On Sunday the 6th December, we were booked as a string quartet comprising two violins, a viola and cello to record at the ‘Engine Room’ (part of the group of Miloko Studios in London). We were required to add simple string parts to seven tracks for an independent band - as these weren’t string arrangements that we had been asked to write, we simply had to turn up and play the music given to us on the day. The bands style favoured irregular time signatures which kept us on our toes with large sections being done in a single take to capture a live feeling of spontaneity. The end product certainly enhanced the sound with the tracks gaining richness and depth as a result of including live strings. In a couple of tracks, the producer discussed the possibility of using the tracks laid down by the four session musicians to add a top layer to existing sampled strings - this technique is becoming increasingly popular where there are many different sounds in the mix and can certainly help the strings to sound more convincing than only using samples.
Posts Tagged ‘string accompaniment’
Session at the Engine Room
Sunday, December 13th, 2009Tags: Adding string parts, chords for strings, Live strings, Miloko Studios, sampled strings, session string players, session strings, string accompaniment, studio musicians, studio strings, The Engine Room studios
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Preparing string parts from a midi file
Monday, June 29th, 2009Many of the jobs that we’ve worked on have been for clients who have sent us string parts they’ve written themselves from a midi file. Scoring from midi requires no knowledge of music theory or written notation and often involves the composer playing parts into a keyboard and then printing off the results.
Whilst this is a useful tool in many situations, it rarely produces results that sound convincing for string players once we’re in the studio. Here’s an example: If the composer has little knowledge of the different musical clefs then a cello part can be printed off in a treble clef. As the range of the cello extends lower than the treble clef can accommodate, we’ve been handed parts with about 10 ledger lines at the bottom of the stave, the notes overlapping the stave below - almost impossible to read. The other problem with playing chords in via a keyboard is that it ends up quite ‘fixed’ with no ‘feel’ and the inner parts don’t have a satisfying musical line - therefore so much of the potential from using live strings is lost.
Writing for any collection of instruments is all about the individual line of each instrument. If the parts are moving in chords, each part sounds best when it is playing a melody that harmonises with the rest of the parts in the piece or track.
Very often, expensive studio time can be wasted whilst session musicians sit around re-writing scored midi parts until they are both readable and playable, so as a matter of course we now do ask clients to send through midi-created parts so that we can tidy them up before the session, and save everyone time and money. We charge a nominal fee of £40 per hour for this - the same fee as for string arranging from the original track in the first place.
Although it might seem cheaper to create parts using a midi, it can be just as quick and economical to hire a string arranger to score the parts properly for strings in the first place - and results will be more effective with creative harmonies and melodic lines written in to add richness. As an example, paying a string arranger £40 per hour to spend a couple of hours correctly notating and orchestrating will potentially save hours in the studio and the musicians will be able to go in and just play everything right first time from a properly written score, using each instrument to it’s full potential.
Tags: Adding string parts, chords for strings, cost of a string arranger, creating a score from midi, midi strings, notation fees, Orchestrating for strings, orchestration fees, orchestrator, scoring from midi, session musicians, session string players, string accompaniment, string arrangement costs, string arranger, string arranger fees, String Arranging, studio musicians, studio strings, writing for string section, Writing for stringed instruments
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Con Sordino (With Mutes….)
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009Adding a mute to a stringed instrument has a very different effect from muting a brass instrument. Although by definition, a mute does take off a little of the volume, rather than just making the violin quieter, it can make the sound more mellow and add a subdued quality. Adding a mute is an excellent tool where the harmonies are complex and slow moving - or where the arranger would like a wash of strings to add a special ambiance.
A mute is a small piece of either plastic or wood which sits between the strings and the tailpiece of the instrument - it can be slid up on top of the bridge to restrict the vibration - thus creating a less piercing sound. The Italian musical term for adding a mute is ‘Con Sordino’ and the instruction ‘Senza Sordino’ means to take the mute off again.
When scoring for strings and using mutes, it’s important to allow a few seconds either side of adding or removing one so that the player has a chance to move the mute on or off.
Although it’s possible to just mute some of the instruments in the section, the effect is more striking if all the strings are muted simultaneously - this can really add interest, variety and a whole different sound to the strings.
Tags: Adding string parts, arranging for violin, cello mutes, con sordino, haunting strings, muted strings, mutes, Orchestrating for strings, orchestrator, senza sordino, session string players, soft string sound, string accompaniment, string arranger, String Arranging, String orchestra, studio strings, viola mutes, violin mutes, writing for string section, Writing for stringed instruments
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Spacing of Chords
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009One of the most common ways in which strings are added to a track is through the provision of chords. There are in essence three basic ways of using a chord in music.
One is called a ‘root’ chord, the others are a ‘first’ or ’second’ inversion of a chord. If the chord in question is in C major and the note C is placed at the bottom, then this is a ‘root chord’ of C. If the next note in the chord (E) is placed at the bottom, this is a ‘first inversion’ and if the third note of the chord (G) is at the bottom, this is a ’second inversion’ of the chord.
When arranging for strings, inversions add variety to the harmony and give the opportunity for all the parts to move in a musical way. What this means is that you can have an inner part (viola or second violin) moving in step so that when the session musicians play just that part, it has a logical and satisfying musical line to it and doesn’t just jump around randomly.
This is crucial when writing a bass line as it underlines the entire harmony and has to flow as a line of music in it’s own right (as well as fitting with the individual chords).
Sometimes, chords may all be grouped quite close together with the parts low in their register - this is when the rest of the track may have a ‘hole’ in that register which needs filling by the strings. In other situations, the gaps between the individual notes of the chord might be very wide and spaced apart - when a more sparse texture is needed. It’s always possible to thicken or thin out the texture of the strings by doubling notes in different registers (a careful use of double stops), or by not using all the notes in the chord.
A double stop is where two notes are played simultaneously on any given instrument. As the celli, violas and violins are all tuned in fifths, the interval of a fourth, fifth, sixth and octave can all work well. When it comes to thirds, these work better in the violin and viola parts than they do with a cello, but your studio musicians won’t thank you if both the notes in the third are written on the same string!
Other chords which require more than three notes in them are seventh chords (again in the chord of C this would be C, E, G and a Bb on the top), or diminished chords - which are a succession of minor thirds spaced one on top of another.
Jazz chords are a whole area in themselves where the arranger needs to have a good knowledge of harmony and be able to hear the chords in order to arrange around them.
In the next blog entry, I’ll be writing about the effective use of pedal notes.
Tags: Adding string parts, appropriate string parts, arranging for violin, chords for strings, orchestrating, Orchestrating for strings, orchestrator, session musicians, session string players, string accompaniment, string arranger, String Arranging, String orchestra, studio musicians, studio strings, writing for string section, Writing for stringed instruments
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Arpeggiated accompaniment
Sunday, April 19th, 2009When the strings are more in the background, there are many ways in which they can add interest to the track without becoming too dominant.
The use of a repetitive arpeggiated accompaniment is one such technique - what this means is that the strings can oscillate between the various notes of the arpeggio (for example if the chord is in G major, the first violins could play G,B and D in rapid succession), then the second violins and violas could simultaneously add moving parts, using the other two notes of the same chord. The cello often adds stability to the other parts, by providing a more static line.
These arpeggios can be slurred, played with seperate bows or staccato bowing, they can be quavers or semi-quavers and you can vary the patterns of them according to the context of the track. Arpeggios can be very simple, even alternating between just two notes (rather like the piano accompaniment in the song ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon), but they can also be quite elaborate - using notes of more than one octave.
As the chords change in a song, the arpeggios can simply remain in the same pattern but just progress to the next chord.
Using arpeggios in a string accompaniment can add life and movement to the track while remaining quite subtle and they can ‘lift’ a song, giving it buoyancy.
Tags: Adding string parts, arpeggiated, arpeggios, chords for strings, Orchestrating for strings, string accompaniment, String Arranging, writing for string section, Writing for stringed instruments
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