Pedal Tones and Inverse Pedal Tones

Pedal tones and inverse pedal tones are two ways of adding interest to a harmonic part by use of a static tone or tones, and in some cases repeated ostinato. Today we’ll look at a few examples that demonstrate these concepts in modern music. Let’s go.

Pedal Tones

Let’s start off by defining our terms. A pedal tone (or sometimes called a pedal point) is a harmonic sequence with a static bass note continuing throughout. The idea is that one note is superimposed underneath each chord regardless of weather or not it’s a chord tone, creating a degree of dissonance and consonance that adds interest to the progression. We can hear pedal tones used in intros, breakdowns, middle eights, bridges and anywhere where we want to ground the harmony, usually building towards something.

Confusingly pedal tone does have its own wikipedia entrance relating to harmonics on brass instruments.

For example we could take the progression Cm, Bb, Ab, Gm and add a “C” below these. The C is the tonic of C minor and major third of Ab major but does not naturally appear in the chord tones of Bb major or G minor. It’s the second degree of the Bb major scale and fourth degree of the G minor scale. The pedal tone here creates a sense of tension that resolves when the cycle loops back around to C minor.

Michael Jackson – Thriller

Thriller has numerous examples of pedal tones used in it but we’ll look at the intro (00.21) and outro (04.23).

Below is the intro chords. While these are crescendoing towards the main brass theme there are parallel C#s heard in the left and right hand parts. The right hand part starts C#m9, F#m7/C#, F#/C# and C#º7. C#m9 is the tonic, as this song really is in C# dorian. The F#m7 acts as a iv chord in root position which ascends to F# (IV) in first inversion. The C#º7 is a heavily dissonant chord, perhaps slightly cliched in the cinematic horror soundtrack genre, especially the 70s Zombie movies Thriller is lampooning. The crescendo is accentuated by the top note of the chords as the climb up from D#, E, F# to G.

While the intro part is an eight bar passage taken in isolation the outro of Thriller is a loop. This is colloquially known as “the Vincent Price bit”. Here the bass part is not a sustained tone as in the intro but is a syncopated C#. I’ve added drums to the audio example for context. The organ part plays four-count chords landing on the beat going from C#, A/C#, F#sus4/C#, F#/C#. Again the top line carries this chord progression as it goes from G# to A, B down to A#.

Joe Jackson – Steppin’ Out

This is a song that uses a repeated sequenced bass part. While it might not satisfy a more classical interpretation of a pedal tone it is still harmonically similar in it’s effect.

The song is in F# major and the bass part outlines chords I, IV and V with an eighth note alternating octave pattern. Although it would seem on first glance this is a sequenced part the last bar has a chromatic ascending part to cycle back to the F# chord. The first two bars play F#maj9 in different voicings. In bars 3 and 4 we have four note triads with sevenths on top of the F# notes (Emaj7 and D#m7). Bars 5 and 6 has triads of A, B, E and B (A is non-diatonic) which is then repeated up a fourth in bars 7 and 8.

Inverse Pedal Tone

An inverse pedal tone is the opposite of a standard pedal tone in that the note (or notes) appears at the top of the chord pattern. Below are a few examples that demonstrate this to varying degrees.

Radiohead – Everything in it’s Right Place

I’ve written about this song elsewhere on the blog so I will just briefly discuss it and link to the article. The bulk of the chord progression was written by Thom Yorke who was becoming disinterested in writing songs on guitar:

I totally lost interest in playing guitar… it just didn’t do it for me any more… I started playing the piano, I’m a terrible piano player so that was kind of good… everything was a novelty… I wrote a lot of stuff on piano… the less you know about an instrument the more you get excited about it.

The song is based around C, Db and Eb major triads with an upper C, which functions differently with each chord. C is the tonic an octave above the root in C major, it is the major 7th in Db major and the major 6th in Eb major. Later on there’s also an F major chord where the C acts as the perfect fifth.

Chord of the Day: Everything in its Right Place

Neue Grafik – I Miss Something

In this track rather than having a static tone at the top of the chords we have two notes, a C# and an F. Enharmonically you could think about these as C# and E# or Db and F, but I’ve opted for C# and F to keep the chord voicings simpler.

We’re in a 3+2/4 time signature with the chords alternating between 3 and 2 two beats. I’ve given a key signature to this because the tonal centre isn’t entirely clear, the first and last bars begin with the same B9(b5) chord, which is inherently dissonant. Some of the enharmonic spellings here are for simplicity rather than ease of sight-reading. What this piece demonstrates is that harmonic complexity is easily achievable by very simple pianistic tricks; the right hand part almost doesn’t change, with just one or two notes supplementing the C# and F. The left hand part alternatives between narrow thirds or wider octaves and sevenths.

Kaidi Tatham – Your Dreams Don’t Mean A Thing

The last example is by Kaidi Tatham from his album It’s A World Before You. Like the example above it uses a static right hand chord cluster (C#, D# and F#) with the left hand doing most of the leg-work.

This eight bar section can be broken down into four two bar sections. Bars 1 and 2 demonstrate the descending harmonic pattern with bass moving down in C# dorian and the right hand part mostly playing the same three or four note cluster. Bars 3 and 4 start similarly but end on a non-diatonic Dmaj7(b5). Bars 5 and 6 seems to hint towards Bb minor (I’ve not used A# minor to avoid using B#s and E#s) with a ii, V, I IV using an A13 in-place of the Eb7. The last two bars 7 and 8 are the only example where the pedal tone isn’t maintained, adding some melodic movement to these chords.

And Finally…

Brian Krock has recently posted this video on the harmony of Sufjan Stevens. It’s good!