How to go from Piano Sketch to String Arrangement

hello composers mic here and in this video I will show you how you can go from a simple piano sketch [Music] - a complete string arrangement for your music composition [Music] let's dive in right now this video is from my online course on how to write for orchestral strings you will find a special discount if you check the video description one add the individual sounds so as you can see I have a piano here at the top then I have a strings in Samba track then I have all the separate string instruments and I want to have them in the order of range so the base is at the bottom then cellos violas vile is one and violins to you now as a guideline you should use the same sample library and preset for all these different voices of the string instruments however I personally like to mix up and create my own unique overall sound for the string section so as you can see here for the basis I have lush bases from a flatter strings then I have last lashed cellos also a flutter strings so those go together but then for the violas I use minimalist violas legato regional only for violas so a more minimal Sound Chamber violins one another type of preset and for the violins - I actually use a completely different library second violins here all right so that takes us to the next step which is to recall the harmonic progression on piano as I have done here depending on your piano skills and what kind of track you compose for you can do a easy way for recording this just the chords most often on each ball or two bars like this and not have any pulsing chords or go to the next level which is to include passing chords the half body here lost beat here [Music] of power and both beat here or you can go all the way to actually comping including melody and rhythm and everything all right so then you have a starting point which takes us to the next step which is to actually connect let's work with this easiest because that will be the most common I believe so what you want to do is connect the voices so they are kind of legato even though though a piano cannot really perform we go to so you can simply do this by dragging these notes out or using a key command in your DW so you can actually force legato like this or if you have recorded a sustain pedal which I recommended you for chords and when you change the course there is a function at least in logic that you can reselect this convert sustain pedal to note length and watch what happens voila now I almost got it pretty much join them together into one bar chords without the sustain pedal so once that is done when you have made this into full board course you can even select them if all or full-bore you can probably use some kind of the function to set them to fixed node length as well so fix node length one bar chord like so operate like that and obviously this was supposed to be two bars step four is to join the voices on the full string so first you of course you need to copy this down here and now for the strings we have this [Music] but as you have already learned string sound best if they actually play the long sustained note instead of just doing this Revo here so you want to go in and every time they connect like this just go in and join this so I have come on J in logic for this you have to check what your DW has basically every time they continue like this did I miss anyone I think those were all and a bonus appear is that will it will usually sound even more smooth if you select everything and if i zoom in just select everything and drag it out just a hint like this because then you will create more or less a bit of a blur so you really get those ricotta transitions I might do it even slightly further and you can even do it like this select everything and then drag everything just to the back so it's just to the right of the grid line and just starting every notes or just to the left of the of the grid line of course here you need to quantize to make sure they start at the start of the region now we have this so it's starting to sound pretty good already but the real power from strings comes from when you actually go to the next step which is to add dynamic expression and I like to do this on the overall track first so let's go to modulation wheel you can of course record this but just for this simplicity let's draw in long since this is a slow complication let's do it in t-bar length like this or let's do it like this then copy I'm holding down the option key here and then once more I think and then we have some dynamic expression alone oh yeah let's keep the piano [Music] right so that is the main expression curve now you want to arrange these voices for the individual string ports so what I do is that I simply cop it like so several times like this and then I simply go in and shake here I want to select only the lower notes so you either you just need to this but in logic you can simply hold down shift and arrow down to select all the lower voices and then shift I to invert delete all those now we have the basis here [Music] I think I actually want to have that an octave lower that as well you need to really make sure you kappa 'they cover the best range for the instrument right so those are the bases and then I can pretty much well to make these you can delete this if it's only going to be octaves use the same track for the basis select everything and move it up an octave and now you have the cellos right then we go to the next one here select the logo notes delete them select the lower notes again delete them because that was the cellos and now the lowest voice okay so and then make sure these or save this words like so Soviet violas cellos and basses so far right and then we get to the violence one delete the lower little over again the little lower again and now with the see here delete the upper voice is here just make sure that there's only one voice here okay let's see what we have now I'll smooth all of these [Music] okay and then finally violence - should be the upper voice and just the win you will pretty soon become quite fast at these kinds of things so now we have [Applause] right and then that gets us to the final aspect which is to add expression and variation / attract so now you have the overall dynamics which we got from the course here but now go in and actually dial in the individual expression map and now I like to actually record something let's to keep the bases like this something like that and then go to the next one which are the cellos let's start low move up like this you'll want to have different waves for everyone of course if you have the time recall this with your modulation wheel to get the true human field by olace I want to keep them a bit lower go down first like this and then violins one it's use some some heavier variation air the dynamics I'm not sure how this is going to sound like but that's it and finally the violence to let's do a little bit more faster variation here and see how that sounds right something and we have all these if I select everything like so what's this note here let's see did I miss something now so this are playing in harmony that you want to see that the violins one and two or violas and violins one if they play in unison you might want to move some notes down okay so this is a unison let's see if we can play that I'm not sure if this is going to sound right [Music] because this is when you want to also add some variation in the boys [Music] as you can see this is a bit of a tedious process but that's what you want to do if you want to get really lively dynamic and expressive strings eight add more voice leading plus melodies so of course these were made by one bar chord so it will sound pretty simple so now you can go in and actually change it you can either we can actually record the first violins and second violins instead so if we remove this for now just having these logo voices and then select both of these and play something I see I forgot what chord we even started on here F F to b-flat okay so something like this [Music] right so I play pretty high dynamics there just to make sure it is audible and then you simply select it select all move up in octave and now you have these leading melody instead here playing in on the first and second violins [Music] or you might want to just go in and add some manual voice leading so if you check this and I recommend that you actually choose a different color for each of the voices let's go through them like this and then that way when you go in and check the voices you can check set the note color per region color I'm sure that is the feature in most DW so you now I have selected everyone here and I can check the basis here the cellos and now the voice leading will become much easier because I can see the first violins here so I might want to cut that note here and do voice leading with the stake and by lean stuff like that let's do something with this as well [Music] so we get the harmony line there let's move this down and up save [Music] and as you can see a good thing about having the cool coat rack here is that you can always go in and and check what the chord progression is I even recommend that you cut this up into regions like this so this is a special bonus step again and then go in check what holy play either but simply watching what notes are here if you can see the code by that but in logic you can select them and see the code name here so we have an F name it F if there's more chords just to name it F and then let's say G but in this case is f the next one b-flat name it beef let's name the regions but the chords are see okay see so this way you can always go back and check what chords are actually playing there so we're starting an F you might also want to go in and check the note labels like this you can see FF CFA okay let's actually keep that homeless e instead and then you simply go through the entire progression to add some variation voice leading like this okay so I don't want a harmony here on the cello know that and let's join those instead [Applause] let's extend them yesterday more so I'm just I know that they all in fact way that I go out the transition [Music] [Applause] and then if you're not happy with the sound you might want to go in and actually change what the instruments used here for the different instruments and even go in and set the velocity dynamic expression curve I think this is way too high now especially for these guys let's see okay so too low and then you simply go through voice by voice until you get a final result like this [Music] all right so you have now seen my live demonstration of how you can go from a simple piano sketch to a complete string arrangement of course you want to be more thorough and go into the nitty-gritty and details and basically perfect your string arrangement but this quick little demonstration I hope have opened your eyes for the perspectives and variations you can add to all the individual strings in the string arrangement including variation and sound coloration to get what you want for your composition now choose which video you are going to watch next or you can check out the amazing bonuses in the video description you

Channel: Mikael Baggström

Views: 44,203

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Id: pBmrErGihrg

Length: 19min 52sec (1192 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 19 2020