I made myself an stand-alone reference tool that I keep open while arranging in Cubase. You pick a feeling you’re going for — anger, hope, longing, dread, whatever — and it walks you through what to actually change: mode and harmony, tempo, dynamics, instrumentation, how things build over time. Most of it is grounded in actual emotion-music research (Zentner & Grandjean’s GEMS model, Eerola & Vuoskoski’s valence/arousal coordinates, Vempala & McAdams on brightness, among others), and everything is tagged by evidence tier so you can tell a controlled finding apart from a craft convention or a Hollywood habit. The Crow Hill mode spectrum is baked into the harmony side of it.
Built it mostly because I don’t always trust my own gut read on what I’m feeling, and wanted something more reliable than vibes to lean on. There’s also a set of optional genre “costumes” (horror, fantasy, etc.) you can layer on top.
Free for anyone to use — sharing it here because I’d love to know what you all think, and where it falls short.
Heya Eleri, Thanks for having a look and your feedback. Sorry to hear it looks complex, as I tried to do the opposite: simplify how to evoke certain feelings.
If you could change anything you wanted, what would you change to make it simpler/more accessible?
It looks very good for getting ideas and also that you can add further criteria too and that when you select extra things the guide itself will change. And that you can look at the references too. That’s brilliant
Thanks, that’s very kind of you! Also great to hear it’s proving to be a useful tool to you. Cheers! By the way, I’d be happy to send the html file over if you’d like. Then you’d have a copy of the tool regardless of the state of the internet. Just send me a DM and we’ll sort it out
