🕯️ Maker Series: Phil’s Music Notes – [Horror] Intervals 👻
🎃 A pre-Halloween special exploring the dark side of sound.
At its core, music is a game of intervals — the spaces between notes that define every melody, every emotion. Even without musical training, we instinctively recognize the cheerful sound of a major chord or the melancholy of a minor. But some intervals go far beyond sad or happy… some are unnerving, unsettling, even evil.
In this pre-Halloween edition of Phil’s Music Notes, we dive into the tritone, the infamous “Devil’s Interval.” Once banned by tradition and feared for its dissonance, this interval has haunted music for centuries — from John Williams’ shark-infested tension in Jaws, to John Carpenter’s chilling Halloween theme, to the thunder of Holst’s Mars, the chaos of Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, and the heavy riffs of Black Sabbath and Metallica. 🎸
But there’s more to this sinister sound — it’s also at the heart of jazz harmony. Those lush, complex 7th chords you hear? They’re built on the same mysterious tritone. The very interval once deemed forbidden became the key to modern expression.
In this episode, we’ll explore how this interval transformed from symbol of darkness to a cornerstone of musical color — and how you can use it to bring new life (or afterlife 👀) to your own compositions.
List of works -
Main Title (Theme from Jaws) by John Williams
https://open.spotify.com/track/55xly70WJY1cx5qsoogaqs?si=4de4559a0829430aHalloween Theme - Main Title by John Carpenter
https://open.spotify.com/track/7swocJUCUWTCiRUAU9oerC?si=19dd2b03389a4404Mars, the Bringer of War by Gustav Holst
https://open.spotify.com/track/5031ZWtB9iIPR0aA34TP4W?si=da87fa1ff08640cbNight on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky
https://open.spotify.com/track/12pe2mL5SQGMI1gBGcEWKE?si=6b01fc3483284da9Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath
https://open.spotify.com/track/0xIZPPBfLqQEAj1BLmGrNc?si=7177c1c6d3984b04Enter Sandman by Metallica
https://open.spotify.com/track/3VqHuw0wFlIHcIPWkhIbdQ?si=5040be3c27be4f66The Beautiful People by Marilyn Manson
https://open.spotify.com/track/2aIB1CdRRG7YLBu9hNw9nR?si=d872f613b59d453fWalking Papers by mad Hominem
https://open.spotify.com/track/7mCNVW3cEjQ7Wp5U9gVtrz?si=b8d7d74466c54136
Audio only version of this episode -
YouTube verson of this episode -