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Pedal tones are special notes in the harmonic series
Harmonic series (music)

Definite pitch musical instruments are often based on an approximate harmonic oscillator such as a string or a column of air, which oscillates at numerous frequencies simultaneously....
 of cylindrical-bore brass instrument
Brass instrument

A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose tone is produced by vibration of the lips as the player blows into a tubular resonator. They are also called labrosones, literally meaning "lip-vibrated instruments" ....
s. A pedal tone has the pitch of its harmonic series' fundamental tone. Its name comes from the foot pedals of a pipe-organ. Cylindrical brasses do not naturally vibrate at this frequency.

A closed cylinder vibrates at only the odd members of its harmonic series. This set of pitches is too sparse to be musically useful for brass instruments; therefore, the bells and mouthpieces of brasses are crafted to adjust these pitches.






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Pedal tones are special notes in the harmonic series
Harmonic series (music)

Definite pitch musical instruments are often based on an approximate harmonic oscillator such as a string or a column of air, which oscillates at numerous frequencies simultaneously....
 of cylindrical-bore brass instrument
Brass instrument

A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose tone is produced by vibration of the lips as the player blows into a tubular resonator. They are also called labrosones, literally meaning "lip-vibrated instruments" ....
s. A pedal tone has the pitch of its harmonic series' fundamental tone. Its name comes from the foot pedals of a pipe-organ. Cylindrical brasses do not naturally vibrate at this frequency.

A closed cylinder vibrates at only the odd members of its harmonic series. This set of pitches is too sparse to be musically useful for brass instruments; therefore, the bells and mouthpieces of brasses are crafted to adjust these pitches. The bell significantly raises all pitches in the series, and the mouthpiece limits the amount to which higher harmonics are raised. The resulting set of pitches is a new harmonic series altogether. This new series has all but one of its members present, instead of only the odd members.

The member not present in the new series is the fundamental. The original fundamental is not raised all the way to the new fundamental pitch, and the original third harmonic becomes the new second harmonic.

The new fundamental can be played, however, as a pedal tone. The higher resonances of the new series help the lips vibrate at the fundamental frequency and allow the pitch to sound. The resulting tone relies heavily on overtone
Overtone

An overtone is a natural resonance of a system. Systems described by overtones are often sound systems, for example, blown pipes or plucked strings....
s for its perception, but in the hands of a skilled player, pedal tones can be controlled and can sound characteristic to the instrument.

Pedal tones are called for occasionally in advanced brass literature, particularly in that of the trombone
Trombone

The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass instrument family. Like all brass instruments, it is a lip-reed aerophone: sound is produced when the player?s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate....
 and especially the bass trombone.