@Turatu - Feb. 5, 2013, 3:24 p.m.
hey there does anybody have tips, or information/experience they could share with me to push me in the right direction for writing sad and spooky music?
preferably i'd like no tips recommending i make a bunch of "eerie sound effects" like the "tricks" i got when i googled it, i'd like the music i write to have a sense of loneliness and insecurity, but whenever i start writing even when i have the inspiration, i always end up with a disappointing sound of cheeriness, lmao
and even when i experiment i get more of a comforting happy feeling then anything i actually aim for, it's discouraging and pissing me off, so if someone has a few things in mind that i could mess around with that could help, it'd be appreciated
@Kabukibear - Feb. 9, 2013, 12:25 p.m.
Joking aside stick with minor keys and lots of dissonance (don't go crazy with it, it needs to make sense.)
It really depends on the type of creepy music you are writing. Is it more atmospheric? Then think sparse. Use negative space to give the piece a sense of isolation. Lots of sustained notes, chords that purposely clash. Use it to unnerve the listener. SFX are good for this stuff as well, echoes and reverb as, since it's so barren, it won't muddy up the piece.
If it's less for ambiance and more for an actual piece, stick with the first thing I mentioned, minor keys, dissonant chords. Here is an example I wrote for Hoursong, which was a contest where you get a theme at a certain time and have 1 hour to write and publish it. While short, it shows some examples of what I was talking about as the theme was "Creepy Music." It's a duet between a pipe organ and violin. You will hear the minor chords and the dissoance created by clashing the violin against them from time to time to build suspense.
http://youtu.be/0XmF-_YBbAU
It might help to build the foundation first. Stick with minor keys and write out 8-12 bars of just this, keep it somber. Then build the melody over top. That's what I did for the above piece, wrote the organ part and then wrote the melody. Sometimes it's easier this way, other times it's easier to have the melody first and create the parts below. It just really depends on what works for you at that time.
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