📚 From Piano to Strings - A Practical Handbook

 I'm often asked for recommendations on reading materials to improve orchestration/composition.

Honestly, I'm not a big reader of music books. I much prefer to study by listening to music I love, emulating it in a DAW, and making observations about the results.

That said, of all the music books I have read, this book is one of my favorites:

What I love about it is its practicality.

There are just as many musical examples to support the ideas discussed as there are written descriptors. The author includes examples good and bad orchestration, and what separates them. And there are tons of examples of various piano patterns, ostinati, and arpeggiation, and how each would be effectively assigned to strings.

Highly recommend if you're in the market!