It’s always a pleasure to work for someone who has specific ideas about the way they would like the strings arranged for a track. The written brief contained instructions such as ‘…strings supporting and following overall chord’ and ‘…similar part as after first chorus but extended twice as long with more climactic feel’. All of this is really helpful as it gives the string arranger an opportunity to get it ‘just right’ on the first draft.

The other helpful aspect about this particular job was having the guitar chords supplied. The nature of the guitar (with its six strings tuned in fourths with the major third in the middle) means that it is capable of quite complicated harmonies. Whilst a good string arranger will be able to piece together all the notes in a particular key, it is reassuring to know that you have ended up with the right chord (especially when the chord is a mixture of a G and E chord, or has suspensions of a 9^th at the top of the chord). Again, this makes things much simpler and inevitably means the job can be completed more quickly.

So, this is a good example of how the more detail and information a client is able to give, the more accurate and cost effective it can be to have a string arrangement professionally written. Although many clients do send across a track without any strings and no specific idea of how the strings are intended to sound, they are then putting the responsibility for original content solely in the hands of the arranger. Very often, this works well, people are delighted with the end result and I’ve had feedback such as ‘that’s not at all how I imagined it, but it works really well!’ or ‘I never would have thought of using a viola for the solo but I really like it’. However, it’s also not unusual for several drafts to be emailed back and forward so that changes can be made as the strings become closer to what the client had in mind, but was perhaps unable to convey from the first instance.

For example, if a string arranger is sent a pop or rock track that already sounds full and virtually complete, then writing an elaborate orchestral score will simply overburden the track, creating a headache for the producer in the process! In this scenario, a light scoring of violins may be all that is required to add the texture of strings without too much substance. On the other hand, if the arranger has been asked to write strings for a singer/songwriter in which the texture of the track is very thin (with only a vocal and acoustic guitar), then the strings may need to have a greater harmonic depth in order to add a full and rich overall sound to the track.

A good string arranger will have the ability to listen and take instructions from the writer of the track as well as knowing when to introduce a new feature which may give a song that extra dimension. If the writer isn’t a string player and is only arranging his or her own strings to keep costs down, it may be time to be honest and let them know when they are selling their song short or not making the most out of hiring live string players for a recording session. Sometimes, the strings can weave in and out of the texture of a song, whereas at other times the scoring can be simpler, with slow, sustained chords creating a ‘sheen’ to the song.

Occasionally, arrangers will write a ‘hook’ or counter-melody that absolutely makes a track and this can cause a slight problem in that you’ve introduced an original element into the song and have therefore crossed the boundary from solely being an arranger to being a co-writer. In this scenario, all parties need to be clear about who owns the rights to any original material from the outset.

Funk and disco music tends to be produced in a very full way (particularly in the mid and lower ranges) and this is why most strings in these genres are high in pitch and are written as catchy interjections to fill the gaps in the actual melody line.

 So in conclusion, sometimes the strings will be in the background for most of a song, whereas at other times they may make a fleeting but important contribution. Whatever their role is, well written string parts can transform a song into something rich, soulful and deeply moving and it is almost always worth hiring the services of a professional string arranger to bring out the best in strings, writing in a way that really gets the full potential out of stringed instruments.

When writing for strings then, context is everything. If writing a soundtrack for a large scale film with epic scenes, then the amount of strings used will be on a large, orchestral scale. If writing for a historic drama set in the days before orchestras became quite so large, then the more intimate sound of a chamber orchestra may be more appropriate. On smaller budget projects, or when trying to create a more intimate feel then a chamber ensemble or even a string quartet could be perfect. Here are the typical sizes of string sections in each:

Symphony orchestra: 16 first violins, 14 second violins, 12 violas, 12 cellos, 10 double basses

Chamber orchestra (size will vary according to repertoire): 8 first violins, 6 second violins, 6 violas, 4 cellos, 2 double basses

Chamber Ensemble (difficult to define but probably no more than 12 players in all): 2 first violins, 2 second violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos, 1 double basses

String Quartet: 1 first violin, 1 second violin, 1 viola, 1 cello

If the players in the recording sessions have exceptionally good tone and phrasing, they can make even a small string group sound complete and rich. ‘Fullness of sound’ however more often stems from in the skill in the writing itself. Very often, session string players are presented with orchestral parts to record that have many passages written in unison or octaves without much inherent harmony. This is a shame as it doesn’t make the most of the professional players who will end up recording the music in the studio. The sonorities of stringed instruments best emerge when they are blended together and this is most effectively achieved through different instruments taking on different pars of a given chord.

Here are eight tips for getting the best out of a string orchestra:
1. To get the biggest sound from your musicians you need to write really full harmonies. This means that in major and minor tonalities all three notes of the chord should be represented in the main and for diminished or seventh chords four notes. For more complex harmonies this can of course be increased.

2. It may sound obvious, but make sure that each individual part can be taken out and played as a distinct melody in its own right. So instead of writing ‘vertically’ in blocks of chords on a keyboard, think of writing ‘horizontally’ as each player would naturally play their individual line of music. This will make for interesting bass lines and inner parts as well as opening up the possibilities for counter melodies and engaging interaction between parts.

3. When writing for a smaller number of musicians, composers in the past have created greater impact through the use of arpeggiation. If you break up a chord of say, three notes and play it as an arpeggio on a single instrument, this one instrument will in effect give the impression of three because it will play all three notes of the chord. In this way, the sound seems instantly a lot fuller as well as giving inner parts (such as the second violins and violas) more movement and dynamic interest.

4. Always keep it varied and change the textures regularly. This is where knowledge of string techniques (slurrings, staccatos, accents, spicattos, harmonics, double stoppings, etc.) becomes helpful. For composers who are non string players themselves, it may be worth employing a specialist string arranger or copyist who can help with this. Many of the great composers of the last 2 centuries worked collaboratively with string players when writing and developing pieces which were written with particularly prominent string solos.

5. Understand what it’s like to play the piece you are writing on a stringed instrument. Imagine you’re a pianist and a composer who played say, a flute sent you a solo piece to record. When you put the music on the stand, you might find that all of the notes were in the treble clef range of the flute, that there was a complete absence of chords and everything was in a single line. Part of you would probably feel that the composer hadn’t fully exploited the potential of the piano. And you’d also feel that with a greater understanding of the instrument the piece of music could have been so, so much better – and so it is with string orchestras. What works well on a keyboard as a string ‘patch’ or ‘pad’ does not necessarily work so well with real instruments and scores produced in this way via midi may not even be physically playable. When writing chords for stringed instruments (and they can play up to four notes that sound simultaneous, though spread) composers need to bear in mind that the strings are tuned a fifth apart (and a fourth apart on the double bass).

6. Experiment with the spacing of chords and harmonic writing. ‘Closed chords’ are ones where each note is adjacent to the next. ‘Open chords’ however are when the notes are spread out (leaving gaps between them) and this can affect the texture and sonority of the string writing considerably. Experiment with clustering the notes close together near the bottom of the violin range (so that the violins, violas and cellos are close together), then try writing for the violins and violas close together in a high register with the cellos and basses close together in a low one (so with a sizeable gap between the two). Both will create very different effects, the first being a dense and clashing sound and the second capable of sounding very ominous and uneasy (listen to Jean Sibelius’s orchestral tone poem ‘Tapiola’ for an excellent example of this).

7. In point 4, the need for detailed scoring (including articulations) was briefly mentioned. When orchestrating for strings, composers can really exploit dynamic markings. Knowing how to use crescendos and diminuendos can create powerful and stunning orchestral effects. The use of a well judged subito marking (where the dynamics suddenly change to loud or soft) can add real drama to a score. As can an awareness of the difference between an sfz (sforzando) and an accent. The more knowledge composers gain of these, the bigger their sound palette becomes and the more interesting the music can sound.

8. Once a composer has a good grasp of articulations and dynamics, then they can move into the realms of more advanced string techniques such as the different harmonics (both natural and artificial), left hand pizzicatos, ricochet bowings and up-bow staccatos. A great example of modern string writing combined with weird and wonderful combinations of instruments occurs in Bela Bartok’s ‘Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta’.

When it comes to recording, composers have the option of using mainly, synthesized strings, hiring a real orchestra or the increasingly popular choice of a combination of the two. Many film and television soundtracks are now created using a background carpet of synthesized strings with a few very good professional players layered over the top to sound more convincing and to enable the composer to exploit the many sounds and effects which are only possible with the real thing.

As this was an independent project, the client was on a budget and certainly could not have justified paying over a thousand pounds for a small string orchestra to come in, let alone hiring a studio large enough to seat them all. For this reason (and as an alternative to him using synthesized strings which he was unhappy with) I overdubbed all of these violin layers myself and we were all done in a single three hour session.

So, in a situation where songwriters and producers just can’t live with the slightly unrealistic quality of VST – because they just don’t sound as good, they might imagine that the cost of hiring string players to provide the real thing could be prohibitive. But this particular client ended up with a very high standard of playing overall (in terms of tone, phrasing and tuning) and retained the richness and feel of a full violin section for only £200.

The overdubbing of orchestral instruments has been widely used, especially when recording strings for pop songs since the 1960s and experience has taught us that it only really works with very good players who are 100% accurate with tuning and take a meticulous approach to each take. Even a hint of a mistake or inconsistency could become magnified as further layers are recorded and on several occasions we have been called in to re-record strings for clients who had initially tried to keep costs down by trying this approach with amateur or less experienced string players. Session musicians who specialise in accurate overdubbing will also develop other studio routines such as staggering the bowing slightly and subtly varying their articulation between takes, to sound more like a string section made up of many players, each with their own style.

When we think and write in chords, we are effectively dealing with harmony. And in its most basic form, harmony occurs in a vertical way (ie. the various notes of a chord are stacked up, one on top of another). However, once the music is distributed between different instruments, these individual notes are then read as a melody (so are in effect played horizontally, one after another). So, the most important conundrum is to ensure that each instrument (or section of instruments) ends up with a melody line in their own right, even if they are merely supporting or harmonizing a more prominent melody. In this way, music notation programmes (such as ‘Sibelius’ or ‘Finale’) are essential in their ability to display and play back each individual instrument’s melodic line. There may be occasions when a section does have sustained notes within a chord, but even here, the subsequent notes need to follow on smoothly (avoiding awkward-sounding leaps). In order to achieve a convincing overall sound, each detail within that sound needs to be melodic in nature.

It helps to get to know your orchestral instruments. If you’d like to learn more about what an oboe can do, for example, look on ‘Youtube’ under ‘oboe concerto’. It may demonstrate the compass of the instrument, techniques such as staccato and slurring, as well as its dynamic range and ability to sustain notes. Then try and write a piece blending the sound with a flute, clarinet or bassoon.

One thing that many of the great orchestral composers and string arrangers have in common is their ability to continually share more than one melody happening simultaneously. Often there are four or even five strands of different melody which can captivate the ear on several levels. And these strands sometimes overlap to provide a unity in the musical line. That’s one of the reasons that the most creative composers are able to achieve clarity, by assigning different instruments and textures to simultaneous points of musical interest.

As such, many major film score composers often study works by the likes of Richard Strauss, Sibelius, Ravel, Holst, Prokofiev, Janacek and Copland (to name but a few) to see how they combine different instruments and continually keep the music fresh by changing instrumentation. This blending and changing of the orchestral palette is a perpetual and ongoing process that unfolds naturally from phrase to phrase in an accomplished composition or arrangement.

When working on an orchestral piece, try dissecting it. So if, for example, you have a violin melody with supporting string parts, rapid woodwind scales and rhythmic french horn parts, try listening to each instrument individually, then pairs of instruments and so on. This way, you’ll develop a feel for sonority as well as individual melody lines. Also, try practising writing a small section, resisting the urge to use playback at all! This will hone your ability to think in terms of individual instruments. This is the opposite approach to assigning a chord to an unrealistic body of instruments, without knowing how the individual parts will sound. It will also avoid the problem of the orchestra ending up sounding ‘muddy’ and noisy.

So in a nutshell – go horizontal and cut out the vertical. . .!

When musicians are looking for the most natural sound to record in (particularly for an acoustic instrument or group) then nothing can compare with the acoustics that a Church offers. It’s no accident that the Air Lyndhurst Studios in Hampstead are housed a converted Victorian Church.

The trouble is that not all Churches sound good…..and it isn’t always possible to judge how good the acoustics are until you are able to play the very combination of instruments that need to be recorded. Not only that, but you need to play these instruments in exactly the right position within the building. Oh, and it needs to be free from people wandering inside doing brass rubbings, passing traffic and overactive vergers mowing the graveyard! I remember a warden from All Saints’ Church in Leighton Buzzard saying that a record company regularly made classical recordings in the building. Each year the sound recording team would select exactly the same area and put some gaffer tape down to mark the spot where the performers were to stand.

Some Churches and Chapels are perfectly suited to unaccompanied choral music (such as the Merton College Chapel in Oxford), whereas others are particularly conducive to small chamber music groups (as in the Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel in Hampstead). Some larger Churches (like All Saints in Tooting) have an illustrious history in orchestral recordings – in fact, many of the London orchestras use the Henry Wood Hall (formerly the Trinity Church) as a rehearsal and recording venue.

So many Churches have a wonderful history as recording venues but the famous ones can be expensive to hire. So as an independent artist on a careful budget, the secret is to find a Church with excellent acoustical properties, one that isn’t too busy, near a main road or too expensive to hire. Look at one of the successful and regularly used Churches and ask yourself, what is it that makes this building sound so good? Look closely at the proportions and materials used and see if there are any other Churches which have similar properties. Perhaps even research the architects (if it’s a Victorian Church) and see if they built anything similar outside of the major cities. A good place to start is the Churches Conservation Trust website as this well deserving charity regularly hire out their disused buildings for concerts, recordings, art exhibitions and television productions, from as little as £25 per day. As all the Churches are not in regular use as places of worship, there is a good chance you can book a day when you’ll be completely undisturbed.

Another challenge is in having an effective ‘dry’ area so that you can play back your recording in a totally ‘dead’ acoustic. Headphones give off a misleading sound (as do most hi-fi speakers), so it’s important that you get the right mic placements and balance before commencing with the recording. Once you have done a take, burn it off onto a CD and listen to it on two or three different pieces of equipment (including the trusty car stereo!). Also, unless the reverberation inside the building is totally amazing, do be prepared to add a hint of artificial reverb in order to redress any small inadequacies inherent in the acoustics.

So, finding a quiet Church with an excellent sound that isn’t too noisy outside is a challenge, but one that could be hugely rewarding. After all, there is something magical about the pure vibrations of an acoustic instrument, bouncing off the wood, stone and stained glass of a historical building. It can be a sound charged with atmosphere and complexity. Many groups however, may conclude that a recording studio offers a far more controlled environment – and one that puts you in charge, right down to the very last detail.

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I’m a recent convert to the mellow and woody sound of a well-played double bass. It is something that really adds an extra dimension to a string orchestra. The range of the instrument is wide, with the upper two strings being within the compass of a cello (the strings are tuned in fourths, with a top G string, then a D, A and finally a bottom E string). It is often the lower range though, that makes the biggest difference to the sonority of a string orchestra, providing a weight and tonal anchor that completes the broad spectrum of sound. It is not always compatible within the confines of a rock or pop track though, as the bass guitar often inhabits the same territory. If you are looking for strings to complete an already full track, then maybe it is best to concentrate on the upper strings (violins and violas) to give that extra blanket of sound, or add a high counter melody. If however, you have a more orchestral sound in mind (with less percussion and guitars) then the double bass can really ‘fill out’ the sound brilliantly. There’s nothing like that low resonance to send a shiver down your spine (particularly when blended with other instruments in a similar range, like the contrabassoon or bass tuba).

In the twentieth century, the double bass came into its own right, as an essential member of the smaller jazz ensembles. In this capacity, the instrument is often played almost continuously to give a running bass line, in a similar way to the continuo player of baroque times. The jazz double bassist spends the majority of his or her time plucking the strings (pizzicato) and occasionally surprises the audience by bowing some passages of music. There is however, scope for double bass solos and many eminent virtuosos of the past (including the wonderfully named Bottesini and Dragonetti) have written concertos for the instrument.

The double bass is not the easiest of instruments to play, due to the large gaps between semitones. This makes the constant change of left hand position a necessity, and an adept player will have developed a very fluid left hand which facilitates this constant movement up and down the neck of the instrument.

The bowing technique of many bassists also differs from the rest of the string family. This is due to the two different designs of bow, one from Germany and the other from France. The German bow is the oldest and necessitates a hold with the palm of the right hand angled upwards (just like the hold of a viol player). The French bow more closely resembles the bows of cellos, violas and violins and is held with the palm facing towards the instrument. As in all walks of life, there are those who propound the virtues of one above the other to the extent of creating factions. Many a lively double bass discussion in a pub after a concert has revolved around these two ways of holding the bow (do you favour a pint or half a litre?)…However, most orchestral double bassists these days are adept enough to use both bows and proficient enough to render the advantages or disadvantages of one type over the other as rather miniscule!

A lot of players nowadays have an extension, which permits the playing of a low D (and sometimes even a low C) at the bottom of the range. Many twentieth century composers have exploited this bottom register, but it may be worth asking an individual session musician about this when scoring parts for the instrument and booking a player!

The tune is first stated by the first violins on their own, before being passed onto the second violins (whilst the firsts play a repeated figure that sounds a little like an inverted mordent). Soon a tonic and dominant pedal is alternated between the violas and cellos (with pizzicato and bowed chords), before an attractive pizzicato figure grabs the attention. This soon passes through a number of sequences, and this harmonic change (juxtaposed with the melody in the tonic) brings about a surprising harmonic effect.

Bars 41 – 48 are well worth studying from a string arranging point of view, as violins 1 and 2 generally move in the same direction, whereas the viola and cello parts undulate in arpeggios. This contrast gives the sound its fullness, as the arpeggios lead the ear to perceive more sounds than there really are. Soon, both the ‘Dargason’ and ‘Greensleeves’ are happening simultaneously – another technique which occupies the listener fully. This soon dies down before a sudden change of mood and the direction ‘pesante’ (meaning ‘heavily’). The accompaniment to the melody is mainly homophonic here, before being stated above a jaunty tonic-dominant pedal. Trills in the first violins help build up the tension further, as do the upward duplet scales and guitar-like spread chords.

In any composition that is written around a repeated figure, the composer/arranger has to continually invent new ways to embellish the subject, as well as making it appear interesting. This must be done whilst keeping a coherent whole, and in bar 136 Holst finds that now the music has peaked, it must build up once more. This is achieved by writing tremolandos to keep the tension going, over a rising chromatic scale. This leads to a magnificently dissonant section at bar 153, before return to a more tonic-based approach. Finally, ‘Greensleeves’ returns triumphantly at bar 186 before fading away to a short coda, consisting of fragments of the ‘Dargason’. A final upward scale from a solo violin heralds the end of this inventive work.

Note that the tune remains in the tonic key, never modulating throughout the entire movement. This is why Holst has to find ways of ‘spicing up’ the movement through interweaving interesting harmonies. A harmonic analysis of bars 137 – 168 would be a very good way of exploring different tonalities whilst dealing with a melody that stays the same. The whole piece is a model in varied string writing, which explains why, after 100 years, it is still immensely popular.