Tag: orchestration

Learn how to write music for strings and help your string arrangements shine with these tips for orchestrators. For more help, check out Soundfly’s course Orchestration for Strings.

  • How to Orchestrate an Endless Rising Tone Effect

    How to Orchestrate an Endless Rising Tone Effect

    + Welcome to Soundfly! We help curious musicians meet their goals with creative online courses. Whatever you want to learn, whenever you need to learn it. Subscribe now to start learning on the ’Fly. The “Shepard Tone,” also known as the “Shepard Scale” or “Shepard Illusion,” is an auditory illusion discovered by American cognitive scientist Roger Shepard in 1964. Shepard presented…

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  • Who Will Win the Oscar for Best Original Film Score and Why?

    Who Will Win the Oscar for Best Original Film Score and Why?

    Who will win Best Original Score at the Oscars this year? With a powerhouse list of nominees, the choice isn’t going to be easy…

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  • The Spectacle of Hope: Reflections on the Music of Jóhann Jóhannsson

    The Spectacle of Hope: Reflections on the Music of Jóhann Jóhannsson

    By RE Katz Perhaps it’s fitting that the untimely death of composer Jóhann Gunnar Jóhannsson is shrouded in silence and rumor. We do not know why he died so young, we just have the one repeating syllable in our heads. We have this one soaring melodic line, these shimmering strings. Just over a year ago,…

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  • Mirah on the Sound of 50,000 Decisions and ‘Total Collaboration’

    Mirah on the Sound of 50,000 Decisions and ‘Total Collaboration’

    Welcome back to Soundfly’s weekly interview series, Incorrect Music, curated by guitarist, singer, and composer Lora-Faye Åshuvud (of the band Arthur Moon). In this series, we present intimate conversations with artists who are striving to push the boundaries of their process and craft. Brooklyn is the latest home to the singer-songwriter and performer Mirah, who comes to us by way…

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  • How ‘Apocalypse Now’ Etched Wagner’s ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ into Our Brains Forever

    How ‘Apocalypse Now’ Etched Wagner’s ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ into Our Brains Forever

    There would be only a handful of musical pieces that could rival Richard Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” for its iconic status in screen music. It was present in the starting days of silent cinema when chosen by D.W. Griffith to partially score his controversial, artistic watershed, Birth of a Nation (1915), and it was lovingly parodied by…

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  • Sarah Davachi on the Tuning and Resonance of Synths and Acoustic Strings, and More

    Sarah Davachi on the Tuning and Resonance of Synths and Acoustic Strings, and More

    + Learning about synthesis? Soundfly’s got a definitive new online course called Advanced Synths and Patch Design For Producers! Preview for free and subscribe for access.  While the electronic-leaning composer Sarah Davachi’s latest album, All My Circles Run, marks a break from her previous releases in that it is sourced solely by acoustic instruments, she says that her…

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  • What Exactly Is a Nocturne, and How Do You Write One?

    What Exactly Is a Nocturne, and How Do You Write One?

    Despite what many people think, classical music isn’t just a single, monolithic genre of music written by an old, stuffy bunch of dead guys. In fact, European classical music is so diverse that the only common denominator shared amongst pieces in its vast repertoire is that modern Western musical notation was basically invented in order to be…

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  • Quick Tracks Nº 6: Write a Melody That’s a Palindrome

    Quick Tracks Nº 6: Write a Melody That’s a Palindrome

    Welcome back to the dance floor, Quick Trackers! Once a month, we hook you up with a short production or songwriting challenge, aimed at helping to up your musicianship. To respond to the challenge, just email us, leave a comment, or post to social media with the hashtag #quicktracks and tag us @learntosoundfly. Draw, o coward! In words,…

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  • Intimidated by Opera? Here Are 5 Ways You Can Dive in as a Beginner

    Intimidated by Opera? Here Are 5 Ways You Can Dive in as a Beginner

    Tom Hanks: “Do you mind this music? Do you like opera?” Denzel Washington: “I am…not that familiar with opera.” For many, the question isn’t whether or not they like opera — it’s whether or not they’ve ever taken the time to find out. Opera tends to play a cameo role in our culture, hovering around the…

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  • In Case of Nuclear Apocalypse, Here Are the Top 5 Bands in North Korea Right Now

    In Case of Nuclear Apocalypse, Here Are the Top 5 Bands in North Korea Right Now

    The news has been dominated this month by the announcement that North Korea has developed the capacity to reach U.S. soil with a nuclear missile — a development to which our own supreme leader has responded with the grace and tact of a tantrumming two-year old. Given the dumpster fire that is the current state of our…

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Ryan Lott: Designing Sample-Based Instruments