Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Love game music but don't know what to learn next? Start with the free 6-Level roadmap: bestmusiccoach.com/roadmap?htrafficsource=yt&el=use-home-tones-vs-adventure-tones-to-control-tension
When we're thinking about melodic tension and resolution, I'm always thinking about full resolution versus light resolution. Full resolution is going to be landing on scale degree one. Light resolution is going to be landing on scale degrees three or five. Now that's when we look at the melody by itself. Once we layer chords underneath, we then need to ask, okay, is the note a chord tone or is it not a chord tone? Because then you're balancing the tension resolution between the note relative to the scale, which is thinking horizontally, right? So scale degree one, three, and five, these are going to be our home tones, scale degrees two, four, six, and seven, flat six, flat seven, depending on the key. Those are going to be our adventure tones. Is the note over the chord a chord tone or a non-chord tone? Because if the note is in the chord, it'll create a resolution relative to the harmony. And if it's not a chord tone, it'll create some type of tension relative to the harmony. And it's the balancing of those two types of tension and resolution, the horizontal and the vertical, that allows us to have complete control and understanding of the overall tension and resolution we're going to see from the notes of our melody, not necessarily the rhythm, because we didn't talk about the rhythm here, but this is just notes by themselves. This tip is brought to you courtesy of page 138 from the new book called Compose Legendary Video Game Music. It's available for purchase on Amazon now.
Love game music but don't know what to learn next? Start with the free 6-Level roadmap: bestmusiccoach.com/roadmap?htrafficsource=yt&el=use-home-tones-vs-adventure-tones-to-control-tension
When we're thinking about melodic tension and resolution, I'm always thinking about full resolution versus light resolution. Full resolution is going to be landing on scale degree one. Light resolution is going to be landing on scale degrees three or five. Now that's when we look at the melody by itself. Once we layer chords underneath, we then need to ask, okay, is the note a chord tone or is it not a chord tone? Because then you're balancing the tension resolution between the note relative to the scale, which is thinking horizontally, right? So scale degree one, three, and five, these are going to be our home tones, scale degrees two, four, six, and seven, flat six, flat seven, depending on the key. Those are going to be our adventure tones. Is the note over the chord a chord tone or a non-chord tone? Because if the note is in the chord, it'll create a resolution relative to the harmony. And if it's not a chord tone, it'll create some type of tension relative to the harmony. And it's the balancing of those two types of tension and resolution, the horizontal and the vertical, that allows us to have complete control and understanding of the overall tension and resolution we're going to see from the notes of our melody, not necessarily the rhythm, because we didn't talk about the rhythm here, but this is just notes by themselves. This tip is brought to you courtesy of page 138 from the new book called Compose Legendary Video Game Music. It's available for purchase on Amazon now.
