One more idea came to mind... dynamics are important, and not just relative dynamics either. Realms of the Haunting (a cross between an FPS and a survival horror game) had slow spooky music with a lot of diminished 5ths and so on, but it was also very quiet. What this meant, was that most of the gameplay felt calm, and then when a demon appeared the sound effect was Very loud by comparison (especially if the player had turned the volume up to hear the music better)! So making the music quieter made the sound effects ''jump out'' at you more and made for a scarier game.

Obviously, this is moving towards the holistic audio side of things rather than just music composition, but it''s worth thinking about.

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Scout, go to the site, click on "Course List", then click on "B" for Basic Music and "H" for Harmony. From there, you can choose to download in PDF format.

Thanks Kylotan, you've been a great help! That is is good advice on scary music. But what if I wanted to make "Scary" music? Not music that is actually scary, but a traditional, socially conditioned type music. I think maybe the question I am trying to ask seems specific enough to me, and maybe is really a fuzzy area.

I am looking for any info on certain styles, specifically. Like if I wanted to make something "bluesy" or "jazzy", what are the nuances of these particular styles? There are many WELL DEFINED styles that I can think of, and they all do things a certain way (more or less) so that you stay within the style. Sorta like, if you want to play the blues, ya gotta know how to play the blues.. you can't just play anything...

I know how to make something "bluesy", I was just using that as an example. But there are other styles that I know very little about. Like what if I wanted to write something in a 60's rock kinda fashion? where would I start?

I guess a good way to say it is, I don't want to do something NEW (yet), I want to do something OLD.

I know the best way to understand all the different styles is to listen to that type of music... Which I do... I was just wondering if there was anything WRITTEN???

I am not saying the info you already let loose does me no good... it does me a lot of good and I thank you!!! But I was looking for something a little different with my original question.

Edited by - Daldar on March 4, 2002 2:43:27 PM

Ok, sorry for not answering the question

quote: I know the best way to understand all the different styles is to listen to that type of music... Which I do... I was just wondering if there was anything WRITTEN???

I don''t know of any decent sources, online or offline, that give you a rundown of how to make music sound a certain way. I know a few myself, but that has come from learning a little about the rules of music, listening to music, and noticing how those rules are used. Choose the correct scales, time signatures, and instruments, and you''re 90% of the way there.

This might help a tiny bit, but it''s more history than theory, and doesn''t cover much: http://www.oconnormusic.org/styles.htm
Some details on what constitutes baroque: http://www.operaatelier.com/making/persee/music.shtml

Modern music is less well studied, it seems. But it''s also pretty easy to lay your hands on - just listen to 2 or 3 songs from a genre and you should be able to make some basic generalisations from them.

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If you want something that deals a lot with metal music and how to create it, there''s quite a comprehensive (IMO) theory section at the bottom of http://www.netppl.fi/~galahad/mc09_manual.htm

Also helps if you are into using IT format to create metal or rock...

Oh, and jazz tends to use the different modes based on the melodic minor scale - if that helps

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One of the greatest game music composers is Nubuo Uematsu (Musics of Final Fantasy saga...). I think the best tracks he made was in FF VII. One thing I noticed was that there was something like one track for each state of emotion or theme... and only thing which changed was tempo and instruments which played those tracks. It helps player to feel those needed emotions when you have familiar tracks played in almost every same kind of scenes of the game. If we have "theme song" of a character in our game played every time when his personal story continues it helps player to recall characters previous story and sets player in wanted emotional state, then fading his "theme song" to "theme of sad" prepares player for tragedy.

If story of game is something like novell, reading it may help when composing the music for scenes but I don''t know very much about composing techniques just usage of game music.

OK this didn''t answer any of your questions but just had to write this piece of crap =). BTW... why rock music is so rarely used in games? For example some scifi game could use rock in some scene lonely space ship is traveling through space and then suddenly there is alien base behind some moon and then let the battle begin... (for example "Yes - Starship Trooper" would be nice track... first four minutes, space ship left hangar,then traveling space at speed of light and then the last three minutes would be the first sight and deadly combat. Get the track from somewhere =D ) well this is really offtopic stuff but you know... can''t stop the creative mind working...=)

quote: Original post by BelGarath
BTW... why rock music is so rarely used in games?

Because most journalists hate it? They seem to criticise any game soundtrack involving heavy guitar music. So, if rock music = bad review...

Doom and the Quake series etc all featured rock of some sort. I think it fits that sort of thing quite well. But there are many genres where you need something a bit more ambient.

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Hey! I posted a thank-you post here, but it didn''t show up! Basically, it said thanks for all the help guys! Even though there isn''t much written, the stuff you guys passed on to me should be all I need to study the styles I want...

Thanks!