What is “Pedal Point”?
In order to be able to apply today’s lesson, you need to know the info covered in following blogs:
Major Triads in C on strings 123
Major Triads in C on strings 234.
Minor Triads in C on strings 123
Minor Triads in C on strings 234
Bdim Triads on 123 and 234
In previous blogs we discussed the melodic pedal point used in guitar solos, today we’ll discuss the rhythm guitar pedal point.
The term “pedal point” (also called: pedal tone, pedal note, organ point, or pedal) is taken from organ playing.
The organist plays bass notes with pedals he presses down with his feet while playing melodies and chords on top of that sustaining bass note with the hands.
One way to do this on guitar: hit an open bass string, then play chords over that sustaining bass note. You might think you could only do this on guitar in the keys of E and Em, A and Am, D and Dm. (Open bass strings on a guitar)
However; here’s something really cool to know about: you could play a pedal on a guitar in all 12 keys. I can think of 2 ways to accomplish this:
- Tuning the low E string and/or low A string (or D string) up or down to different bass notes. You could tune the low E string up to F or even F#. You could also tune the A string down to F or F#. You could tune the low E string down lower to E, D, Db/C#, C, B or possibly even Bb depending on your string gauge. You could tune the A string up to Bb, or down to Ab, G, F# or F. This covers all 12 keys.
- Use a partial capo. A partial capo is a capo that only presses down 1 or a select number of strings. You can capo any string combination or only 1 specific string with following capo SpiderCapo Standard – Universal Partial Capo
For the sake of simplicity in getting you started with your explorations of pedal point, we will do this in the key of A minor.
Pedal points are usually on either the tonic or the dominant (first or fifth note of the scale) tones. We will choose the open A string: A is the tonic (means “the first note”) in an A minor scale.
The pedal tone (A in our case) is considered a chord tone in the original harmony (Am chord), then a non-chord tone during the intervening dissonant harmonies (other chords of the Am scale), and then a chord tone again when the harmony resolves.
The pedal point can be used to achieve tension, resulting in a dissonant, dramatic effect.
It’s a great compositional tool that creates really cool sounds.
Getting Started: Pedal Point in Am
Whenever you see a chord progression like the following, that is a pedal point chord progression:
Am Dm/A C/A G/A F/A Bdim/A
It shows you chords of an A minor scale, all played with a repeating A bass note.
Chords that consist of 2 letters, are also called “slash chords” or “hybrid chords”. The first letter is the chord, the 2nd letter is the bass note.
To get your toes wet, start off just playing Am triad inversions up and down a string set of your choice.
Once you get the hang of this, do the same with Dm triads on the same string set.
Then start switching back and forth between Am and Dm triads.
Once this gets easier: add in the Em triads.
Then the C triads, and so on, till you have all 7 chords of the A minor scale included. (Am, Bdim, C, Dm, Em, F, G )
You’ll have a ton of fun with these very orchestral, compositionally rich-sounding textures of pedal point.
Here’s how it sounds like:
In next week’s free lesson blog, we’ll cover how to practice the triads in all 12 keys.
When you get the triads down in all 12 keys, that is going to prep you for the really exciting pedal point blog coming up in 2-3 weeks.
Today’s blog lesson was merely a warm-up for the really cool, orchestral-sounding pedal point techniques we’ll be discussing in 3 weeks.
Hit me up anytime at vreny@zotzinmusic.com if you would like me to send you backing tracks of the above chord progression, if you have any questions, or if you would like to book a lesson.
You’re on your way to becoming a great guitar player.
Have fun! 🙂
Conclusion
Hit me up anytime at vreny@zotzinmusic.com if you have any questions, or if you would like to book a lesson.
These free lessons are cool, but you will never experience the progress, joy, and results that my students experience in lessons when you’re learning by yourself from blogs and videos.
That is why people take lessons: way better results and progress, much more complete information, exposed to way more creative ideas than you can get from a blog or YouTube video.
There is only so much that self-study can accomplish.
If you want to see amazing results and progress in your guitar playing, buy your first lesson here and get started ASAP.
- 1 Lesson = 75
You’ll impress your friends and loved ones in no time with your guitar playing!
Consider donating any small amount to help me keep this blog going.
Thank you for your support!
(6 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
