Halloween - A Time of Spooky Tunes

Did you know that it is possible to make ANY song into a "Halloween" song? If you know the key the song is in and you can find the 3rd and 6th notes of the scale, all you have to do is flat them and any song will turn into a "spooky" song. This is because you are changing the scale into a harmonic minor version of the one the song was written in.

You can also choose spooky sounds if you are working with an electronic instrument that utilizes sampled sounds such as an electronic keyboard, synthesizer and computer programs. You can purchase effects boxes to run your instrument through if you are playing guitar or violin and even wind instruments have their share of electronic effects.

An easily created "spooky" sound on the keyboard is to punch up the Pipe Organ. That sample on most keyboards sounds like the Phantom of the Opera is about ready to leap out and grab you!

Another good one is any sample of a Distortion Guitar or even Fuzz Tone. It will make your skin crawl if you add it to the right song. Bassoon make good goblin sounds and Chorus or any human voice sample played way down low (below middle C) on the keyboard will sound like the ghosts are already here!

Just experiment and see what you can find. You can even sample real sounds and distort them into spooky sounds with the right computer programs and a good tape recorder that you jack into the back of your sound card. http://www.goldwave.com/ will help you with a progam that makes wavs of any sound you care to run through it. http://www.musicmatch.com is another program that will easily turn what you have into MP3s if you need compression for storage.