How to Write SuspensefulSoundtrack Music. Download PDF Tutorialincludes multitrack MIDI file If the link above does not work, paste this into your browser:https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2591466/suspenseful-melody Intro. The dictionary definition of suspenseful is “causing a feeling of excitement or nervousness because you are waiting for something to happen”. That perfectly describes the intro of “Tubular Bells - Pt. I” by Mike Oldfield. It’s easy to hear why The Exorcist (1973) director William Friedkin chose this music for his film. Recall that classic scene where Chris starts walking home alone as the “Tubular Bells” intro begins. Eeek! Talk about “waiting for something to happen”. If you wanna make music that keeps people listening because they need to know what happens next, then knowing how to create suspense is essential. Mike Oldfield has given us a masterclass with this music. So, inspired by “Tubular Bells”, here’s our 4-step method for writing a suspenseful melody. But first… Tea! Step 1. Odd One of the first things we notice about the intro of “Tubular Bells - Pt. I” is that it’s in an odd time signature. If you count along with that piano part in the intro, you’ll count 15 beats. So, change your DAW’s time signature to 15|4 and set the tempo to 150 BPM. On closer analyses of the piano part (i.e. where its melody repeats), it becomes apparent that the time signature is actually one bar of 7|4 followed by two bars of 4|4. But as that adds up to 15|4, we’ll just go with that to keep things simpler. Next, create a one-bar loop of 15|4 on your piano track, with the grid on 1/8 notes. We’re gonna start by writing a rhythm on E (the root), using only 1/8 notes and 1/8 rests. You can do whatever you want, but don’t play more than two notes in a row. Also, only make your rhythm seven 1/4 notes long, i.e. one bar of 7|4. 7|4 rhythm (on E) Step 2. Pitch Now it’s time to turn this rhythm into a melody! Mike Oldfield uses the E natural minor scale for this piano part, so we’ll use it too. E natural minor scale12♭345♭6♭7EF♯GABCD You may be wondering why F♯ (2) is in red. That’s because it’s out-of-bounds! Yep, you can’t use that note in your melody. Why? Well, we’re gonna create some suspense all of our own here, as we’re not revealing the reason for this until Step 4. One more tiny guideline here. If you wanna use E, use the high octave (i.e. the 8). Without the F♯ (2) you still have six notes, which is plenty, so write your melody by using all the usual elements, like a big range and a smooth contour. Need help with this? Use the Melody Checklist in our Songwriting & Producing PDF. 7|4 rhythm turned into melody, by moving notes to different pitches of E minor When you’re happy with your melody, then copy and paste it (starting at beat 8). 7|4 melody copied and pasted (highlighted) That gives us 14|4, so extend your melody by one note to complete the 15|4 bar. Note added (highlighted) to end of melody, completing bar of 15|4 Now that you have the full melody, you can hear that it’s a 7|4 melody looping, except the loop has an extra beat that makes it eight 1/4 notes long (i.e. two bars of 4|4). That odd-time element from Step 1 has now become very noticeable! 7|4 melody looped, with looped version (highlighted) transformed into two bars of 4|4 The interesting takeaway here is that alternating between an odd time signature (7|4) and an even time signature (two bars of 4|4) makes the melody sound more odd. It seems counterintuitive, but the melody would actually sound more normal if it was exclusively in 7|4. The reason for that is because our pattern-loving brains will figure out an odd time signature after a few loops, and then get used to it. Therefore, alternating back and forth prevents us from adjusting to the odd time. So thanks to those 4|4 bars, the 7|4 continues to sound odd every time we hear it. Step 3. Drone This is the final piece of the piano part, and it’s the easiest. Simply draw in the root note (E) in all the rests. This drone on E creates two layers in your piano part, which not only adds depth, it also adds tension between the melody and its root. Final piano part, with drone on root note (E) highlighted Now that you’ve finished your piano part, you can have some fun with the orchestration by duplicating the track, then changing its sound (and octave). As this piano part is at a super high register, you can lower it by an octave on the duplicated track, then change the sound to a glockenspiel or anything suspenseful. Step 4. Bass That’s enough suspense! It’s finally time to reveal why you couldn’t play F♯ in your piano part, back in Step 2. This is gonna be pretty shocking! So, are you ready for a massive twist in the tale of this tutorial? Okay, here it is. Download the PDF to read the rest of this tutorial…...
