How to orchestrate for strings
- Musiversal Team
- Mar 22, 2019
- 1 min read
Updated: Nov 28, 2019
There is nothing that sounds better than a warm velvety string section.
Here are some quick tips to improve your string orchestration chops massively.
1. Keep it simple rhythmically
The simpler your score is, the more the musicians will focus on sound / timber and the better the music will sound. When you leave you ear some time to enjoy the music you’ll start hearing a lot of beautiful details that actually make the music delightfully simple yet complex and rich sounding.
2. Harmony
Strings are perfect to play out harmonies. Sometimes composers use strings for melody and forget that they can be beautiful harmonic instruments when used as a section. You don’t even need to write very complicated harmonies to make your music sound very rich. Even major and minor chords will sound amazing if used well.
3. No divisi please!
It’s a common misconception that to make your string section sound full you should have a lot of different parts doing different stuff. The reality is that the more divisis you make the thinner your sound will be and you’ll actually end up with a really poor sounding piece. Keeping one note per instrument group (violin 1, violin 2 etc...) will make your sound larger and lush.
Have your own tips? Share with us at hello@musiverse.co
Hi Rod! There are many creative myths spread around! You can begin to make beautiful music right away! And today, you have the possibility to work in creative collaboration with the most talented musicians around the world. So, if you have a little musical idea and don't know how to develop it or how to give life to it, you can seek partnerships!
We at Musiversal are more than happy to help you getting started with you musical creations and learn music while doing it already!
If you want any extra suggestions or information, please contact us at supportandsales@musiverse.co
Cheers!
Edgard Felipe
Thank you for that information on writing for strings. I would love to learn how to compose music but have little ability to do so. Any suggestion as to where to start? Also I'm an old guy that will never do this professionally, I just want to learn how so for my own satisfaction.