Orchestration as a way of hearing.
Orchestration is not just instrumentation. It is the craft of giving musical material a body — balance, register, doubling, transparency, colour, presence — so that the music sounds the way the composer hears it inside.
Lessons can move between analysis of orchestral repertoire, the student’s own scores, MIDI mock-ups, and practical questions of notation and playability. The work tends to circle back to the same question: what does this passage actually want to sound like, and what is in the way?
What we may work on
Depending on the score, orchestration lessons may involve register, balance, doubling, transparency, density, instrumental colour, articulation, playability, notation, and the difference between a MIDI impression and an actual instrumental result. We may look at how a passage carries, where it becomes heavy, why a colour disappears, or how a musical idea changes when it is given to real instruments.
I have been studying with Daniel since 2019, and my experience has been consistently positive — a truly kind, wise, and highly knowledgeable teacher. Looking for a composition teacher? Daniel is the person to go to.
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Other ways to work together.
Composition lessons
The main access page — composition lessons, score feedback and portfolio preparation. Begin with a score, sketch, recording or question.
OpenOnline composition lessons
How online lessons work in practice — Zoom, shared scores, annotated PDFs, and detailed discussion across time zones.
OpenComposition feedback
A serious response to one piece, sketch, recording or portfolio. Written, annotated, online session, or a combination.
OpenPortfolio preparation
For applicants to music academies, conservatories or talent-development programmes. Diagnostic review, revision priorities, deadline planning.
OpenComposition lessons for adults
For adult and returning composers — informal first contact, flexible frequency, music that has already begun to take shape.
OpenMusic theory for composers
Theory not as rule-knowledge, but as a way of training the ear to understand what music is actually doing.
OpenCounterpoint and harmony
Voice leading, harmonic syntax, modal and tonal practice — taught from inside the student's own writing.
OpenWorkshops and institutional teaching
For institutions, festivals and talent-development programmes — group sessions, masterclasses, lectures or short residencies.
OpenSend the passage that is not yet sounding right.
A page of score, a MIDI rendering and a short note on what you are trying to achieve is usually enough to begin.
Ask about orchestration lessons