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Tension and release

Pollyanna

Pollyanna

Platinum Member
Not long ago Britt said that he loved tension and release in music and didn't care for music that's all release (but in stronger terms)

I went looking for threads on the subject and all I found was stuff about the tension of heads and kick pedal springs. Gotta love this community lol

So what are your thoughts on tension and release in playing? Does your band go for The Big O a lot or do you have lots of smaller moments with only the occasion breakout?

One thing I enjoy is playing a basic beat with only subtle variations, but ostensibly an ostinato, and then break out of it with a bang at a key moment. When I'm doing it I'm constanty fighting the urge to do something so when the song breaks out it's a real buzz

I agree with Britt. Turn the screws :)
 
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Yea, I read that post and Britt put it very eloquently. I try to do what jack de johnette says: ' tell a story'.

with all its requisite twists and tuns, and surprises and happy and sad moments with an unexpected developments. It calls for very good on stage communication, very good listening skills and good dynamic control. Most importantly, hold the listeners attention to the song. ( hard to do by just chugging away like a steam engine).

Tension, release, ying yang, day and night......contrast, I guess.

No sunrises worth their salt if there was no night.

Good one, Polly..Britt.

...
 
Agree on all so far. The very definition of dynamic in music is contrast. There must be a change of state, presentation, volume, timbre, tempo, etc, otherwise a dynamic (non static) condition is never realised. Tension & release is a far more subjective element in music than dynamism. The need to convey a storing of energy that highlights the release is essential in executing this feel. The element of surprise further amplifies the moment of release as tension is conveyed more effectively when the music goes beyond the anticipated point of change.

Having looked deeper than I would usually, and somewhat dissappointingly, the stuff I play at present is predictable. This gives plenty of opportunity for dynamics & interpretation but little opportunity for true tension & release. I'll hopefully get to that state once my band really gets into original material mode.
 
Don't know how many here play (have played) orchestral, but, even just being one chair (an individual,) in part of anywhere from 30 to 100 other players, you feel the energy in your fingertips as you play this piece.


Probably the two most famous from Sousa:

It's way beyond contrast.You feel the same amount of energy even in the quite parts. It is just tantilizing... IMO..

Is this what you are talking about... Tension/Release?
 
I can't even imagine what it's like to be part of the huge sound and presence of an orchestra. It must be a buzz!

An example of almost no tension and release: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9heOFFlAcFY (nice drumming and vocs by R - harder than it looks - but it ain't my music)

Heaps of tension and release here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpoiyYnzqfM

Bob Fripp's playing is almost all unresolved tenison. Adrian's guitar playing builds and releases between his rhythm playing and crazy sounds. Bill, as always, is a beast for building tension.
 
Which do you think is better for a song, release more than you builded tension up or leave a bit of tension without releasing it? What about in a context of an ending of a gig or an album? How does rhytmic tension and release relate to melody?

Just some random thoughts I got.
 
JP, I guess it depends on the song. In mainstream rock and jazz, not resolving tension in the end is usually considered to be a quirky thing to do.

I'm seeing rhythmic tension stemming from two things - syncopation and dynamics. Melodic tension can come from playing blue notes or uneven intervals like a minor third. Drummers add tension by playing off the beat and melodic instruments add tension by playing off the scale (so to speak). So a recipe for adding tension generally is Don't Play On The One.

I struggle to add tension to pretty conventional music without sacrificing taste. So if the music is tra-la-la straightlaced I tend to follow suit. I know that good players would find a way of adding more spice in a tasteful way.

I keep wondering if there's a way of looking at the music that would help me pick up the cues to add tension. All I have in my kit bag are build-ups and crossing the bar line just after transitions.
 
Pollyanna said:
I struggle to add tension to pretty conventional music without sacrificing taste. So if the music is tra-la-la straightlaced I tend to follow suit. I know that good players would find a way of adding more spice in a tasteful way.
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This is an interesting point, because a friend and mentor of mine - who is an outstanding player - sees this in the opposite way. To him, staying put without flourish is building tension - as if you're waiting for something - and it's a flourish, fill or rhythm which disturbs this trend which is the release.

I've been trying to hear music this way ever since he said it to me, and for someone who largely saw it the way you do, it's been a great experiment.
 
Boomka said:
staying put without flourish is building tension - as if you're waiting for something - and it's a flourish, fill or rhythm which disturbs this trend which is the release.
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Great post as usual Boomka. Release is the easy part in my book, it's the building of the tension (by holding back) that's the skillful part of the equation.
Great subject Polly. These are the threads I live for here, the ones that deal with the musical maturity aspect of playing.
 
It's about not giving it all away to soon outmost. Holding back when it feels right knowing when to deliver the full goods is key. Counterpoint, contrast, active and pro-active playing within a group are all in the mix. The tension you can get through the use of poly-rhythmic phrasing and density of drum playing within what is happening at any given moment within the group or with any given particular soloist within the music works too. Implied, over the barline playing or rhythmic modulation can also achieve certain tension and release effects within group playing from the drummer. These same elements all apply to in/out jazz playing for me. When playing more time based swing music playing ahead or behind the pulse can also achieve a great tension and release effect. Poly-rhythmic phrasing can help with achieving this. Think Elvin Jones or early Tony Williams as very good examples of this heard in the music. LISTENING is key.......

Also when the soloist or the general music is busy if the drummer plays less adds a certain element of tension within the music. Works the other way too if the music is more sparse around the drummer to get more busy adds a certain tension and release in that way. Just some playing and listening concepts I play off from a acoustic jazz drummers perspective on the subject.

No hard set rules but gained experience and "big ears" sure helps with understanding the happy effects of successful tension and release applied into any type of music.
 
I think of it in the context of time. If you have 30 minutes to get to work, and work is 45 minutes away, it creates tension. If you have one day to meet a project deadline, it creates tension. If you have more time, like your boss calls and says take an hour off, or your project deadline is extended a week, it releases tension.

Rushing or interrupting the expectation of the metric pulse can create tension in the same way. 3/4 against 4/4, rushes the expectation and can create tension. Syncopation will also create tension by working against the expected metric pulse. Five against the four over the bar can create tension because of the break in metric pulse; but can also relax the tension and feel because you are expanding the time.

More notes can create tension as when you move from 32nds down to 32nds triplets etc. Changes in the tempo whether through metric modulations or just simply through slowing down and speeding up will create tension.It can very sophisticated in a jazz setting.

The easiest way to see tension and release is sound vs silence. Beethoven's Fifth or Zep's Rock n Roll. You have this uptempo thrust into silence. The silence creates a sense of release; but then becomes it's own dramatic tension, like anyone on a first date can attest, and that is released in sound. the opening also has the 3 against four feel, which creates its own tension.
 
BassDriver said:
By control and release, do you mean playing behind or infront of the beat?

...and who is Britt?
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Britt is a young and very talented drummer studying & performing jazz in the Colorado area. He is a contributing forum member here. ( Hey, Britt, sounds like I know you, aye? )

By control & release, I think what Polly & Britt meant had more to do with the dynamics and intensity of the music as a whole rather than the kind of pockets you create as a drummer.

...
 
Much like art, we are taught "balance" in music. If you have taken any formal art/graphics class you have learned how to create a piece that is balanced in color and form. Music is the same way. There are rules we follow that create balance.

Breaking these rules, or boundaries, is what gives meaning and feeling to music. The click gives us the beat. Do we stick right on , or plush or lag, Do we fill our space with volume or dynamics or some other way? Or do we make the space small, or keep it big but unfilled, for affect?

This is important if you are writing scores for movies.l Yes, but, is it just as important if you are playing top forty rock/pop or whatever you are playing? Yes! But it may not be as intense as the score during the chilling thriller you are watching Saturday night.

Example. Tension and release can be created in different ways. For instance do we need to tie these together all the time? A dynamic song may give, give, give. Always releasing and causing no tension. I was surprised to go to a wedding a while back to find they are still playing "Celebration." Blew me away. But, this song provides a great release if you are dancing. Form the very beginning to the very end. The tension is already there. No need to create it with the music. A dramatic love song may provide lots of tension and never offer the release.

Breaking the rules to create the feelings you desire, (breaking the balance, or creating imbalance.) That is what to focus on. And, I venture to say this comes within. It's not a technique. You must bring this out, as a player, from your soul, from deep down inside... When this happens the technique to accomplish your feelings happens more naturally.
 
I think one of the things you're describing is the inherent tension in a bar of music. If it is 4/4 the first beat is strongest followed by the 3rd. A back beat works against the natural pulse of the beat. So you don't really need to do anything and tension is already apparent.
 
Tension and release (and emotion) are what music is built on for me.

There's moments on "Four and More" where Tony and Herbie shift to a different rhythmic device and it's just unsettling, you can feel the music pulling back and back until it finally drops back into the original tempo/feel and releases. It's a great feeling.

Or, when playing a gig and the bass player chooses to pedal a note over a section of a tune. 8 bars of harmonic 'stasis' and then it resolves to the harmony. The whole band and the listeners can feel that something has changed, and the band tends to grow over the pedal, culminating in the release.

Sometimes checking out some fantastic groove drummers, just grooving, and then they drop in an outrageous fill, over the barline and releasing at some abnormal point. It's tension, but everyone who's listening can feel the release as the band keeps grooving afterwards.

It's as Britt said: music without tension is bland and unappealing, music without release it's hard to stand for more than a short period of time.
 
Can tension and release be subjective things also? When I first started listening to fusion or european jazz I was quite overwhelmed by the tension. Didn't get any other feeling out of it than "oh my, this makes me sit funny on this chair", so extreme tension for me that never really was released. Now I understand the styles a bit better and can get more emotion out of it, I can also find more relaxed parts inside songs where I can feel the release. But this wasn't always the case, and I don't know, at first it was the exact extreme amount of tension that brought me to these styles. Some times it can be so intense that I notice grasping for air myself. =P

One thing about this topic bothers me, if everyone (who has contributed to this thread) is right, then you can't really do anything wrong. If you play it safe and just "do your job" and lay a solid groove, holding back, someone will say that'll create tension and it's a good thing. I for one would be bored to death. I need friction, be it an extreme syncopation or layers of polyrythms before the tension starts to happen. Merely playing a click on the back ground doesn't do it for me. There has to be change for a tension to happen. It's like Newton's law in physics, if an object is standing still OR traveling at constant speed the amount of energy applied to it is zero. But if it accelerates or slows down there's energy involved. That's how I see tension and release.

What I find interesting though is that syncopation and polyrythms give me different kind of satisfaction. When I'm in nice deep pocket with our bassist I have a bit different smile on my face than when I'm playing different time signatures with every limb and our guitarist tries to follow some of them. They are all tension but different kinds.

I play highly improvised music so we play around with dynamics and build-ups a lot. What I find frustrating is when I have builded up for a good 15-30 minutes and then guitarist decides to just let it all go down to toilet. Yeah, it could be also my fault, didn't read the situation correctly or something. But these kinds of things are the main issues with our band at the moment. How to communicate these ideas of tension and realease with band mates to really nail it while still improvising.

Good stuff indeed.
 
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