4 Ways To Make Your Music Sound Spooky

With spooky season just around the corner, we thought it was only bright to dive into the world of horror/Halloween music. This is a very established sound, which we can easily identify since we've heard it so many times before, and is quite easy to achieve.

So pluck up some courage, put on a brave face and brace yourself, things might get a little frightening from here on out, as we dive into 4 ways to make your music sound spooky.  

1. The Double Harmonic Minor Scale

Most of you will already know that using minor keys and scales is a rudimentary way to make your music sound scarier. Instead, we want to tell you about a more advanced scale that will give you that spooky sound far more effectively than your standard natural or harmonic minor scale.

That scale is the double harmonic minor scale (also known as the Hungarian minor scale)  and it's one that's frequently used for creepy and Halloween-style music.

With C as our root, the notes of this scale are as follows:

                                              C-D-Eb -F#-G-Ab-B

And here's the C double harmonic minor scale in notation form and with scale intervals:

If you look at the scale intervals you'll notice that there are a lot of minor and augmented 2nds and it's these very intervals that give the scale its unfamiliar and chilling sound. Notice also how there's chromaticism between the 4th, 5th, and 6th notes of the scale. When using this scale for your menacing melodies, ensure you make the most of those augmented and minor intervals as well as the chromatic notes.

Now this scale can be pretty hard to remember at first, but if you're familiar with your natural and harmonic minor scales, then you can quickly work the notes of this scale out.

Below is a comparison between the natural, harmonic and double harmonic minors scales, all starting on the note C.

By looking at the scales above, we can see that to get from the natural to the harmonic you only need to raise the 7th note by a semi-tone (Bb to B) and then to get from the harmonic to the double harmonic minor, simply raise the 4th by a semi-tone (F-F#).

So, to make things easier to remember and work out, we can say that the double harmonic minor scale is the same as the natural minor scale, except with a raised 4th and 7th. Or we can think of it as the same as a harmonic minor scale, except with a raised 4th.

It's important to note that the double harmonic minor scale is extremely versatile and can be used to create many different moods, emotions and imagery, not only the spooky ones. For that reason, we strongly recommend adding this one to your arsenal of scales! Another important point is that if you choose to use this scale, you don't have to stick to it and its chords throughout the entirety of your track. Mixing and matching it with other scales (such as natural and harmonic minor) and chords will still give you the desired spooky sound.    

Here are some examples that use the scale:

John Williams - The Chamber of Secrets

Joe Satriani - Musterion

Tchaikovsky - Marche Slave (0:11-1:10)

Ben Woods - Istvan the Hungarian

Yasuhiro Kawasaki - Signs Of The Past (Illusions of Gaia OST)

Water Temple - Koji Kondo ( The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time OST)

So if you're looking for a melody that gives a sense of macabre, give this special scale a try and you're sure to come up with some terrifying tunes.

And for those who are feeling brave, see if you can work out what chords come from this scale. They're guaranteed to give you a fright!

2. Minor Chromatic Mediants

The term minor chromatic mediants might give you a bit of a jump scare, but fear not, it's far simpler than it sounds.

A chromatic mediant is when you have two chords whose root notes are either a major or minor third apart. For this example, we want to look specifically at minor chromatic mediants, which are when you have two minor chords separated by a third, as these give the most ominous sound.

There are four different combinations of minor mediant chords that you can use. Here they are below, with C minor as our starting chord for each variation.

Minor chromatic mediants are used in film music all the time. Whether it's used in the theme for the big scary, evil villain or to convey a sense of unease and dread, you've definitely heard this sound before.

For that reason, we will be referring solely to soundtrack examples for the rest of this tip and we'll be specifically focussing on the first two variations as they are the most commonly used.

In variation 1, we have two minor chords which are separated by a minor 3rd. This combination is used in the first two chords for the Emperor's Theme in Star Wars, composed by John Williams. With the Emperor being the most evil being in the galaxy, it makes sense that Williams wanted to use two chords that sound seriously dark and threatening.

While the Emperor carried out his dark deeds from the shadows, his main man wreaking havoc on the front lines, was of course Darth Vader. This iconic movie villain also comes with his own equally recognisable and menacing theme - The Imperial March. This theme uses the second minor mediant chord variation, which is two minor chords separated by a major third.

So why do these chord combinations sound so menacing?

Well, one more obvious reason is that we're only using minor chords but another important one is the fact that the second chord in both variations do not belong to the key of C minor.

Here's the C natural minor scale alongside the first two chromatic mediant variations.

For our Am chord found in variation 1, we've highlighted in red the notes A and E. If we look at the notes of the C natural minor scale we can see that the notes A and E don't belong and instead it uses both A flat and E flat. The same can be said for the Abm chord in variation 2 where we've highlighted the note Cb, which also does not belong to the C natural minor scale.

The use of minor chords that don't belong diatonically to the key of your music is a quickfire way to make your music sound more spooky, which is why we highly recommend using minor chromatic mediants.

So, brush up on your minor chords and your major/minor third intervals and give all four variations from this technique a try!

3. Chord Clusters

From the name itself you can probably already tell that a chord cluster is a chord whose notes are closely packed together. To be more specific, a chord cluster is any chord which has at least three adjacent notes in a scale.

Here are a few chord cluster examples so you can see exactly what we mean:

With so many notes packed closely together, we can't really give a proper name to any of these chords and, to be honest, you can just jam any notes you want together and that will count as a cluster. Evidently, these types of chords have an intensely dissonant, discordant and tense sound, whose lack of tonal stability gives the listener an extreme feeling of unease, but how do we best use them?

While you could bash the keys on your piano, take whatever notes you hit for your cluster chord and call it a day, we do think there can be some more careful planning for these types of chords.  

Here are two methods which I like to use:

For both methods, first I take a standard triad and then I turn it into a cluster chord by adding notes around it. In example 1, I've taken a standard C minor chord and then super-imposed another minor chord a semi-tone above it. This gives us a cluster chord we can actually name (Cm/Dbm) and this type of chord can also be called a polychord.

In example 2, I've used a D diminished triad (D-F-Ab) but instead of adding another chord on top of it, I've just added random semi-tone rubs (Eb and Gb) around it, giving us this chord - D-Eb-F-Gb-Ab.

Another thing to consider is where (as in pitch) and when to use cluster chords.

You may decide you want to use low cluster chords (anything below middle C) to get a really dark sound. If you are going to do this, we suggest keeping those low clusters isolated or at least have a big gap between them and something much higher up in pitch. This is because lower notes are much more dense and thick and too much can make your music sound muffled and muddy (look up the harmonic series).

Cluster chords higher in pitch (anything above middle C) are much easier to use alongside other elements as they sound thinner and the harmonies clash less, but we still recommend using them sparingly.

Perhaps, you have a long and powerful chord ending a section, this is a great place to turn that into a cluster chord to really rack up the tension and dissonance. Another method is to have a bunch of cluster chords played in succession, without any other interfering elements. If you want a melody, with cluster chords as your background texture, then we suggest making sure the melody is in a completely different frequency range to the cluster chords and that said chords don't change too frequently.

On the other hand, you may want the ugliest, horrifying and non-musical sound possible, so in that case, bashing the keys of the piano may not be the worst idea...it's sure to make someone jump out of their skin!        

4. Instrumentation

Last but most definitely not least is instrumentation. In fact, getting the instrumentation right is key to the spooky sound. If you don't pick the right instruments and textures, none of the other techniques on this list will be as effective.

There are certain instruments that we associate with horror and Halloween because we've heard these sounds used in that context hundreds of times before. The creepy music box, the haunting choir, or the gloomy church organ, we all know and recognise these sounds and immediately link them with the macabre.

To make this tip as useful as possible, we're going to list a bunch of instruments that are commonly used for horror/Halloween music as well as give suggestions on how to use them effectively to achieve the spooky sound.

Theremin - This otherworldly electronic instrument has established itself as a staple in two different film genres: Horror/Halloween and Sci-Fi. We recommend using the theremin solely for elongated melodic lines, making use of minor scales (such as the double harmonic minor) and wide intervals like perfect and diminished 5ths.

Choir - On one hand, a choir is perfect for angelic hymns or even for adding a touch of magic to Christmas music, but in the right context, it can easily sound extremely eerie and ghostly. Any type of choir can work, whether that be a boys, women or low men's choir, each will give that haunting feel. We recommend using it mostly for background textures, such as held chords, and making use of 'oo' rather than 'ah' vowels.

Music Box/Celeste - This is another one that for some reason works really well for both Christmas and Halloween music. It seems strange, with the two being complete opposites, but that's just the way it is. We recommend using a music box and/or celestes for solo melodies or as background textures playing arpeggios or broken chords.

Strings - Strings are arguably the most versatile instruments around as they seem to work in almost any genre. For spooky music, we'd suggest long legato lines for melodies (don't be afraid to go into the top of their range), long chords and especially cluster chords, if you choose to use that technique. Quick and rapid runs, scales and arpeggios can also work as long as you use the right scales and harmonies.

Church Organ -  You only have to listen to Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor to understand how this instrument should be used. Who knows how many times we've heard this piece of music used for scary situations. Use the church organ for melodies, powerful chords and arpeggios, but make sure you use the right scales and chord progressions to get that spine-chilling sound.

Synths - Like strings, synths can be extremely versatile as their sound can be shaped to pretty much anything you want. For spooky music, synths can be used for melodies or ostinatos (think almost any 70s/80s horror film) or for ghostly and sinister textures, whether that be a low drone, a dense chord or a long and high sustained note. Or if you're feeling extra creative, use them for unsettling sound design and blood-curdling fx.

Sound Effects - Another staple of the horror/Halloween genre is used to sound effects. Think thunder and lighting sounds, cackling laughs, ringing bells, ticking clocks, wind sounds etc. Pretty much anything that could be linked to the horror genre.

Waterphone - Weird name for an instrument we know but it's probably one of the freakiest sounding there is. A waterphone is a non-pitched percussion instrument, and if you haven't heard how it sounds before, just give the video below a watch and you'll hear how creepy it sounds.

Those are just a handful of examples and there are many other instruments that can be used but these listed are a good place to start. Try and include some of them in your next tracks and you'll see how effective they are in achieving that hair-rasing sound.