I am going to be researching techniques and musical approaches used in ambient music in video games, this will help me understand how to effectively compose my own ambient music which blends into the gameplay of the video game I am composing for. As I do not want my music to stand out too much in relation to the video game, as this defeats the purpose of ambient/background music in video games. Therefore I hope researching into ambient music will teach me how avoid drawing attention away from the gameplay with my music, furthermore making it seamlessly blend with the gameplay.
Ambient Music In Fantasy Games
Fantasy video games include various genres and types of music that accompany the gameplay such as; combat music, safe area music, exploration music, safe room music and more. I myself will be incorporating some of these genres into the video game music I am composing for, which is why I am researching this genres to learn more about the techniques used in each musical genre to create a professional music composition. Explorative music is the music that plays in the background while a player is a exploring a specific location in the video game. Commonly exploring music in video games is composed through locational scoring, which I have talked about on the ‘Composing Video Game Music’ page from this project. Locational scoring is basically when the music personifies the location based the structure, significance or general aesthetic. Usually explorative video game music fits into the genre of ambient music, in most other forms of music the goal is to direct the listeners attention to the main melody, hook or riff. Therefore ambient music minimises use of hooks and stand out motifs so that the players do not focus too much on the music. However ambient music in video games is only meant to accompany the gameplay by creating atmosphere and a landscape of sounds without the music taking too much attention away from the gameplay. Some words associated with ambient video game music are; slow, simple, soft, atmospheric, dreamy, cloudy and unfocused. (cite)
Tempo, Rhythm and Contrast
The tempo of ambient music is typically very slow with tempos an average between 50-80 BPM, in ambient music the lower you go in tempo the more relaxed and ambient the music will become.This is because higher tempos are associated with higher intensity music and may rush the player through the game. Rhythm in music provides blasts of energy and action to your music, therefore less rhythm creates a more ambient track (Baggström, 2022). In this genre of music you will see longer and fewer notes with a minimised sense of rhythm to add more atmosphere to the music. To avoid ambient music drawing attention to itself the dynamics should primarily be soft in order to give the music a relaxed and atmospheric vibe. High contrasts in the; dynamics, structure or rhythms of the music create a sense if intensity and action within the music, therefore in the ambient music genre high contrast musical transitions should be avoided to make the music sound smooth (Baggström, 2022).
Chords and Voice Leading
Long and sustained chords are very common in ambient music due to it’s slow and relaxed tempo. In ambient music it is rare to find dissonant chords as they are usually being sustained for 1,2 or more bars, therefore having a dissonant chord played down for a long duration can sound distressing and draw attention from the video game (Baggström, 2022). This is why ambient music uses consonant chords most of the time. A consonant chord is made up of notes that all sound harmonically pleasing such as major and minor triads as well as 7th chords. Sometimes suspended chords are used in ambient music to give the music a sense of “longing and ambiguity” (Baggström, 2022). Voice leading is a very common harmonic technique used in ambient music as it helps chord transitions sound smoother and using shorter intervals between the chord transitions. I already know about voice leading because of my work on Project 2’s composition module last year (Baggström, 2022).
Instruments and Sounds
Ambient music is diverse when it comes to instrumentation as it is up to the composers own musical taste and creative decisions when making their ambient instrumental arrangement (Baggström, 2022). However in ambient music sharp and plucky notes are often avoided as they can stand out to the listener and sound aggressive, therefore instruments with slower and softer attack speeds are more commonly used in ambient music to give the music a more delicate and atmospheric tone. However sometimes plucking notes sparingly from instruments such as harps and acoustic guitars, has a naturally long reverb and decay which can help and atmosphere to your ambient music (Baggström, 2022). However using too much plucky timbres in this genre can draw too much attention to the music and remove some of the ambience from the music. Long legato string articulations are often used in ambient music due to their smooth and calming texture. However tremolo articulations are very rough and create unsettling and focused music, which is why you rarely hear tremolo strings inside of ambient music (Baggström, 2022). Bright and shrill frequencies are also rarely used in ambient music as it can pierce through the music and draw too much focus to the music, due to the strain the frequencies produce on the listeners ears (Baggström, 2022).
Transitions and Changes
Sudden changes in the elements of your music such as; dynamics, rhythm and structure can give the music a sense of urgency and therefore builds up intensity in the music. Therefore in ambient music it is important to have few transitions that are smooth to preserve the ambience and atmosphere within the music (Baggström, 2022). In ambient music transitions are made to feel seamless and smooth, as their is rarely build ups of tension or accented transition points in ambient music at it commonly disrupts the flow of the music. In conclusion ambient music should have minimal changes as and non that feel abrupt as this will ruin the atmosphere of the piece, therefore it is important to have few changes in ambient music to keep the smooth flow of the music (Baggström, 2022).
Source List
Baggström, M., 2022. How to write Ambient Music. [online] Professional Composers. Available at: <https://professionalcomposers.com/how-to-make-ambient-music/> [Accessed 25 April 2022].