How to make scary music for Halloween
Halloween is upon us and unfortunately here in Ireland there will be no parties or trick or treating this year. So, without the usual social events that happen at Halloween how do we entertain ourselves and celebrate the holiday a little?
Well let’s re-create music we have heard from scary scenes in film and tv using the piano, I have some suggestions that even beginners can use to create a spooky, ominous atmosphere perfect for Halloween.
Before I tell you a few simple ideas, we need to talk about why we find some music scary. What is it in this music that makes you feel a sense of unease?
Discordant, dissonant clashing tones all create tension in music, what type of emotion you evoke with that tension depends on what you do with it. Using a minor or sad sounding key also aides in creating an ominous atmosphere as in western music we hear the major key as “Happy” and the minor key as “Sad”.
Very simply if you take a tune that a person knows well and distort it or break it you get unease and confusion, by using a tune used usually to comfort and reassure – say a nursery rhyme the effect is heightened.
When people hear high notes, it doesn’t signal danger necessarily, but deep low rumbles make us very edgy, it makes us feel on alert.
If you mix the very high with the very low notes in music, and raise the bass notes a semitone at a time slowly the effect is a rising sense of unease and tension.
Cluster chords of notes a semitone apart up very high mimics the strings from the shower scene in Psycho, this strings effect mimics a scream in the movie.
So here are a few simple ideas to get you started:
Play Twinkle Twinkle Little star or any other nursery rhyme on its own, up at the highest octave of your piano or keyboard. Now when you have picked out the tune, break it by playing wrong notes randomly in the melody, black key above or below the intended white key one in every bar. When you find one you like slow it down and play it with a dotted broken rhythm, no longer playing each note in an even tempo. The result is a super slow creepy off tune broken sounding nursery rhyme, like a broken music box in an old, haunted house.
Next Take the creepy tune and add a low low low base note that is dissonant or clashes with the tune. Play it in a slow heartbeat rhythm. Dum……...Dum Dum……………Dum……………. Dum Dum.
Now take the above and slowly raise the bass note a semitone at a time slowly as you repeat the broken melody above it.
All of the above can be used with your own melody, if you base it in a minor key to start off (modes can be used too), experiment by taking a well- known tune to base it off to begin, like stranger things, the exorcist or harry potter. The theme tune for Stranger Things is an Ostinato, which you can re create below.
Using a Creepy Ostinato
In music an ostinato is a rhythm or melody that is repeated throughout the composition. Stranger Things main theme goes – C E G B C B G E, C E G B C B G E in repeated quavers. This is a repetitive haunting melody that plays throughout the entire song; however, it isn’t creepy on its own. Using minor, diminished and augmented chords adding dissonance in your music will make it sound scarier.
Creepy ascending atonal
For this you ascend from the lowest notes of the keyboard to the highest. Pick notes at random black to white and uneven distances from each other all the way up the keyboard. The less notes used and wider distance the gentler the rising sense of unease.
Clusters of semi tones up high – mimics screams
To do this use it sparingly unless you can change the sound to strings on the keyboard. It is effective on the piano but needs to be used slightly less for maximum effect. Think of a jump scare but for music. Take the highest octave of the Piano and make a cluster chord as in 3-4 notes together some only a semitone apart so black keys and white keys beside each other. Repeat the chord 3 times quickly and it mimics the scream from the shower scene of psycho.
If you sit down ad use a combination of the above, you can create a creepy soundtrack for any movie. Try it out and see how much you can change the mood of a scene with scary music!
Happy Halloween and have fun creating your own scary soundtrack on the 31st!
Talk to you all in November and have a Musical Halloween