Get to grips with strings and articulations
Exploring string articulations
1 When programming with a string library, you’ll be able to choose your articulations, each reflecting a style or technique. The most commonly-used will probably be simple sustained notes, played smoothly with long, slow strokes of the bow as shown here. This might be called legato (smooth), sustain or arco, which simply means ‘with the bow’.
2 Accented notes are played louder than surrounding notes, and are marked on the stave by an open horizontal triangle pointing right. This is sometimes called Accented Sustain – not to be confused with marcato, where accented notes are played louder than they would be with a regular accent. The symbol for marcato is an open triangle pointing up.
3 Staccato notes are played shortened, with a sharp attack, resulting in a bouncy, spiky sound. The symbol for staccato is a dot placed above or below the head of the note on the stave. When programming strings, this articulation is good for both rapid runs of notes where the attack of each note needs to be well defined, or for spaced-out, stabby string parts.
4 Spiccato (also known as staccatissimo) is an even shorter, spikier version of staccato, where the notes are even more clipped and shortened in length, and are played by bouncing the bow quickly and lightly off the strings. On the stave, spiccato parts replace the staccato dot with a small, filled-in, downward-pointing triangle above or below the head of the note.
5 When you pluck with your fingers, it’s known as pizzicato – one of the most familiar string articulations. Pizzicato is notated on a score simply by adding the abbreviation pizz above the notes. When programming with this articulation selected, MIDI note length is usually irrelevant, as you’re simply triggering a short pluck sample with each note.
6 Col legno is an instruction to play the part with the wooden, back part of the bow, resulting in a bouncy, much more percussive part than you’d get with a regular bowing style. Here we see it selected in Albion ONE. It’s effective in movie scores, as it’s quite an unusual sound – ideal for conveying mystery and tension with insistent rhythms.
7 Con Sordino literally means ‘played with a mute’, a sound achieved on a violin with a small rubber disc with holes for A and D strings to pass through. This clips on the bridge, reducing vibration and producing a softer, more muted sound. Albion ONE’s version of this articulation equates more or less to a quieter version of the Sustain or Legato articulation.
8 With stringed instruments, tremolo is a short, rapid change of direction in bowing, giving a stream of very short bowed notes. The shuddery effect this produces is especially good for building tension in movie scores, among other things. The notation used for tremolo is a series of short, angled straight lines stacked onto the stem of the affected note, as shown.
9 Trills are created when you switch quickly between adjacent notes on the fingerboard. When notes you’re flicking between are an interval of a semitone apart in pitch, you get a semitone trill; with two semitones, you get a whole-tone trill. You don’t have to program alternating notes individually, as many libraries include ready-sampled trills.
10 A fall is what happens when you slide your hand along the string towards the headstock, resulting in a downward slide or ‘falloff’ in pitch – great for disco string riffs! Since the samples aren’t dependent on the song tempo, articulation menus in sample libraries often offer a choice between short falls and long falls, so you can pick the one that best fits your project.
11 Fortepiano (indicated by the letters fp above the stave) indicates that a note or passage should be played loudly, then softly. Logic’s interpretation equates to a sort of swell, where the initial attack of the note is loud, followed by an immediate drop in volume and a subsequent rise back up again. You have slow and fast fortepiano to pick from here.
12 This showcases the articulations I’ve described, using a combo of Albion ONE and Logic’s own Studio Strings. Over a strings-only intro, I’ve started with col legnos, then a bar of tremolo to introduce a spiccato section. Then it’s sustains, a semitone trill, some pizzicatos and a fortepiano swell, before the main spiccato riff comes in over the full track.