How to compose for Strings 

Try out Apple Music Classical with a free trial: apple.co/DavidBennettPiano 🎵(Free trial available for new users only)

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

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

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..."

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! 😅

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.) 😄

I mean the bass is really a part of the gamba family but for the rest great tutorial :)

Can’t wait to see how we get Radiohead and The Beatles into this one!

Okay, so those range illustrations are NOWHERE NEAR accurate, all the instruments in the violin family can go much higher. Especially the cello! 😅

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.

Violas are the “meat” of the orchestral sandwich. The alto clef isn’t weird for us native violists. 😂 if you play the Adagio as a quartet (what it was originally written for), you end up playing a lot of double stops. If you are Beethoven, big jumps are the norm, especially in is later quartets (Grosse Fugue).

Ray and Hillary - I was thinking “where’s TwoSet?” - and boom… I look forward to this series - should be fun and informative.

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!!! 😀

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.

This new course is just what I needed. I'm trying to get into orchestral composition myself, and I'm currently tinkering with Musescore 4. This really excites me. Thank you, David!

Thanks! That was so well presented and informative. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

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.

Thanks for doing a video on the strings. I realize this is an introductory video, but there some more details that could be added. The ranges of the instruments can go much higher than stated at 1:18, especially the cello--see the short piece "Dance of the Elves" by Popper for an example. Also, some of the more interesting music is when the first violin DOESN'T have the melody all the time, but it is shared around by the other instruments (e.g., viola and cello) at times (see Brahms Sextet in B-flat or Schubert String Quintet in C for examples).

More of this please! This is so helpful and presented wonderfully! Thanks so much!

While having many violinists playing the same line in unison would certainly give that melody a lush sound I believe the main reason was amplification. Orchestras had been around way before any substantial amplification was invented (i.e. microphones). The number of performers for each instrument was a direct way of achieving proper mixing and loudness level. Just imagine performing in an auditorium in a quartet at a time when the only amplification they could harness was the dome shape of the venue.

Wonderfully simple.... many thanks!

I am beyond excited for this new series!!!! Thank you

Please do more of this kind of classical music analysis! It's the kind of music theory video that I've been looking for. Thank you for the great and impressive explanation!

Very excited for this series!

YESSS was waiting for this. 🔥

Great video David, very informative and interesting. I'm really looking forward to watching the rest of this video-series, and as a French Horn player, I'm especially excited for the next episode covering the brass section.📯 Thank you for creating such high-quality music-videos and keep up the amazing work!😊

David, thank you for such an informative and helpful video.

This is pure gold. Thank you 👍

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

this is a great, concise, video on the topic! will love to see you cover the other section, as i had organology last year and it will be great to remember more about instrument families

This is a great starting point for amateurs(or not classically trained musicians). Thank you!

Merci beaucoup, very well done.

Thanks you David, this helped me a lot with my piano concertos!

This is brilliant, thank you! I started playing instruments (woodwinds) as an amateur almost 50 years ago and have been listening to classical music almost as long, but I learned so much from this video! And to use Barber’s Adagio for Strings as the example (in my opinion the most exquisitely sorrowful and beautiful piece of music of all time) is a perfect touch.

Exellent explanation,very very pro and easy to understand. Compliments, your channel is one the most interesting and helpful in YT. 👏👏👏👏

As an arranger/orchestrator, I find your explanations excellent! Very well thought out and presented with clarity, as always.

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

I love the viola.

Wow! Thank you so much for this video! Extremely interesting and useful -- and the way you deliver the concepts is very clear even for a non-professional liek myself. Really looking forward to more videos in this series! 🤩

Orchestra teacher and composer here, great video. I also use your pop song videos for my guitar class, my high school students really enjoy them. I started as a viola/violin double throughout high school, now I've morphed into viola/bass/piano.

Nicely Done

David, thank you for a superb exposition of the string section in an orchestra. Looking forward to the next episodes. I wish you were my music teacher when I was a kid, but I am delighted that you are teaching me this now much later in my life. I think you will inspire many people, new to classical music, to explore it further, as well as the excellent Apple Classical app.

Fascinating stuff!

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.

David! Everything I wanted to know about Violins and never realized I wanted to know. Wow! Keep the seriese going. i am eager to learn.

Well done, David. Thank you for another great video!

This has helped a lot, Thanks David! I will watch your other parts for different instrumental families too!

Thank You Sirjee Awesome Information

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.

It's worth mentioning that the difference between a violin and a fiddle is similar to the difference between a double bass and an upright bass.

Very interesting and instructive. Thank you David.

Very well done!...you have a gift for getting to the essence of musical techniques and theory, then presenting it in a clear and accessible way. I might add that another difference a quartet has to a full ensemble, is that in a quartet, the melody is passed among all 4 players more freely, as if in a conversation

Thanks very much for this fantastic explanation. Well done!

Finally someone who explains things. Thank you so so much!

Can't wait for this series!!

Very interesting. I played a bit of violin and cello at school, but had never really considered how they fit together in an orchestral arrangement

Thanks again David for another interesting and easy to understand music lesson. Looking forward to the next one in this series... 😀

excellent video, thank you, David..

thanks David! looking forward for the next ones!

I could spend days and days watching your videos. Always such a treat!

Thank you very much. Very instructional

This is absolutely a great video! Thank you

Great video, would love to see more in this series (especially if you ever plan of doing arranging for a jazz ensemble)

Thank you so much for this.

Excellent video ! I can't wait to see other video on that subject

Amazing video! Thank you very much for sharing you knowledge!

ah yes, quite a useful guide I shall use for my composing journey. thank you for making this and I'm so excited to see the brass section video!!

Fascinating David, thanks. Looking forward to the series, great idea 💡

I loved this video! You explained everything so simply and yet so well. Looking forward to the brass video!

Wonderful video. Thank you very much!

I learned soooo so many things ! Thank you !

Learnt so much, thank you!

Great video as always David. Very informative

A nice beginning to what must be a very nice series. Thanks, David, and keep 'em coming!

Great stuff, David. Really enjoyed that.

Nice, clear explanation of some fundamentals.

Excellent explanation

It was exactly what I was look for, thank you so much

Thank you so much! Great video and I can't wait to see more like this.

You read my mind! I was just thinking I wanted to learn more about how orchestra works - and here you are with this great video! :-) Thank you, I'm waiting impatiently for brass and woodwinds sections!

Fascinating... I did not know any of this...

Brilliant! Looking forward to the next one.

Awesome explanation, thanks a lot for these materials!

Thank you so very very much. You’re an awesome instructor.

Such an informative video! I already can't wait for the next one!

Very nice and informative video, there! Keep doing this series! :)

Although I compose for years now, I am still a learner, trying to make the most out of orchestration. To be honest i'm learning orchestration right now. Your videos will be great help for me! Thank You David!

Thank you for putting up such informative video, waiting for more great work 👏🍻

Fantastic! More please.

Thank you so much for this video, as a producer that uses strings, I desperately needed this.

Thank you for the explanation, and I am looking forward to watching how to compose for woodwinds! I play the oboe and love orchestras.

My highschools orchestra had won an national orchestra competition playing adagio. We did this way back in the 90's. So cool seeing a breakdown.

Amazing, it is quite hard to find info about this in such an accessible way. You are awesome!

Great video. Thanks for your good work !

I enjoy composing classic pieces with my VSTs (lol) and now I know why I always felt like I was missing something. That "something" is voice leading. Without it, the arrangements sound more like pop ballads than a cinematic orchestra.