by Mullen, while a backing track—Eno's synthesiser—plays a "rippling" triplet arpeggio of the chord D major. A high sustained guitar part (played by The Edge's Infinite Guitar) enters, played "dry" in the left channel before reverberating on the right. At 0:09, Clayton's bass guitar begins to play eighth notes in time with the kick drum, and the song's four-bar sequence of the chord progression D–A–Bm–G, begins. This chord progression is never explicitly played but is "implied" by the root notes played by Clayton and the guitar parts of The Edge. Bono's vocals enter at 0:28 in a low register, a stark contrast from Bono's typical singing style to that point in the group's career. He stays below the middle C for the first two and a half stanzas, centering his melody on the mediant F. At the end of each of the first two stanzas, his vocals drop an octave, from A to A. Author Susan Fast called Bono's vocals on "With or Without You" the first occasion on which he "extended his vocal range downward in an appreciable way". At 0:58, an additional sustained guitar part joins the mix. The drums increase in intensity at 1:45, before The Edge begins playing the song's signature guitar riff at 1:53. The riff, a perfect fifth opening to a sixth, features a prominent use of delay. When the riff is played, it is answered by Bono singing "And you give yourself away", a line on which backing vocals appear at 2:06 and 2:32. A stanza begins in which Bono sings the song's title in a high, passionate voice as the drums get heavier. At 3:03, the song bursts out in emotion as Bono begins open-throated "Oh-oh-oh-ohh" vocals, which are double-tracked, and the rhythm increases to play sixteenth notes on the guitar, cymbals, and tambourine. After another stanza of Bono repeating the song's title, the music dies down at 3:38 to a similar state as it was at the beginning of the song. Ten seconds later, Bono sings in a falsetto while a bass synthesiser doubles the bass guitar. After the vocals complete, The Edge begins a simple guitar figure. He explained that its understated nature was meant to resist the temptation to play an intricate guitar solo as an ending. The second time the figure is played, the signature guitar riff from earlier re-appears and the song regains some of its intensity.