Piano Pedals

Fancy Footwork

If you don’t play piano, have you ever wondered what a pianist is doing pressing those pedals with their feet while they perform? Are the pedals like the accelerator on a car? Do they make the piano go?

All acoustic pianos have pedals. And aside from the one that makes the whole thing ring continuously, most people don’t really know what the other pedals are for or why they’re even there.

We decided it’s time to unravel the mystery and take a look at the various pedals on pianos, learn their names, what they do, and when and how to use them (or not use them.) We’ll even let you know when you might need a piano technician to service pedal issues.

Pedal Power: What They’re Called and What They Do

Each of these piano pedal options create complexity in the design and manufacturing of the piano. Before using them, it’s important to know what each of them does and how they affect the music you’re playing.

Right: The Piano’s Version of Reverb

The right pedal on every piano, whether it’s an upright or grand, is the sustain pedal (sometimes called the damper pedal). When you push the sustain pedal all the dampers are lifted away from the strings which allows them to vibrate freely. Not only will they continue to vibrate after being struck, they will also vibrate sympathetically when other keys are struck. This creates a hum all over the piano. It’s little wonder that the sustain pedal is everybody’s favorite pedal. It’s also likely the only one that most students will ever use.

After this, the number or kinds of pedals on your piano may depend on the type of piano you have. Uprights and Grands will have two to three pedals, but they are not necessarily the same.

Left: Like Putting a Pillow Over Your Alarm Clock

On an upright piano, the left pedal is the soft pedal. When pressed it shifts the hammers closer to the strings. On a grand piano, it’s called the shift pedal. When pressed, it shifts the key frame to the right to play one less string.

Whether upright or grand, the left pedal is almost always used to make the piano play softer. Some uprights will move the whole line of hammers closer to the strings so they don’t travel as far before they strike. This is the mechanism of the soft or shift pedal. Less travel means less force for a softer sound. On grand pianos, the shift pedal moves the necessary hammers to the right, so instead of striking three strings, they only strike two. One less string means a little softer sound.

Middle: The Mysterious Middle

The types of pedals you might see for that middle pedal vary. If an upright has a middle pedal, it will be either bass sustain, mute rail or another soft pedal (with a different level of soft).

A bass sustain pedal will only lift the dampers on keys that make up the bass section of the piano. (A0 – D3 or C4 depending on the piano manufacturer.) This allows you to hold lower bass notes while the upper keys do not sustain.

A mute rail is another type of soft pedal in a sense, but it greatly muffles the sound. This is a very desirable feature for those who need to practice in homes or apartments that lack sound abatement from room to room, or in situations where someone wishes to practice outside of desirable hours.

On a grand piano, the middle pedal is either a sostenuto (Italian for sustain) or a bass sustain pedal. While a sostenuto pedal is yet another kind of sustain pedal, it will hold just the notes you want it to while allowing the rest to be played without continuous ringing anywhere along the piano.

In both pianos, the middle pedal is a choice, and it may or may not even exist. Sometimes the middle pedal doesn’t do anything and is only there for looks. The fake middle pedal is sometimes a sales ploy, giving the impression that the instrument is a complete piano. Cha-Ching! In fact, there are other things that are put on pianos purely for aesthetics so piano manufactures can charge more. But that’s another topic for a different day.

Too Many Pedals and Only Two Feet

Occasionally you might come across a piano with more than three pedals. Typically the pedals on the left moving inward are various levels of softness, moving the hammers different distances closer to the strings.

A modern piano with more than the usual number of pedals might be outfitted with effects pedals, sort of like a guitar. I have heard of very old pianos that had something called a bassoon pedal that moved leather covered strips of brass between the hammer and string to create a buzz like sound that is more often associated with a bassoon. (If you understood that last sentence, you are likely making a face…so it isn’t hard to imagine why the bassoon pedal might have fallen out of fashion!)

Not all superfluous pedals make spine tingling sounds. For example, the Fazioli F308 has four pedals. Fazioli is a high-end Italian piano manufacturer that makes some of the best pianos in the world today.

The F308 is a grand piano that has the normal three pedals (shift, sostenuto, and sustain), but to the left of the shift pedal is one extra pedal that does what the soft pedal on the upright does — moves the hammers closer to the keys. This allows the pianist to change the overall tone or color of the notes by choosing to press the shift, the soft, or even both simultaneously allowing the pianist to have more control over dynamics and tone.

When to Push and When to Pause

One should never stomp on piano pedals like a T-rex. Instead, your heel should rest on the floor and the front part of your foot should press the front half of the pedal as if you’re driving a car.

It’s also important to avoid pressing multiple pedals unless you know what you’re doing. It’s very common for young students to try to push all the pedals down at once. This isn’t exactly great for the piano, so it’s important for parents to discourage this. Simply tell young children that the pedals are off limits until they learn how to use them correctly.

Which brings us to learning how to use the pedals and why we don’t use them in lessons early on. We know that every young student really wants to use them, yet we don’t for months or even years into lessons depending on the student (average beginner vs early learner). The simplest reason is that it’s a distraction, not only for them, but also for us.

When a student learns piano in the beginning, rhythm and touch can be masked by the effects of the sustain pedal. These are things that we need to be able to hear unaffected. For the student, not having to use the foot means they can concentrate on everything that is going on with their hands. It’s simply easier. Additionally, we want students to hear the sound they are creating without the effects of the pedals getting in the way. In this way, they develop a greater sense of both rhythm and touch.

Decoding Pedal Markings in Music

The sustain pedal is noted differently for different music. In most lesson books and some piano literature you will see a line under the grand staff that looks like this: |__________

Anytime the player is to pedal repeatedly in a passage, the line will have an upside-down V. When the player sees this the order is to play and hold the note with fingers until the foot has released and repressed the pedal. This clears out any previously sustained notes and allows the new notes, usually part of a new chord or key, to ring harmoniously. _________/\_________/\_________

And when the pedal is to be released, there will be a straight line at the end like this: _____________|

Other notations you will see in piano literature are Ped. Sometimes this is followed by the line notation described above, and more often there are no further instructions, as the pianist is advanced enough to know what to do.

To end pedaling in piano literature after seeing Ped. you will sometimes see what looks like a fancy snowflake. ✼

For the soft or shift pedal, the notation is the term “una corda” which is Italian for “one string.” Originally the FortePiano as designed by Bartolomeo Cristoforti only had two strings per note, so when the shift pedal was used the key frame moved enough to strike only one string. Modern pianos today have three strings per note, but the shift pedal still only moves over to strike one less string. To let go of the soft pedal the notation will say “tre corda” which means “three strings”.

Finally, the markings you will see in music for the sostenuto pedal are “Sost. Ped.” or “Sostenuto.” You will use this marking for pianos with either fake sostenutos or bass sostenutos as well. It ends just like the Ped. marking with the fancy snowflake symbol. ✼

 Less common is the bassoon pedal marking. The Italian word for bassoon is “fagoto.” The music will simply say “fagoto” when it comes in. At the beginning of the music it will say “col registro di Fagoto“ meaning “with the bassoon register”.

A mute rail pedal will not have any markings. It is just a practice tool and not found in piano literature.

When to Call the Piano Technician

Just like tuning or adjustments and repair in the piano action, the piano pedals require care as well and can be prone to damage. In fact, pedal repair is a very common repair for piano technicians.

On grand pianos, the pedal box may disconnect from the lyre posts and will need to be rehung. On upright pianos, pedal dowels can sometimes become detached from their mechanisms.

Pianos that ring without engagement of the sustain pedal may have a pedal issue.

Pedals do need to be regulated just like the rest of the piano. The sustain pedal should have a quarter inch give before it engages the dampers. The shift pedal should have no lost action before it engages the hammer rail on uprights or shifting the keyframe on grands. Squeaky pedals can be polished and lubed. Sometimes the pedal rods create a buzz that needs to be addressed as well.

If you think your piano has some pedal issues (buzzing, squeaking, uneven response, etc.) it’s important to have a piano technician address the problem sooner rather than later. Unaddressed pedal problems can affect the health of your piano. In the end, a healthy piano just plays prettier no matter how many pedals you have.

Need a tech to check out your pedals? Contact us today! We’ll be happy to give you an assessment.