I'll be honest, I've not felt that any of the courses I've purchased online were of any real help. In fact, some were the opposite.
I'm still getting the hang of orchestration, but I can say that I have learned more about strings from listening to Vivaldi while reading along to the score than anyone online has ever taught me. Learned more about what kinds of flourishes and ornamentation the different sections can do by looking at analysis or scores of John Williams or watching elementary-school "meet the orchestra" videos than anywhere else so far. I've found greater insight in just watching Jjay Berthume (who also offers skype lessons) compose or breakdown one of his pieces on YouTube than any $100+ "masterclass". I got better at playing just from being the presence of and jamming with better guitar and piano players than I.
I'll not name names, I don't feel that's appropriate in this context, but it's been my experience that even paid courses online tend to have three major pitfalls:
One is that, simply put, they tend to cater to the lowest-common-denominator musically. They teach you: "Here's how to play a chord on the strings and play a very basic melody and here's how you can create an ostinato like The Dark Knight! That'll be 300 USD, please." There's little in the way about counterpoint, voice-leading, how to create more movement and energy in the piece and how to really craft a good theme. Which leads me to point number...
Two. Anyone can make a course and sell it. If they promote it well enough, they'll get subscribers. I've looked into some of the instructors, and found somewhere they say "Oh, well I don't really know much about theory to be honest and I'm entirely self-taught". It's like, not that they necessarily are bad at what they do or that you have to be a master to share insight, but this hardly makes you a qualified instructor. This kind of stuff, even to the point where some people teach BAD habits, is especially common on YouTube, and some of those people have made their way into paid courses.
Three. The courses can be misleading. I've seen trailers and read descriptions that make it sound like this course is going to "arm you with all the knowledge you need to compose and orchestrate your own music like the pros" (or some other self-elating slogan) only to pay for it, watch it, and it's mostly the teacher just talking and providing little in the way of demonstration. It's just a lot of florid, overly artistic language to describe what are, in reality, very practical and tangible concepts that skilled instructors could have you practicing in minutes. These are the ones that have annoyed me the most.
So TL;DR. I'll concede that I've probably had bad luck with the limited amount of online courses I have purchased, I probably am missing out on some out there that are really great, but even so — if I take anymore online lessons, it'll be one-one with someone whose work I like and respect and clearly has a significant degree of mastery over the craft. I just think it's better.
Kudos for being brave enough to say it.
The way all musical masters have learned is the same. Score study. (and today with our technology it can be combined with active listening which is even better). So it's no mystery how to improve as a composer. Study your heroes, study your heroes' influences. (for me, Williams and the Russians)
The problem is.... score study is something you must put
a lot of effort into yourself, or else someone else must put
a lot of effort into studying scores deeply and then create a structured lesson plan to share the lessons they learned, that also takes
a lot of effort to create.
I think the general problem is that these seminars, with one exception I can think of aren't really lesson plans. More like long improvised Music Talks. They might tell you some valuable nuggets of info along the way but it's not STRUCTURED teaching that will sink in and really give you a comprehensive mastery of the topic.
There's a reason school is expensive and Ted talks are free.
There is a "YouTube guru" who has a 20 minute long video about How to Orchestrate like John Williams and the entire video is him breaking down what each instrument is playing during the first chord of Star Wars. In the course of the video he explains how trumpets transpose and so on. I have to wonder what audience doesn't understand
basic instrument concepts yet is ready to "Orchestrate like John Williams"?
Also a tutti sforzando chord is like the least interesting and creative orchestration assignment. Of course the flutes are going to be playing high above the staff, where else would they play, middle C? JW is not an orchestration master because he knows how to assign out a sforzando chord, he's a master because he knows how to color 6 straight minutes of music with constant variety, clarity and nuance.
Is there an orchestration seminar out there where someone says,
"here is the chapter on the Flute, here is its range, its characteristic roles in the orchestra, now I'm going to play you a dozen examples of how to unison or 8ve it with other instruments, those dozen exawill be drawn drawn from just as many diverse cues from JW and other masters, and we'll talk about what makes each color choice different and why each one works in its scenario"?
That would be a full time job, to create a course like that. Also just by structuring the course like that you are shutting out people with less instrumentation knowledge... and even more so,
people who don't read music, which is a major section of the people who buy these seminars.
And people who don't read music hate being told "The very first thing you can do to become a better composer is learn to read music."
The following video has sadly very few views, I think if you study it it's a true master class in John Williams' (and Conrad Pope's) orchestration knowledge. Just study the different ways the woodwinds are doubled, how it's constantly changing and also working with the scene.
). Best $100 spend in a long long time!
