Reflections on Rope 

The fine art of Tension - Sonx (6/1/26)

In sound mixing, it is well understood at the professional level that the louder the sound, the more the different frequencies of sound level out their amplitude. And so if you have bad sound, turning it up can hide that it is bad due to the levelling effect.

For this reason, any competent sound engineer will do most of their work at quieter volumes, where they can fix issues and overall create better soundscapes. And worth noting is that while some sound systems do have eq settings (which some users get right, but most get wrong), often the standard basic control available is turning it up or down. So if it wasn't fixed when the tools were available, then chances are turning it up is the only way to make it sound good.

I have come to believe that what volume is to sound, tension is to rope. If you tie tighter, you may well have ties that are better for using in suspensions, but it will be a compromise instead of correcting the errors that lesser tension would let show. And while it will work for a time, it has a finite usage, because much like loud sound eventually damages the ears (especially if it has poor mixing in it), so too will high tension affect joints and other body parts from cumulative exposure.

And yes, it is also valid to examine a tie you want to learn in light of this concept. Does it rely on tension, or is it engineered well enough that it will function at a looser tension? (Tensions do need to be good, but good and tight are not the same thing). Sure, learning something without high tension is harder. As with the sound mix example, there are more controls, and you need to manage many more things to get the same result high tension might give you (a person tied up and safe enough to fly). But how long will it be before their body cannot handle the repetative strain of rope preasuring joints (etc) and is unable to handle the rope at all? (I'm certainly aware of people who were doing rope when I started that don't anymore for this reason, so this is pretty demonstratable, as is others who are still modelling for rope at a much older age because their rigger didn't resort to tight in place of good.)

This why we teach people to tie it looser, aiming for just tight enough to sit on the body without being sloppy, and focusing on balance of tensions throughout the tie instead of settling for it being tight. Then, once they have the tie in balance, if needed, we might raise tension slightly, which is easier than starting tight and ramping back later (speaking from experience, that is much harder)

Now I know this view may not be popular, since many come to rope wanting the tight bondage feeling, and see this as negating that very specific aspect of rope. And some groups and people have and still teach to tie tightly right from the start (as I was originally taught) . However, just like a song that is mixed quiet sounds good loud, so too what is well tied at low tension will perform better when tied tight. And if you want to enjoy tying with your people for many decades, then definitely consider whether this might be a thing for you also.

It certainly was for me