Hello and welcome to today's music lesson.

I'm Ms. Mansell, and I'm gonna be your teacher for today.

Let's get started.

The outcome for today's lesson is, I can arrange a melody, bass line, and harmony effectively for a string quartet.

Let's look at the keywords for today.

String quartet, that's a common western classical ensemble consisting of two violins, a viola, and a cello.

Harmony, that's how different notes and chords work together.

Range, the range of pitches that an instrument is capable of playing.

Voicing, how the notes in a chord are spread out on an instrument, or between instruments.

Pizzicato, a string technique in which the performer plucks the string with a finger.

Today's lesson on arranging for an ensemble is in two parts.

The first part is melodic and bass roles in the string quartet, and the second part is arranging harmony in a string quartet.

Let's get started with part one.

Arranging music is adapting a piece of music, often changing the style, harmony, rhythm, structure, or instrumentation.

It's not just about copying a piece of music across, you can really change how a piece of music feels.

It requires composers to think carefully about how they can make the music work effectively with different sounds and instruments.

What differences can you identify in these arrangements of the same piece? And here, we're gonna be listening to a piece by Shostakovich.

You might need to ask a teacher or an adult to help you find the right pieces of music.

When you do, have a listen to them both.

Both those arrangements that you heard are in the same key, and the melody and harmony are the same.

However, the main difference between the two is the instrumentation.

The melody in the first version was played at a lower pitch, and the opening phrase was split across a few brass instruments rather than a solo violin.

The arrangers have adapted the piece to make the most of the ensemble.

The second ensemble was a string quartet, which is a very common ensemble in classical music, and is the type of ensemble that this piece of music was originally written for.

The string quartet consists of two violins, called first violin and second violin, a viola, and a cello.

Each of the four instruments has a typical role in the ensemble.

The first violin usually plays the melody.

It plays the highest pitch lines, and often also has the most virtuosic and complex parts.

Can you pick out the first violin playing the melody in this example? Again, you might see some help finding this particular piece of music from Beethoven.

The cello is the lowest pitched instrument in the string quartet, and it usually plays the bass notes.

Can you pick up the repeated low notes in the cello in the same clip? Find the clip and have a listen.

The second violin and the viola play the middle-pitched parts, and the main role is to play the harmony.

Have a listen to this clip.

What order do the four instruments join in the music? So have a listen.

(elegant string music) (elegant string music continues) You heard the cello first, then the viola, followed by the violins one at a time.

Let's do a check for understanding.

What role does the first violin normally have in a string quartet? A, it plays the harmony, B, it adds rhythm, C, it plays the bass part, or D, it plays the melody.

Which one of those do you think? It's D, it plays the melody.

What role does the cello normally have in a string quartet? Is it A, it plays the harmony, B, it adds the rhythm, C, it plays the bass part, Or D, it plays The melody? What role does the cello have? Well done if you got C, it plays the bass part.

There are some other things you can think about when arranging music for an ensemble.

These include the pitch range of each instrument, what notes it can comfortably play.

Remember, there's a limit on what notes some instruments can physically play, and you need to consider what it can comfortably play.

The playing techniques that are typical of the instruments, and how to make the most of the abilities of the instruments.

So let's have a look at the ranges of the violin and cello as you would see them in the string quartet.

So you can see the violin range there, is the G below middle C, up to C above the stave, and cello range is the C below the stave, and the E above the stave, you can see that's in bass clef.

Both instruments can play higher, but this isn't typical in string quartets.

They can't play lower, because that's the lowest note of their bottom string.

String players play arco, that means bowed, unless the music indicates differently.

It's the most common way to play a string instrument.

Where the composer wants to create a light, percussive, rhythmic effect, they would indicate the use of pizzicato, and that means "plucked." This works well with staccato notes.

So have a listen to these two examples.

Does it sound more effective with the melody or the bass part using pizzicato? Let's listen to example one, (elegant string music) and then listen to example two.

(playful string music) The pizzicato is more effective in the bass, as it allows the melody to be more prominent.

And when the melody is pizzicato, the bass is too prominent.

You could also use pizzicato in both instruments, which would avoid this imbalance.

Dynamics and articulation can also help to bring the music to life.

Each part should have a dynamic marking, so the performer knows how loud to play.

Dynamics should create balance in the parts.

So usually, parts would have similar dynamics to each other, rather than one being much louder or quieter.

The dynamic marking should be underneath the first note that an instrument plays.

And you can see on the score there, you've got mf, that's mezzo forte, so medium loud, and a performer, if they're following a piece of music, will play that dynamic, broadly speaking, they might be a little bit expressive, but they'll play that dynamic until they're told to play a different one.

Composers often use a mixture of legato, staccato, and accented notes to create certain moods or effects.

This can radically alter the mood of a piece.

Have a listen to an example of staccato, (light string music) and then have a listen to a piece played legato.

(robust string music) Consider which articulation might best suit your melody.

So today, we're going to look at arranging a melody and bass line for a string quartet.

So you're going to copy the melody into the violin part, you can watch a video to see how to do that.

<v Instructor>Let's look at copying my melody</v> from my composition into my string quartet arrangement.

When I've opened up the template of the string quartet, you'll see that I have my four staves, first violin, second violin, viola, and cello.

And I'm gonna be working here with the first violin part.

I've also got open in a separate tab, my composition with my melody, my chords, and my bass.

And I'm just gonna copy that melody, and paste it into my first violin part.

So now if we look, we will see that the first violin is populated all the way up to bar 16, and if we've done it correctly, it should be in the same range, which means it should be in a suitable range for the first violin.

Now if I'm doing this using a DAW, it's slightly more complicated.

What I'll need to do first of all, is make sure that I've got tracks for each of my parts.

So I'm gonna create a new track, I'm gonna create four new tracks, actually, one for each instrument in the string quartet.

And I'm gonna have to find the correct instrument.

Now if you're using GarageBand, one limitation of the software you might notice, is that there are not individual string instruments.

There's only string ensemble or smart strings.

So if you are using GarageBand, I suggest you use string ensemble, which will sound like there are more than one instrument playing at the same time, but that's the best you imagine on GarageBand.

On other DAW software, you will find that there are individual string instruments, so you'd want to have violin, violin, viola, and cello, but this will do for now.

And what I might do is rename them, first violin, second violin, viola, and cello.

And that just avoids me sort of confusing myself because they have the same name there.

Now, this is my melody track here, so I'm simply gonna copy my melody across, I can just copy all of that, paste it into my first violin, and then I could get rid of this old one as well.

So now I've got my first violin playing the melody, and that's copied and good to go.

<v ->And then copy the bass line</v> into the cello part, either on notation software, and there's a video for that, or if you're using a DAW, you can watch the other video.

<v Instructor>The cello is gonna be playing</v> the bass line, so I'm gonna copy that across now.

In my original composition, I've got my bass line in a separate stave here, so I can just copy all 16 bars of that.

And then I'm gonna paste into my cello track here, my cello stave.

Now it's worth double-checking at this point that your bass line is within the range of the cello.

You don't want it going very far above the top of the stave, and the lowest note it could play would be, (deep cello music) this C down here, so if you've got any bass notes below that, you'll need to stick them up an octave.

(deep cello music) My bass line all seems to fit, and what you will notice, if you've got a note that is outside the range of an instrument, (deep cello music) It will normally be highlighted in this software in red, or in other software, sometimes it's different colors, but they'll normally put it as a certain color to show you that it's outside the range of that instrument.

So just go through your part and double-check that it fits the range of the cello.

(deep cello music) If you're working in a DAW, it's slightly more complicated, particularly if you've done what I've done here, which is to record both my bass line and my chords in the same piano track.

But there's an easy way around it.

I'm gonna copy my chords and my bass, and I'm gonna put them into my cello track.

Now, I'll see the cello is only gonna be playing the bass line, so I need to delete all the chords, but if I open this up, I can see clearly, here are my low-pitched bass notes and here are all the broken chords above.

So I can simply go through and delete all those broken chord notes to leave just the bass notes on their own.

(light string music) So go through and delete, do this for all 16 bars, (light string music) being careful not to accidentally touch any of the bass notes.

And now it is a bass line.

So let's have a listen now to my melody and my bass line together.

(light string music) (light string music continues) <v ->You'll need to add dynamics,</v> articulation, or performance techniques to suit the mood of your composition.

And again, you can watch the video to see an example of that.

<v Instructor>Let's look at adding some dynamics</v> and articulation, and performance techniques to develop the melody in the bass line.

So this is much easier if you're using notation software rather than a DAW, so I'll talk you through how to do it on notation software first.

The first thing I'm gonna think about is performance techniques.

So do you want to basically use any pizzicato or other techniques in this? I've already decided, I think that the pizzicato melody won't really work here, but I'm gonna experiment with pizzicato in the cello part.

So the way I do that, is I select the first note in the cello part, (deep cello music) or where I want the pizzicato to start.

And depending on which software you use, it'll be laid out slightly different, but you'll be able to do a search for pizzicato and that should become an option that comes up there.

And then if you double-click on it, it'll add it in, so if I now listen to the cello, (light cello music) yeah, that's pizzicato, that's quite nice.

I quite like that, it creates lots of space for the melody.

I can also have a think about dynamics.

Now the pizzicato naturally makes this cello part sound quieter.

So if I'm using pizzicato, I'm probably not gonna make the dynamics any quieter.

However, if I wasn't using pizzicato, (light cello music) I could bring the dynamics of the cello down slightly, and have the melody slightly more prominent.

So for example, I might have the cello at mezzo forte, and all I've done is selected the first note, find the dynamics options, and then set to mezzo forte, (light violin music) and then maybe I'd have the melody in the violin slightly louder than that, so I could have it as forte.

And what I'll do is I'll listen, and see if I think the balance is about right.

If it's wrong, I'll just adjust it.

(light violin music) Maybe it'd work better if the violin was mezzo forte instead of forte.

So use your ears to judge what sounds about right.

You can always adjust it later on when we add in the other parts as well.

The final thing to think about is articulation.

Now, notation software, this is really easy to adjust.

If I want some staccato notes, there'll be a staccato option somewhere, and I can just select the notes I want, (airy violin music) and click the staccato button, (airy violin music) I could do something like that, if I want it on legato notes, select the notes I want, and there'll be a legato slur option, and in this case, on MuseScore, I can just press S, and it makes a legato for me as well.

Accents are the other option, and you'll see there's an accent button at the top here, so if I want to emphasize some specific notes, I can add in some accents, and all of these things, performance techniques, dynamics, and articulation, are really important information for the performers, because it's you as a composer, communicating exactly how you want something to sound, exactly how you want it to be expressed.

So do take the time to add these in, it really adds sophistication and detail to your composition.

Now if you're doing this in a DAW, it's gonna be more complicated to do it in such a detailed way.

However, you could adjust the dynamics by using the sliders, or if you know how to, by using automation, so you could add some sort of crescendos and diminuendos using automation like this.

If you wanted to make notes shorter to make them more staccato, then what you need to do is go in and edit the notes by shortening them a little bit like this.

That's an option, but it won't be as sort of effective as when you do it in notation software.

And likewise, if you want to make something more legato, you just lengthen the notes, so like I've got here, they sort of overlap a little bit, and there's no sort of big gaps in between them.

Pizzicato in DAW software is quite difficult to get if you don't have a specific pizzicato instrument, and in GarageBand, there's not pizzicato strings, so there won't be a way of doing that unless you've got some add-ons.

But in other softwares, there are pizzicato instruments.

So what you do is create like a pizzicato violin as your instrument, and just have your track in there.

<v ->Let's do a check for understanding.

</v> What is the name of the string technique that involves plucking the strings with a finger? Is that A, arco, B, staccato, C, pizzicato, or D, legato? That's a lot of Italian terms there.

Which do you think it is? Well done if you've got C, pizzicato.

And which of these notes could a violin not play? Have a look at the notes on the staves.

Is it A, B, or C? Have a think.

Well done if you got B.

The violin can't play that note because it is lower than the lowest note it can play.

So let's do task A.

You are going to arrange your melody in bass line for a string quartet.

The success criteria for this is that the first violin plays the melody, the cello pays the bass line, you add dynamic markings to both parts.

You explore different articulations and performance techniques and add those where appropriate, and notate it using the provided template file or record each part in a DAW.

So have a go at ranging your melody and bass line for a string quartet.

How did you get on? Let's have a look at this piece.

Identify three ways that this composer has developed their melody and bass line beyond just playing the notes.

You can have a listen to it.

(elegant string music) What did you think? They've added dynamics in both parts, they've used some legato notes in the violin.

They've used some staccato notes in the violin, and they've used pizzicato in the cello.

Let's move on to part two of our lesson.

Arranging harmony in a string quartet.

The second violin and viola play the harmony parts in a pitch range below the melody and above the bass.

When you're arranging chords for a string quartet, each chord should be split across the instruments so that they play one chord note each.

This is really important.

The second violin has a higher range than the viola, so would usually play higher notes than the viola.

For each chord, we should hear all three chord tones.

The cello line is already playing one chord tone, so the remaining two chord tones should be split between the second violin and viola.

You want to choose the two notes that the cello is not playing, and split them between these parts.

So let's have a look at an example of that.

So in this bar, you can see a G chord, and you can have a listen to that G chord as well.

(elegant string music) You can see that the cello is playing a B, which creates a chord inversion, a first inversion of the G chord.

This leaves the notes G and D for the second violin and viola.

A bar uses a C chord, C, E, and G.

The cello is playing a C.

Which two notes should the second violin and viola play? Which two do you think? Well done if you've got E and G.

Remember, you want to split all the chord tones between the parts.

There are different ways that the chord can be arranged in each part.

Remember, we're still splitting all of the chord tones, but you can do that in different ways, When you are choosing chord tones for the second violin and viola, it sounds most effective to use small intervals where possible.

So if you are moving from a G chord to a C chord, where a cello plays B to C, what options do we have in the other parts? Have a think.

So if the cello's playing B in the G chord, like you can see here, that leaves G and D.

If the cello plays C in the C chord, that leaves E and G.

So here's an example, and you can listen to that.

(light string music) in this example, the intervals in the second violin and the viola are quite large.

It would be more effective if the intervals were smaller.

In these examples, the second violin and viola still play the correct chord tones, but they move by smaller intervals.

So have a listen to the first version on this page, (light string music) and then listen to the second.

(light string music) You can see, these are much smaller intervals.

The voicing of the chord is also important.

The parts don't want to be too far away from each other in pitch.

So have a look at this chord and then listen to it.

(light string music) in this C chord.

The notes of the cello and viola are close together, you can see them close together there, but the second violin is too far away, almost two octaves.

These would be more typical and effective voicings as the second violin and viola are closer to each other in pitch.

Have a listen to the first example, (light string music) and then have a listen to the second.

(light string music) You can see there's a third between the instruments in the first example, and a sixth between the instruments in the second.

You want to aim to keep the viola and second violin no more than a sixth apart.

When you're arranging chords for the second violin and viola, see which chord tone the cello is playing, and make sure that the harmony parts play the other two chord tones.

So remember if I give you an example, if you're playing a C-major chord, if the cello is playing a C, then your second violin and viola need to play an E and a G between them.

Use small intervals when moving between notes in the harmony parts.

Keep the second violin part higher pitched than the viola part, it's a higher instrument.

And keep the second violin and viola, no more than a sixth part.

Watch this video to see an example of how to arrange the chords.

<v Instructor>Let's work through the process</v> of arranging chords for the second violin and the viola.

we're gonna do this one bar at a time, and it can be quite a slow process, so be patient with it when you're doing it.

Bar one, I've got a C chord, and you'll probably have the same, 'cause we tend to start on chord one.

Let's have a look at my string quartet here.

Now the first thing I'm looking at is what note is the cello playing in this bar? In this case, my cello is playing a C.

So I need to think, what are the two other chord tones in a C chord? I've got C, E, and G.

So that means that between these two parts here, the viola and the violin, I should have a E and a G.

Let's try one.

So I might, for example, go for, in the second violin, let's try an E, and I'm just gonna do sustained notes for now.

(light violin music) I'm gonna put that down there.

So now I've got E, the one missing note from the chord is a G.

So I'm gonna do a G in the viola.

(light viola music) Now you'll notice I put it quite low, because when we're working in the treble clef, the viola's range is quite low.

We don't wanna go really high, so keep the viola notes low, and I definitely want them lower than the second violin.

Let's just have a listen to that first chord.

(light string music) I quite like the sound of that.

And that works effectively, because there's not a big interval between the two parts, there's a sixth at the moment between that G and that E, so that's okay.

The viola is below the violin as well, and I've got all three chord tones playing together.

The other way I could voice this would be for the viola to play an E, (light viola music) and the second violin to play a G.

(light violin music) That would sound like this.

(light string music) I actually prefer the first one, so I'm gonna go back to that.

Now let's have a look at bar two.

In bar two, I've also got, if I go back to my composition, a C chord, but this one is a little bit different because the bass is playing an E, so it's not playing a C anymore.

And if we see here, now we've got an E there.

So let's think about which two chords I'm missing from my C chord.

I've already got E, so I'm gonna be missing a C and a G.

Now at the moment, my viola is already playing a G, so it might make sense for that just to play another G.

I want to try and avoid big jumps if I can.

So if there's an opportunity to use the same note twice, go for it.

So I'm keeping a G there, now I've got E and G.

And the note I'm that I'm missing here is C.

So I'm gonna move the second violin to play a C in that bar there.

Let's think about what I've got then.

So I've got all three notes of the C called C, E, and G.

I've got a small interval between these two parts.

In this case, that's a fourth, so that's pretty small, and I've not got any big leaps.

So the viola is staying on the same note, and the second violin is only moving by a third, so that's absolutely fine, that's not a big leap.

Let's listen to these two bars.

(light string music) That sounds pretty good.

We'll do one more bar like this, so in this bar, we've got an F chord, and the note in the bass is an F.

So the two chord tones I'm missing from an F chord are A and C.

Those are my two missing notes.

The second violin is already playing a C, so I'm just gonna do the same again.

Again, if you can keep it on the same note, do.

And that means I'm missing an A here.

And conveniently, (light viola music) A is just one step up from that G there.

So now I've got all three notes of my chord, F, A, and C.

There's a small interval between the viola and the second violin.

The viola is always little lower than the second violin, and there's no big intervals within the part.

So the second violin is staying on the same note, so it doesn't even move.

And the viola is only moving up by one step, so that sounds quite good.

Let's listen to these three bars now.

(light string music) And I'm just gonna follow that process all the way through.

It's quite a slow process, but as you get into the flow of it, you'll start to get a feel for it as well.

<v ->And you can watch the alternative version</v> if you're using a DAW.

<v Instructor>From doing this using a DAW,</v> it is slightly more complicated, and it's hard to visualize things as you're doing them, but it's still the exact same process that you're gonna follow.

So you need to go through each bar, and make sure you know what your chords are, and I can see that, for example, my cello part in chord one (light cello music) is starting on a C.

So that means I'm missing an E and a G in these two parts.

I'll then go through and record, an E and a G in these two parts, and then do the same with the different notes for bar two, three, four, and so on.

So work through the exact same process, and if you need to, it might be helpful for each bar to write down the chord tones that you need, to write down which note the cello is playing, in that way, you can really make sure that you're not missing out any notes.

Whereas when you're using notation software, it's just easier to see what you've already got.

<v ->And then you can watch the demonstration</v> of how to develop your harmony parts on a DAW or notation software, <v Instructor>I've now been through</v> my entire 16 bars, and I've arranged the chords, so let's have a listen to it.

(light string music) (light string music continues) If I wanted to make it even more effective, I could then go through and add some dynamics and articulation in my chord tracks.

So for example, I might make them a little bit quieter than the other tracks so that they don't overpower the melody.

And I could also, if I want to develop the rhythms of these, in my original, I had broken chords, here, I've just got these long sustained chords, but I could change the rhythm, maybe add some pizzicato notes, some staccato to make that accompaniment a little bit more interesting.

<v ->Let's do a check for understanding.

</v> Which chord tones in each chord should the second violin and viola play? Is it A, the top two chord tones, B, whichever chord tones the first violin isn't playing, C, whichever chord tones the cello isn't playing, or D, the bottom two chord tones? Which do you think? Well done if you got C, whichever chord tones the cello isn't playing.

Which two statements apply to the second violin and viola parts? Is it A, the second violin should be higher pitched, B, the viola should be higher pitched, C, both parts should move with small intervals, or D, both parts should move with large intervals? Which two statements do you think are correct? Well done if you've got A and C.

The second violin should be higher pitched than the viola, and both parts should move with small intervals.

Let's look at task B.

So you're going to arrange the chords in your composition for the second violin and viola, the success criteria for this are, that for each chord, identify which chord tone the cello plays, and split the other two chord tones between the viola and second violin.

Use small intervals to move between notes in the viola and second violin.

The second violin plays a higher-pitched note than the viola in each chord, but the instruments are never more than a sixth apart.

Add dynamics to balance these parts with the others, and articulation or techniques where appropriate.

Notate it using the provided template file, or record each part in a DAW.

Have a go at arranging the chords in your composition.

I hope you got on well with that task.

Let's analyze the second violin and viola parts in this arrangement.

How could these be arranged more effectively? Have a listen to them.

(light string music) (light string music continues) What did you think? These could be more effective if it avoided moving by large intervals and used only small intervals instead.

It avoided having a viola playing higher than the second violin.

You can see an example of that in bar five, and it kept the pitch of the two instruments closer together, so no more than a sixth apart.

At the moment, they're far apart in bars one, two, three, six, and seven.

So let's summarize today's lesson on arranging for an ensemble.

When arranging a composition for an ensemble, we must consider the strengths of an instrument, as well as its range and possible techniques, such as pizzicato.

In a string quartet, the first violin normally plays the melody, and the cello plays the bass part.

The second violin and viola play harmony, splitting the remaining chord tones between them.

To arrange chords, consider voicing, move by small intervals, and make sure all chord tones are played in each chord.

I hope you've enjoyed today's lesson.