Choose a chord that you have already orchestrated from your first orchestral work
(preferably an arrival or tutti chord)
2) Make a piano reduction for each group (woodwinds, brass, strings)
3) Make a piano reduction of the essential harmony for the tutti chord
4) Re-orchestrate your chord
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If you complete steps 1-4, and submit it before the deadline, I will review your work
in the next episode of How to Build Chords.
-Barney B. Johnson
Please send PDF format only. Thank you.
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Resources
THE ESSENTIAL ORCHESTRATION
of CHARLES KOECHLIN
I am currently bringing some of the key wisdom from the French understanding of orchestration, captured by Charles Koechlin, to a larger public. I will be translating some of his best nuggets of wisdom, but adding my own examples when necessary. The translations are not word for word, but instead favor the spirit and thinking of Charles Koechlin. The sections that I chose are the ones that I feel are most important for composers who are beginning or struggling with orchestration.​​ As always, knowledge has limited value: ultimately, you must take the plunge and learn to orchestrate for yourself.​​
-Barney
Last updated: October 21st, 2025
How to Orchestrate from a Piano Score:
the Perfect Fifth in the Bass
In this gem of orchestration wisdom, Charles Koechlin talks about how to manage perfect fifths, as well as tightly spaced chords, in the lower regions of the left hand of the piano, and what to do with them in the orchestra. Tip: you will have to respace the chord.
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Last updated: October 21st, 2025