Let’s take a fictional but familiar sequence, whereby a child is walking home alone down a suburban street, when suddenly the streetlights go out, and the child is left alone in the dark.
#Music keys for scary music full#
There a multitude of ways in which horror can be represented musically, using the full range of instruments and textures available. However, horror scores don’t have to fall into stereotype and cliché. And your heart starts to pound along with it.Shower scene from ‘Psycho’ – (teachers please be aware that ‘Psycho’ is ‘R’ rated which translates as a ’15’ rating in the UK, and therefore may cause distress to students. But then the beat gets faster, and faster, and faster. One of the greatest pieces of suspenseful music ever written. Think John Williams' famous from Jaws (1975). It starts out slow, then builds and builds. This technique is about suspense music, not horror music. Knowing this, it makes sense that good suspense music can mimic a fast heartbeat. This is especially true if your music is already very staccato - made up of short, individual notes. The higher the tempo, the faster the music. Tempo is defined as the speed at which a piece of music should be played. One of the easiest ways to do this is to raise the tempo. So anything you can do with suspenseful music to raise your audience's heartbeat will make them more afraid.
If our heartbeats are raised for any reason, our brains assume we must be afraid. RAISE THE TEMPO, RAISE THE HEARTBEAT How does tempo create suspense? Take this moment from The Shining (1980).
Seen by the audience, but not by the victim.īut you can also use it to build tension by layering those strings over innocent scenes. This effect works great for the moments where the monster is lurking behind a character. Anything that activates the lizard brain is perfect for suspense music. Like a predator, or something that shouldn’t exist. It sounds wrong to the human ear in a way other instruments don’t. Layering discordant strings on top of each other only increases this unsettling effect. String instruments can also hold notes for an unnaturally long time. You might recall a famous example in Psycho (1960). Strings, on the other hand, have been used to raise tension for much longer. Scary movies are traditionally made on a shoestring budget.
#Music keys for scary music movie#
Many of the great horror movie filmmakers of the 80's used synthesizers because they’re cheap. However, they're also a historical side effect. Notes can last far longer than any human could hold them. Synthesizer music is eerie and artificial. The two most commonly used instruments in suspense music are synthesizers and strings. STRINGS MAKE FOR SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC Instruments in suspense music Usually by cracking a joke or disconnecting from the movie altogether. Let the tension go on too long, however, and the audience, desperate to break the tension, will break it themselves. Cue the revulsion in too soon, and the audience doesn't have enough time to build up their fear. The key to horror movies, and horror movie soundtracks, is balancing those two moments. If tension is suspenseful music, then revulsion is where horror music takes over. It's the revelation that the handsome and loving boyfriend.is actually a vampire. It's the killer stabbing a knife into someone's chest. Revulsion, however, is the moment the shoe drops. Because we can't stand the waiting any longer. It makes us tense up in our chairs, waiting, waiting, waiting for the other shoe to drop. This is where you would deploy suspenseful music. It's the part of the movie where the heroine is reaching for the door and maybe, just maybe, the monster is on the other side.
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