What do you call a note that stays throughout the whole song?
I am searching for songs that have a constant note throughout the whole song. For example "The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows" has has a C in the background through the whole track.
My plan is to put together a playlist of popular songs with at least one song for each note to train your perfect pitch.
But it would also be beneficial, if the standing-note is only found in every background chord, for example on a guitar, you often find those when one finger is kept in one position through the whole song.
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I search for songs, that have a note, that stays through the whole song?
My plan is to put together a playlist with popular songs with at least one song for each note to train your perfect pitch.
In Western music there are many examples with a note that is kept for a long time but usually a change happens sooner or later. On a piano or giutar it is a repeated note since you can not sustain a note on those instruments. It is usually referred to as a pedal ponit.
You want popular songs, so I am not sure what you think of the following pieces. At least for some people they are popular.
Chopin's Rain Drop Prelude for piano. It has a constant repeated A?, sometimes notated as G?. There are a few bars where the repeated note changes to another one, but only for a short while, after which the music goes back to the repeated A?/G?. Here is an image from the piece:
Stravinsky's Augurs of Spring (from the The Rite of Spring) has one chord that is repeated during the entire movement. Here it is on YouTube: Augurs of Spring
A drone perhaps? But, apart from bagpipe music - where it's a feature of the instrument rather than of the song - you're not going to find many in Western music. 'Tomorrow Never Knows' borrows elements of Indian music including the sitar drone. It's a bit of a one-off!
This is called "Drone". There is a special minimalistic style for this:
Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_music see also www.reddit.com/r/LetsTalkMusic/comments/5tpt81/what_are_your_favorite_pop_songs_that_incorporate/
A drone is defined as: "A harmonic or monophonic effect or accompaniment where a note or chord is continuously sounded throughout most or all of a piece."
also interesting: playguitar.com/chord-progression-drone-notes/
"Immovable", as in The Immovable Do by Percy Grainger?
A comment on the video says:
Legend has it that this piece originated when Grainger was at home, practicing on a harmonium (a form of reed-organ), when a note (a high "C") began to cipher (malfunction where the note sounds continuously, even after the key is released). Being a composer, and a curious man, Grainger began to improvise around the note, turning the idea of a "pedal-point" in the bass upside-down, and this piece was the result. When originally published, Grainger included the sub-title: "The Ciphering C".
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