Tension and Resolution in Chord Progressions
You're going to discover why some chords make you want to keep going and others make you want to stop, and how to use that play of tension and release so a loop keeps rolling on its own.
In the previous part, you learned how to build the chords of a key. So you know that in C major, you have seven chords at your disposal. That leaves the question every producer asks in front of the piano roll: in what order do you play them? This part answers it, and it starts with the idea that explains almost everything else: tension and resolution.
A chord that asks for what comes next
Listen to the next figure. Four chords in C major, one per bar, with the root doubled in the bass. Pay special attention to the move from the third bar to the fourth.
You probably felt it: the chord in the third bar, G7, creates anticipation. It sounds good, there's nothing wrong with it, but it doesn't sound finished. When the C major chord arrives next, something relaxes, like a question getting its answer. Musicians call this movement a resolution: a tense chord resolves to a stable one.
Now try the experiment in your software: stop playback right on G7. The feeling of a phrase cut short is very clear. That urge to hear what comes next is what moves music forward. A loop with no tension at all falls flat; a well-built loop makes you want to hear the next time around.
Three roles for seven chords
The chords of a key don't all play the same role. Tradition sorts them into three families, which are called functions. The tonic is home: it's the chord built on the first note of the scale, the one where you feel you've arrived. The subdominant is the departure: it takes you away from home without creating much tension. The dominant is the way back: it's the most tense chord, the one that calls for the tonic.
| Function | Degrees | In C major | Feeling |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tonic | I (often vi, sometimes iii) | C (Am, Em) | Stable, you've arrived |
| Subdominant | IV, ii | F, Dm | Departure, opening up |
| Dominant | V, V7, vii° | G, G7, B° | Tension, waiting for the return |
Why does the A minor chord end up in the tonic family? Because it shares two notes with C major, C and E. So it can take its place without changing the journey much, while sounding darker. In the same way, D minor shares two notes with F major, F and A, and that's why it can play the role of subdominant. The E minor chord is more ambiguous: depending on the context, you hear it more as a tonic or as a passing chord.
The leading tone, the note that wants to rise
Where does the dominant's tension come from? Look at the notes of G7 in the next figure. There you'll find B, the seventh note of the C major scale, sitting just a half step below the tonic C. This note is called the leading tone, because it's so close to the tonic that it seems drawn toward it.
In G7, two notes want to move. The leading tone B wants to rise a half step to C, and the chord's seventh, F, wants to fall a half step to E. These two notes are a tritone apart, the most unstable interval, and when they slide, one to C and the other to E, the tritone closes onto two notes of the C major chord. Listen to these two movements on their own, then to the two chords.
That's why the dominant is so useful. It isn't just tense: it clearly shows where to go. Once your ear has heard G7, it expects C major, and the loop that delivers it sounds satisfying.
In minor, a leading tone you have to create
In A minor, the natural scale has a problem. Its seventh degree is G, a whole step below the tonic A, not a half step. So the dominant chord built from the scale, E minor, written v in lowercase, is much less drawn to A minor. Listen to the same loop in two versions: first with E minor, then with E major, where G is replaced by G♯.
The second version changes only one note, and yet the return to A minor becomes much sharper.
That G♯ comes from the harmonic minor scale, which you met in the part on scales. That's why so many minor loops, in trap as in classical music, use a major dominant chord while all the other chords stay in the natural scale. In Roman numerals, it's written in uppercase, V or V7, to tell it apart from the minor v.
Cadences, or how a phrase ends
A cadence is the way a musical phrase ends, that is, the last two chords before a pause or before a new start. There are four to know, and you've heard every one of them hundreds of times without naming them.
| Cadence | Movement | In C major | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perfect (authentic) | V then I | G then C | Full stop, very conclusive |
| Plagal | IV then I | F then C | Gentle ending, an “amen” effect |
| Half cadence | Stop on V | Stop on G | A comma, an open question |
| Deceptive | V then vi | G then Am | Surprise, the expected ending is avoided |
The deceptive cadence is worth listening to, because it's very useful in production. Your ear expects C major after G7, and gets A minor instead. Since A minor belongs to the tonic family, the surprise stays gentle, but the phrase doesn't close: it starts up again.
What keeps a loop moving
In electronic music, chords often cycle in four-bar loops. So the last bar is never really the end: it leads into the first bar of the next time around. That's where functions become a tool. If your loop ends on the tonic, each pass closes itself off, and the whole thing can feel like it stops every four bars. If it ends on a dominant or a subdominant, the end of the loop pushes toward its beginning, and the music moves forward on its own.
Listen to this loop in C major, which ends on G. Let it go around two or three times: the return to C, on each new pass, sounds like a small perfect cadence.
None of these rules is a law. A loop that ends on the tonic can work perfectly well, especially if the drums and the melody bring the movement. But when a loop seems to go around in circles and you can't tell why, look at its last chord first.
In C major, your progression gives C, F, G7, C, one chord per bar. Click a chord in your progression to select it, then a roman numeral to replace it: the numerals stay the same in every key, only the chord names change.
Borrowed chords come from another scale on the same tonic: ♭VI, ♭VII and iv come from minor and darken the loop.
Here's a loop in C major that goes around in circles a bit: C, Am, F, then C. Replace the last chord so the end of the loop launches the next pass. Try at least two solutions, then do the exercise again in your software.
Now that you know why one chord calls for another, the next lesson introduces the chord progressions you'll find in a large share of today's music.