Joshua Nemith wrote an articles explaining about the use of the piano pedals. Even though I’ve played piano for years, I still learned something from his post.
The Damper Pedal (on your right)
- produce sustained sounds
- the sound is reverberated within the framework of the piano
- when you press the pedals, all the dampers are lifted. Yes! All dampers of all notes! That means all the string can vibrate freely. Thus, it creates a resonating sound.
- in my present day performance, I use the pedal 95% of the time
The Soft Pedal (on your left)
- mostly found on acoustic piano
- when depressed, the dampers and keyboards are moved slightly to the right. When you play the piano, the hammers only hit 1 or 2 strings instead of all the 3 strings consist of a note at higher pitch. For lower notes, the hammer just hit the side of the string.
- it sounds softer and muted
The Sostenuto Pedal
- This pedal is found almost exclusively on the larger grand pianos
- The fact is that I’ve never pressed this pedal before because I’ve no access to a great grand piano
- It sustains only the notes that you played and kept depressed when the pedal is held down. The dampers is only lifted for those particular notes.
- for more information, read Joshua’s pedal article.
Thanks Joshua for introducing us to the advanced sostenuto pedal.
Technorati Tags: piano pedals, piano, grand piano