The Writer’s Corner

Hi again everyone!

I just wanted everyone to know that I have been writing a new course for Berkleemusic.com that is going to go live at the end of September. It is part of the online school’s arranging series and is called, “Arranging: Woodwinds and Strings.”

For many years I have worked with and known many musicians that wanted to add woodwinds and/or strings to their writing but weren’t confident about how to go about it. This course addresses this very issue by first introducing fundamental concepts such as range, general sound characteristics and transposition for the most common woodwind and string combinations. In addition, the course addresses more recent applications of these instruments and also applies them as “sweetening” to the rhythm section or small band. Electric bassoon (Paula Hanson), jazz bass clarinet (Henry Bok) and improvising strings (Turtle Island String Quartet and Casey Driessen/Sparrow Quartet) are just a few of the instruments that will be explored.

Currently Berkleemusic.com has a very cool course called, “Orchestration” by Ben Newhouse. Since this course deals with woodwinds and strings as well, you may be wondering what the differences are with my new course. The main difference is that Ben approaches his material from the perspective of the complete orchestra and goes into great depth about samples as well. My course focuses mainly on two instrument families (woodwinds & strings) and looks at applications of these instruments beyond traditional paths including the use with the rhythm section. Additionally, I talk a little bit about my approach to composition and writing in general.

If you see any advertising for it, feel free to check it out!

Until next time….

Jerry