The shorthand is ordered in the same fashion as the parts of the individual instruments in the score (when read from top to bottom).
The orchestra is divided into four groups (five if a keyboard instrument is used) and specified as follows:[1] If any soloists or a choir are called for, their parts are usually printed between the percussion/keyboards and the strings in the score.
The basic order of the instruments, as seen above, is common to all of the shorthand systems.
However, there is no standardized version of this shorthand; different publishers and librarians use different systems, especially for doubling/alternate/additional instruments.
David Daniels, in earlier versions of his influential work that collects in print a catalog of the instrumentations of some 4,000+ pieces,[2] made use of a shorthand for doubling/alternate/additional instruments which was less clear, but in the newer online version[3] Daniels' approach has been refined to something more explicit, akin to the Chester Novello and Boosey & Hawkes notations below.