This is something we’re calling the White-Sabbath Technique experiment. The what and why we’ll get to in a second. How the idea was inspired was by 2 old metal bands, Black Sabbath and White Zombie. What is interesting about these 2 bands other then both of them being named after old horror flix is that their music conveys the same feeling as the movies they are named after. This got us thinking about how music and film have a undeniable sexual tension for each other. They’re just better together, movies are better with music and MTV wouldn’t be polluting the world with reality shows if it wasn’t for the music video. The basic goal of any art piece should be to get the observer to feel something. Both music and film have a great ability to convey feeling and emotion. In the greatest songs you are always given a mood, whether it’s angry, happy, scared, excited, etc. An artist can communicate these emotions for the observer to feel as well. And when you watch a movie your emotions start moving with the story as well. Whether it’s hating the antagonist or scared for the protagonist you are taken on an emotional ride.
Now what is the experiment? Well it’s simple exercise in writing music to an emotion. Bluntly, try writing music to a movie. Old horror films and especially twilight zone work really well because they typically have less music throughout which gives you space to work. You can take your time and write a score to a movie like the Birds by alfred Hitchcock or you can do what we’ve been doing and just wanking around with instruments as your watching. In our example to the right you can tell it’s nothing special played in the background but what you do have is playing with emotion. If you continually every now and then pull out the guitar, piano or what have you and just jam to a movie your ability to write and play to an emotion will increase. To be honest this is just an educated theory with results that worked for us but we could use a bigger sampling. So if this works for you too, don’t be shy and let us know.
