How to use Pedal Point to Learn Chords
1. Pedal Point?
There are few things that I enjoy more on the piano than improvising and using pedal point. It’s a unique trick that plays on the idea that we like to latch on to the familiar when listening to music. So, what is pedal point?
Pedal point, also known as a pedal tone or a pedal note is a sustained note (usually in the bass) while the harmony/chords change over the top of it. The term originates from the organ, where an organist would hold one of the bass notes that they are playing with their feet (the pedals) while moving chords on the keyboards (the hands).
Pedal point is used all of the time in various genres of music to create tension as the chords move to interesting places and clash against the sustained note to then resolve again as a chord includes the pedal note. You can often hear it in the opening of a concert as the tension is building for an artist to come on stage, or you can hear it in film music as suspense is being created.
Techniques like pedal point are incredibly useful to have in your playing backpack, as it is a collection of these types of techniques that allow you to create specific effects in your playing.
2. Triads
I have mentioned triads in much of what I talk about in my content and weekly Monday Music Tips, however it is worth mentioning once again that these are a type of chord that form the basis of all chords within music. That is to say; all chords start as a triad and then we can add, change or subtract notes from those triads to create every other type of chord.
We can make triads by playing alternating note letters; so from the notes A, B, C, D, E, F and G, the notes A, C and E would make a triad because these are alternating note letters. These notes can also be sharp (e.g. A C# E) or flat (e.g. A C Eb) versions of the notes and they will still form different types of triads.
There are many ways in which we can work out triads and which triads work well together, however for the purposes of pedal point, we simply need to know that triads are alternating letters and these can be natural, sharp or flat notes.
3. Testing Yourself
So how can pedal point help you learn chords?
Well, a great way to practice and test your knowledge of triads is to play a pedal note in the bass and find all of the triads that include your pedal note.
Let’s say our pedal note is “C”, the triads that include a C could be:
1. C E G - C major triad
2. C Eb G - C minor triad
3. C Eb Gb - C diminished triad
4. C E G# - C augmented triad
5. A C E - A minor triad
6. A C Eb - A diminished triad
7. Ab C Eb - Ab major triad
8. F A C - F major triad
etc.
Each of these triads (and many others) include the note C and therefore they will work with our pedal note. As a listener of music we like to latch on to something that is familiar and because we have a consistent note between the chord changes, our ear can follow as we move from chord to chord, no matter how unrelated those chords are. This is called a “pivot note”, a note that is used to pivot between two chords that share that same note.
Moving between chords that aren’t usually in the same scale is typically quite a difficult task, however using pivot notes allows you to move between unrelated chords seamlessly. By practicing moving between the chords that include your pedal note, not only do you add pedal point to your roster of techniques, but you will also build a knowledge of all of the chords that you can move between that share the same notes.
Here’s one for you to try to see how it works!
Pedal note: A (in the left hand, repeat the note to keep it sustained)
Chords to play in the right hand:
1. A C E - A minor triad
2. F# A C - F# diminished triad
3. F A C - F major triad
4. F# A C# - F# minor triad
5. A C# E - A major triad
6. D F A - D minor triad
7. D# F# A - D# diminished triad
8. D F# A - D major triad
Try playing these chords in the right hand alongside the pedal note in the left hand and see how it works!
Matthew Cawood
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