How to compose for Strings

For musicians native to pop & rock, writing for traditionally classical instruments like strings can be intimidating! So today I hope to demystify how the violin and similar stringed instruments work and how you can write for them!

And, an extra special thanks goes to Douglas Lind, Vidad Flowers, Ivan Pang, Waylon Fairbanks, Jon Dye, Austin Russell, Christopher Ryan, Toot & Paul Peijzel, the channel’s Patreon saints! 😇

0:00 Introduction
0:39 the 4 instruments & their ranges
1:56 The sound of Orchestra
3:55 How to write for a string section
7:24 the Viola & the Alto clef
8:21 the Violins
8:55 Homophony
10:00 Voice leading
11:00 String Quartet
12:00 Techniques
13:30 Conclusion

[lp-xlld]

I played violin (and I was in the 1sts) in my junior high orchestra. After one of our concerts, my mother said to me "I can't believe that what I just heard was what I heard you practicing..."

[muc_michi]

Guys, it happened! He ran out of time signatures!

[whatever]

As an amateur cellist, I'm honored to be a member of "violin family".

[turnerIott]

Been playing cello in an orchestra for 8 years now but still watching this just because I love your channel.

[yueyume]

I played the Double Bass for about 6 years. I’m only 5 feet tall, but as a kid I just gravitated towards it. There’s nothing quite like playing this instrument with such low vibrations. Felt very therapeutic!
There were a lot of times that a bass part was “double the cellos” or the teacher would write a part specifically for the bass section because one did not previously exist. I loved every second of being a part of the violin family.

[LadyJoolree]

Remember, the range he noted here is a general range. The lowest note is set as it's always our lowest string, but the upper one, that depends on your instrument... and your intonation!

I play first violin in an orchestra and I sometimes wish we had another clef for notes in the nosebleed seats, 7+ leger lines and 8va (play the notes up an octave) are no joke! 😅

[li]

Nitpick: Bass is from the viol, not violin family. Fourths vs fifths in tuning is one difference. They also have structural/design differences in that violin family instruments have body shapes that meet the neck at a perpendicular angle while viols like the bass have bodies that swoop up the neck, not to mention have canted backs.

[astara]

This is exactly the type of music videos I want to learn from thank you!

[element-alchemist]

YES!! The orchestra tutorial. This is going to be a great series. I’m looking forward to a breakdown of the percussion section.
Thanks David.

[mrcet]

Good summary!

7:02 — Some would argue that the double bass, and piccolo (the usual piccolo at least), for example, aren’t _truly_ “transposing” instruments, on the grounds that true-transposing instruments change not just pitch, but _pitch class_, such a notated C sounding Bb or F.

I personally am not sure I agree, but I do agree that that’s an important distinction, so I wish we had two different words for the two concepts.

[twentyrothmans]

My father was a bassist, and sold one of his double basses for AUD100, because we were enduring a very nasty recession.
It had a very thick cotton cover, and a distinctive aroma - I suppose that he'd looked after the wood. One hundred bloody dollars. It sounded so cool.
We've kept his Fender five string electric, and we'll never sell it.

[thepianoplayer]

As a violin player myself, the video is well presented.
Just 4 things to add:
1. The music for the bass is in the bass clef but an octave lower. A similar score for a piano player you'd see "8vb" under the staff to indicate play an octave lower.
2. Today the only instrument that uses the alto clef is the viola. In the past, singing parts for a choir also used the C-clef including tenor, alto & soprano. These are now written in either treble & bass clef.
3. Although music for a string instrument is generally written as single notes, you occasionally see double notes up to 4 notes for emphasis. For instance, at the end of a section in a movement of a symphony you see a stack of 3 notes. It's generally agreed that anything more than 2 notes would be played as broken chords since the bow can only play 2 strings at a time. Sometimes you see a stack of notes at the start of a section for emphasis. You may see several stack of 3 notes at the end with a loud dynamic marking such as f or ff for extra emphasis.
4. The 1 thing composers agree when composing for string instruments is that it's difficult to get good players to play the high melody notes. People who play violin would know you need to shift the left-hand forward to play very high notes and inexperience players often play out of tune. This is the reason why some composers would let a small group (violin 1) play the melody for the entire piece. Definitely the case with Haydn symphonies. Johann Strauss waltzes the same. Violin 2 would play the repeating notes for counting like viola & cello while violin 1 would do the melody of the waltz. Some composers like Mozart would let violin 1 & 2 to alternate the melody so violin 2 players need to be as highly skilled as violin 1.

[rebeccastadie]

So happy to see TwoSet, Ray and Hilary in this video! You know your stuff! (But we knew that already, I'm just especially happy about it.) 😄

[bobsykes]

This is amazing. I remember when Leonard Bernstein used to make educational TV like this about the classical orchestra. It's really nice to see you branch out into this topic. I'm definitely looking forward to the entire series.

[paulhaynes]

Excellent. As a non-muscian this answered many questions I've had for years - and a few I didn't even know I had! Thank you.

[XRMissie]

9:05 - 9:24 I've never been good at reading sheet music (probably since I stare at a piano roll all day thanks to working exclusively in a DAW), but this has FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGED how I see sheet music. I'm still gonna be slow at reading it but at least I won't have to guess what note each line is supposed to represent for the different clefs. Thank you!

[mustuploadtoo]

I remember asking if it was possible for you to do orchestral related videos and it has finally happened! I love how you go into a lot more detail than you usually do! These subsequent orchestral videos will undoubtedly become my favourite on the channel! Excellent!!! 😀

[paulmayer]

Also something to note for those writing, a major difference between the cello and double bass is the low note. A cello bottoms out and C2, but the bass only goes down to E1, not C1. So the automatic octave drop doesn’t always work for the 2 parts. The only way the bass can go down to the C1 is with an extension that lengthens the E string through the peg box, or in my case, I was constantly tuning the E string down to whatever the lowest note was and then transposing everything on the string. That slightly affects the quality of those pitches though since the string works optimally when tuned to the E. So when you’re right for bass, try not to write below the E2 on the staff since that’s actually played as E1.

[CoinedIt]

How can we strive for peace with all this talk of violins!

[Rosie-chen]

Thank you for sharing these ❤when my depression gets worse I turn to classical music for relief and fortunately fall in love with these great works.Sometimes I cry for the magnificent emotions contained in the music