How to Write Orchestral Music in 5 Steps (+ Example)

Ideas turn into music.

WHOA. You read that right. Your first orchestral track. You have all the basics and are ready to create your own orchestral piece. Here are some helpful tips on how you can get started.

Preparation

Before we start wildly scribbling down notes and recording melodies, there are things we can do beforehand that make the entire composition process easier.

Visualize the piece

Every composer has their own ways of coming up with ideas. Don’t see this as a set of fixed rules, but as an orientation you can rely on while figuring out the creative process that works best for you.

You first need to get a feel for the composition you're going to write. This is a part of what makes being a composer so incredible! "Hearing" something that isn't there yet, but lives inside you. And bringing it to life.

Think about a sculptor who already sees a statue inside that block of marble but has to make it visible for others to see it. For you, that means to decide which musical concept you want to create. Is it a dramatic, intense piece? Or something more light-hearted and fun?

Decide on this before you start writing, and stick with it. Composers often get distracted trying to fit too many ideas into one song. The composer often believes it makes the track more refined or sophisticated. In reality, it makes it harder for the listener to grasp and enjoy. Go for simplicity! Remember your audience - you’re likely to write music that’s enjoyed by the public, and not to please other composers.

Find inspiration

A single image in your mind might help set the mood you want to achieve.

Examples could be an image of a massive spaceship bursting through the atmosphere of a fantasy ice planet, the apocalyptic remains of an ancient civilization or a lover's couple dancing through the clouds that you want to turn into sound. Think atmosphere rather than musical details. The details will follow your vision, eventually. 

If you like to approach music with an image in your mind, browse for artworks that make you feel something. You can also try using one of these AI image creation tools like Midjourney or DALL-E. These are fantastic to create inspiring images based on any input you feed them. 

Beginning is the hardest part and whatever helps you to start, is viable for the process.

Perhaps you already have a musical idea in mind. This idea may be a melody, a chord progression, or simply a rhythm you wish to capture in your music. Develop an interesting main element you want your track to revolve around.

Time signature and tempo

Next, pick a time signature and tempo that works with your vision of the track. The most common time signatures are 4/4 and 3/4, with a tempo roughly between 80 and 140bpm.

I recommend you start somewhere in this range. Most DAWs default at 4/4 with 120bpm, so that's a great starting point! You can go with crazier ones like 7/8 or 11/8 if your track demands it, for example, creepy horror cues.

Now, think instrumentation. Best to keep things on a section level here.

Instrumentation will significantly determine the entire sound of your composition. If you want a light, airy, melodic sound, then woodwinds and string instruments are probably a good choice. If you'd like something more aggressive, consider focusing on brass and ramping up the percussion.

Epic cinematic music often leaves out the woodwind section entirely to focus on blending the remaining orchestral sections together with sound design. On the other hand, emotional, romantic pieces tend to focus on strings and woodwinds to create soundscapes that pull on your heartstrings.

These are just general guidelines. Experiment with different instrument choices and combinations. 

Instruments blend like watercolors: Add cellos to your horn line for warmth and "roundness," or add a sharp synth to your violins for more bite. With experience, you'll get a feel for which instrument combinations produce orchestral colors.

Create a piano sketch

Hold on for a sec! Now that we have a rough idea about how the instrument sections bring our mental image to life, we are entering a danger zone.

Even for intermediate composers, the sheer number of choices when assigning and balancing the individual orchestral instruments easily overwhelms them. As a beginner, you'll quickly get lost in questions like, "should I have the bassoons play the second voice or instead double the melody an octave below?"

You'll not be able to see the forest for the trees. 

Beginner composers lose hours trying to make their strings, brass, and woodwind sections work together. Still, a fix on one end creates friction on the other until it all becomes a frustrating mess.

Whenever I’d just orchestrate straight ahead, I’d do all sorts of micro-adjustments that wouldn’t even matter: I’d change up the orchestration multiple times and all of those adjustments were wasted time after all.

Be smarter than me. 

A valuable tip for clearly and efficiently outlining your orchestral piece is to start with a piano sketch.

Even when you're not a pianist!

Here's why: The piano is one of the few musical instruments that can play many notes at the same time while still sounding clear and well-balanced.

You can use this to your advantage.

Basically, what you will do with a piano sketch is write out the entire foundation of your orchestral song (the steps below) in one piano track. And once you get that done, you can distribute the different parts to orchestral instruments.

Rule of thumb: If it sounds good and balanced on piano, it should sound good and balanced with the orchestra.

Main elements of orchestral music

You can usually break an orchestral track down into the following elements:

• Melody. The most prominent element with a singable quality. Often played in higher registers to stick out of the mix and doubled across octaves.
• Harmony. A secondary line that supports the melody and adds a sense of movement, or a textural bed of notes that gives context to the melody, e.g. by completing the notes to form chords.
• Bass. A low-register line that anchors the piece, e.g. by playing the root note of each chord or providing a pulse for syncopated rhythms.
• Rhythm. Carried mainly by the percussion section but also influenced by accents and hits from the melodic instruments. Adds emphasis or punctuation to a song.
• Decoration. Small flourishes that add interest and character to a song, e.g. high flute runs.

Steps to write orchestral music 

Here's a great step-by-step guide for writing orchestral music as a beginner:

1. Come up with a motif
2. Turn the motif into a melody
3. Add bass and harmonies to the melody
4. Add chords to those harmonies.
5. Add orchestral instruments by doubling these chords with different instruments.

For steps 1-4, I recommend beginners start doing this with the piano alone. Then assign orchestral instruments to each of the elements.

When writing an orchestral piece, you should keep those main elements in mind (Melody, harmony, bass, rhythm and decoration). You will need to balance and space them out in the frequency range and also throughout the different timbres of the orchestral instruments to come up with the atmosphere you intend to convey. Mastering this balance takes time and practice.

Sometimes, your harmonies clash with the bass line because you arranged them in a low register or didn't voice the chords widely enough.

Other times, your decoration causes friction with the melody because a high-pitched flute run bites into the high violin melody.

That's okay, and it happens to everyone.

Not only is fixing the balance much easier when there's only one piano track compared to re-arranging dozens of orchestral instruments.

But also, by merging all of these 5 elements Melody, Harmony, Bass, Rhythm, and Decoration onto the same piano keyboard, you automatically pay attention that they don't overlap too much. Suppose you immediately go ahead and randomly start writing lines as they come into your head. You'll lose track of how much is already going on. Which parts of the orchestral frequency range from the lowest bass to the highest sparkle are already filled? Which are too empty?

Fill the frequency spectrum

In general, creating a natural and right-sounding orchestral arrangement has much to do with filling the frequency spectrum that I keep mentioning. The frequency range has to be evenly filled without missing areas or overly dense regions that will stick out like a sore thumb even to listeners who are not composers or musicians.

Too high, too low, or too loud in some regions of the frequency spectrum can ruin an entire piece. You want to find that sweet balance where all elements are in equilibrium with each other yet stand out with their own unique character.

Here are 3 writing tips for improving the frequency balance when composing orchestral music:

• The lowest instruments (e.g., basses, tubas) play fewer and slower notes, preferably the root notes of your chords. Double them in octaves or maximum fifth intervals. Smaller intervals will make the sound unclear and muddy. Exception: Trombones can play smaller intervals and even chords in lower registers because of their bright, crisp timbre.
• Medium-pitched instruments (e.g., cellos, clarinets) often play harmonies and support the melody or reinforce the bass an octave higher. They can harmonize the melody a sixth below or even double it an octave below. Don't arrange them too densely! The low-mid frequencies are the most common frequency buildup and are widely responsible for amateur-sounding mixes.
• The highest instruments (e.g., violins, flutes) play more and faster notes like melody lines and decorating runs. They can double the melody in an upper octave for a full, soaring effect or harmonize in a second voice (e.g., with third intervals) for an increased harmonic richness.

A common misconception is that the mixing and mastering stage is responsible for nailing the sound quality of a track after you've finished composing and arranging the piece.

But in fact, correcting an unbalanced mix can only fix (or hide?) around 10%, perhaps 20% of the issues in your composition. The arrangement is responsible for over 80% of its success or failure.

Keep. Things. Simple.

No matter how complex an orchestral might sound, you can mostly boil it down to 3-4 main ideas that happen simultaneously. Not more. 

Perhaps a melody in the upper mid-range, some decorative runs in highs, a counter melody in the lower mid, and a bass line in the lows. Complexity is then achieved with exciting rhythms, surprising harmonies, or unconventional choices for instrumentation. Be careful when overlapping lines of different instruments, or they will become blurry and undefined.

Experienced orchestrators maintain clarity even when lines are in a similar range by picking instruments that vary in their natural timbre, rhythm, or playing technique. This way, there is contrast. You can still make out the details, and it doesn't all blur into a mushy sonic porridge.

Similarly, you can write your orchestral track entirely on the piano keyboard. If it sounds good on a piano, it will most likely sound good with the entire orchestra. And if your arrangement sounds dense or sparse, muddy or airy, rumbly or sparkly, it'll translate to the orchestrated version, too.

Create a motif

When writing your first orchestral piece, it's essential to start small and build from there. The best way to do this is to create a motif. 

A motif is a short musical idea that has some sort of meaning or feeling attached to it. And most importantly: It gets repeated. For example, in "Star Wars", John Williams uses a motif that consists of four notes when Darth Vader appears on the screen.

 People instantly recognize this motif and strongly connect it to Star Wars. It's engraved in their minds, and they associate something with it.

The best way to create a motif is by thinking of something you want your piece to convey. If you are writing a song about love, think of the feeling of love and how it makes you feel. Then try to write down those feelings in musical terms using just a few notes.

Once you develop the basic idea for a motif, think about how you can expand on it. If you have a four-note motif that represents love, repeat it but add a few more notes or change them up a bit while keeping the same rhythm to show different facets of love. Don't be afraid to use the same motif in various places throughout your composition; repetition helps tie together all the elements of your piece.

I just came up with a quick example motif. I envisoned an intimate feeling of romance and an atmosphere of trust and security. No evil surprises here. Just cozy, warm love, expressed by playing around the major third interval:

Turn your motif into a melody

Your main motif is the DNA of your piece. Not only should you present it at least once. But you also have to establish it. Give it weight and tell the listener: This motif is important. This is what you will remember.

For that, we'll build a melody from the motif. Think of a melody as a sort of story arch for the motif. A motif alone is a bullet point. Making it into a melody turns bullet points into sentences. The sentence can go up, like a question, and down to provide the answer. Repeat the motif, or change up a few notes. But the sentences should breathe your track's DNA. Don't stray too far, or your composition is at risk of falling apart.

Let's get back to the Imperial March theme once again:

 It boldly presents the motif right at the beginning. And because it would be pretty dull to have it repeat over and over again, it changes up notes while keeping the same rhythm on the second run.

The third statement breaks things up. Not only does the melody go higher than before, but it also changes the rhythm and takes the motif into higher spheres:

But then - this is incredibly important - it comes back. After another repetition of the third statement, story arch finally gets closed in the fourth and final statement. The listener understands that the sentence is now over. And they are ready to learn how the story continues.

The Imperial March is a textbook example of how to turn a simple motif into a powerful melody.

Burn this concept into your memory, and I guarantee you that you'll start noticing it in your favorite music, orchestral or not. Music is sonic storytelling. A good story establishes a character and setting, sends them on a journey, and skillfully hints at familiar elements that hold the story arch together.

You've envisioned a concept for your song. Now, write a melody that tells a story worthy of your vision!

Here's our example motif turned into a storytelling melody that presents itself, reinforces its idea, then travels to a new place, and comes back:

Note how the last 5 notes have exactly the same rhythm as the first 5 notes, bringing the melody home.

Find chords for your melody

Next, we have to find harmonies for our simple melody. This step is crucial because the harmonies carry large parts of our track's atmosphere. The same melody can be used in arrangements with completely different chord progressions for a vast range of emotions and atmospheres.

You can interpret the first note of the melody as the root note and your first starting chord.

For example, if the first melody note is a C, you might go with a C major or C minor chord.

But you can also interpret the second note of the melody as the root note, with the first note simply leading towards it. The possibilities are endless! This is great but also scary for beginners.

As a solid start, try finding the root note and home key. It helps you decide what chords belong in your song and how they should sound when played together.

In my example motif, the first two notes are E and G, strongly indicating C major because C major includes both an E and a G.

Once you've determined your key center (e.g. C major), look at all the notes in that key (e.g. C, D, E, F, G, A, and B in the C major key) and experiment. Which notes sound good with each other in the context of your melody?

Then, try out different chords that contain these notes you liked. Those will then be the possible choices for a chord progression.

If you like the note B as a harmony for the third note of your melody, you can try a B major chord (B-D#-F#). Or a G major (G-B-D). Or an E minor (E-G-B) chord. They all contain a B note, making them good contenders.

You can do the same for every note in the scale that you think fits well.

You don't have to use all of these possible chords; many songs only use three or four different chords throughout their entire length! Hello, pop music.

Once you've established your home key, you can now look at scales that contain the notes of your melody. Or - if you're not that experienced with scales yet - simply look at which chords have several notes from your melody.

Chances are high that these chords will fit the melody well.

Here is an example chord progression for our melody.

A finalized piano sketch with a melody, harmony, bass line, rhythm and decoration can sound like this.

Next, all we have to do is assign instruments to the different parts.

Record the melody with your violins and perhaps double it with flutes.

Play in the bass line with double basses and a tuba.

Add harmony with oboes, violas, and maybe even a full-string patch in the background as a harmonic bed.

And glockenspiel and piccolo flutes can add sparkling decorations.

These are just examples. And the possibilities are vast, too vast to cover in this chapter in detail. As always, try to keep it simple.

You've already thought out all elements of your track in the piano track. Stay with them, and don't add unnecessary stuff. More often than not will, additional elements just complicate your arrangement. 

This is the most important message I have for you, and I'd be happy if it helps you when writing your first song.

Here's a very rough, orchestrated version of our piano sketch. I simply assigned orchestral instruments to the 5 main aspects of our piece: Melody, Harmony, Bass, Rhythm, and Decoration.

All elements are simply copied over from piano to an orchestral instrument.

Give it a try yourself, and we'll see you in the next chapter.

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