“All you need is three chords and the truth.”
At it’s core, all music can be considered an interplay of tension and release. The degree of tension can come from dissonance vs. consonance, orchestration, dynamics, or a hundred other musical elements. The key to using tension and release is balance. With too much tension and no release the tension can become unbearable and the music unlistenable. On the reverse side, if the music is too neutral with little to no amount of tension it can be dull and lifeless.
One reason great chord progressions sound good is because they are well balanced in their use of tension and release. In this tutorial we’ll examine the very basic steps of harmonic progressions to understand how this balance works.
