# Harmonising strong, fast staccato string lines?



## Hoopyfrood (May 27, 2022)

Hi, so I have a file full of fast staccato string lines of various intensity, and I'm struggling with how or even whether to add chords/harmony. I always struggle with this, because 1) the strings are already taken which is kind of the default way to chordise with an orchestra, and 2) by the time the longs get a chord out the 'tonic of the melody' (if you know what I mean) has already changed because of how fast the staccato lines are. I think I've worked out I'm going to make them into two songs (well three but I barely have anything of the third). They're both at 160BPM right now but the first feels a lot slower than the second.

1)

Edit: Track finished, it is here.

2)


This one is so fast and strong that I'm having trouble adding anything else to it, let alone chords. The original impetus was to try to write something with the same kind of energy as Vivaldi's Summer Storm. What I have so far starts out vaguely song-ish but quickly devolves into just repeating string lines, and I just don't know what to do with them.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


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## PedroPH (May 27, 2022)

In the case of the first piece, I don't see why you wouldn't add chords to the staccatos. Also, you may consider adding chords with other instruments in the accents. Or only in the accents.

EDIT: I think I would add chords only in the accented beats, with strings, before it gets fast. Later, I don't know yet :D


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## Saxer (May 27, 2022)

Have a listen to Alex Heppelmann's video about implied harmonies.
I hear a lot of implied harmonies in your tracks. I wouldn't put chord pads on top of this but you could harmonize the shorts or your main melodies or set chordal accents.


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## Hoopyfrood (May 27, 2022)

PedroPH said:


> In the case of the first piece, I don't see why you wouldn't add chords to the staccatos. Also, you may consider adding chords with other instruments in the accents. Or only in the accents.
> 
> EDIT: I think I would add chords only in the accented beats, with strings, before it gets fast. Later, I don't know yet :D


Because the accents are all on the same note (for some of them anyway) so I'd only be adding _a_ chord. which I guess is better than zero haha, but still I'm not sure it's the right approach. But I'll think about it.


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## Hoopyfrood (May 27, 2022)

Saxer said:


> Have a listen to Alex Heppelmann's video about implied harmonies.
> I hear a lot of implied harmonies in your tracks. I wouldn't put chord pads on top of this but you could harmonize the shorts or your main melodies or set chordal accents.



Thanks for that, what a great video, I subscribed instantly. It might be hard to apply to the first song in particular, which I guess I've been writing backwards doing the string lines first and then soloing over. But then that bit about the pedal note is definitely promising.


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## Hoopyfrood (May 28, 2022)

Argh, I was trying to follow your guys' advice and put chords on the accents, I managed to get one progression I don't hate (but don't love either), but I can't put chords anywhere else without them sounding horrible to me.

I don't understand what I find so hard about making chords with orchestral instruments. I've watched a million tutorials, I've tried over and over again, but instead of sounding like a chord, they always seem to end up sounding like instruments that are wildly out of tune with each other. I even gave up and tried doing open fifths and couldn't get that to work. How do open fifths not harmonise? What is wrong with me that I can't get such a simple thing to work?


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## sundrowned (May 28, 2022)

You mention the Vivaldi piece. I would look at what he does and copy the approach. Or find other pieces that do something similar to what you want and copy that approach.


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## Hoopyfrood (May 29, 2022)

Yay, I managed to finish one of the tracks to where I'm pretty satisfied with it. I used an ARP in place of chords for one section and vamped on G in another, but I still managed to do some actual chords in the other section, amazingly. I swapped out the strings to BBCSO because I was losing the musicality in all the reverb and room noises and whatnot with the layers of ensemble patches I was using originally, which I think was the right call. I posted the track here if anyone wants to check it out.


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