Ok, i will start with the so call pedal points. For those who already know this may not be a great discovery or anything but should give it a look anyway. For those who know, you mention pedal points and instantly come to mind one thing, clasical music. This is actually acurate but not necesarily anymore. This technique is used virtually in all kind of musics since the begining, but clasical movement stress it quite impresively; so much that you heard any guitarist play neo-classical passages and mostly consist of this technique alone. Pedal Points could be defined as a melody moving up or down acompained with a stationary note or notes as a sequential patern(pedal). The point is to keep the melody part moving while the pedal remains constant and strict to movement & accent(dinamics).
   Applying accentuation to the line is mandatory for the effect to be the most. Accentuation to the pedal (stationary note) will deliver the classical feel; accentuate the melody and you have a reverse pedal, very common for rhythm patterns(fig. 2).

  But not dismissed in solo applications, the next line is very classical sounding melody often use very effectively by guitar players around.

  The next example is an aplication of the technique through arpegios. The descending pedal point is in C mayor while the ascending one is in B minor.

   This little line shows the technique aplication by tapping. Again, keep the dinamics strict to the aproach. Many guitar players tend to give a more "legato" feel cause of the tapping technique but, try to clear this one as much as possible, giving it a more "picking like" feel; is the only way to ensure the correct dinamics (easier said than done, most players nowadays overlook the taping technique and end up displaying a blur of fast sloppy noise, but is beside the point for now).

  Most of this is comming to mind 'cause a certain article that i read lately by a certain magazine, that a certain famous guitarist talk about his new style; it express that guitarists should forget about the "old ways", using leads in songs is a thing of the past, and songs should be perform as simple as you can... with a couple of muddy chords and maybe some silly riff and lots of screamed nonsense lines (don't get me wrong, i'm not critizising any music in particular), but the guitarist who said this once was one on the top. I just can't believe it, that's all. Anyway, back to the point, here is another example for the pedal point that you should try too, this one is different; very recognizable though, but not so in the classical mood anymore.

   Well, i hope this might help somebody out there; remember that, the least you can gain by giving things like this a try is knowledge, and knowledge is power. Also you can put more "weapons" in you musical arsenal. By all means, this will make you a better player, at least, you will understand and start separating some things from others musically speaking, no matter your music style of choice or state (aprendice or experinced) it will make a better musician aranger out of you. Keep rocking the world!!!