'Skeleton Assassin's Jam' - New Original Music! Submission for the Steem Monsters Art Contest! Electronic/Orchestral Percussion/Instrumental + Walkthrough!

grapthar (74)in #music • 6 years ago

Here is my submission

for the newest STEEM MONSTERS Art Contest! I wanted to use either a marimba, xylophone, or vibraphone for a "boney/skeletal" sort of effect, and I think the cartoony/whimsical sort of feel fits with the "style" of the artwork on the cards. I also built up some orchestral percussion around it, along with a single staccato cello line to fill in the bass part. Let's go through it!

Listen to the Skeleton Assassin's Jam here.

We have a couple of groups

of instruments, so lets start with Group 1. We have 2 marimba tracks, the first providing our basic harmonies, and the second the little rolls that build up more into the song. There are 3 parts, Pink, Blue and Grey. The Grey section is interesting, as we move to the parallel major of C#major, to an F#major. However, we also have a Cmajor which adds a really cool dissonance that I feel fits with the general "undead" theme. There is also a glockenspiel which doubles the progression of Track 2.

Track 2, Pink, Blue and Grey combined.

Group 2 contains

the cymbal wash that leads into the 2nd half of the song, and a cymbal hit after the wash. The next group contains the timpanis and the crotales which adds a high sort of bell effect. Finally in this group, we have a bowed vibraphone effect that drones on a C# over the "Grey" section of Track 2.

Listen to the Skeleton Assassin's Jam here.

Finally, we have Tracks 13 and 14

with 13 adding the organ in the background, and 14 our cello part. The cello accents some of the timpani hits, but also adds some syncopation throughout to keep things rolling. I have attached a screenshot below showing one of the 4 bar sections the Cello plays.