Horror music techniques..

Hi,

What are the main techniques that are good for creating that Horror sound i.e. for creating melody, chord progressions and rhythm i.e. syncopated?

I found using using tritone chords, Gminor - Db minor - Gminor were good - and using fourths.

Thank you for your help in advance :rolleyes:

I always imagine screechy strings (like in Crumb's Black Angels, particularly the Night of the Electric Insects section) and cluster chords (like in the opening of Ligeti's Atmospheres) when thinking about the horror genre.

Waterphones and theremins! :D

I think the genre of horror is too wide to give any helpful replies to you question really. You can have eerie, tense, darkly expectant horror right through to outright terror, dismay RUN RUN RUN!!!!! horror.

Generally you have to make the listener uncomfortable. One way of doing this is to deliberately do something "wrong" like playing a happy kids' melody over the wrong chords, or not resolving a dissonance in the expected manner.

thank you for the replies!

with the string clusters what would you build them up with i.e. the tonic, fourth etc? - or just what sounds good?

thank you again for the suggestions :)

You could use some of these it will sound different, depending on what you really want to achieve:

Voicing and spacing - low registers;

Modes - minor and/or phrygian;

Tempo - slow;

Harmony and melody - extended chords, tritones (harmonically, melodically and/or as root progression). b2 and b9 chord tensions (semitone conflicts work well for horror effect), which means you can extend that to full clusters. I didn't get your question about clusters... You can build them on any degree.

You could use some of these it will sound different, depending on what you really want to achieve:

Voicing and spacing - low registers;

Modes - minor and/or phrygian;

Tempo - slow;

Harmony and melody - extended chords, tritones (harmonically, melodically and/or as root progression). b2 and b9 chord tensions (semitone conflicts work well for horror effect), which means you can extend that to full clusters. I didn't get your question about clusters... You can build them on any degree.

thanks for that Kamen! - yeah sorry about the clusters question - I meant are there any typical clusters that are used.

Or these...




I could go on. This is a vague and strange question. Write what scares you. Write what scares your client. Don't concern yourself with "main techniques", just write what's effective — no matter what. Invent things. Break them. Record random sounds and layer them in. Process the audio subtly and strangely, de-tune everything slightly...the possibilities are endless, so just get out there and explore.

Traditionally, the unexpected makes frequent appearances in horror music. High and low registration is common - particularly moving from one to the other without transition - especially when accenting a particular visual cue.

Another thing I've heard frequently is aleatoric pizz. strings - a la the pilot episode of The X-Files or any horror film with lots of bugs...

Traditionally, the unexpected makes frequent appearances in horror music. High and low registration is common - particularly moving from one to the other without transition - especially when accenting a particular visual cue.

Another thing I've heard frequently is aleatoric pizz. strings - a la the pilot episode of The X-Files or any horror film with lots of bugs...

I'm going to agree with Chris; Your main goal is to build tension, and then when that is established, come out with something entirely unexpected.

In my opinion, rhythm and timbre are your greatest weapons when doing scary or disturbing stuff.

Here's some ideas:

Granted, not all of this piece is scary, but I found the constant clacking and the shrill chords are pretty effective in this regard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlmFHn8_q2s

This is actually the first part of "Black Angels for Electric String Quartet" by George Crumb. It was featured in the Exorcist, and you can probably see why.

This is just my opinion, of course, but I think that theres some good stuff here.

I would also perhaps try an abnormal mode, such as the Locrian. One of the largest elements of fear is the lack of knowledge or understanding, if you set your listeners somewhere where they're unfamiliar, you're off to a good start frightening them.

Yeah, unexpected is the key, as well as playing with low and high registers, eventually together with what was already said.

Bear in mind that Locrian cannot be used effectively in chord progressions. This is because the tonic is a diminished chord and is much less stable than the other chords of the mode. Using pedal point and playing over static diminished harmony is fine, but the moment you try building progressions by going to the other chords of the mode, you'll be thrown out of it. In short, you cannot just regularly resolve back to the "tonic", even if you apply a lot of rhythmic and dynamic stress. So focus on using it mostly melodically.

This is from the 3rd Pirates of the Caribbean. The part you should look at begins at about 1:42. The strings appear to be doing random notes, although I'm assuming some of what they are playing is notated. What I can't figure out is what they low strings (cello/bass) are doing at about 2:08. It sounds like they are hitting the strings, but the basses actually look like they are bowing something.

Yeah, unexpected is the key, as well as playing with low and high registers, eventually together with what was already said.

Bear in mind that Locrian cannot be used effectively in chord progressions. This is because the tonic is a diminished chord and is much less stable than the other chords of the mode. Using pedal point and playing over static diminished harmony is fine, but the moment you try building progressions by going to the other chords of the mode, you'll be thrown out of it. In short, you cannot just regularly resolve back to the "tonic", even if you apply a lot of rhythmic and dynamic stress. So focus on using it mostly melodically.

The Locrian mode's chord (minor7b5) is most effective in Afro-Cuban based and other jazz progressions

I don't know if it's a personal bias or what - but it seems to me the atonal and aleatory music works at its best in an horror soundtrack :horrified: ...