Good music almost alway works by creating tension, and then releasing that tension. Typically, music will start by establishing a home, it will then move away from that home in a way that creates tension, and it will then release the tension in a way that takes the listener back home, or that arrives at a new home.

Thinking about how to create tension and how to release it helps greatly in figuring out how to construct a solo. At the start, all we are concerned about is learning the licks and maybe stringing them together. In doing that, we often become very focused on the technique, and forget that the phrases we are playing are supposed to go somewhere. I know I have been guilty of that, off and on, for years. Usually, when I find myself falling into the same boring patterns, its because I have concentrated too much on the guitar and not enough on the music.

There’s an opportunity to create tension and to release in all of musics elements.

Harmonic Tension – A piece of music will start by establishing the home base, the key. This orients the listener. The chord changes will move the piece away from the tonic of the key, and then will bring the music back to resting areas, and ultimately back to the tonic itself.

The harmonic move away from the I chord is typically what creates tension, and the shift back to the I chord or to another tonic creates a resolution. A move that resolves harmonic tension is generally called a cadence, and the classical theorists have come up with names for all different kinds of cadences: authentic, plagal, half, deceptive, and on and on. All cadences involve a release in tension, and a resting place (even if it is temporary).

A soloist can use the idea of harmonic tension by building his solo by progressively adding more dissonant intervals, and then resolving it by moving back to basic chord tone intervals. For example, lets say you are near the climax of a solo, and you are aiming to hit the Root of the one chord on the beat. You might get there by playing dissonant intervals just around the root, like playing a C# just before playing the C.

Melodic Tension – There are two basic ways that melodic lines create tension. Through skips, and by increasing pitch.

Typically, a large leap will be followed by movement in the direction opposite the leap. So, if you are playing, and jump up a sixth (say from C to A), It is likely that you would follow that with a scale wise step down, to G. You could break this “rule,” and continue upwards, but by doing so you will be creating even more tension and you will need to figure a way to release it, or you risk losing the listener.

As you near the climax of a solo, you will tend to have the notes go higher and higher. I have no idea why this is true, but we seem to be built to prefer melodies that raise to a peak, and then go back to home. And we will tend to identify the highest note in a melody as the climax. Since that’s true, its best to be aware of it and try to use it to your advantage.

If you are playing a solo, and you race up to the 20th fret in the second bar of the solo, you will have left yourself nowhere to go. If your solo, however, goes up to one interval and returns home, then goes to a higher on a second phrase, and then hits a peak towards the end, people will tend to be much more satisfied by it.

Dynamic Tension – Not much to say here. We start a piece by creating a home in terms of loudness as well. Moving away from that level of loudness will create tension. Typically, going louder tends to create more tension. Resolution of dynamic tension often comes just by stopping the crescendo or decrescendo.

Rhythmic Tension – In general, long beats tend to have less tension than short beats. Also syncopation tend to have more tension. This is again very useful in building a solo. You don’t need to play fast to impress people with how fast you are. Rather, you need to start slow, and play faster in the right places.

The trouble with shredders is that they are so busy impressing you with how many notes they can play, and the barrage of notes quickly becomes boring. It is something of a relief when they hit and sustain that high note with wretched harmonics on it. But its pretty ho hum.

Instead, if you start with a rather simple rhythmic pattern and then make it more complex, add more notes within the pattern, and syncopate, you will likely create something much more interesting. Then, knowing where the climax of the solo is, that may be where you take the opportunity for a quick flurry of notes.

Tonal Tension – Again, this one is pretty obvious. You establish a tonal palette at the beginning of a piece. You can create tension by veering from the tonal palette, most likely from clean to dirty or processed. And you can release that tension by returning back to home, or to something that feels like a new home.

I’ve probably missed some things that some people might consider a musical element. Also, there are other ways to create tension than what I’ve described here. Minimalist music, for example, creates tension through repetition. That sometimes happens with Groove music. We expect there to be some change in music, and when it repeats and repeats, that creates a tension by playing against expectations. Thus, when the change occurs, it gives the listener a feeling of release. There are some one chord blues songs that work in this way, but its not typically the type of thing that we would be dealing with.