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Putting the Pedal (Point) to the Metal

It’s hard to believe I’m already a week into Phase 2 of Jonny May’s stride arrangement of Ode to Joy. I did have to take a couple of days of forced right-hand rest due to a mild case of stride-pianitis, but the break turned into an unexpected opportunity for left-hand work and mental practice. This morning I resumed practicing with both hands, starting with one of the strangest passages in the piece: the pedal point section. (Here is my video from when I was first learning it.)

Harmonic Mismatches

Pedal point can feel like a harmonic mismatch. The bass stays the same while the upper voices change. It creates a sense of unrest, a prolonged need to resolve. It’s a wonderful little device, but hoo boy, it takes time to master. One must apply a “willing suspension of disbelief” and just learn the dang notes, trusting that yes, everything will finally, satisfyingly resolve.

I go into detail on this section in my previous blog post (linked above) and also in today’s video. Essentially you’re playing a D octave that drones on for four measures while the left-hand chord plays Am7, D7, Em7, and then Em7 again. What’s even more confusing is that the right hand isn’t necessarily playing chords that center around Am7, D7, and Em7. And then, once the pedal point section ends, we get an A in the bass paired with an Em7 chord in first inversion, and it just feels weird.

Does Knowing the Theory Help or Interfere?

Before I ever started practicing this piece, I spent a good amount of time on the harmonic analysis. I wanted to really understand it—not just because I was learning to play it, but because I wanted tools for my arranging toolbox, and I knew this one would be a masterclass.

But then ... so many of the right-hand chords don’t seem to “match” the left-hand chords. My brain thinks, “All right, the left hand is playing Em7, so the right hand must ... wait, why is the right hand playing a D7 arpeggio?” Would it have been easier if I’d not thought about the chords and the harmonic progression, but only learned the notes, the way I used to do for classical music?

Or is it possibly that I don’t understand the harmony enough? I think that might be the case. I can analyze the isolated chords and even recognize small progressions—ii-V-Is and turnaround progressions, for instance—but I’m unable to see the bigger picture.

Seeing the Larger Gesture

I’ve learned a couple of things today. One is that my difficulty with this piece may indeed be a lack of understanding of the bigger picture. I can hear how it works, eventually, but I’m not yet able to map why it works—even though I’ve labeled all the chords in the piece. I haven’t labeled what’s going on in the interplay between the left and right hands, and that’s because I don’t totally understand that interplay.

I’ve also learned that it helps to talk through the chords aloud. I did this in the video (below), more for the purpose of explaining why this section is so challenging for me. But when I played it afterward, it sounded smoother than before, and my mind had a better grasp of what I was playing.

I won’t say that this section is sounding truly musical yet, but it does sound promising. And I’m starting to see it as a larger gesture instead of a series of conflicting chords.

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