🕯️ 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. For a full list of playlist Phil refers to, go to our Show Notes here: https://completelymachinima.com/maker-series-e2-phils-music-notes-horror-intervals/

🎧 About Phil Rice aka @zsOverman

Phil Rice is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, filmmaker, and storyteller whose creative work bridges the worlds of music, technology, and narrative art. With a background spanning rock, jazz, and digital media, Phil brings a uniquely analytical yet deeply emotional perspective to music theory and composition. His Maker Series: Phil’s Music Notes explores the building blocks of sound and how they shape the way we feel, think, and create — from timeless harmonic traditions to modern experimental sounds. Phil’s original music has appeared in independent films, multimedia projects, and his own albums, including Mad Hominem, where his song “Walking Papers” features a deliberate use of the tritone explored in this episode.

Through his work, Phil continues to celebrate the craftsmanship and curiosity at the heart of making music.

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For a full list of works referenced in this episode, go to our show notes web page.

Credits -
Producer/Editor: Phil Rice
Music: Phil Rice

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