gen-explain-consonance-and-dissonance-as-you-would-to-a-capable-35cc

Explain consonance and dissonance as you would to a capable student, in 3-4 sentences.

In music, **consonance** refers to combinations of notes that sound stable, pleasant, and resolved—like notes that "agree" with each other harmonically. **Dissonance**, by contrast, describes note combinations that sound tense, unstable, or clashing, creating a sense that they need to move or resolve to something else. Most Western music uses dissonance to build tension and consonance to release it, creating the musical equivalent of a question-and-answer or tension-and-release pattern. What sounds consonant or dissonant can vary somewhat across cultures and musical styles, but intervals like octaves and fifths are nearly universally perceived as consonant, while minor seconds and tritones typically sound dissonant.