Anyone have ideas on some haunting and "spooky" scales/modes or even just riffs?

Portishead "Roads"

Led Zep "Dazed and Confused"

Peter Gabriel "Don't Give Up"

Elton John - Madman Across The Water (the song on the album of the same name).

Anyone have ideas on some haunting and "spooky" scales/modes or even just riffs?

Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain

I'm not sure if you would call it spooky, but Don't Stop Believing by Journey.

most things by tom waits

Gary Jules' cover of Tears For Fear's Mad World
John Coltrane's Naima
Maurice Ravel's Pavane for a Dead Princess

ghost of tom joad - rage against the machines

Peter Gabriel "Don't Give Up"

Great pensive, melodic line, and a great double-stops workout!

"Pictures of Home" Deep Purple

& D melodic/harmonic minor...

Dido's Lament from Dido and Aenaeus by Henry Purcell.

Guitarist I played with the other night showed me the Tri-tone scale, which produces some pretty evil dreary sounding stuff like you would find in a vampire movie.

it goes in 1 1/2 step intervals I - iii - v - VII (G - A# - C# -E)

not spooky, but check out augustus pablo

Guitarist I played with the other night showed me the Tri-tone scale, which produces some pretty evil dreary sounding stuff like you would find in a vampire movie.

it goes in 1 1/2 step intervals I - iii - v - VII (G - A# - C# -E)

That's a diminished seventh arpeggio, not scale. Tritone scale? Sheesh, you can't trust anything guitards tell you.

Yeah I didn't know what to call it, since if I kept stacking minor 3rds it would just repeat itself an octave higher, and since he called it a scale. I haven't gotten too deep into augmented and diminished chords theory wise, I know they exist and how to form them, didn't know the fingerings either (as you can clearly see). While we are on the topic, what scale would I pair with this arpeggio?

...It does sound eerie though.

A Remark You Made - Weather Report.

woo! thanks guys keep them coming. i got all labor day to woodshed these ideas

These are more haunting in the dark sense of a melody that will drag you down in an introspective kind of way...

"Watch Me Bleed", Tears For Fears, from The Hurting
"Under The Milky Way", The Church, from Starfish
"The Killing Moon", Echo and The Bunnymen, from Songs to Learn and Sing
"Fade Into You", Mazzy Star, from So Tonight That I might See

Too many Cure songs to mention.

Choking Victim - Living the laws, not that your probably into Ska Punk/Metal, but it's one of the coolest sinister bass lines ever :p

RATM - settle for nothing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuGwk0VDYYQ&feature=related

the most haunted bass line and guitar sounds ever for me...

Yeah I didn't know what to call it, since if I kept stacking minor 3rds it would just repeat itself an octave higher, and since he called it a scale. I haven't gotten too deep into augmented and diminished chords theory wise, I know they exist and how to form them, didn't know the fingerings either (as you can clearly see). While we are on the topic, what scale would I pair with this arpeggio?

...It does sound eerie though.


You can use one of two diminished scales with this chord. The first is the whole/half diminished scale, constructed by playing the root followed by whole step, half step, whole step, half step, until you get back to the root. The other is (surprise!) the half/whole diminished. Use the same method, only reverse the order (root, half, whole, half, whole, etc).

Yeah I didn't know what to call it, since if I kept stacking minor 3rds it would just repeat itself an octave higher, and since he called it a scale. I haven't gotten too deep into augmented and diminished chords theory wise, I know they exist and how to form them, didn't know the fingerings either (as you can clearly see). While we are on the topic, what scale would I pair with this arpeggio?

...It does sound eerie though.

The octatonic scale, otherwise known as the diminished scale. Alternating half steps and whole steps. You actually have two of them, the WH diminished and the HW diminished. Really tough to get the feel of them under your fingers, however.

jefferson airplane's version of "wooden ships"
hot tuna's version of "death don't have no mercy" (especially if you can find the live one with papa john creech on the fiddle)

Thanks Pacman and Havic5

Anything from the first 3 sabbath albums or Dehumanizer. Theres also Sabatoge which has some real evil riffs.

Thelonius Monk's "Round Midnight"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vgl8HYomFCc&feature=related

"Jed's Other Poem" - Grandaddy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gxe40xXQKko

play around with minor thirds and semitone jumps, that usually sounds pretty discordant and spooky, i like: (played on any string)

---1-3-4-1-0-

kind of a classic "monster-climbing-up-the-stairs-in-a-black-and-white-horror-movie" sound

hope that helps!

:)