How do one create an eerie music?

[jobromedia]

Just started to experiment with eerie music, so are there any tricks to get the people into that mood? Special chords, rhythms or other tricks?

[ThePunkMonk]

Make use of the tritone interval. Or, if you want to be absolutely terrifying, augmented fourths, or even diminished fifths.

[abstractcats]

I like creative use of time stretching and FX on samples. Check out some of the stuff on soundcloud in my sig.

The song http://soundcloud.com/abstractcats/drea ... dland-1932 you find interesting.

[bluelife]

You jz7ust need a good pair of earies:)

[BradP]

Make use of the tritone interval. Or, if you want to be absolutely terrifying, augmented fourths, or even diminished fifths.

Tritones, augmented fourths, and diminished fifths are all enharmonic (the same interval). They're all 6 half steps/semitones.

[Gamma-UT]

Don't forget the augmented fifth: eerie cliché #1 is to mix major and augmented chord arpeggios. Try C;Caug.

And then try to spot how many sci-fi theme tunes use the same trick.

[ariston]

Dissonances play an important part in eerie music, but they have to be used in the context of a whole. Think contrast: spiking an innocent little melody (in major) with some jangling out-of-tune notes, or creating a low, menacing rumble beneath a lovely violin section.
Humans are unsettled by things that are either tied to bad memories, seem alien, or come unexpectedly (jack-in-the-box). The first is harder to achieve, because we all have different sets of memories and associations - naturally. You can, however, plug into some collective memories - there's nothing wrong with using Bernard Herrmann's famous string cue for Psycho, or even John Williams' Jaws theme to let the listener know that they're entering eerie territory. Just don't make it an obvious rip-off. Nature sounds (howling wind, wolves in the distance, bug noises, growls) are well suited for this, too, but they can turn corny very quickly, so use with caution.
Making sounds seem alien to the listener is easily done if you use commonplace, easily recognizable sounds and twist them. One thing that never gets out of style is manipulated voices, especially children's voices. Evil little girls like in The Ring or the game FEAR always get to me.
And the last: surprise the listener. Lure him down a quiet alleyway... don't make it too eerie just yet... maybe some subtle foreshadowing... then JUMP out at him with fangs bared. Then pull back again, leave him panting, and wait. Don't repeat, because in this case, repetitions will allow him to relax. Vary your approach.

See if you can get a hold of these two albums, which are my favourites in terms of eerie music: Thomas Dolby's soundtrack for the film "Gothic" (I think it's out of print, though), and Mike Patton's (or, rather, Fantomas') Delirium Cordia.

[jobromedia]

Thanks for your advices!

One thing I've tried some times is to slightly randomize the pitch of say a harp, but it often gets pretty corny quick. Any advice regarding randomizing stuff musicwise?

[ttw]

A couple of other things that are often done in movies are, first, use unusual voicings, wide spacings between notes and second, pedal points are often used to build tension. Of course, the details matter.

[Brian @ IK Multimedia]

Use harmonic minor + tritone.
Just diminishing stuff in general does it too.
A lot of what makes it eerie is that the notes don't quite belong...

[warrior545]

if you combine the knowledge found here it will be easier to achieve the result you talked about.

http://musicdm.wordpress.com/2011/01/27 ... notepitch/

http://musicdm.wordpress.com/2011/01/28 ... mbrecolor/

http://musicdm.wordpress.com/2011/01/31 ... intervals/

http://musicdm.wordpress.com/2011/02/02 ... of-mixing/

http://musicdm.wordpress.com/2011/02/06 ... tempo-bpm/

http://musicdm.wordpress.com/2011/02/07 ... on-chords/

[ferretleg]

Dissonances play an important part in eerie music, but they have to be used in the context of a whole. Think contrast: spiking an innocent little melody (in major) with some jangling out-of-tune notes, or creating a low, menacing rumble beneath a lovely violin section.
Humans are unsettled by things that are either tied to bad memories, seem alien, or come unexpectedly (jack-in-the-box). The first is harder to achieve, because we all have different sets of memories and associations - naturally. You can, however, plug into some collective memories - there's nothing wrong with using Bernard Herrmann's famous string cue for Psycho, or even John Williams' Jaws theme to let the listener know that they're entering eerie territory. Just don't make it an obvious rip-off. Nature sounds (howling wind, wolves in the distance, bug noises, growls) are well suited for this, too, but they can turn corny very quickly, so use with caution.
Making sounds seem alien to the listener is easily done if you use commonplace, easily recognizable sounds and twist them. One thing that never gets out of style is manipulated voices, especially children's voices. Evil little girls like in The Ring or the game FEAR always get to me.
And the last: surprise the listener. Lure him down a quiet alleyway... don't make it too eerie just yet... maybe some subtle foreshadowing... then JUMP out at him with fangs bared. Then pull back again, leave him panting, and wait. Don't repeat, because in this case, repetitions will allow him to relax. Vary your approach.

See if you can get a hold of these two albums, which are my favourites in terms of eerie music: Thomas Dolby's soundtrack for the film "Gothic" (I think it's out of print, though), and Mike Patton's (or, rather, Fantomas') Delirium Cordia.

he knows ^

[Rufuss Sewell]

Check out the theme to Amittyville Horror by Lalo Schiffrin. Eerie stuff.

[A.M. Gold]

I like messing around with fairly remote key changes. If you do it right, it can give the whole piece an otherworldly quality.