How to Make SPOOKY Flute Music for Halloween!

Are you looking to make some spooky flute music for Halloween?

There are many great original pieces and arrangements of Halloween tunes out there you can play, but you can also make your own! Yes, you could compose one, but if that sounds like too much to do right now, you could also just take music you know already and spookify it! The pieces could be anything from folk songs to classical music or anything else you know and want to change. But obviously the music should not already be spooky sounding in its original form.

So how do you change these tunes to make spooky flute music for Halloween? Here are a few suggestions:

Make the Scales and Intervals Darker and Crunchier

The quickest way to make any happy sounding piece automatically sound spookier is to change the scale, specifically from major to minor.

If you are unfamiliar with minor, basically a minor scale results whenever the third note of the major scale is lowered. For example, if you are in C major (all notes are natural, no sharps or flats), then to make it into C minor, just lower the third note from an E to an E flat. Or if you are in G major (all notes are natural except for F which is sharp), then change all Bs into B flats.

If you are familiar with the three forms of minor (natural, harmonic, and melodic), then note that this strategy makes an ascending melodic minor scale. But if you want to make things even spookier, I suggest using harmonic minor instead as the intervals (the spaces between notes) in that scale are even more interesting. Basically, you would have to lower the sixth note of the scale in addition to the third, so for C major that would be As into A flats and for G major Es into E flats.

For example, here is “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”.

*See a final spooky version below and get free sheet music to more **Spooky Flutey Music**!*

You can also try to make many dissonant (crunchy) intervals like half steps (the closest two notes can be, for example E to E flat). Also, if you are in harmonic minor, the extra big interval between the sixth and seventh notes of your scale (a whole step plus a half step also known as an augmented second) makes the music sound even more exotic and jarring. Or for extra fun, you can use tritones (notes that are three whole steps apart, like C to G flat).

If that all sounds too complicated, then simply throwing in lots of accidentals (notes not in the key, for example A flat in C major) will likely do the trick.

Make Things Softer, Slower, and Lower

Most happy music tends to be upbeat and louder, so you can do just the opposite. If it was originally written as really high, play it at a lower octave. If it was loud, play it soft. If it was fast, play it slow. It can also be very interesting to elongate certain notes or add in rests as sometimes the unexpected silence can be even more unsettling than the notes themselves.

Add Trills

One quick and easy special effect to add into your music to instantly make it sound spooky is a trill (a quick alternation between the note written and the note above it). ESPECIALLY half step trills, for example G to A flat. All you would have to do for that trill is finger G and wiggle your left hand pinky. And voila, your music is already spookier!

Add Other Special Effects

Besides trills, you can add in many other special effects. I love using extended techniques which are basically sounds you wouldn’t normally make. That could simply be just making air sound instead of a normal full sound, or you could add beatboxing which will also make air notes but starting them with certain syllables like “B”, “K”, “Ch”, or “Sh”. Or another fun effect is to add in flutter tonguing, where you roll your Rs as you blow into the flute.

Here is one completed spooky version of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”.

“*Twinkle” is just one song of four that has been made spooky in the free **Spooky Flutey Music** sheet music.* *Recording of “Twinkle” and each song below.*

I also love adding pitch bends where by either rolling in or out, changing your air direction, or by sliding your fingers across open holes if you have them you can make the pitch higher or lower. Bending notes down can sound so sad and bending them up and down can really feel eerie!

There are many other effects you can try including singing and playing, whistle tones, or even just making strange noises playing on the headjoint alone. There are too many other possible contemporary techniques to describe here, but any of them could potentially add a spooky element to your music.

Benefits of Making Music Spooky

So why go through all this trouble? Well the first obvious benefit is that you get a cool, spooky pieceafterwards that you can play on Halloween!

But besides that, you are upping many of your flute skills. Extended techniques are commonly used to make you better at your normal flute sound. Robert Dick has a whole book about this very topic called “Tone Development Through Extended Techniques”. Practicing putting pieces in minor and altering intervals is great to work on your theory and scales. And coming up with a new piece is a wonderful way to get your creative juices flowing and working on your arranging and composing skills or even your improvising.

However, if you need some inspiration to get you started, check out the free “Spooky Flutey Music”, spookified arrangements of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”, Mozart’s “A Little Night Music”, and Chaminade’s “Concertino”. And listen to all of the different pieces below.