Harmony and melody system for a 8 x 8 grid

Question

I am in the process of creating a computer game, where a character moves in a grid sized 8 x 8 squares, i.e. 8 squares horizontally and 8 squares vertically. When the character is moving on the playing field, notes are played depending on the position of the character. Being in the same position always results in the same notes being played (by design, so that the character position can be identified without looking at the screen). Moving the character horizontally and vertically (diagonal movement or "teleporting" to non-neighbouring squares is not possible) results in a dynamic melody being played. The position of the character should be uniquely identifiable by the notes played.

I have some basic knowledge of harmonies and scales (e.g. how to construct chords, which tone combinations sound dissonant, keys, modes etc).

Currently I'm using an oriental-sounding scale (read in some guitar magazine a long time ago, don't know the name of it). I'm playing the base notes

E3, F3, G#3, A3, B3, C4, D#4, E4

when moving the character vertically (lower notes on the bottom of the sceen) and simultaneously one of the same 8 notes two octaves higher when moving the character horizontally (lower notes to the left of the screen), that is

E5, F5, G#5, A5, B5, C6, D#6, E6

so that every combination of two of these 16 notes is possible. For example, when the character starts in the bottom left square, the notes played are E3/E5. When the character moves to the right, the notes played are E3/F5. Moving down one square results in F3/F5 being played, and so on.

+--------+--------+---------+--------+--------+--------+---------+--------+
| E4 E5  | E4 F5  | E4 G#5  | E4 A5  | E4 B5  | E4 C5  | E4 D#5  | E4 E6  |
+--------+--------+---------+--------+--------+--------+---------+--------+
| D#4 E5 | D#4 F5 | D#4 G#5 | D#4 A5 | D#4 B5 | D#4 C5 | D#4 D#5 | D#4 E6 |
+--------+--------+---------+--------+--------+--------+---------+--------+
| C4 E5  | C4 F5  | C4 G#5  | C4 A5  | C4 B5  | C4 C5  | C4 D#5  | C4 E6  |
+--------+--------+---------+--------+--------+--------+---------+--------+
| B3 E5  | B3 F5  | B3 G#5  | B3 A5  | B3 B5  | B3 C5  | B3 D#5  | B3 E6  |
+--------+--------+---------+--------+--------+--------+---------+--------+
| A3 E5  | A3 F5  | A3 G#5  | A3 A5  | A3 B5  | A3 C5  | A3 D#5  | A3 E6  |
+--------+--------+---------+--------+--------+--------+---------+--------+
| G#3 E5 | G#3 F5 | G#3 G#5 | G#3 A5 | G#3 B5 | G#3 C5 | G#3 D#5 | G#3 E6 |
+--------+--------+---------+--------+--------+--------+---------+--------+
| F3 E5  | F3 F5  | F3 G#5  | F3 A5  | F3 B5  | F3 C5  | F3 D#5  | F3 E6  |
+--------+--------+---------+--------+--------+--------+---------+--------+
| E3 E5  | E3 F5  | E3 G#5  | E3 A5  | E3 B5  | E3 C5  | E3 D#5  | E3 E6  |
+--------+--------+---------+--------+--------+--------+---------+--------+

This sounds a bit monotonous and not always very pleasing to the ear, as the vertical "bass" notes do not always mix well with the horizontal higher "lead" notes.

What I'd like to do is have a unique "system" so that

• each of the squares in the 8 x 8 grid contains notes unique to that square (as is the case now)
• each pair is not very dissonant (not so currently)
• the transition from every possible adjacent square results in a pleasant succession of notes, i.e a melody (not so currently)

I'm struggling to think of a way to create such a system so that the resulting melody still sounds like a real melody with a base tone and without shifting the key of the melody.

Is it possible to create such a system, and how should I go about doing this? I'm also not necesarily limited to using two notes in every square (each square can be divided into 16 subsquares), but to develop a melodic system I thought it would be easier to concentrate on 2 notes per square and go further from there. But I'm open to all suggestions.

Some food for thought:

• the game can be though as a sequencer, where each row and line is one track, just that the track can be jumped at anytime
• you could also maybe think of this as a grid of small songs, where each line and row is a 2-bar song in 4/4
• I have made this in a very simple way, with just 8 notes horizontally and vertically, but this is of course not the end goal

Answer 1

I'm not sure if it's a good SE question as it's very much open ended, but I'll try to give some suggestions:

E3, F3, G#3, A3, B3, C4, D#4, E4

I would advice starting with regular modal scales.

E.g.

C3-D3-E3-F3-G3-A3-B3-C4 (all white keys in the keyboard)

This is called C-ionian scale. For a different sound you can simply rotate the whole sequence, e.g. D-dorian is as simple as

D3-E3-F3-G3-A3-B3-C4-D4

Please also check your octaves. It seems to me that in the third row you intended to have C4 rather than C3, and in 7th column you wanted D#6 rather than D#4.

By combining notes randomly you will still get some dissonant sounds. Is it bad for you? In music we often use dissonant sounds to produce tension, which then resolves in a more consonant sound.

If you however insist on having consonances only, I'd rather advice you to combine notes based on triads. This is simple: you take every second note from a scale, e.g.

E3-G3-B3

You can omit one note, or play them in a different order and they will still sound good, e.g.:

E3-B3-G4

You can space them even more.

E2-G3-B4

There's lot's more to explore, but if you have no music knowledge, I think this is where I should stop. Experiment with this and you will have a good base of consonant sounds.

Answer 2

I can think of a couple of systems but it would require a fair amount of work. Will I get paid if the game is a success? ;-) (joking!!!)

One is to use modulation between keys similar to the arrangement on a button accordion

and another is to always preserve the Hamming distance between adjacent chords.