Piece boardStage 3 · UnderstandingExplore
#19Updated Nov 09, 2026

D major · 4/4

Us and Them

Pink Floyd

Core skills

Extended harmony, suspended colors, slow chord changes, inner-voice movement.

E19
A sustained bass with changing chord color
Suspensions and extensions heard as different colors.
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Why this piece

Its spacious harmonic language is a useful contrast to conventional pop triads. It teaches that the emotional effect of a progression often comes from which notes move by a step, which remain, and which create tension, not just from the chord labels.

Musical profile

  • Key / tonal centre: D major
  • Meter: 4/4
  • Suggested version: Accessible keyboard/piano arrangement based on the song’s harmony.

Representative harmony

Distinctive verse colors over D pedal: Dsus2 – D6(add9) / Esus2/D – Dm(maj7) – G/D, returning toward D.

Practice loop

Imaj7:4 | Vsus4:2 V:2 | vim7:4 | IV:4

What to listen for

The bass often stays D while upper chord tones change, especially F♯→F-natural: this is pedal-point harmony, not a simple root-changing loop.

What to learn

Identify basic chord roots, then add the sevenths, suspended notes, or extensions written in your chart. Play one chord after another as slowly as possible while tracking individual voices. Explore inversions that keep the upper voices close together. Listen to the difference between an unresolved suspension and its resolution.

Practice checkpoint

Explain and demonstrate how at least two successive chords change color through one or two moving notes rather than an entirely new hand shape.

Diagnostic drill · E19 — A sustained bass with changing chord color

Target: Suspensions and extensions heard as different colors.
Drill key / meter: D-centred · 4/4

Use this only when it addresses the current bottleneck. Skip it when the skill is already ready.

Steps

  1. LH holds D3 while RH successively plays D–F♯–A (D), D–E–A (Dsus2), D–F♯–A–B (D6) and D–G–B (G/D).
  2. Give each voicing a full bar. Rather than lifting every finger, look for tones that can remain and tones moving by a step.
  3. Play the sequence again and arrange the top notes to form the smoothest possible small melody.

Ear task: Identify which voicing feels unresolved, open or settled; there is no single mandatory emotional answer.

Transfer: Trace the held bass and evolving chords in Us and Them.

Drill checkpoint: You can name and hear at least three chord colors over the same bass note.