How to Play The Twilight Zone Theme Song—Nee nee nee nee nee nee nee nee!

"The Twilight Zone: nee nee nee nee nee nee nee nee." We've all heard it. Most of us, if old enough, have done it. Something's eerie. Somebody ain't right in the head. You say the exact same thing at the exact same time as someone else (then you probably say "Owe me a Coke"), something goes bump in the night: "Nee nee nee nee nee nee nee nee."

Weird things that happen ("The Twilight Zone") and "nee nee nee nee nee nee nee nee," over the last 40 plus years, have become as ubiquitous as a sneeze and "Gesundeit."

The Twilight Zone is more than a hit "sci-fi" show and series of programs. It's a BRAND.

The 1959-1964 TV show was created and written by Rod Serling (along with numerous SPECIAL guest writers, including science fiction icon Ray Bradbury and Earl Hamner Jr., creator of The Waltons).

From the very first episode, The Time Element, The Twilight Zone was a huge popular (and critical) success.

A slew of Hollywood's elite made appearances on the CBS series, many early in their budding careers: Lee Marvin, William Shatner, Telly Savalas, Carol Burnett, Burt Reynolds, Shelly Fabares, Robert Redford, Elizabeth Montgomery, and dozens more.

But for all that Serling did do to create a world-wide fandom for The Twilight Zone, there's one thing he didn't do: he didn't write "nee nee nee nee," perhaps the most recognizable TV theme song in history.

That, my nee nee nee nee friends, was written by Marius Constant. Now hold on, I know there's confusion about this matter.

You will find "The Twilight Zone Theme Song" credited in many publications to Bernard Herrman. And that is true according to many sources, including Wikipedia: "From the late 1950s to the mid-1970s, Herrmann scored a series of notable mythically-themed fantasy films, including Journey to the Center of the Earth...During the same period, Herrmann turned his talents to writing scores for television shows. Perhaps most notably, he wrote the scores for several well-known episodes of the original Twilight Zone series, including the lesser known theme used during the series' first season, as well as the theme to Have Gun—Will Travel."

Herrmann also scored Alred Hitchcock's infamous Psycho, as well as Orson Welles' The War of the Worlds radio program and movie classic Citizen Kane.

Regarding the confusion over whether Bernard Herrmann or Marius Constant wrote the famous "nee nee nee nee" theme, "[Herrmann's original theme] is not the signature theme that we immediately associate The Twilight Zone with, that theme would come from the uncredited French composer Marius Constant, for the show’s second season. Interestingly, according to the insightful liner-notes [on the Twilight Zone 40th Anniversay Collection], Herrmann composed and recorded themes for the second season as well [as the fist season], but [they] were rejected in favor of Constant’s work!...That mesmerizing four-note theme? That’s the work of Marcus [sic] Constant...." —Christopher Coleman

To date, I have not been able to definitively answer the question of how Constant's score got into the hands of Rod Serling (if you know, please contact us.)

What is clear is that the following published score of "The Twilight Zone," which is indeed the most famous "nee nee nee nee" "Twilight Zone" intro theme, is credited to Marius Constant. See the music below:

Marius Constant - Twilight Zone - Sheet Music (Digital Download)

SIDEBAR: MusicNotes.com provides a terrific service. They offer "digital downloads" of sheet music, accompanied (in most cases) by a midi file of the music being played as written. For many students, especially those who are not quick readers, this is a HUGE time-saver in learning a song. (To play the midi file, you have to download the MusicNotes Player, which is free and simple to download and install.) To top it all off, the first page (with accompanying midi) of each score is available to see and hear without buying the full score. Of course you should buy the digital sheet music to actually learn the pieces thoroughly--which are in the $5 each range--but it's wonderful to be able to "sample" the song before buying, to see if it's for you. You can see exactly what we mean by clicking on the product link below which will take you to the MusicNotes digital download of the Twilight Zone Theme!

OK, now I'm gonna tell you how to play the darn thing (on piano, I can't play a lick on guitar) so you can annoy the heck out of everyone you know. (It sounds harder to play than it is likely because of the half-step voicings.)

Of course you can play it in any key but I'm going to quickly explain how to get the sound, without buying or reading the music. And I'm going to have you play it on the keyboard with two hands (hey a duet!). Once you see how it's done you can learn to play it in just your right hand as you'll need your left hand to play the dark sustained chords in the bass part (see score).

Ready?
Play Bb (high on the keyboard) in eighth notes with one finger of your right hand: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8.
Simultaneously, with your left hand, play G# (the black note immediately below the Bb you have chosen), A, G#, E in unison with the repeating Bb note. It would look like this in a weird piano-tab kind of way:

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8
Bb-Bb-Bb-Bb-Bb-Bb-Bb-Bb (RH)
G#-A-G#-E-G#-A-G#-E (LH)

Practice it SLOW until you get it and then bring it up to speed. Got it? As I said, it's easier than it sounds! You'll out-cool everyone.

NEE-NEE-NEE-NEE-NEE-NEE-NEE-NEE!

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