Rock Around the Croc: Moving Chords Over Static Pedal Points

Happy Sunday, you brand new packs of Lifesavers, it’s fancy-pants music Sunday. I’m your host Sobek, and today I’m going to focus on one specific music technique. Ready? Awesome!

Last week, I was talking about Gustav Holst’s “Mars,” and I wrote, “We have harmonic dissonances caused by moving chords over static pedal points (a cool effect that I’ve never had time to discuss in one of these posts).” Well today’s your lucky day, because I have some time now.

In music, a pedal is defined as “a tone sustained by one part, usually the bass, while other parts progress without reference to it.” In pop and rock, it basically means you’re laying down eighth notes to create a driving rhythm while the guitar and vocals are doing something a little more intricate on top. Cliff WIlliams of ACDC famously plays almost nothing but eighth notes, prompting a lot of bass players to say he sucks, but the reality is he recognizes his proper role in creating the sound and knows how to play what the song requires. Here’s Who Made Who. You’ve probably heard this a million times, but pay close attention to the bass this time:

And that’s it, just a ton of eighth notes while Angus creates the texture that makes the song worth listening to. That’s how a pedl works.

A static pedal means you hang out on the same note. In the ACDC song, Cliff plays nothing but Cs for twenty-five full seconds, then A, then G, then back to C. Within those measures, it’s a static pedal.

Adam Clayton is another bass player who doesn’t always get much love, and he plays a lot of pedals. That’s fine, that’s what the songs need, and if you know what to listen for, you know there’s more going on that just “he’s playing a bunch of eighth notes!”

So that’s what pedals are. Tons and tons of songs use them.

Now let’s focus on something you can do with pedals that goes beyond just hitting eighth notes for a three minute run-time. This is Walk This World, by Heather Nova, and I’m choosing this particular video because the bass is a bit louder in the recording, and so that you can see what’s going on a little better:

This song features a moving bass line over a static chord, all on the same instrument, which I think is pretty cool. On the second and fourth beats, you can see the 7-9-7 moving up the neck. That first 7 is an A, so beats 2 and 4 are basically A-chords. Meanwhile, beats 1 and 3 start on 7, then down to 6, to 5, to 4, before repeating. Those notes are E, D#, D and C#. Since the A chords aren’t going anywhere, and the descending 7-6-5-4 is going somewhere, you have an effect where the bass creates this tension/resolution effect all by itself by keeping the chord static and moving the bass line out from underneath it. Even if you don’t understand chord notation, you can see at the top of the screen that there’s a Em (shorthand for E minor), which is a pretty simple chord, but the next one is bonkers, Em7M/D#. The only reason you can play something like that and not get fired from the band is because you’re about to move away from it soon afterwards, but by playing it, you create that dissonance that I mentioned when talking Holst. Hopefully this makes sense.

One of my two favorite Deftones songs does this, and I absolutely love it. This is Risk, from the album Diamond Eyes:

There’s so much going on in this song to make me love it, and I won’t talk about it all. For today, just notice that after that first chord in the beginning, we move into main riff, which is mostly a descending line. But if you aren’t paying attention, you can easily miss that the bass and guitar aren’t moving at all. It’s the keyboard, playing a high, ethereal sound that puts the strings into a different context and thus creates the illusion of movement. It’s such a neat effect. You can see it better if you watch a bass cover:

So there you go, that’s what Gustav Holst and the Deftones have in common, aside from their ability to rock your face off, and now you know how musicians can trick you into hearing something that isn’t even there. If you don’t agree that Risk is one of the greatest rock songs of all time, then I love you anyway, but you’re wrong.

Last week I discovered a band called Flower Face, completely by accident, just because one of the songs was called Jupiter, and I was writing a post with a planet theme. Since then I have listened to the album Baby Teeth about 900 times, and I’m in love. I encourage you to check out the whole album, but if you don’t have time, then my three favorites are Baby Teeth (when the full instrumentation kicks in at 0:52 it blows my mind):

Angela:

and Always You:

All three of those songs are so, so much better with headphones, by the way, so you get the full wall of emotional impact.

And that’s it for this week. I love you, you delightful little monkey skulls, and I hope you have an amazing week.

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