I was planning on making a track with the famous Phrygian scale for a long time now, but today was the day when Im finally doing it, after a long period of procrastination.
Making music is almost like writing a diary, sometimes it comes naturally but other times you have the idea on your head but you have to wait until it marinates for a few days in your soul until it finally comes out. I feel like this is the case.
I remember back in the day when I was a kid, I used to write my day to day in a diary if work on an old laptop, and Im planning on getting back to it eventually, but you see nowadays since I use different forms of expressions, there are feelings and emotions that words just cant express and thats when I use music.
This is the case, the concept of this track is Shadow work, I wanted to capture that dense feeling of facing our inner demons to be a better person. Thats basically what shawdows work is in psychotherapy its the process of exploring and integrating the parts of ourselves that we've repressed or ignored, its like facing those inner ideas, those concepts, those things that we have hidden in our deepest corners of our being, I feel like you cant grow to be a better human if you keep living in denial. Sometimes we have to take the bull by the horns and just deal with it. Thats the concept, it goes well with the dark night of the soul, a term that is also similar but in a more mystical aspect and its also a process where we have to pass in order to get the better version of ourselves from within.
So this concept is really deep, thats why I use this scale. Today is raining and cloudy in my city and maybe thats why Im in this mood.
What is the phrygian scale?
Well techinically its a seven-note scale that is a mode of the major scale, I wanted to make a track using this scale because it sounds mysterious and deep, that goes very well with the concept of shadow work.
The software that I use to make music is Fl Studio and this has an option where its easier to highlight the notes of many scales and you can choose this one too like this:
Lately I have been doing atmospheric ambient music, but I wanted to challenge myself today going back to my roots making a trap type beat.
What I like to do when I make tracks is playing live and and use the CAMTASIA screen recorder by Techsmith, playing live its so much better because the sound is so much different, it sound more warm because its organic, it sounds more human, programming its more mechanical.
And a bonus its that it has a feature where I can master the track after the recording. Very easily just by draggin a line.
These are the notes I used for this track, the sound I used is Xylocarillon, its a bell sound. The characteristic of bells is that the sound is mystical and dark, for this particular track I think is the best since Im using the phrygian scale, so the equation would be:
bells + phrygian scale = perfection
Its a match made in heaven basically.
Now for the synths I used a sound called "HELL" this is one of the most distorted synths I use, it sound too raw. It goes well with the concept of the track of "Shadow work" and with the use of this scale.
For the texture I used a sound of the plugin called Sytrus called Ambiance, this is a really cool sound because its atmospheric and it has a dreammy vibe to it. Actually I used in the intro part of the track because it sets the tone for the whole track specially using the fast distortion number 3 with the "fruity Wave shaper" filter on the master, its just something extra that gives a whole vibe to everything.
Artwork
For the artwork I wanted to use a very cybernetic aesthetic but at the same time I wanted light colors, why? because I want to make a contrast of the concepts, it would be boring to make a dark sounding track with a predictable dark theme generic style of art, so that why I choose to use a photography of an Angel I took in Quillacollo a few months ago, that fit perfectly with the concept, because to make a proper shadow work is so difficult that its actually an angelic endeavor, I think actually is something supernatural just because its so difficult.
I choose this filter because its like electric and it goes well with the logo of the track, its a font called "Dark Garden" I really dig this contrast of concepts of light/dark there is something poetic in it.
YOUTUBE VIDEO:
I feel like this track has a vibe that I really want to explore more, this "dark trap" feeling is something I wanted to get back for a long time and I will keep doing more. I loved this experience of stepping out of my confort zone, I think its important in art daring of trying new things, so I will keep exploring more genres and more rythms in the future.
After finishing this track I came to the conclusion that Im pretty sure that making music (and art in general) is my type of psychotherapy, its my most personal inner shadow work! whats yours?
Thanks for visiting the blog! Until next time with more art and more music!
