# How do i write chords to Strings?



## ComposerWannabe (Sep 1, 2016)

I'm totally baffled by this. I know it's a newbie question but I can't figure it out.

Do i use the harmonics patch? Since Chord is an harmony.

Or do i have to load legato patches x times so I can play every note I want to play. X being the voices I'd like.

Or use the 'articulations' patch with sustain option? Problem with articulations is when I try to play 5 voices or maybe 4 voices sound gets dropped. So I decided articulation patches of isn't suited for this. Because I keep saying on YouTube playing 5 or 4 voices using strings. And Harmonics don't have the all notes as option.

How should i be writing chords? I don't get it. Please do share your knowledge.


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## Saxer (Sep 1, 2016)

Give each section a different note und you get chords. Not very different to a choir of people singing chords. People are monophonic as well.


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## ComposerWannabe (Sep 1, 2016)

So do i use 5 legato patches and write the notes in each one of them? Isn't possible to play them all in one go? It would be so much faster.


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## Kony (Sep 1, 2016)

ComposerWannabe said:


> Isn't possible to play them all in one go? It would be so much faster.


A quick method is to play the chord in an ensemble patch, then copy and paste that into each solo instrument channel and remove the notes you don't want played from each channel/instrument.


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## ComposerWannabe (Sep 2, 2016)

Those solo instrument channels... What patch should I be using for them? Legato patches or articulations used with sustain?


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## ComposerWannabe (Sep 2, 2016)

Plus, all the extra knowledge is welcome. Feel free the drop any knowledge about this chord writing. I can't seem to get a full sound. And I'm very angry with myself.


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## Jimmy Hellfire (Sep 2, 2016)

Which library, DAW and audio interface are you using?

You could play chords and harmonies with a legato patch, if your library supports polyphonic legato. Some do, some don't.

And then it's of course a question of orchestration. Is the chord supposed to be played, for example, only by the violas, or across the whole string ensemble? You could of course distribute the chord voices across all the strings, and use the legato patch of each to play the chord. For example, give the low root note to the basses, perhaps the octave above or the 5th to the celli, the 3rd above that to the violas, etc. But if the chord is supposed to be played by one section only, it would in most cases be totally unnecessary to load the patch 5 times just to play a chord. Simply use a polyphonic patch, like the sustain articulation.

You shouldn't experience any voice dropping at all doing this. Playing chords with polyphonic patches is the most standard, normal thing in the world. If you're not able to do that without losing voices, something's very wrong on the technical side of things. Either some kind of strange voice count limitation in the software settings, or more likely a soundcard/driver issue. Do you have a proper audio interface with an ASIO driver?

The "harmonics" patches in string libraries refer to something else entirely. This is a specific string technique called flageolet. It produces a very clear and somewhat eerie sounding tone, sounding an octave above the actual note that's being played. It has nothing to do with harmony in the sense of notes of a scale or chord.


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## Lassi Tani (Sep 2, 2016)

Don't be angry at yourself, learning takes time, and a lot of patience. As Jimmy said, harmonics is totally different. It mean that the player either lightly touches a string (natural harmonics) or stops it with a finger and then lightly touches the string with another finger (artificial harmonics). You can search from Youtube good videos, it's easier to learn by watching how it is done. Most importantly the sound the method produces comes from the harmonic series depending on which part of the string you are touching. And the sound is thinner than normal.

Normally I would start with an ensemble patch, make the voicings, and then move each part to solo instrument channels. Mostly sustain patches for each and I use legato when I need.

Basic voicing in a strings chords would be like this: Bigger separation between celli and bass, and closer in the upper register.


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## ComposerWannabe (Sep 2, 2016)

Jimmy Hellfire said:


> Which library, DAW and audio interface are you using?
> 
> You could play chords and harmonies with a legato patch, if your library supports polyphonic legato. Some do, some don't.
> 
> ...



Live, CineStrings, UR22.

I can't play harmonies with legato patch. At first I thought 'harmonics' were made for harmonies but then I realized 'harmonics' patch was a technique on it's own.

Do CineStrings have this polyphonic patches that I'm not aware of? With CineStrings I get voice drops with articulation sustain patch and legato patch just won't do it polyphonically.

Oh and thank you for your 'harmonics' explanation. You don't know what I've gone through while trying to figure those out.


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## ComposerWannabe (Sep 2, 2016)

sekkosiki said:


> Don't be angry at yourself, learning takes time, and a lot of patience. As Jimmy said, harmonics is totally different. It mean that the player either lightly touches a string (natural harmonics) or stops it with a finger and then lightly touches the string with another finger (artificial harmonics). You can search from Youtube good videos, it's easier to learn by watching how it is done. Most importantly the sound the method produces comes from the harmonic series depending on which part of the string you are touching. And the sound is thinner than normal.
> 
> Normally I would start with an ensemble patch, make the voicings, and then move each part to solo instrument channels. Mostly sustain patches for each and I use legato when I need.
> 
> Basic voicing in a strings chords would be like this: Bigger separation between celli and bass, and closer in the upper register.



Thank you kind sir. So I use seperate channels for each voice. And as I see a little bit of orchestration knowledge helps.


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## Silence-is-Golden (Sep 2, 2016)

No need to be angry with yourself, learning takes its time,....

This thread might offer some help.....
http://vi-control.net/community/threads/chords-orchestration.54992/#post-3979307

I don't know what libraries you use, but if one of them is VSL then in VIPro you get some chords for strings that were helpful to me when I started.

If you use simple c maj, then CEG can become: C G E ( latter in higher octave)

Above is off course very simplistic but it will get you started, especially if you use the inversions of these chords as well.
Minor chords are similar obviously.

If you transfer it to the string sections you could f.e. let the C be played by cellos, G by the viola's, E by the Violins II.
And guess what, violins I can play a melody!


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## ComposerWannabe (Sep 2, 2016)

Silence-is-Golden said:


> No need to be angry with yourself, learning takes its time,....
> 
> This thread might offer some help.....
> http://vi-control.net/community/threads/chords-orchestration.54992/#post-3979307
> ...



So In a virtual scenario I'm using basses, cellos, violas and viola IIs for chords and Violin I plays the melody. Does this pass?

Thank you for the link!!!


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## Lassi Tani (Sep 2, 2016)

ComposerWannabe said:


> Thank you kind sir. So I use seperate channels for each voice. And as I see a little bit of orchestration knowledge helps.



You're welcome 



ComposerWannabe said:


> So In a virtual scenario I'm using basses, cellos, violas and viola IIs for chords and Violin I plays the melody. Does this pass?
> 
> Thank you for the link!!!



I guess you meant Violins II? String section consists of Violins I, Violins II, Violas, Cellos and Basses.


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## ComposerWannabe (Sep 2, 2016)

sekkosiki said:


> You're welcome
> 
> 
> 
> I guess you meant Violins II? String section consists of Violins I, Violins II, Violas, Cellos and Basses.



Yes, I meant Violins II. With Violin I untouch for the melodies. Does this have a general use in orchestration?


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## Silence-is-Golden (Sep 2, 2016)

ComposerWannabe said:


> So In a virtual scenario I'm using basses, cellos, violas and viola IIs for chords and Violin I plays the melody. Does this pass?
> 
> Thank you for the link!!!



It is a start...... Play with it. Create some music.....

Violins I playing a melody is to kick you off, you can do all the other ways as well, f.e. let the other string sections play the chords and let the cellos play a melody.......

In many beautifull pieces all sections actually play a melodic line.
There is a youtube channel called counterpoint......have a look....
But above all, play around with it....


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## Lassi Tani (Sep 2, 2016)

ComposerWannabe said:


> Yes, I meant Violins II. With Violin I untouch for the melodies. Does this have a general use in orchestration?



Yeah that's the way to start. Sometimes Violins II double Violins I (playing the same melody) if the theme needs power. For example you could start with Violins I in the melody and later in the piece, when you need the theme played louder, you can double Violins I with Violins II.


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## ComposerWannabe (Sep 2, 2016)

Ok, guys. Thank you all for so far. I'll be having some fun.


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## Kony (Sep 2, 2016)

ComposerWannabe said:


> Do CineStrings have this polyphonic patches that I'm not aware of? With CineStrings I get voice drops with articulation sustain patch and legato patch just won't do it polyphonically.


You need to go to settings on the UI and select polyphony - the default is mono. The settings tab is next to "mixer" - hope this helps!


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## ComposerWannabe (Sep 2, 2016)

Kony said:


> You need to go to settings on the UI and select polyphony - the default is mono. The settings tab is next to "mixer" - hope this helps!



I don't know If i'm supposed to be happy or not right now. But THANK YOU SO MUCH nonetheless.


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## Rodney Money (Sep 2, 2016)

I just wanted to say how truly awesome it is that all of you guys are taking the time to help CW out.


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## Baron Greuner (Sep 2, 2016)

I always write string chords vertically as opposed to horizontally. This is probably due to an over abundance of Baroque during one's formative musical training.


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## Kaan Guner (Sep 2, 2016)

Baron Greuner said:


> I always write string chords vertically as opposed to horizontally. This is probably due to an over abundance of Baroque during one's formative musical training.


What does that mean exactly? I mean vertically and horizontally?


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## Baron Greuner (Sep 2, 2016)

Writing contrapuntally as opposed to block chords and then working out the voicing afterwards.


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## Batrawi (Sep 2, 2016)

@ComposerWannabe 
When I had your same question, I searched a lot on the internet until I found this tutorial. Extremely useful and explains the basics you need to understand in a very simplified way.

http://music.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-arrange-4-part-harmony-for-strings--audio-23215


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## Baron Greuner (Sep 2, 2016)

I should have said, writing contrapuntally for each section. That way you get more movement as opposed to a lot of static droning chords.


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## ed buller (Sep 2, 2016)

Batrawi said:


> @ComposerWannabe
> When I had your same question, I searched a lot on the internet until I found this tutorial. Extremely useful and explains the basics you need to understand in a very simplified way.
> 
> http://music.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-arrange-4-part-harmony-for-strings--audio-23215


An excellent resource. You really can't go wrong with this advice

e


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## SpeakPianissimoAndCarry.. (Sep 2, 2016)

What I get from your question is that you are not asking how to arrange chords but how do you play more than one note at a time. Monophonic means you can play only one note at a time. Polyphonic means you can play more than one note at a time (chords). Most legato patches are monophonic, although some libraries do have polyphonic legato. Is there some reason that you need legato? Legato is normally used for solo passages. If you don't really need legato, just choose a non-legato patch and you can play chords with one track. If you need sustains, sometimes those patches are called "longs."


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## JonFairhurst (Sep 2, 2016)

It's always good to look at what real strings do. Here's a quick summary.

With one violin, one can play up to four notes. It's easy to play two notes at the same time. You can get three if you press down hard. You can play four, but you need to sweep across the strings. Our community orchestra is playing Holst's Jupiter. At one point, we play a quick, four note chord. She wants us to sweep it quickly so it sounds like one chord. It's not easy to do!

Of course, one has to write notes that are playable. Four very low or very high notes can't be done. For that, one needs multiple players and "divisi", where each player gets half of the notes.

In the New World Symphony, 2nd movement, there is a chord for the 2nd violins with three notes. G4 (D string, 3rd finger) is the top note. It can't be done! Which means that we'll need to decide who plays which notes in our section.

And then one can do, say a four voice harmony with baritone, tenor, alto, soprano using cello, viola, violin II & I. That's the easiest. Everybody plays their line and it makes a chord.

Of course, one can do arpeggios, ostinatos, counterpoint, etc to break the chords up over time, but that's a bigger compositional topic.

How one orchestrates the chord depends on how thick or thin they want it and which voices they want active. For instance, if everybody is playing double stops, that's a lot of sound. If you use divisi, it cuts the sound in half. One could have Vln I play four notes, leaving the other instruments to play other lines, or one could have all the instruments play one note, involving the whole section.

To make it sound realistic, make sure it's playable and sweep your three and four note chords.

Once you know what you want to do in the real world, it's just a matter of figuring out how to best fake it, given one's specific sequencer and library set.


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## ComposerWannabe (Sep 2, 2016)

Batrawi said:


> @ComposerWannabe
> When I had your same question, I searched a lot on the internet until I found this tutorial. Extremely useful and explains the basics you need to understand in a very simplified way.
> 
> http://music.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-arrange-4-part-harmony-for-strings--audio-23215


This surely will help!


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## ComposerWannabe (Sep 2, 2016)

SpeakPianissimoAndCarry.. said:


> What I get from your question is that you are not asking how to arrange chords but how do you play more than one note at a time. Monophonic means you can play only one note at a time. Polyphonic means you can play more than one note at a time (chords). Most legato patches are monophonic, although some libraries do have polyphonic legato. Is there some reason that you need legato? Legato is normally used for solo passages. If you don't really need legato, just choose a non-legato patch and you can play chords with one track. If you need sustains, sometimes those patches are called "longs."


My sustain patch had trouble. Voices would get dropped for no apparent reason. Whatever I'm on the board for using seperate channels for chords now.


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## ComposerWannabe (Sep 2, 2016)

JonFairhurst said:


> It's always good to look at what real strings do. Here's a quick summary.
> 
> With one violin, one can play up to four notes. It's easy to play two notes at the same time. You can get three if you press down hard. You can play four, but you need to sweep across the strings. Our community orchestra is playing Holst's Jupiter. At one point, we play a quick, four note chord. She wants us to sweep it quickly so it sounds like one chord. It's not easy to do!
> 
> ...


Thank you so much for taking your time drop this knowledge. I'll be putting this to good use.

But can you say more about how violins or other strings can play two notes at the same time? 

How hard it is? Is it a general practice. Is it okay I make violins II play two voiced chords all the time?


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## SpeakPianissimoAndCarry.. (Sep 2, 2016)

ComposerWannabe said:


> My sustain patch had trouble. Voices would get dropped for no apparent reason. Whatever I'm on the board for using seperate channels for chords now.



You still have not done the basics for any computer forum. What is your computer (Apple or Windows)? How much RAM do you have. What is you CPU power (dual core, quad core, 6 core)? What library are you using? Professionals need to know that. What if you were trying to grow peanuts in the Sahara desert? If you simply went online to a forum and said "My peanuts do not grow, why?", agricultural experts from around the world would try to help, but the first thing they would want to know is where do you live? Peanuts will not grow in the Sahara without mucho dollars and love and attention. You could grow peanuts in the Sahara with their help, but you have have to say "Oh, by the way, I live in the middle of the desert and I want to grow a non-desert crop."

Many of us here are willing to teach you, but we need more information about what you are using and what you are trying to do. Can you help us out please? First, are you over 18 years of age? It is OK if you are not, but I teach 7 year olds way different than I do 18 year olds and them way different than I teach 40 year olds, so I had to ask. Second, tell us all of the equipment specifications that you are using. Without that, none of us can help you. You seem elusive about that. That is a simple set of facts that have high significance to the answer to your your question. Even if it just one simple keyboard, don't be embarrassed by that, but we need to know that. Much great music has been made on a 60 dollar Casio keyboard. Maybe not famous music, but still great, although unheard. Music is about expressing yourself, not getting discovered or becoming famous.

On many forums, people list their equipment at the bottom. I often thought that they were bragging, but they were not. They were common question askers and they list that to help their teachers answer their questions.

To quote "Jerry McGuire." "Help us help you!"


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## JonFairhurst (Sep 2, 2016)

Yes, it's general practice to play two notes. A quick sweep of three or four is okay too - especially if it's something easy like a G (G-D-B-G) or D (x-D-A-F#). It's not so easy for beginners, but fine for intermediate players. But avoid fast passages with a series of double stops. One the other hand, it's fine to play a melody where every few notes there is an easy double stop for emphasis.

Also, you should avoid legato passages where a finger in the chord would need to slide. That would result in a glissando, which might not fit the style. If one of the strings is open, that makes it easier. For instance x-x-0-1 to x-x-2-0 is very easy. One can play melodies in octaves, but we need to be careful to mute the slide.

Here's a great example of chords. It's a Hungarian/Gypsy style, so slides are encouraged.  This isn't for first year students though!


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## SpeakPianissimoAndCarry.. (Sep 2, 2016)

JonFairhurst said:


> Yes, it's general practice to play two notes. A quick sweep of three or four is okay too - especially if it's something easy like a G (G-D-B-G) or D (x-D-A-F#).



This is all great advice Jon, and I enjoyed it and learned something new myself form it, but everyone seems to have missed that this a total newbie, who does not understand why a monophonic patch is not polyphonic. Yes, a beginner has posted a question on the ultimate composer forum. I think we should just answer his question. Why can I not play chords on my legato patch that is monophonic? Why is everyone talking about composition and technique? Because none of us have thought about the possibility that a total beginner might join this forum and start asking questions of the masters like you and all the others who have responded. What if he does not even know that the violin is played with a bow? What if he thinks that strings are a sound font on his computer? Yes, yes, we much teach him about Heifetz and Menuhin.

Listen, @ComposerWannabe, I did not mean to insult you if you already know what I am talking about. I am just trying to get you some real help and wake these people up. You want to be educated. Only a handful of composers can teach. That is a gift in itself. Probably better for you to go to school and learn the hard way like they all did. What you are asking takes a lifetime of study. You can't just log online and learn how to do this in 10 minutes.

My real response is this @ComposerWannabe,: Go to school, study hard, have fun, learn to love it and in a few years, log in on this website and teach me!!!


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## Kony (Sep 2, 2016)

SpeakPianissimoAndCarry.. said:


> Listen, @ComposerWannabe, I did not mean to insult you if you already know what I am talking about. I am just trying to get you some real help and wake these people up. You want to be educated. Only a handful of composers can teach. That is a gift in itself. Probably better for you to go to school and learn the hard way like they all did. What you are asking takes a lifetime of study. You can't just log online and learn how to do this in 10 minutes.
> 
> My real response is this @ComposerWannabe,: Go to school, study hard, have fun, learn to love it and in a few years, log in on this website and teach me!!!



I find your comments are condescending, patronising and unwarranted. In particular, you appear to be dissuading the OP from pursuing composing via this forum whatever his motives are. You seemed bothered about the OP because...? In what way has this adversely affected you since the OP is being gladly helped by myself and others? There must be numerous posters here (myself included) who did not study music at college and don't need to. If all this is really bothering you, perhaps you could direct your attention to other posts?


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## SpeakPianissimoAndCarry.. (Sep 3, 2016)

Kony said:


> I find your comments are condescending, patronising and unwarranted. In particular, you appear to be dissuading the OP from pursuing composing via this forum whatever his motives are. You seemed bothered about the OP because...? In what way has this adversely affected you since the OP is being gladly helped by myself and others? There must be numerous posters here (myself included) who did not study music at college and don't need to. If all this is really bothering you, perhaps you could direct your attention to other posts?



Goodness gracious no. I never meant to insult anyone @Kony. To give short answers in a forum can be misunderstood and it would be much better if you and I and @composer_wannabe sat down together at dinner and discussed this all night long. Perhaps I misunderstood @composer_wannabe 's original question. If I did, I apologize for tying to help. Maybe I was too ignorant to even try to help so you are slapping me down for even trying? I did not mean to patronize or demean anyone. I am sorry that my input made you feel that way. I, like you, was only trying to help a newbie. I never even met you so I have no reason to even try to hurt your feelings or patronize you. Please forgive me for something I never meant to do. I don't have a degree in music myself. I sometimes wish that I studied music though because I love it so much. I am pretty much self-taught, but I did work hard to learn what I do know today. I am a newbie to composing myself. I am mainly a bass player (by ear), but I did take private lessons from educated people who knew what music was all about along the way. Does that make me a bad person? Wow, looks like it did. My guess is that you are more musically educated than me and you call me some kind of education bigot? My brother, you read way too much in between the lines.

Hey @composer_wannabe, sorry we hijacked your thread with a petty argument, but @Kony threw down the gauntlet and I had to protect my reputation. Actually I didn't need to and I should have ignored it, but I couldn't so I didn't. Haha (oh darn, I laughed and maybe demeaned people again. Shite!) I wish you much fun on your musical journey. Music is awesome at every level! Learn as much as you can along the way, but by all means, have fun along the way.


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## ComposerWannabe (Sep 3, 2016)

I understand your points SpeakPianissimo. But be sure that I'm taking notes out of this thread so info shared will be useful at later times. And since it is an open forum other people might take something out of it. But yes, i do see your point. I'm using a laptop with i7 4700mq processsorw with 8 gb of ram on regular hard drives. I don't know if they are 5600 or 7200rpm. I'm 24 by the way, I don't consider myself THAT much of a noob but I lack some serious information on production side. Hence me not knowing legato patches having a polyphonic mode. :(

Your point was sound in a way too. There is no way in world that a single person could learn everything about music from a forum. That would be way too agonizing for other members. This thing was driving me mad so I made a thread out of it. And thanks to the maker I did )




JonFairhurst said:


> *Also, you should avoid legato passages where a finger in the chord would need to slide.* That would result in a glissando, which might not fit the style. If one of the strings is open, that makes it easier. For instance x-x-0-1 to x-x-2-0 is very easy. One can play melodies in octaves, but we need to be careful to mute the slide.




I think I need to know the instrument a little better for knowing when is that going happen or not.

At the end of the day I would like to thank you all! This thread has been a motivation for me!


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## Baron Greuner (Sep 3, 2016)

Fick through to 4:12 and watch how the strings move together. You can't really write this kind of string section work if you're messing about on a keyboard playing block chords.


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## Baron Greuner (Sep 3, 2016)

Great Strings and also Brass in this is fantastic.


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## Silence-is-Golden (Sep 3, 2016)

and what about this? Lovely piece from Josef Suk....


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## Patrick de Caumette (Sep 3, 2016)

Baron Greuner said:


> I always write string chords vertically as opposed to horizontally. This is probably due to an over abundance of Baroque during one's formative musical training.


Baron, since you are talking about counterpoint, I think you meant : "I always write string chords horizontally as opposed to vertically" ?


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## Baron Greuner (Sep 3, 2016)

Perhaps you have a point Patrick. But I thought I said contrapuntal as opposed to counterpoint. There is a lot of differing meaning put on the word counterpoint and I'm probably in the old fashioned camp on that. 

Baroque literally just means 'movement' as you know. It's difficult imho to get any movement working along the line in blocks as opposed to playing or writing each individual string part (could be any part like say, a choir or brass).


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## muk (Sep 3, 2016)

As long as the notes you write are inside the range of the instuments it will be playable. So, the first thing you should do is familiarize yourself with the note ranges of the strings family. The usual layout of the score follows these ranges: violins 1 are highest, then violins 2, viola, celli, and basses are the lowest. And this is the most common way to use your strings to play a chord. Nota bene, the most common, not the only one possible, and not the only way you should use them.

But how do you know when to use another order? When, for example, should the Celli play higher than the violas? This depends on the context of the composition, and the composers judgement. To make an informed judgement, you need to know how each section sounds in each register. Your violins 1 sound different when they play a low G than they do when playing an E4. If you know how they sound, and if you know how you want your chord to sound, you will know which note(s) to give to each section. Experiment with this, listen to countless examples. Follow pieces with a score in hand, and pay close attention how different combinations sound.

These are the simplest basics. Know the range of the instruments you are writing for, and know how they sound in each register. Now comes the next step. Not all instruments can play all techniques, volumes, etc. equally well on all their playable notes. A bassoonist, for example, has a really hard time playing really quiet in the lowest register. You must know that when writing for a bassoon, or else the player will not be able to deliver the performance you wish. The strings, thankfully, are rather forgiving in this aspect (as is the clarinet, for example). Here is a very nice chart that can be helpful for referencing:

https://www.google.ch/url?sa=t&rct=...ESmVuMbmMv-hpbjDJKO5mQ&bvm=bv.131783435,d.bGg

If you've mastered these steps, you will be able to orchestrate chords so that they are actually playable for the instrumentalists, and sound they way you imagined them and wanted them to sound. The logical next step is to write another chord to follow the first. This sounds terribly simple, but here a completely new set of rules comes into play. That's what Baron Greuner implied: how do I go from one chord to the next in a way that sounds good? It's another topic, but let me say that in it's simplest form this topic is called 'voice leading'. In a more complex form it's called 'counterpoint', as Baron Greuner wrote. These are other interesting topics in music you need to know about if you want to improve as a composer. There are many elegant solutions to problems of voice leading, many clunky sounding ones, and many impossible ones. Knowing which is which is another skillset every composer should possess, at least to a certain degree, in my opinion. But as said, that would be the topic of another thread.


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## Patrick de Caumette (Sep 3, 2016)

Baron Greuner said:


> Perhaps you have a point Patrick. But I thought I said contrapuntal as opposed to counterpoint. There is a lot of differing meaning put on the word counterpoint and I'm probably in the old fashioned camp on that.
> 
> Baroque literally just means 'movement' as you know. It's difficult imho to get any movement working along the line in blocks as opposed to playing or writing each individual string part (could be any part like say, a choir or brass).



All I meant is that vertical usually refers to block chords thinking, the way chords would appear on a staff, versus horizontal, which usually refers to linear writing...
That's all!


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## NoamL (Sep 3, 2016)

Everyone has given you some great help & advice so far. Here is a quick tip about orchestrating for the strings.

Take a C major chord for instance. Here are two ways of orchestrating it for a string section alone:







I have a secret trick that can let me see at a glance that the "good" example will blend well and the "bad" example will not.

What's the difference?

If you're a kid of the 90s like me you probably remember teachers using transparent slides and *overhead projectors:*






Do the same thing with the music, take all the staves (Violin 1, Violin 2, Viola, Cello, Bass) and put them "on top of each other":






The good orchestration is close together in "projector space". It will blend nicely.

The bad orchestration stretches more than an octave of "projector space." The chord will not blend - Violin II will be buried and Violas will pop out.

*So: if you want the strings to blend, keep the instruments close in 'projector space.' If you want one instrument to be in the foreground, give it a bit of room above the others in 'projector space.'*

Why does this tip work???

All the string instruments (except bass) have 4 strings a perfect fifth apart and they occupy almost exactly the same ranges in projector space:






Each string instrument's sound gets more strained and penetrating the higher it plays. Think about your own voice - it gets _more strained_ the higher you try to sing, no matter if you're a bass, tenor, alto or soprano.

Strings can play softly or loudly at any pitch. But that tone-color difference is still there.

When an instrument is *far* below the others (in projector space, NOT actual pitch!) it will sound too dark, warm and fuzzy. When it's *far* above the others it'll sound too shrill, silvery and harsh. When all the instruments are in the same relative range, no matter whether they're high or low, as long as they're together they will blend.

Once you develop an eye for this you can see it all the time in scores. Here are two passages from Elgar's String Serenade in E Minor (Elgar is an underappreciated MASTER of writing for strings).

In the first passage, armed with your new knowledge, a quick glance at the score will tell you that the violins will effortlessly take the spotlight with their lyrical melody while the other instruments have a clearly defined accompaniment role:






Here is a later, more complicated passage:






Even though the cello topline is buried in the middle of a bunch of other parts _if you look at it in a piano reduction_, in reality the cellos will soar, alongside the first violins, above the entire orchestra. Even at _piano!_ *Projector space explains why us cellists get to play awesome melodies more often than violas. Sorry, violists!  *It's because a cello melody played between middle C and the C an octave higher has the ability to soar over everyone else due to it being _at the top of the cello's range. _For the viola, that's only a middling range. Thus, when you want to double a violin melody an octave lower, it's often a lot more effective to use cellos than violas. Not always though.

Anyway, once you understand the reason behind the principle you can understand when to use it and when not to. Here is John Williams totally *not* blending the strings together, for instance, in a passage from Harry Potter:






Pretty obvious why, it's because he has a whole brass section filling in the middle:






When you have brass and strings playing together, the strings often get "pushed up and down out of the way" as seen here. Making the cellos and basses play low adds weight, and then the violins and violas playing high can fly above the brass chords. If any of the instruments were playing 'inside' the trombone chord they'd just get buried. But you notice - it's just another variation of the same principle, isn't it? *Give each instrument a place to live.* 

I hope that's enough information to chew on!


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## Silence-is-Golden (Sep 3, 2016)

Good stuff going on around here! Thanks @NoamL for the strings lesson and @muk for the chart.

I get to learn something too!


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## NoamL (Sep 3, 2016)

BTW, I discovered a few years ago on the Eastwest (or N. Sounds?) forum that this principle is also taught by the Hollywood orchestrator Scott Smalley. He calls it the "zed clef," no idea why though


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## P.N. (Sep 3, 2016)

Great stuff, NoamL.


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## Baron Greuner (Sep 4, 2016)

NoamL good graphic explanation of vertical writing.


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## ComposerWannabe (Sep 4, 2016)

Baron Greuner said:


> Fick through to 4:12 and watch how the strings move together. You can't really write this kind of string section work if you're messing about on a keyboard playing block chords.




Even not being an expert on orchestration, I can say this is really hard to pull off for players. But sounds mesmerizing.


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## Baron Greuner (Sep 4, 2016)

Oh yes Korngold was a genius. Watching the 2nd movement, there's a great bit of writing when the Cello solo comes in. The cello solo is obviously great, but what really is interesting is what the other cellos in the section are doing. Gives it that very special sound.


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