Realistic Music Through Realistic Playing

Mark Northam over at Film Music Magazine has an interesting piece up on the importance of realistic playing when it comes to orchestral music.

The biggest culprit when it comes to unrealistic orchestration tends to be “pianistic” playing – that is, playing a sampled orchestral instrument on a keyboard in a way that is more like a piano or organ would be played than how the actual live version of the instrument is or can be played.

Many composers come from a background of being a pianist – myself included. I spent years touring the country as a jazz pianist before I decided to move to Los Angeles and study film composing, and while my jazz piano background gave me some advantages, it also put me squarely into the “keyboard player syndrome” which created some big problems for me when it came to composition and writing.

It’s a great read – check it out here.