String Quartet Modern Wedding Songs – For many potential brides and grooms, the music is a really important part of their day and as they scour the web and see the hundreds of string quartets out there, they’ll most likely be looking for four things:

1. Reliability – knowing that the group they book will turn up early and deliver the service that they promise. Believe it or not, we get approached about 3 or 4 times a year by couples who have been let down by their string quartet. It seems that no contract was exchanged and the group simply took on a more lucrative booking. Such groups lack integrity and should be avoided, so a signed and legally binding contract should be exchanged.

2. Professional – string quartets online range from top professionals to students and part-time musicians, who play at weddings to top up their weekly earnings. Make sure you view ‘live’ and unedited videos of the group to assess the quality of their playing, as there’s nothing worse than walking down the isle to an out-of-tune violin!!

3. Friendliness – you want your group to smile and engage with guests! And have an attitude where they can’t do enough for you. Some groups play as if they are under penance or don’t really want to be there, or don’t get on well with each other,but on one of the most joyous days of your life, everyone should be smiling and celebrating with you….whether they’ve played at 8 or 800 weddings!

4. Repertoire – many quartets play modern rock and pop songs for string quartet, but do they all sound good? Quite a lot of string quartet arrangements of rock and pop songs sound as flat as old champagne and the reason is that a lot of detail is missing. Without the often sophisticated rhythms in the drums and bass, the whole music can sound very uninspiring. Some groups buy a piano reduction online and arrange it in an hour or so for string quartet, whilst others painstakingly reproduce every nuance of a guitar solo and every little detail that’s happening behind the melody, but helps to bring it alive.

Here at Manor House Music, violinist and arranger Vaughan Jones has arranged over 350 pieces of music for string quartet, including 220 rock and pop songs. Here is a small selection:

A-Ha – Take On Me
Abba – Dancing Queen
Adele / Dylan – Make You Feel My Love
Aerosmith – Don’t Want To Miss A Thing
Beach Boys – God Only Knows
Beatles – All You Need Is Love
Ben E. King – Stand By Me
Beyonce – Halo
Bob Marley and The Wailers – One Love
Bon Jovi – Livin’ on a Prayer
Bruno Mars – Marry You
Christina Perri – A Thousand Years
Coldplay – Viva La Vida
Coldplay – Paradise
Corrs – Runaway
Damien Rice – The Blower’s Daughter
Des’ree – Kissing You
Eagles – Hotel California
Ed Sheeran – Thinking Out Loud
Elbow – One Day Like This
Electric Light Orchestra – Mr. Blue Sky
Elton John – Can You Feel The Love Tonight
Elvis – I Can‚Äôt Help Falling in Love With You
Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)
Foo Fighters – Everlong
Gnarls Barkley – Crazy
James Blunt – You’re Beautiful
John Legend – All Of Me
Journey – Don’t Stop Believing
Katie Melua – The Closest Thing To Crazy
Keane – Everybody’s Changing
Led Zeppelin – Stairway To Heaven
Madness – It Must Be Love
Madonna – Papa Don’t Preach
Maroon 5 – This Love
Metallica – Nothing Else Matters
Percy Sledge – When A Man Loves A Woman
Pink – Get The Party StartedQueen – Bohemian Rhapsody
Ritchie Valens – La Bamba
Rolling Stones – (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
Roy Orbison – Pretty Woman
Seal – Kiss From a Rose
Snow Patrol – Chasing Cars
Stevie Wonder – Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours
Take That – Greatest Day
Toploader – Dancing In The Moonlight
U2 – Beautiful Day
Van Morrison – Brown Eyed Girl
Verve – Bitter Sweet Symphony

Each arrangement is the result of 5 – 6 hours of detailed work, as Vaughan listens to the original tracks, arranging note-by-note. If you’d like to hear our string quartet samples jukebox, feel free to visit our Playlist page.