Songs that use Pedal Point
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📌3:55 there's a small typo where I've put the Ab/C and Bb/C chords the wrong way around. Sorry for any confusion caused and thanks to the commenter who brought the error to my attention!
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0:00 What is pedal point?
1:41 Everybody Wants To Rule The World
3:02 Eye Of The Tiger
4:35 Indiana Jones
5:18 Why is it called "Pedal point"?
6:02 Pianote
6:54 Elton John
9:55 Pink Floyd
10:34 Dominant pedal
12:09 Hurt by Johnny Cash
12:33 Genesis
13:48 Patreon
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📌3:55 there's a small typo where I've put the Ab/C and Bb/C chords the wrong way around. Sorry for any confusion caused and thanks to the commenter who brought the error to my attention!
Oh I didn't see this comment, I just commented that lol
Dude. You're videos are just stellar. Great discussions of single concepts with great examples. Mad props.
@@cameronpeterson1175 thank you!
Here's a slightly unexpected one: the old Chili's baby-back ribs commercial: "I want my baby-back, baby-back..."
Aimee mentions that in her "could a commercial be a perfect pitch jam" video at right around 4 minutes.
But what about "Within You Without You" or "Tomorrow Never Knows?" Would those even count?
W/The Supremes' I always thought is was a communique'; Western Union style, Truly learned a great lesson. Thanks.@@DavidBennettPiano
The theme of "chariots of fire" immediately comes to my mind. The sketch bit for the london olympics ceremony is based around this pedal point.
It's a little subtle but Running Up That Hill has a low C pulsating throughout the song.
CoverSolutions moment
Also, every bagpipe tune, provided by the drones. Ours are mostly tonic pedal (tunes in Bb for Highland pipes), but often dominant pedal (for tunes in Eb), or even subtonic pedal (for tunes in Cm) or rarely supertonic pedal (for those Ab Lydian tunes).
I love how at 10:38, when David tells us that till this point we had only listened to examples of tonic pedals, the "ding" that we hear is in D and then, when he introduces the dominant pedal at 10:51, the "ding" has changed pitch to an A to become the dominant of the first one. Nice touch!
your feelings are irrational
missed that, was checking my phone for messages!
@@Fire_Axus?
Stevie Nicks, Edge of Seventeen comes to mind as a great example.
Genesis uses pedal point in almost all its songs. They pretty much let it define their sound.
In the later years, yes. Abacab springs to mind.
@@cakemartyr5794 in later years yes, but in early years even more so. Its harder to think of an early song where they DON’T use it.
it's true. It's from that time between Anthony Phillips standing down and being replaced by Steve Hackett when they were doing gigs, since Mike Rutherford had to cover both rhythm guitar AND bass and ended up using bass pedals. (Meanwhile Tony Banks had to use distortion to turn his piano into something that sounded like a lead guitar tone). Even after Steve got there, it had become such a part of the Genesis sound that they continued to use it all the time. (The distorted piano being phased out after Nursery Cryme for synths)
When steve left again, turning them into the three piece, the bass pedals came back, along with Mike getting custom built guitars which had two or three necks, one for guitar and one for bass. Eventually he got one where he could literally swap the neck out for a different one depending on the song!
Very good point, evh was influenced by genesis, listen to I’ll wait on van halens album 1984
What are your favorite examples?
I was fully expecting Chariots of Fire. The Mr Bean live performance was absolutely glorious.
Thunderstruck (AC/DC) comes to mind - they run a good 2 and a half minutes into the song before they unleash the tension. Cliff Williams (their long time bassist) had a habit of using pedal point in many of their songs.
But then, maybe he's just a lazy-ass.
Almost all of AC/DC. It’s in their style. I especially like the use of the pedal in the refrain to Back in Black.
I think a great example of a type of pedal point would be in ethnic instruments such as bagpippe and sitar where the melody plays over a static drone note or notes. Actually I'd love to hear you do a discussion on that subject!
Pedal point on the electric guitar keeps the tension on Sylvia by Focus.
The intro to Jackson Browne's "Running On Empty" does this to great effect. Thanks for another great video helping us understand what's going on when we hear these techniques.
Great example and great song!
The beginning of “Doctor My Eyes” has it as well. 👍
@@mantistoboggan4967 I was thinking that too!
I love when the bass plays tonic notes of a chord progression while a guitar plays the same chord all over again. A pedal chord instead of a pedal note!
It's one of the best ways to get a prominent melodic bass part into a song.
11:15, that also sounds like "She's Gone" by Hall and Oats.
Yeah! Those two keyboard intros are VERY similar! The Hall and Oats one came first too 😮
Hall and Oates hate to be called Hall and Oates (even when spelt correctly!). They are properly Daryl Hall and John Oates. It gets worse, though: Hall has now placed Oates under a restraining order. A sad tale indeed.
tbh the jump riff has the bass doing a I-IV-V movement at the end
I noticed that also.
Supper's Ready by Genesis has a 9/8 solo part that has a single pedal point throughout! But Genesis uses lots of pedal points in their music in general
Behind The Lines is B-pedal for most of the first half of the song
One thing about the organ is that when you press a key it will sound for however long you hold it down for. It can sound for seconds or even hours if you have the stamina and patience. With the piano the note dissipates a few moments after you press down on a note. This is a big reason the pedal note concept originated with organs.
The piano I play has a sostunado pedal that sustains any note below the G under middle C, and leaves the upper notes unaffected.
It's really the only piano I've ever played. I don't know what the middle pedal does on other pianos.
@@1oolabob My sostunado pedal is the right one. It sustains all notes except the rightmost which are always sustained (as you mentionned) . But even sustained or kept pressed they dont last indefinitively (and other notes can be mixed if you continue playing while holding the pedal). The middle pedal is to mute (it puts cloth between the hammers and the strings to lower the volume) and the left pedal just brings the hammers closer.
Vangelis Chariots of Fire? Not sure if that's strictly pedal point as there's an accompanying bass part but it certainly wins on playing the same note repeatidly.
Another few iconic examples I can think of are pinball wizard by the who and the bass in a view to a kill pedalling on C to build tension.
Good example!
It is so very interesting how pedal point is quite similar to the Indian/Carnatic music concept of droning a tonal note to give almost a sonic backdrop
The concept of a drone is ancient. Note how it's present in traditional music from all around the world: Indian, Celtic, Native American,...
The organ's pedals just provided an opportunity to hold the drone note for a much longer time, without having to hit the key/string/etc. again after a few seconds. But the concept itself is much older.
@@IdiotAmigothe pipe organ did not originate that ability. The bagpipe did it before that, and the hurdy-gurdy before that, and the ancient Indian Shruti box before all of them.
@@mysteriousdeath14400 Yes, you are correct of course. When I say, "provided an opportunity" I am talking only about Western classical music. Large parts of European folk music and up to the Baroque period had bagpipes and hurdy-gurdy or similar instruments. I mentioned explicitly the Celtic (bagpipes) and Native American (drone flutes) as well as Indian musical culture (tanpura, shruti box.)
When the video introduced the concept of inverted pedal point, "Fake plastic trees" by Radiohead came to my mind. All chords throughout the entire song are strummed with the high E string in open position (yielding repeat appearances of F#m7, Dsus2 and Bm11 chords).
I always felt that the never-resolved harmonic unease this creates in the music superbly captures and complements the persistent existential tension the characters from the lyrics are experiencing ("it wears me out").
One Note Samba by Antônio Carlos Jobim is a great example of an inverse pedal
I think "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Within You, Without You" by the Beatles both make use of a pedal point.
agree !
norwegian wood too
I'm a big fan of pedal points. It's such a simple technique but very effective.
Goodbye Blue Sky by Pink Floyd is a good example of a guitar piece that uses pedal points to produce tension and uneasiness.
I really relate to this, because I adore this technique. One of the forgotten songs which featured that was Black's Sweetest Smile. That song deserves attention.
I love pedal points! If there's one in a song there's a very good chance I'll like the song as a whole.
Then you'd like Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
@@scifiordienot really…maybe you’re thinking about how metal uses the open low string a lot (E or whatever the string’s tuned to). That’s different from a pedal point though. The heavy distortion used in most metal isn’t very conducive for pedal points - that’s why you mostly see them use power chords and dyads
The main riff in Sweet Adeline by Elliott Smith has an infectious pedal point !
An incredible example of an inverted pedal point for me is the beginning of "Wonderful Christmas Time" by Paul McCartney
I guess that's more like a drone than a pedal tone.
@@Fastvoice What is the difference between a drone and a pedal point?
@@MrXyzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz A drone is a constant note above (higher than) the various chords - so not a pedal note in the original sense. That's what I hear in "Wonderful Christmas Time".
Jump was definitely one the first things I think of so I was happy to see it in the beginning as well as Pink Floyd, Us & Them is one of my favourite songs from them but they also have some other songs that have that same pedal tone like in Brain Damage, Run Like Hell and Another Brick in the Wall (Part 1) (all of which also use D as the root note). Additionally, some other songs that use pedal tones are also Pinball Wizard by The Who (F# in the intro), Master of Puppets by Metallica (E and F# for the verses), Paint It Black by The Rolling Stones (E) and the bass intro from 46 & Two by Tool with Justin Chancellor playing D in between the other notes of the riff
I just wanted to say thank you for all of your videos. I play guitar but you have helped me understand so much more theory than I ever imagined. I have tried learning more about music theory before but have always struggled. The way you explain things, and the use of your piano, makes it easier for me to understand these concepts. I look forward to your videos. Keep up the great work!
"Take The Long Way Home" - Supertramp
"Are You Old Enough" - Dragon
"Get It Right Next Time" - Gerry Rafferty
"Blueswalkin" - Sherbet
"Spacetime" - Cerrone (starting at 3min)
"Left Me For Dead" - Rob Dougan this has a VERY tasty progression, which conjures up an image of a knife being stuck into someone's back and slowly twisted:
Bm,
(an "open" D diminished - something like D, Ab, D, Ab - adding the F and/or B makes it sound too "pretty")/B
G/B,
A/B,
Bm.
Absolutely fantastic piece of music IMHO
One really great use of a moving and inverted pedal point is "Starless" by King Crimson. In the long instrumental section, Robert Fripp plays various pedal points over a repeated phrase. It's great because the pedal tone continues to rise chromatically every few measures, creating a lot of tension when using a dissonant note, releasing a bit when it's more consonant, and throughout, rising in intensity as the passage eventually reaches the point of release toward the end.
What makes this passage more interesting is that Fripp seems to be playing the same pedal tone on two different strings, and I don't understand how he actually does that. His hands aren't THAT big. ;-)
my contribution to other examples, and a rather interesting one imo, is Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Messages. Interesting because the (inverted) pedal point is a rhythmic sequence of 3 octaves of Ab throughout the tune. But perhaps the fact that it's multiple octaves of the same note disqualifies it from the pedal point classification, inverted or otherwise(?)
The pedal point in Hurt is present even in the version by Nine Inch Nails in the later part of the song. It wasn't added by Johnny Cash. He just extended to a larger part of the song.
In Teardrop by Massive Attack piano plays changes in the bass while guitar is constantly playing Dsus2, so a nice example of an inverted pedal point :)
Yet another excellent video. Not sure it’s possible to be clearer or more engaging. All the examples are a great way to constantly make these lessons feel practical and useful.
Jackson Browne's "Doctor My Eyes" and the Doobies' "Takin' It To the Streets" have pedal point in some sections.
Funny you should mention "Doctor My Eyes." I was going to make a separate post that, when I came to the bit at 9:01 , I immediately thought of that song. Even though David was really playing "I'm Still Standing."
@@widmermt : Same!
the 3rd mvt of Vivaldi's Winter also starts with a pedal point
Fantastic! I've never heard the term 'pedal point' but I know exactly waht it is as I've heard it in these and many other songs - can't think of any at the moment!
This is another one of those videos where I wish David knew more about video game soundtracks because Darren Korb is the king of pedal points which he showed especially in the Transistor soundtrack going even to the point of pedaled voicings and pedaled arpeggios. Songs like Heightmap, Signals, Vanishing Point and especially in Gateless.
I think The Edge of U2 makes a frequent use of inverted pedal point, most often coupled with his delay effect. The chorus and final part of "One" works a bit like what David explain for "Hurt by Johnny Cash. "With ou Without You" also has a single treble note repeating all through the different chords.
Todd Rundgren's music has really tasteful examples of pedal point. It would be great to see a video breaking down his music, almost no one on CZcams seems to acknowledge his work honestly
I love Todd Rundgren. Which songs?
One hit wonder for me (Can We Still Be Friends). Absolutely adore this song though
@@semyaza555the intro of Compassion comes to mind. Also Real Man but it uses two notes instead of one in the intro.
Agree that his music has been snowed under when in fact he has made some real jewels.
@@gregsullivan7408 We Gotta Get You a Woman, , Hello, It's Me, , I Just Want To Bang On a Drum All Day, , Black Maria , , I Saw the Light. Hardly a one hit wonder. Open My Eyes w the Nazz is years beyond almost anyone at the time.
Paul McCartney and Wings - Let 'Em In. I was so hoping to hear this one.
"I'm Not In Love" is an awesome song.
David, your videos are absolutely superb, and they just keep getting better. I’m an ancient bass player that found your channel through others but my excitement when you upload something new far eclipses anything put out by other you tubers. Thank you for the wonderful explanations of music theory. Truly a joy to watch.
What an great involuntary pick of 80s hits
Good content, nice presentation, clear, easy to follow, well edited and no gimmicks or pointless distraction. This is why I learn so much from your videos.
Ive always niticed this over the years while listening to various forms of music overthe years. Its nice to know the terminology and break diwn.
Hollow Talk by The Choir of Young Believers, famous for being the theme music for The Bridge TV series uses a D as a pedal point throughout much of the tune.
Anyway, thanks for putting the name to the principle!
I'm not a very good pianist so I think I stand a decent chance of actually being able to play some of these!
Watta great video watta great teacher you are,may god bless you always for helping so many musicians around the world ❤
I was going to look up a video here on CZcams but saw this and played it instead. I’m glad I did! I learned something new today! Thanks, David!
I'm happy with the new upload schedule
I don't even know if it's new but it's a good consistent one
Thanks David for this video, pedal point is very usefull to enhance the harmony and keep a tension, I love to hear this. :)
Thank you, your explanations and examples are amazing!
"Let 'Em In" by Wings uses pedal point, at least in the verses. And the pedal point oscillation (over the octave) also acts as kind of a metronome for the song, setting the tempo.
I love pedal point because it can show our ears what the tonic note is
It helps to stablish a key
I really love your videos, man. I've learned so much about music thanks to you.
Moonlight Sonata 1st movement middle section has a pedal on the dominant (G-sharp) for an entire minute (50 beats, about a minute at standard tempo)!
Beautiful ❤️ that’s another music theory thing to play around with in my DAW 👍👍
Crazy by Seal is a good example too, the bass stays the same through almost the whole song. The pedal point doesn’t have to be a single note either, it can also be a riff that consists of different notes but still conveys a strong sense of a root, and stays (mostly) the same even when chords change on top of it. Talk Talk’s Life’s What You Make It is a great example of this. Maybe an idea for a future video? 🙂
Yeah, Mysterious Ways
If Pedal Riffs are a thing, let's add Your Love is Lifting Me Higher -same riff but different chords over the top of them
Man, that music from the original - and greatest - 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' 4:52 ('Indiana Jones and...' was added later, btw) _still_ gives me goosebumps! And, no doubt, that deep bass pedal tone is one of the big reasons why. I was 12 years old when that movie came out (the _perfect_ age), and I remember going to the record store soon thereafter and buying that brand new vinyl soundtrack with such pride and anticipation! Great choice for an example, David. 👍
I liked this video in the first 30 seconds, because I know by now how well you're going to explore the subject, and how much I'll learn.
I am perhaps a different kind of musician because I have very little interest in learning to play other people's songs. Instead, I try to learn elements of music, then do my own sort of alchemy with those elements.
I "learned pedal point" on my own with my looper. I create a groove with a very simple bass line, and at some point let the upper chords change the key while the bass keeps its same simple drone. After this "harmonic takeover" I resolve the upper chords back to the key of the bass, and it gives the nice feeling of my exploration returning to a home base.
I know I didn't invent this technique, but I did discover it for myself.
I wanted you to know, David, that your lessons here give players that kind of insight/ empowerment to explore and make discoveries.
I think this is what learning music is really about, and I thank you for explaining it the clear, simple way you do.
"Held in place against its will." Absolutely made my day! 😂
Doesn't "Jump" change the bass note for the last two chords, though? I'm reasonably sure it goes from C to F and G over the last three (sus-)chords on the recording..
Great video, thanks David!
Love this one! In my band Gather The Corners I play a 6 string guitar 4 string bass doubleneck so I’m often using open note pedal points on one neck while playing the melody more so on the neck.
Great video! In Jump the pedal point actually goes to a G on the sus chord. :)
Absolutely loved this- as a beginner musician with big dreams- this video was mighty in so many ways.
There’s a lot of great inverted pedal point in musical theatre! Check out Waving Through A Window and The Wizard And I!
Pete Townsend of The Who was a MASTER of Pedal point...I Can See For Miles...Magic Bus...The Underture from Tommy, etc
I was about to mention that Tears for Fears song, but you beat me to it. Some other examples of pedal point is "Subdivisions" by Rush, where the synth bass pedals F# under a V-I vamp in the right hand. The lead guitar in the bridge of Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain" is another iconic example of pedal point, hammering away at a high E double stop.
+1 for Subdivisions. When he started playing Jump I was struck by the similarity.
I really love these pedal points! That's why I Iike bagpipe music, as an example, while I think many people are rather unnerved by it. Or, as an engineer, I sometimes had to perform work in a room where any machine was running continuously, producing sort of a pedal point sound: I just had to sing some improvised melody over this sound... (only if I was alone in the room 😉)!
Thanks yet again David. A soon as anyone mentions pedals I think of |Bach's organ works!
The intro to Talk of the Town by the Pretenders, and maybe the bass line of Drive by the Cars.
I foofing love Us & Them, I've long held that it's the single best song on DSotM
In Genesis case, is it flat two pedal point or is it half step up modulation, so C would be tonic actually?
"Questar" by Keith Jarrett, the pedal on piano and bass, "Back-woods Song" by Dave Holland, Gateway trio..."Someday my prince will come", Miles Davis version, jazz is full of pedals
I've always loved the bass pedal under the guitar solo at the beginning of Supertramp's "Bloody Well Right"!
Most guitarists I know didn’t start playing or practicing much with others until they felt more confident and comfortable with their instrument. This leads a lot of people to think they aren’t really improving because they’re trying to improve to the point of essentially playing bass drones and treble chords at the same time. It has its advantages but joining a band it can also be a thing you have to break later on. Everyone is different, but if you’re new don’t be afraid to jam with friends
“Yes, and?” by Ariana Grande just came out and uses the exact Dominant Pedal progression from 11:04! (Bb - Ab/Bb in the verses, then resolves to Eb min in the chorus)
This video helped so much to contextualize why it seemed to “change keys” between the sections. It was just using a dominant pedal in a minor key
That bass line of "Eye of the Tiger" always reminds me of the similar bass lone of "Another Brick in the Wall, part 1". The Beatles also use inverted pedal point with a constant high note in "You Won't See Me".
"Getting Better" is the Beatles song I immediately think of for having a super-trebley pedal point (to the extent that to me it's actually a little annoying).
I've been a little bit aware of what the term "pedal note" is. However, this gave me a plethora of new, and extremely fascinating information to have an understanding of what a pedal point is, and the role it can play. Also had no idea about the relation to the organ origin, that was really awesome to learn, too.
Love it!
I like the "short pedal" as well i.e. it lasts for a few chord changes. Example: In The Name of God by Dream Theater: The chorus (in Fm) has an inverted pedal point of G (second degree of the scale) throughout the first three chord changes - Fm2, Abmaj7, Dbadd#4. Beautiful!
Also, what about two notes as an inverted pedal point? Think Wonderwall by Oasis, loads of stuff by Rush (Spirit of Radio, maybe?) - where the two upper strings of the guitar play the same notes whist the chord underneath changes.
Lastly! Pedal point for pitch axis theory - where the chords/arpeggios change on top so that they reflect different modes. Satch Boogie by Joe Satriani is a classic for this.
Would Wonderwall be an example of two inverted pedal points? The E and A notes are played throughout on the two capoed high strings.
The Cab's "Angel with a Shotgun" pedals the m7 (A in the key of B minor) in its verses. It's a treble pedal, as it's an A4 (440 Hz) being pedaled.
What I find interesting is how the pedal point can convey something different in each tune/song.
Taking the Indiana Jones part and I'm Still Standing as examples: In the former it conveys a somewhat sinister sense of foreboding, whereas in the latter it adds a very strong sense of stability and enhances the self-belief conveyed in both the melody and lyrics.
@DavidBennettPiano, one of my favorite songs uses pedal point. Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) by Journey uses it all through the verse of the song and releases it for the bridge and chorus.
great vid btw Dave
thank you!
Love the jump riff
Also, there can be a subdominant pedal point as in the song "Keep on Loving You" by REO Speedwagon, it begins in F Lydian with F in the bass.
Doing the exact opposite is also very cool : playing the same chord, but changing the bass. Really nice video
Does the intro/chorus to Prince's "I Wanna Be Your Lover" share the same pedal technique?
Great video 👍
Wonderful! I’ve been hoping for years that someone would offer a neat, clear presentation on pedal bass. Thanks for doing it at last! I have a handful of other examples to suggest:
Something Here in my Heart, by the Paper Dolls (Composers: MacLeod, Macaulay)
Nice pedal bass on the tonic in first few sung bars
You needed me, by Anne Murray (Composer: Randy Goodrum)
Again, pedal bass on the tonic in first few sung bars
Care of Cell 44, by the Zombies (Composer: Rod Argent)
Tonic pedal bass for almost the whole of the "second bridge" (at 2:03) - “Walking the way we used to walk…”
They’re all here on CZcams.
Many thanks again for drawing attention to this clever device, which as you say, can do a brilliant job of building up tension and anticipation.
AFI - The Interview uses pedal point, one of my all time favorites
Rescue me by St Lucia has the best pedal point I’ve ever heard. For nearly 4 full minutes, the bass note only stays on A, shifting octaves occasionally, but never moving otherwise. After four minutes it finally changes and the sense of relief and euphoria that follows is unlike anything else.
This is one of my favorite techniques in music as it adds a different feel to the same set of chords and can differentiate different sections of songs... similarly to the Survivor example with the tonic pedal in the first verse, I thought of "Fire and Rain" by James Taylor which has a tonic pedal point of C in the third verse.
A nice instrumental example of the inverted pedal point is "The Immovable Do" by Percy Grainger. Legend has it (and this is probably apocryphal) that he was writing something while at his harmonium and the high C got stuck open.
Is there an analogous term for a *melody* that stays fixed on one note while the chords progress around it?
Some more examples:
"Prelude / Angry Young Man" by Billy Joel. That opening is the most famous, although there's ore (e.g. an inverted pedal near the end of the prelude).
"Satellite of Love" by Lou Reed. The outro.
"Downtown" by Tony Hatch, performed by Petulia Clark, is almost all pedals.
"I Kissed a Girl" by Katy Perry. The first half of the chorus.
"Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You" by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.
"Higher and Higher" recorded by Jackie Wilson.
"Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne. The verse, in particular.
"Thunderstruck" by AC/DC. I think this may be a borderline case because the pedal is a chord tone, but it's half-way through the song before that "held" note in the main guitar riff ends.
"In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins, and shame on you all for not spotting that.