If you're really new to composing, you're gonna be very frustrated...a lot. Just keep at it, you'll notice things to tweak that make your songs fit better.

Play between minor and major can pull heartstrings, like switching between scales with a major third and a minor third at key moments.

Nobuo Uematsu's "Another World of Beasts" from Final Fantasy 6 is a prime example of eerie but beautiful. It achieves its otherworldly sound by defying convention and therefore the expectations of the ear: it's written in 7/8 and its tonic chord is a minor-major seven, a chord rarely employed by anyone. And yet, it manages to be beautiful. Another technique used in this piece is a very wide range of pitches, low bass and high treble together.

Diminished chords and scales can be pretty spooky.

Don't be afraid to borrow chords from different keys.

EDIT: One last tip: listen to music that you think is spooky or sad. Figure out what it does. Learn from it! For example, why do you think "Forever Rachel" from Final Fantasy 6 is so sad?

Don't use any of the major scales or modes.

Use of accidentals will do the trick for a spooky song, and most spooky songs are slowed down.

One way to make songs sound a little different is to use "Minor" sounding modes other than Aeolian (which is what we call the "natural Minor scale or mode").

The Dorian mode corresponds to the natural minor scale with the sixth degree raised a semitone. The Phrygian mode corresponds to the natural minor scale with the second degree lowered a semitone.

Using a Whole Tone scale will get you an eery sound too, its a scale where every note is 2 frets apart.

Listen to "The Shinra Corporation" from Final Fantasy VII, if you play along you'll notice that the tune plays 2 frets apart for every note.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj0F2KfCvhg

Chromatic scales can do it too, using every single fret (or black keys with the white keys).

Listen to "Trail of Blood" from Final Fantasy VII, if you play along, you can't find what key it's in. It uses so many accidentals. I wouldn't even call them accidentals, because this song is using the Chromatic scale, all notes are good to use, every single fret.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiWV2KseKeo

Try to use more colorful chords as your back notes. If you have a rhythm guitar, have it play some 9th chords, or some add 13 chords, or any number of colorful chords. Look at a chord chart if you need to.

If you don't know much about music theory, try to tweak your major and minor chords into chords that sound a little more colorful.

Like instead of Am try Am add 9
        |--------0---------0--------|
        |--------1---------1--------|
        |--------2---------4--------|
        |--------2---------2--------|
        |--------0---------0--------|
        |---------------------------|

Aye! Great suggestions all around, one of my best spooky songs I've written uses both a wide range of pitch and a slower rhythm section and a faster lead to fairly good effect.

thank you dstrings and auriplane for the great advice, some of it, like listening to other stuff i've already done, but you 2 have given me some stuff to work and learn with

i'm pretty okay when it comes to writing music, just not music that i want to write lol, and i don't get frustrated easily, if i did, i wouldn't have taught myself guitar, bass, piano, harp and violin basics alone and spent the last 2 years practicing, as for my music theory knowledge, i just take looks at scales, make 3 pattern shapes, 1 for each 2 sets of strings (lowE&A, D&G, B&highE), and reorganize those shapes in different positions as i go up the neck in the same scale so it makes sense, keeps all the scales in my mind with little effort, i don't tend to use chords much when i write except to create a small bassline arpeggio while playing long-held higher pitches and when i run a small scale with higher notes, i hold a bassline octave or chord

this is what i'm working on at the moment, a music box sort of thing, it was quick, but i like how it sounds so far, it should sound loosely based on "promise (reprise)" from silent hill

currently its end point is a shift into a different key, i've yet to add a bassline arpeggio in it, i'm going to work some of what you told me in, baby steps, learn better lol, so it's far far far from complete:

music box

i could probably complete this easier if i could make transitions easily, it's my weakness, they never sound right, any tips for simple transitions?

and once again, thanks so much for the advice

PS, i just accidentally closed this tab and thought i lost this whole comment and pretty much pissed myself but i reopened it from recently closed tabs and this comment was thankfully still here, so, this is highly off topic, but i love google chrome

I find the OP slightly humorous. (Not in a bad way, read on.)

"Guys, I really want to make stuff that sounds sad and creepy, but everything I make comes out happy, warm and cheery."

The first thing that popped to mind was:

"I want to fit in with the depressed crowd, but...I just love life. I want to feel the abyss of despair and melancholy, but...I...every day, I wake up and I see the sun, and it just fills me with joy. Please help, how can I get more negative and bitter to help me fit in?"

;-)

no offense but your wrong with everything there, i suggest you get to know me before you start thinking of me like that lol

but yes, i try to make light of everything, although, i wouldn't say this was humorous, more like ironic

maybe you should link us to some compositions that suit your definition of "sad and spooky", so we can help you better

listen to a song that has multiple versions, listen for what makes them different

like this one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CADHl-iZ_Kw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7te9iZcczc

"First thing that popped to mind" =/= me saying this is actually your personality

RexLeRouge said

maybe you should link us to some compositions that suit your definition of "sad and spooky", so we can help you better

alrighty here's 3 examples i find spooky/sad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCtgTpxgwjc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7umg6ZrIEH8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIVuMmRKPoc

Jacob31593 said

listen to a song that has multiple versions, listen for what makes them different

like this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CADHl-iZ_Kw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7te9iZcczc

almost every piece of music in zelda and final fantasy games have multiple versions with different moods XD no shortage of content to learn from there

musenji said

"First thing that popped to mind" =/= me saying this is actually your personality

yeah well... well... shut up, i'm allowed to be offended anyways.... lolz, sorry for misinterpretation

i feel somewhat important with so many people commenting..... does this mean i get a butler? it'd be nice to have someone to get food for me

This song makes me sad enough to weep for the world

http://youtu.be/yzC4hFK5P3g

Part of the problem was that by OP, I meant "original post", not "original poster". And plus, that what I really found funny was something I was imagining in my head--not something actually real. So I think I didn't communicate the best.

On the serious, I think the first example is creepy, but the creepiness comes from the effects more than the music itself. So it'd be hard to recreate. But, it could be sad even without the effects.

The tails music box sounds more like "mysterious world of magic" to me. Like literally Harry Potter music. :p

Here is the first thing I think of for creepy music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=687sEfSkx9Y

...Lots of atonal junk going on there.

musenji said

...Lots of atonal junk going on there.

(Pssst! The tonic is D!)

:-D

Silly auriplane, tonic gives you 50 hp.