..........Not going to lie my Friend, you made me feel like I attended a Music Theory class at Juilliard LOL. You are an amazing teacher.. Please continue making such informative videos! God I drank too much wine I'm sorry! I'm genuinely happy because I've wanted to add more to my piano practice by learning how to add strings! Oh, and thank you for sharing your free guide! You are so incredibly humble.
Uh this was supper helpful! Actually observing someone go about doing it is way more helpful than just the usual "violins play melodies and cellos are low"
Its been a pleasure watching your video and listening to this lovely music. With my headphones it feels like I'm sat in the middle of the orchestra. Thank you Christopher.
Thank you for another great video, Chris! This information is super valuable, and I've gained a lot by being able to see your thought process as you write for the Strings
Awesome Instruction Chris ! Just like "Rae" below remarked below... I feel Like I snuck into a Advance Strings Arrangement Course at Julliard...Lol. If only the Vulcan Mind Meld were real... I watched a lot of the Info fly over my head. However, you did give me some ideas and helped me understand a lot of places I am already going wrong with my compositions. I love the Strings ! My favorite part to compose, however, I see now I have A Lot to Learn ! I must say, I definitely humbled by your talent.
Cool video! I like very much the ideia of creating the outlines of the piece firt of all. I do the same. In my humble opinion, the bass, the bass can be considered the second most importante melody. The ear pics more easily the high and low notes....In my arrangements, I like to make both, melody and bass, very connected. Thanks for the video! Great tips and insights!
I am a trained string player and jazz musician. You explain perfectly; I just take my hat off to you. I would like to add something: why is it necessary to check through a piano to write strings, if you can use modern keyboards with the sound of strings - which is much more natural?
Thank you so much! Great question - you could certainly load up an ensemble strings patch right away, but as a pianist, it's just a personal preference. Also, any string library you choose will sound different to others you may try, so a piano gives you a clean slate to work from.
Wonderful video Chris! I'm curious as to how you approach the designation of chord tones across the Orchestra? i.e being careful to note have too many chordal 3rds; how many fifths and octaves. Thanks very much from one composer to another. Sam
@@ChristopherSiu Looking forward to it! It's interesting the way sonorities can be affected by the varying power of different instruments and sections. It's an exponentially complex world, orchestrating!
Thanks a lot, Christopher. I didnt understand what some things mean, but i think when i more practice it will be explanied my itself. The first points at the beginning are really important. But the second point with 3rds and 6th sounds rich; 5ths means, that i should have room for other instruments, right? Example: If the viola plays on a lowest register it cans, i should not use the celli on the same register right? I hope i understood it, haha.
Hi, I am new to composition and it has always been my dream to compose string music of my own. Can you give me a few tips on how I should go about learning the requisite information?
Awesome video ! Btw, how do you use only one Kontakt instance in the first track and enable the rest of the tracks to record from the first channel? Thank you !
Thanks Benny! So in Logic I make sure I select Kontakt with 16 outputs, so when Kontakt is loaded, I can go into Logic's mixer view, add the other 15 tracks, and create tracks from those 15 so they show up in the 'arrange' view. Now I can record 1 instrument per track.
Hi Karl! Yes, good violinists can play up to 3-4 notes at the same time (called double, triple, quadruple stops), but most of the time they stick to 2-3 notes together. In terms of dividing the sections, if the composer wants the violins 1 to play different notes, then they can ask half the section to play one note, and the other half to play the other note. This is called 'divisi'.
@@ChristopherSiu It's worth adding that only two strings can be sustained at a time. While violinists can create the illusion of playing 4 notes at a time by moving the bow across all the strings in a row while playing two strings at a time (thus getting all the notes in quick succession) it's not a sustainable effect.
In many of your videos when you play notes they usually overlap with each other rather than having a quick change. Have you explained why you do it that way in one of your videos? It sounds good.
This is so beautiful. I ll be honest, i always skip tutorials, for the first time i sat to see and omg total worth of 30 Minutes ! and the piece you have written is amazing too, really liked it, instantly subscribed. Thank you :)
This is exactly what I was looking for, THANK YOU! You know how youtube can be. Would you recommend Logic over FL Studio? I'm slowly being convinced I need to convert 😂 Glad I found your channel!
Amazing video. Have to watch it several times and try it out in my DAW to learn step by step how you explain it. Super cool you make these videos to help us all to write better music :-) Thanks
Please, can anybody help me to understand what is said at 25:47. It seems something like "and then it (???) after that". And thanks a lot Christopher for this amazing video.
Enjoyed your enlightening way of arranging the string family on tracks, and how in doing so you achieved a very full sound. Wonderful work, you must have spent a lot of time in college learning music composition. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and passion for what you do with all of us.
Thanks for the video, it was helpful! How do you go about knowing how to adjust velocities to make string instruments sound real and also woodwind instruments?
Thanks Isa! It's a difficult answer, but a lot of it comes down to feel and instinct. If you listen to a lot of recordings, you'll get a sense of how to work your libraries to make them sound as natural and realistic as possible to your ears.
thank you so much for the help! i have to do a string quartet composition as a final for my music theory class. i play a wind instrument and know nothing about strings. I appreciate this.
Thanks for the great video of explaining writing chords in various sections. I didn't come across much of videos in this nature and this really helped!
Hello. I search for a while but i could not find the answer. How to mimic multiple players of a symphony orchestra ? I don’t talk about harmony thing. I mean there are 40 chair of strings in an orchestra. Do i must play that 40 string track by track or not need it? How midi composers do it generally ? Thank you🙏🏻
@@ChristopherSiu I have BBCSO Core. For example When i play just one note in Violin 1, it actually played by multiple player ? even if i play one single note ? i really don't get that point.
I may have stumbled upon this video while haplessly searching for "how to write Strings" in a For Loop using JavaScript... But your work is very precise/approachable and deserves a Like regardless!
I am new to this but have a solid base in music as a sax player and also play some keys. After watching this I think I am already making a rookie mistake. I come up with my ideas on the piano but when I move to Logic I am playing the midi controller like the piano in that I am actually playing chords as opposed to writing the individual parts and sections as you did here.
It's ridiculous to compose for the strings with a piano...strings can play long legato sustained notes, which the piano can't. Use a synth with string samples when composing for strings.
