The Awesomeness of Pedal Point

In my last episode, I vaunted the glories of certain types of notes in music called "Non-Harmonic Tones." I shared how I liked the way non-harmonic tones mirror the virtues of diversity and delayed gratification in life. If you haven’t listened to that episode, I hope you will sometime. But one non-harmonic tone that I wanted to set apart for special discussion is called ”Pedal Point.” Pedal Point is a non-chord tone extraordinaire. It lends an exciting air to the music that employs it, and – best of all – it’s so easy to use as a composer. Pedal point can be heard everywhere in music, from medieval chant to Indian folk music to concert art music to pop and rock to virtually every film score in the last 30 years! Find out why I LOVE pedal point in this episode of WHAT MUSIC MEANS TO ME.