Using your piano's sustain pedal

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In this video tutorial I look at how to use your piano's sustain pedal (sometimes, wrongly, called the "loud pedal").

You can use the sustain pedal both to help smooth out your playing and for some interesting effects. However, it's really important that you don't over use the pedal, or you risk your piano playing sounding messy and even discordant. In general, it's a good idea to release and re-push the sustain pedal between chord changes to prevent dissonances carrying over into the changed harmony.

You can also use pedal to sustain complex or "jumpy" melodies, but, again, it's important to make sure you don't overuse it.

Using the sustain pedal is one of the areas where it's really important to listen to your piano playing while you practice - because playing the piano is relatively mechanical, it's easy to "switch off" and not really play close attention to the sound you're making.

The sustain pedal also highlights the differences between different types of piano, and between digital pianos and acoustic ones. Again, it's all about listening to yourself and the instrument you're playing and using the pedal accordingly.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• sustain pedal
• loud pedal
• piano sustain pedal
• piano pedals
• piano tutorial

[therealmdhw]

I have just purchased your book (digital edition, I live in South Africa, would have loved to get a hard copy) after watching a few of your videos (and I intend to go through them all!). It's the least I could do considering how you are just giving away thousands of pounds worth of material here. You are brilliant! Thanks so much!

[billhiltonbiz]

@therealmdhw Thanks very much! Sorry about the absence of hard copies for SA - it's just a complete pain finding a distributor that will ship individual copies at a marketable price. If you decide you like the digital edition and really, really want a hard copy I'll see what I can do to get one to you at cost price - I imagine it would still be pretty expensive though :( Anyway, if anything doesn't make sense in any of the vids, shout and I'll be glad to help :)

[Charlie135i]

In a song like Moonlight Sonata 1st mov. How is the pedal used?

[billhiltonbiz]

@Charlie135i On a modern piano, probably over each chord. There are places where you'd need to change that, though - e.g., bars 12-15, where you'd probably re-pedal on each of the bass notes. Also, some editions will include pedal marks (not Beethoven's - an editor's, but still useful).

Beethoven, famously, indicated that the whole thing should be played with pedal down, but pianos had much less natural sustain when he was composing. If you tried that on a modern grand you'd get a mess!

[tuningmylifearound]

Thanks for the video! I've a question though -- have you ever found the need to control the speed at which you lift the sustain before re-oedal-ing? Are there other ways of achieving that same effect of having notes you've played fade away more quickly than a sustained note, yet not as abruptly as one that isn't?

[billhiltonbiz]

@tuningmylifearound Yes, though it only really works on some pianos! On a good quality instrument with the pedals well set up, you can "half pedal": effectively, release the pedal more slowly so the damper doesn't stop the string vibrating instantly, or, even keep it "brushing" the string. On a piano that can do it, you need to find the point at which the dampers are in the right position - it's a bit like using the clutch on a car...!

[crusher1231000]

nice socks, nice tutorial, (: 1 question. my piano has 3 pedals wats the middle one for?

[Bridagierz]

Thanks for the video! Really helped me out!

[Michaelxxx1936]

Thank you. That was really useful. I've had a pedal connected to my keyboard for some time now but never quite realised it's full potential.

[TheNuncFluens]

Great videos, I tend to overuse the sustain pedal a little bit. I have an original composition and I'd love to hear some feedback from you, here it is: /watch?v=JXAPxLG57Ps ... I subscribed, cheers!

[billhiltonbiz]

@noclassatall Ask away :) No, it's not directly connected to key signatures. However, pieces (whether classical, pop, jazz, whatever) often change chords at the start of new bars, which it's why it's common to pedal at that point.