Posts Tagged ‘string arranger’
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
String players often discuss the need for ‘bow markings’ or simply ‘bowings’, but what are they and why do they matter?
The basic premise is that the bow travels in two directions (down and up) and whereas a versatile player should be able to play all but the most challenging passages of music starting with either direction, often one direction leads to greater ease and comfort than another. As intricate passages of music often involve many changes of string (bowing from one string to another) the direction of the bowing takes on a greater significance as it will lead to a clockwise or anti-clockwise movement of the arm (whether that be emanating from the elbow or shoulder). Generally, if a rapid bow stroke starts on the lower string and leads to the upper string, then a clockwise movement is more effortless (although there are many instances where the opposite can create a desired effect!). In this instance, a down bow on the lower string followed by an up bow on the upper string could allow the player to perform the passage smoothly. This is just the beginning, as the array of different musical contexts where an appropriate bowing can help create the desired effect are almost limitless.
Bows are also weighted in favour of the bottom part (the ‘heel’) with a much lighter upper part (leading to the ‘tip’). This means that the proportion of weight isn’t evenly distributed (which is why the point of balance on a bow is approximately a third of the way up the bow from the ‘heel’). Again, an accomplished player shouldn’t need to crescendo down to the ‘heel’ or diminuendo up to the ‘tip’ but acheive the opposite with ease. Nevertheless, there are many examples where this knowledge can be put to good use.
In a more ‘legato’ context, all of the members of the string section are capable of acheiving a seamless, singing line where the changes of bow become invisible and the sound takes on a glowing, expressive quality - like an endlessly spun sound. This is where we can close our eyes and forget that the bow exists at all (an aspiration of most string players!). Whereas the composer’s intentions are always paramount, if more bow strokes are needed to play a certain passage, they can remain invisible if placed at natural ‘breathing points’ along the way.
If you are a composer, arranger or orchestrator and are unsure of the role of bow markings in a composition, the best advice would be to spend an hour in the company of a professional player who could explain bowings in different contexts. Or you could take a leaf out of the great Baroque masters’ book: simply leave your score blank and leave it up to the string players to bow it to their satisfaction!
Tags: Bow notation, Bowed instruments, Bowing and fingering, Orchestrator Vaughan Jones, string arranger, String Arranging, String notation, String orchestration, Vaughan Jones violinist, Violin bowings
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Friday, August 26th, 2011
On Sunday I got together once again with composer Leigh Haggerwood to record some violin and viola parts for some of his new music. Last year, we had worked with Leigh on his Florin Street Band project and it was great to catch up with him.
As this time the brief was purely to supply some solo vioiln and viola lines, I was the only musician present and therefore we were able to record at Leigh’s own studio. As usual, the melodies were memorable with terrific string parts which blended skilfully with the other instrumental parts in the track. I’m looking forward to hearing the finished result!
Photograph courtesy of Leigh Haggerwood
Tags: Florin Street Band, Leigh Haggerwood Composer, Recording solo strings, Scoring for strings, session viola, session violinist, Solo violin parts, string arranger, Upper strings, Vaughan Jones Violin, Viola part for track
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Monday, April 18th, 2011
About a year ago I wrote a blog entry called ‘Bring on the Viola‘ which discussed the merits of this sometimes overlooked and under-appreciated instrument of the string family. I thought it worth adding another blog entry as in the intervening year, we have worked with a number of clients who seem unaware of the existence of the viola!
If a songwriter has written some string parts and found that three of them are in the register of the violin and the fourth down in the cello register, then it may be worth transferring one of the violin lines to the viola to create a more natural and full sounding string section.
So why do people forget this important instrument? I don’t know… but we get plenty of enquiries from people requesting violin and cello parts to be added to a track, yet omitting the viola. As an analogy, this would be like a rock band having a lead guitar and a bass player, but no rhythm guitar to fill out the middle register.
Although only five notes lower than the violin, the viola has a completely different sound. It is more rounded and mellower, making it the perfect instrument to blend with both cello and violin and it can be brought forward in a song as a solo instrument in it’s own right. A violin is more frequently chosen to perform solos in an instrumental break, but there are certain tracks where the viola would be much more at home and give the song a softer edge.
Tags: Arranging for strings, Orchestrating for strings, qualities of the viola, session string players, session viola, string arranger, violin and cello parts, violin instrumental break, writing for strings
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Wednesday, April 13th, 2011
Much of the recording work we do involves the use of a ‘Click Track’. A click track is an audible metronome which is fed into a set of headphones and enables a musician to play with complete rhythmical accuracy.Generally a click track will be played in addition to the other instruments which are already recorded, so the session musicians can hear both the click and other parts of the music, since a combination of both gives the best of both worlds.
A lot of singers, songwriters and producers tend to record and build a track around a specific metronome marking so that all of the instruments tally and play perfectly in sync together. A click track also enables instruments to be recorded separately, so drums could be recorded on a different day, in a different studio or even a different country to the guitars, vocals, strings and other instruments on a track. It is also a valuable tool for engineers and producers to be able to communicate with musicians and quickly identify any mistakes or areas which need to be re-recorded. By knowing how many beats are in a bar and setting the click to that time signature, an engineer can liaise with musicians freely using bar numbers, even if they don’t read musical notation.
Sometimes tracks are not recorded to a click and this can give the music a real sense of freedom. If musicians are overlayering other instruments which are already recorded in a track, this requires a strong attention to detail and a good knowledge of the piece to ensure split second accuracy. If a session musician receives a track which has rhythmical inaccuracy inherent in what has already been recorded, it may be necessary to record without a click track or the end result might have strings which are absolutely perfectly in time but don’t sync up with the vocals and guitar (which aren’t). This is also true with music which changes tempo regularly or has pauses and changes of time signature.
Often a click track can be used to save time in a studio. A string orchestra or quartet may record a piece which requires no further overlayering and due to lack of studio time may decide to use a click to ensure rhythmical accuracy. The alternative of allowing more rhythmical freedom without the click could result in the music speeding up or slowing down fractionally or not being ‘tight’ enough. There is a danger here that the click may kill any sense of the ebb and flow of a piece of music and straightjacket musical freedom. So on the one hand it can create greater accuracy but this can sometimes be at the expense of feel and expression.
Tags: Click track in studio, hire a string section, online session musicians, recording string parts, Recording to a click track, session musicians, session strings, string arranger, string musicians, Studio orchestra, Vaughan Jones string arranger
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Sunday, March 13th, 2011
Grace Notes fall into the category of ‘ornamentation’ as they are embellishments which help to give life and energy to a phrase. They are not unique to strings and may have originated in the late baroque period when used as a keyboard ornament and can be performed on almost every orchestral instrument.
A Grace Note is written in notation smaller than the standard size of a note on the stave and often has a diagonal line struck through it. It is a brief note which has no measured time allotted to it and is basically played as rapidly as possible before the main note itself. In folk music, this note is often referred to as a flick and it helps to give a note or phrase a sprightly, dancing quality. Often a string arranger may add grace notes if a phrase is repeated in an identical fashion, so by adding these notes (also known as appoggiaturas) it helps to give colour and variety to a phrase that would otherwise be a bland repetition. There is nothing worse than a ‘cut and paste’ approach to arranging where phrases are repeated without any variety giving the impression of an unvarying theme.
Interestingly, the term ‘acciaccatura’ is often wrongly applied to grace notes. This term actually means a ‘crushed’ note where two notes are played simultaneously and the dissonant note released immediately rather than being an independent note performed before the main note - again this happens a lot in folk and traditional music. So when a string arranger is writing string parts for a folk track, this could also be a technique to be made good use of.
Tags: acciaccatura, additing strings to a folk track, appoggiatura, Arranging for strings, composing for strings, dissonant notes, grace notes, notating string parts, orchestration, string arranger, String Arranging, strings for a folk track
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Saturday, February 5th, 2011
Many of the songwriters and music producers we deal with don’t read music and therefore rely on allowing programs such as Logic to print out a score of the music for them - these are then sent to us by email along with the song or track and we are asked to record the written string parts .
People often put a lot of faith in a midi score and don’t realise that the slightest discrepancy in rhythm or pitch (when played in on a keyboard) results in an inaccurate print out of the music represented. Sometimes this can take the form of many tiny note values tied onto the next in it’s attempt to rationalise the rhythm of the music. This can mean that the music is often scored with highly complex rhythms that no musician could easily read or play. Another common problem is the incorrect use of enharmonic notes. Enharmonic notes are those that differ from each other in name but not in pitch (e.g a Bb and an A#). This means that a session musician can be playing in a ‘flat key’ and half the notes are printed out as sharps which throws the musician and can mean that they are temporarily unable to understand the notes at speed. Recording has to stop whilst the players work out what the part should be - often spending quite some time re-notating the score.
On a more subtle level, a midi score is rather like a rough sketch of a painting without any of the details. There are no dynamic markings, articulations, slurs or marks of expression so providing this to a group of studio musicians is asking them to use a lot of guesswork in how they’ll play the music. All of this wastes valuable recording time and when there are several musicians involved, this can amount to money down the drain as the clock ticks by and they try and make sense of the score.
Although deciding against the professional services of an orchestrator or string arranger might seem like saving money, providing session musicians with a computer generated score means there will almost certainly be parts which are unclear, lack detail or in the worst case scenario can mean the final recording doesn’t sound as it was intended to. String parts in particular are best written by someone who understands how a stringed instrument is played (see previous blog entries on the drawback of composing string parts on a keyboard).
When we are sent a score generated by midi, there are almost always problems with clefs (such as the viola being written in the treble clef) and notes out of the range of a real instrument - despite the program saying it should be playable.
Arranging and orchestrating is something which requires training and subtlety - and a computer as yet can’t match the accuracy and detail of a trained arranger.
Tags: composing for strings, cost of a string arranger, doing string arrangements, getting the best use of studio musicians, hire a string section, live strings on a track, Logic music composition, Logic music writing, Logic score, midi scoring, Orchestrating for strings, Scoring from Logic, session musicians, session string players, string arranger, String Arranging
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Tuesday, January 4th, 2011
Very often we are asked by clients to book a recording studio ourselves (or to recommend one) and although the cost of hiring a recording studio can vary enormously, we always try to keep within a sensible budget to maintain cost effective recordings. It is sometimes hard to accurately estimate how long it can take to record strings in a studio as things may run very smoothly with the recording being finished surprisingly quickly, or hiccups can arise which slow things down. With session musicians and studio engineers usually paid on an hourly rate, it’s important to make every minute in the studio productive. From the players point of view, any professional will make sure they turn up a little early, with their instrument ready to play and any tricky parts to the music already prepared. A studio can organise things beforehand too - with chairs set out, microphones in place and everything set up ready to record straight away.
But what are some of the factors which (in our experience) can improve the efficiency of studio work?
Firstly, it’s absolutely essential that any string parts which are to be recorded are composed or arranged and agreed with the client beforehand, ideally when other instruments and vocals are already in place so that strings can be written to enhance the rest of the track. Turning up at the studio and being asked to improvise or collaborate is likely to waste time whilst players agree on how and what to play, and it’s always a risk that the client might not like the results, having envisaged it sounding entirely different. A properly prepared score can save literally hours of time in the studio.
Likewise, if strings are to be added to a track with other instruments and vocals already recorded, it’s important that no ‘last minute changes’ are made to this after the string arrangement has been done - because the score the string arranger has prepared may well differ meaning the string parts don’t line up with the rest of the track. This can cause confusion and delay as the players try and work out how the score needs to be amended before recording can resume.
A string arranger can make the score very detailed with bowings, articulations, dynamics and other subtleties written in so that players can simply go in and play the music right at first reading. Sadly this is not always the case and can be a major bugbear of session musicians. Even in the case of top film and television soundtrack recordings if an orchestrator or arranger has not been very detailed in their scoring, much time can be wasted in the studio.
So when seeking a quotation or estimate for session musicians, so much can depend on the quality of preparation done beforehand and this is the responsibility of the client as well as the orchestrator / arranger. Poorly written parts can take literally double the time to record and although many bands or songwriters think that money can be saved by doing it themselves, it can often be a false economy.
Tags: adding strings to a pop track, cost of hiring a recording studio, Cost of hiring session musicians, cost of hiring strings for a track, efficient studio time, hire a string arranger, Hire a string orchestra, hire a violinist, hire an orchestrator, notating for strings, professional musicians, Recording strings, Recording studios, Scoring for strings, session musicians, string arranger, string section, string session players, Vaughan Jones string arranger, writing music for strings, writing string arrangements
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Sunday, November 14th, 2010
Yesterday evening we worked with a talented vocalist and composer who had written his own string parts to compliment a song he is releasing as a demo. I had assisted by notating the music a few weeks ago and therefore when we started working in the studio, he was eager to resolve some timing issues which were difficult to notate as they were to do with ‘feel’ in certain phrases and were therefore a little too subtle to have discerned from the original midi strings. The string parts had been scored for viola, violin 2 and violin 1 so we laid down one track of each from my notation so that the composer could then easily identify which parts needed a different emphasis with timing and bar numbers as a reference point. Once we found the small phrases which needed to be changed, he was able to sing the phrase as required and easily convey what he intended - I quickly notated this on manuscript and we were then able to proceed without a hitch.
This was a very good example of how written notation sometimes needs to be augmented by verbal instructions. The convention among orchestrators is to write an Italian phrase underneath the stave which clearly tells the musician what the composer would like - the alternative is for the composer to be present in the recording studio and to instruct the session musicians of the ‘feel’ of certain passages.
Tags: adding real strings to a song, Arranging for strings, online session musicians, orchestration, recording stringed instruments, session string players, string arranger, String Arranging, String notation
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Wednesday, October 13th, 2010
I remember a colleague of mine saying that rock and pop arrangements for strings fell flat and didn’t seem to work, yet arrangements of other styles were often successful. I think the reason she said this was that many published arrangements fail to take into account the intricacies of the percussion (or drum kit), rhythms and regularity of accents which often fall on the second and fourth beats. Once these are taken out of an arrangement, the song does frequently sound dull and lifeless.
This doesn’t just apply to re-creating pop and rock covers for string quartet or string orchestra, but in any string arrangement where percussion is going to be absent or less prominent. Some bands or songwriters might want to experiment with recording a track that has no conventional percussion section, but replacing the rhythmic pulse with effects created on stringed instruments or an orchestra. In this way, the sound could be acoustic with very little electronic input, yet still retain all of the energy and impact of a standard rock and pop track. So what are the techniques a string arranger might use when orchestrating a self sustaining rock track?
There are four markings that can be added to notes to convey differences in length and emphasis.
Firstly, if dots are added (underneath or over the note heads), this would give a very short and spiky staccato feel to the music. Alternatively, the addition of lines to the notes give them a brushed sound with a greater length. I often write both a line and a dot to denote somewhere between the two, where the notes are separated but are a little bit longer than a staccato dot. This can be ideal for imitating rhythm guitars where essentially the note is plucked so is not fully legato.
Another marking which can replace the rhythmic drive of a drum kit are the accent (<) which can punctuate a note and if added to the second and fourth beats give the music it’s regular emphasis as a drum beat would. The final notation could be an ’sfz’ which is an abbreviation of the word sforzando. This is a way of marking in a stronger accent and means a sudden loudness - I sometimes notate this with an accent to produce a much more violent, raw note which again when added regularly can give a really strong drive, particularly in a string orchestra.
In terms of instruments, these accents and rhythmic effects can be added to any of them but generally to give the feeling of the interplay between bass guitar and drums, would be used to best effect in the double bass and ‘cello sections (or the ‘cellos and violas in the absence of double basses).
Tags: accents in string notation, arranging rock for strings, cello arranging, how to write string arrangements, orchestral rock, rhythm into a string section, Scoring for strings, sforzando, string arrangements, string arranger, string orchestra for rock music, strings for rock track, Vaughan Jones string arranger
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Monday, September 13th, 2010
Occasionally we receive enquiries from people who would like strings written or arranged for their track but on listening to the track, it sounds very full already without strings: in short, adding strings can just be one more thing that makes a song too ‘busy’ and risks overloading the listener with too much going on.
Although in many cases, strings can be written around melodies and other instrumentation to fill in, enhance, support or even add new counter melodies there are some songs that just won’t benefit from strings at all and if the string arranger has sound musical judgement, he or she may advise a client not to use their services at all.
So what type of song may not need strings at all? Any track which is already heavily laden with guitar and percussion, vocals, keyboard and bass will need to have ‘room’ in it for strings - either as an instrumental break, or in a verse / chorus where things are quieter and the strings can come through. Strings can also be used to add a ’sheen’ of simple chords over the top of other instruments if there is already a lot going on. When a track sounds complete with a full range of notes already covered there may not be any benefit at all from including yet another group of instruments (a string section) and the song can begin to feel cluttered or over the top.
Problems can arise when a band or songwriter have already produced a song then decide afterwards that they’d like to include strings as well on top of everything else. If the piece is written knowing that the strings will be coming in at some point, space can be left for them (a bit like designing the layout of a room and leaving space for a sofa rather than cramming it in somewhere as an afterthought!).
Tags: adding string parts to a pop track, adding strings to a song, arranging string parts, leaving space for strings, music production, musical judgement, programming synth strings, string arrangement, string arranger, String Arranging, synth strings, Vaughan Jones string arranger
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