The string family is made up of the violin, viola, cello, and double bass. I have decided to add strings to a previous song to help achieve the emotional sound I'm going for. String instruments have a wide range of expressive articulations, including the ability to hold harmony for a very long time. This helps to stir emotions.

The strings are based on the chord changes. The role of each string instrument in this song follows the basics of arrangement, as in the way melody and harmony work together. Harmony plays a supportive role to melody. Since this music is for voice and strings, the voice takes the melody and the strings play supportive roles of harmony, countermelody, or fill in the chords.

There is an opening theme in this song that is played by an instrument and repeated in different ways throughout the music (theme & variation). I use this theme to create the string section for chorus and bridge. In the chorus, you will hear the top strings play the beginning of the theme and hand it over to the middle strings to finish it. Notice that when one part is moving the other parts are stable (countermelody) to allow the relationship between theme and melody to be heard. Afterwards, they join together in agreement (harmony) to create a full, powerful sound.

I apply "word painting" to help connect the lyrics with the music. The strings reflect the meaning of certain words. An example of this would be to make the strings have a descending melody on a phrase that speaks of anything related to downward movement. Another technique is voice leading. Good voice leading is important to make strings sound realistic. Voice leading has to do with how you move from chord to chord. Moving less produces a smoother sound. The way to move smoothly between chords is to hold the shared notes in each chord and move the other notes up or down by step. I demonstrate this in the video.

https://youtu.be/D6zoJ2ymHJ4