Adding Orchestral Elements to a Pop Song

Written a solid pop song but feel like it’s missing something? Then it can be a good idea to add strings, brass or even a complete symphony orchestra to your vocals, drums, bass, keys and guitars. Whether you go for a virtual orchestra or flesh and blood musicians, the question is: what’s the best way to add orchestral elements to a pop song?

The Basics

You don’t need much to write an orchestrally-infused banger of a pop song. In fact, a melody, accompaniment and rhythm is all you basically need. In terms of storywriting, these are your narrative, setting and timeline.

• The melody is the story you want to tell and is what makes the whole thing easy to remember or, in other words, gets stuck in the listener’s head.
• The accompaniment isn’t just decoration — it’s what gives your melody meaning and helps create a fitting atmosphere. A heavily backed melody has a very different effect to a melody with light backing.
• The rhythm speaks for itself: it’s the pulse of your song. Just like the melody, the rhythm is easy for listeners to catch on to. The rhythm is most commonly laid down by drums, but can also be created by the melody and maybe some backing.

Accompaniment

Since the melody is your story and the rhythm is your pulse, both parts are pretty much set in stone. The backing, on the other hand, is more malleable. So, when you want to enlarge or downsize your music, it’s the accompaniment that you want to tweak.

Are Orchestras Modern Enough?

It’s a fact that orchestras aren’t as popular as they used to be back in the day, when music production tools were much more limited. Since the dawn of polyphonic synthesizers, every band has the option to work with synthetic strings. Before that time, you’d have to work with organs (like a Hammond), which came with their own set of perks and limitations that, depending on your needs, were far inferior to real strings. Nowadays, you can get your hands on a large collection of virtual instruments for a fraction of the cost of hiring a string section, recording studio time and a sound engineer. Money is actually the main reason why mainstream pop doesn’t feature many real orchestral elements anymore. That said, it’s definitely possible to use virtual orchestras and get good results, and thankfully, there are plenty of examples. Apart from cold hard cash, it’s also the influence of urban styles like hip-hop and R&B – which generally feature relatively minimalistic arrangements – that helps push orchestral elements to the margins.

It’s safe to say that, these days, the number of orchestra-compatible songs in the charts is nothing compared to what it used to be. Ironically, there are no signs that contemporary pop songs that do feature orchestral elements are less appreciated. People simply seem to like songs that do and songs that don’t. Does that mean we’re living in a time of musical indifference or a time of broad musical appreciation? You tell me!

The Future of Orchestras in Pop: Virtual?

As I just said, orchestras are expensive, less in demand than they used to be, and require specific knowledge and theory when it comes to arrangements. At the same time, anyone can load a Kontakt library and work with DAW software, so is there still hope for the real thing? While DAWs and virtual instruments do away with the need to learn about the range of different instruments (the ambitus) and the articulations they offer, they do teach users a thing or two about instruments. Most sample libraries even include a user manual or special interface where you can look up what the various notation symbols mean. The result is that slowly but surely, a new generation of orchestrators arises — one made up of arrangers that haven’t been formally trained, but learned what they know through software. And there’s nothing wrong with that as long as the music sounds good!

Or the Real Thing?

Outside of the virtual domain, there’s still hope held out for a happy marriage between pop and orchestras, but there’s a wee caveat. Just like you can order cheap goods from low-wage countries, you can hire orchestral musicians from those same countries to play your parts for next to nothing (based on a click-track, for example). You can expect a room with decent acoustics, an engineer, a conductor and solid equipment. These orchestras-for-hire will play, record and email you your arrangements, and some will even live-stream the process for you. Are the musicians any good? Well, it takes the same skill to play the violin here as it does on the other side of the world, so there’s no reason to assume that these hired musicians will botch up the job. They’re professionals all the same. Just in case you ever need or want to use their services, it’s a good idea to learn the art of orchestration. While your work might sound good in your DAW, orchestral musicians depend on staves, notes and musical symbols and can only deliver solid results if you give them proper instructions.

Alright, so much for the current state of affairs — let’s look at things you can put into practice!

Today’s Lessons

The scope for this article is basic accompaniment orchestration, with the goal of explaining how you can add orchestral elements to pop productions in the most efficient way. We’re going to take a look at the various instruments in an orchestra, their roles, and ways that they can be combined. What we’re not going to look at is the technical execution. If you’ve already invested in virtual instruments (or even if you have yet to do so), then it’s entirely up to you which instruments you want to use and what kind of quality you demand (as per usual, the more you shell out, the higher the quality). We also won’t be going into musical notation.

An Overview of Orchestral Instruments

Strings

Strings are the most popular orchestral instruments. From low-pitched to high-pitched and from quiet to loud, strings remain consistent in terms of timbre, making them exceptionally flexible. Another advantage is that bowed-string instruments can shape infinitely long notes since, compared to wind instruments, there are no breathing pauses. When it comes to the timbre – which darkens as the size of the instrument increases – strings come with two big perks. Firstly, a string ensemble consists of multiple musicians, resulting in a broad and woolly overall sound that packs out your performance without getting in the way of your solos. Secondly, strings support many different articulations, from pizzicato (plucked strings) and tremolo (fast bow action; sounds like a swarm of bees) to sordino (dampened strings). Within the context of pop music, where a classic bow articulation called arco works best, you basically have two viable options: a complete string orchestra or violins only.

A full-size string orchestra

The first option, a complete or almost complete string orchestra, can be heard and seen in the music video for Queen’s ‘Who Wants to Live Forever’, directed by Michael Kamen (1948 – 2003). Depending on whether you want extra-weighty basses, it’s up to you whether you want to work with a double bass section or the more tight-sounding bass guitar. The bulky low-pitched sound of double basses mainly has to do with the acoustics of the room and the fact that the natural reverb lengthens the sustain of your notes, giving you a more cumbersome sound. While violins and other high-pitched instruments can have similarly long sustain, low frequencies just aren’t as forgiving when it comes to natural reverb.

The song by Dutch singer Frank Boeijen included below is a great example of how powerful a well-written string accompaniment can be and underscores exactly what I’m trying to explain. This type of music, which doesn’t include any fast bow action, actually does lend itself to the use of double basses.

Violins only

What’s also common is to use a violin section for high-note embellishments only. In this case, you build the chordal backbone of your music with other instruments, like a piano, guitar or synthesizers. A clear example of this is the chorus of ‘After The Love Has Gone’ by Earth, Wind & Fire.

It’s not as obvious as in the previous example, but Vanessa Williams’ ‘Colors of the Wind’ also features an interesting violin part. Have a close listen to the choruses and the bridge to the final and you’ll notice violin lines in the upper mid-range and treble range. The interesting thing about this violin part, as well as the violins in the Earth, Wind & Fire tune, is that the violins have the privilege to stick to their own melody (which still has to match the harmony, of course). It’s certainly possible to combine a D-minor chord (D-F-A) played on piano or guitar with a violin section playing a high C to create a Dm7 chord for extra-dramatic effect. You don’t need to make those violins stick to that C note either — they’re free to roam between various notes. This keeps your chord sounding full, fresh and packed with life, which sums up high strings in pop and explains why the importance of proper orchestration shouldn’t be underestimated.

Brass

While brass is more often used in film score than pop music, there are plenty of great pop songs in which brass instruments play an important role. The most commonly used instruments are trumpets, trombones, tubas and French horns. Instruments like the tenor horn, baritone and piccolo trumpet are typically reserved for brass brands. One well-known song that prominently features a brass section is ‘You’re a Lady’ (Peter Skellern, 1947 – 2017). While it seems a bit counterintuitive to use instruments that are often linked to marching soldiers and riveting action films for a love song, when they’re played gently, you actually get warm and subtle sound.

Horns

Trumpets and trombones have a slightly different timbre to horns, which sound milder, more diffused and less in-your-face. This is why a horn section playing in unison as part of a symphony orchestra can be used to lay down an additional harmonic layer. Just like violins, horns also reserve the right to enrich a chord with their own melody. To put it in synth-jargon: a horn section sounds kind of like a soft-pad. In other words, if you can’t get your hands on the real thing, you can always use certain synthesizers to mimic the sound of horns. What’s special about the horn is that the bell more or less faces backwards. So, if you’re in the audience in a concert hall, what you’re hearing are the reflections coming from the back wall, which helps make the horn section sound broader and more diffuse. If your pop song could use some horns and they don’t get in the way of the vocals, then feel free to add them.

The intro of the Casino Royale (2006) soundtrack features horns doubled with an electric guitar:

Trumpets and Trombones

Trumpets and trombones are the opposite of horns. Since the bell faces forward, the sound is much more direct, prominent, and focussed. Horns are ideal for cinematic vibes, while trumpets and trombones are often associated with jazz, big-band, funk and soul.

Woodwind

Woodwind instruments can be categorised based on their symphonic tradition. The four traditional orchestra groups are flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons and, if you include the Baroque era, you can’t forget recorders. While saxophones are classified as woodwind instruments too, traditionally, they were never part of symphony orchestras. Instead, the sax is popular in big-band, funk, soul and jazz. As far as pop goes, the George Michael classic ‘Careless Whisper’ is one of the most prominent examples of the saxophone in pop music. Flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons are seldom used in pop, but there are a few examples: ‘One Day I’ll Fly Away’ by Randy Crawford features an alto oboe; ‘Old and Wise’ by Alan Parsons Project features an oboe; and ‘Crazy for You’ by Madonna also features an oboe.

The big-band stack

A trumpet, trombone and saxophone (alto or tenor) is all you need to create classic big-band-style sound. Have them play the same note, but make sure to experiment with different octaves. The sax usually sits an octave below the trumpet and the trombone usually sits an octave below the sax, but the specifics usually depend on taste and the range of each instrument. When working with octave shifts, you’ll sometimes go beyond the upper or lower limit (the ambitus of the instrument), but then it’s just a matter of octaving the instrument back into its range. When you combine trumpets, trombones and saxes, the trumpets and trombones also need to be played slightly differently to how they’re played in classical orchestras. Sometimes they’re combined with different mouthpieces that open up higher registers, resulting in a brighter and fiercer sound than what you’ll get from most orchestra-based sample libraries.

Implementing Orchestral Instruments Into Pop

To illustrate the basics, I’m going to take the age-old VI – IV – I – V chord progression and a simple melody, and then show you how you can embellish it.

The ballad melody above speaks for itself. You can sing it or play it using any melodic instrument. Let’s add some violins for the first layer. We’re going with lengthy notes, so arco bow articulation. Unless indicated otherwise, it’s usually safe to assume that the articulation is arco when violins are used. The staves below include the word ‘arco’ for clarity.

Notice how the violin notes are relatively sparse and stretch across multiple bars. This is so they don’t clutter up the sound too much and mainly enrich the chords. There’s nothing crazy going on the first bar, but when the second bar comes around, the violins play a high G over an F chord, resulting in an Fadd2. The high G is then ‘resolved’ in the third bar, where it’s part of the chord. You can also see that the violin notes don’t match the melody virtually anywhere, meaning they’re used to harmonically contribute to the whole. Now it’s time to add some cellos.

Here, the cellos serve a decorative function for the bass, but they can also serve the melody or be used to create a countermelody for the main melody. In the example however, they simply support the bass. See how the violins include legato arcs in the second and third bar and the cellos don’t? That’s to indicate that the violin notes need to be played without any intervening silence so that you get smooth note transitions. In other words, the bow can’t be drawn back and forth. Changing bow direction creates a subtle effect that can be used rhythmically. In this case, the cellos boost the rhythm by playing without legato.

Giving the Orchestra More Room

Let’s check out another example and see what happens when you give the orchestra more room to do their thing. In the other example, there wasn’t much room, which was fine for the violins because the cellos weren’t getting in the way of anyone anyway.

In the new example above, the bits I’ve marked green indicate where the orchestra has room for embellishments. Here, the melody isn’t very outspoken (the notes are relatively lengthy), which means the listener isn’t fully focussed on it and the orchestra could see fit to claim their attention. Below, you can see how I’ve packed out the green parts with two flutes, an oboe, violins and cellos.

So what’s happening is that the two flutes each play their own melody; one plays the notes with the flags upside down, while the other plays the notes with the flags pointing up. For the sake of efficiency, this is usually how the parts of two wind instruments are notated. You could even cram three melodies in there, but that gets messy rather quickly. If you’re ever working with four flutes, it’s best to just add a new stave for the third and fourth flute.

You can also see that for the first three green parts, the flutes add colourful accents rather than something more melodic. This is perfectly fine — not every instrument has to play a pronounced melody. Musical instruments are like colouring pencils: it’s up to you to decide the combination of colours you want to use. Sometimes, this means that your percussionist gets to play nothing but a monotonous triangle part, and there’s no need to feel sorry for them. This is simply how orchestral music works.

Back to the music. In the green bits, the orchestra (your flutes and oboe) takes over the driving force created by the eighth notes in the lead. What’s great about this is that it stops the ‘drive’ from being interrupted altogether since it’s now the shared responsibility of multiple groups of instruments. This is an ideal perk for pop songs since it gives you countless options when it comes to variation and assigning essential parts to different instruments.

The big takeaway here is that ample room is essential when adding orchestral elements to a pop song. If a singer-songwriter wants you to decorate a tune with orchestral sounds, you should always ask them if you’re allowed to create that room yourself, for example by inserting a few bars here and there.

About the Business Side of Things

Songwriters usually give nothing more than the basics, so the lead, chords and bass. It’s then up to you to add as many as twenty orchestral parts. As far as royalties are concerned, the arranger would get one-third of the profits while the writer gets two-thirds, which doesn’t seem fair given that the arranger can easily contribute up to ten times as many notes as the writer. And this is when you’re simply embellishing an existing piece of music. Imagine you also get to arrange other parts like the intro, outro and orchestral breaks, expanding the original music with brand-new thematic material. When discussing royalty payments, my advice would be to always demand a fair cut based on how much you’ve actually contributed to the finished product.

What’s your take on orchestras in pop music? Is it old-fashioned or something that should happen more often? Let me know in the comments!

See Also

» DAW Software
» Virtual Orchestra Instruments
» Notation Software
» MIDI Keyboards

» How Suspense Music Works in Horror Films and Thrillers
» How to Sound Like… ABBA
» How Do You Write Music for a Musical?
» How to Sculpt Sounds With FM Synthesis
» How to Write Christmas Music?
» How to Sound Like Film Composer John Williams
» How to Compose for Film Like Hans Zimmer
» Music Composition for Beginners

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