The Grand Piano, the Leslie Speaker, and That 'Echoes' Ping

That opening “ping” on “Echoes” is one of the most recognizable sounds in prog rock, and it came from a grand piano run through a Leslie rotating speaker cabinet. Richard Wright played a single E note on the studio’s grand piano in Abbey Road, but instead of recording it clean, the signal went into a Binson Echorec for tape echo and then into the Leslie. The Leslie’s spinning horn gave the note that watery, swooping Doppler effect—like a whale call or a submarine sonar ping.

The inspiration? A search for an atmosphere that felt both isolated and oceanic. David Gilmour has said they wanted the song to begin with a sound that evoked dropping a single stone into a vast, silent body of water. The piano note through the Leslie achieved exactly that: a clean, bell-like attack followed by a long, swirling decay. The band loved the result so much they left it mostly untouched, and it became the song’s signature hook.