Combing octaves & thickening (building the main sound)

Question 1

What’s the flow chart for combined 8ve doubling & thickening? [OTL 1]

Answer 1

Question 2

What is the effect of doubling all notes (inc thickening) at the octave? [OTL 1]

Answer 2

A bigger, wider, more powerful sound.

Question 3

Can you 8ve double the sop/bass in both direction? [OTL 1]

Answer 3

Yes, 8va or 8vb.

(or 15ma or 15mb)

Question 4

When only 8ve doubling the sop of a thickened line, how do you notate it on short score? [OTL 1]

Answer 4

Question 5

What is the octave filled in? [OTL 1]

Answer 5

When you have a line in octaves with thickening in between.

Question 6

When using the octave filled in, does it need to be completely filled in? [OTL 1]

Answer 6

No, it can be slightly thickened.

Question 7

Can you 8ve double above and below at the same time? [OTL 1]

Answer 7

Of course! The top can be an overtone, or big/mixed.

This applies to sop/bass doubling AND all notes doubling.

Question 8

Can you do 8ve doublings of chorale textures? [OTL 1]

Answer 8

Absolutely! Pretty much everything can be doubled in 8ves, because it’s already balanced.

You can choose to double everything and the not double the bass, or you can +8vb. Or you can still double it 8va. All options.