How to Use the Sustain pedal Properly
1. The Function
One of the biggest mysteries for many pianists is when and why we use the pedals on the piano. While many are aware of the sustain pedal and may even use the pedal frequently, it’s a feature of the piano that is often not explicitly taught or explained by teachers. So…here I am to the rescue!
The sustain pedal does exactly what the name suggests….it “sustains” the notes when you let go of them. The reason that we use the sustain pedal is because although there are 88 keys on the piano, most pianists aren’t blessed with 88 fingers to play them (that I’ve seen at least). This means that if we want many notes to sound together, then we need to use the sustain pedal to hold notes while we play other notes.
So, when and why would we want notes to sound together?
Well, we would want to do this if the notes form a chord. When notes form chords, we want to hear those notes sound together and create that chord. So the general rule for when to use the sustain pedal is when there is a chord being outlined. This happens to be the case in 90% of music for the entirety of the piece of music! We then change the pedal (lift it up and put it back down again) for chord changes.
2. Types of Pedalling
In order to be able to use the pedal and change the pedal for chord changes, there are two forms of pedalling that we can use!
Direct Pedalling
This is where our foot goes down at the same time as our hands. We normally do this at the very beginning of a piece of music when we first use the pedal, or if we are further into the piece of music, but haven’t had the pedal down and we are introducing it.
Indirect Pedalling
This is where we lift our foot at the same time that our hands go down and then we immediately place our foot down again afterwards. This is the most frequent use of the pedal in a piece of music and is used if we already have our foot down and want to clear the pedal before putting it down again.
An exercise I often use to teach this concept is to play a C major scale (C D E F G A B C) in one hand with just your index finger. If you play each of the notes with direct pedalling, there will be a gap between each of the notes. This is because; in order to place your foot down at the same time as your hand, you will need to lift your foot BEFORE you play the new note and therefore there will be a gap. Whereas if you play the notes with indirect pedalling then you will clear the pedal as you play a new note and then re-pedal the new note.
If a composer wants you to use specific pedalling for a specific effect, then you will see this in the piece of music as the word “ped”. There will be either a star symbol to tell you to lift the pedal or a line with bumps in to show you where to indirect pedal.
3. Being Careful
There are also some situations where you might not want to use the pedal at all.
Firstly, if you are practicing a piece of music and you are becoming reliant on the sustain pedal to cover your mistakes! This is something that many players fall into by accident. The pedal becomes a bit of a comfort blanket and covers odd fingers or various other mistakes that might be being made. In this case, I would suggest removing the pedal (just for practice) and then reintroducing it later.
Secondly, if the piece of music isn’t outlining a chord. You might come across a piece of music where there is a single melody line in the music, in this case the sustain pedal might not be necessary.
Thirdly, if the music features articulation that would be obstructed by the pedal. If you are playing a piece of music that uses staccato notes or features rests within the music, then the pedal will prevent you from being able to play these.
Fourthly, if you are playing baroque or early classical period music (pre-c.1750). Much of the music from this early period of classical music wasn’t written for the piano as they weren’t widely accessible. Instead, they were written for the harpsichord! The harpsichord is an interesting instrument because although it shares many features with the piano, there are three distinct differences.
A piano uses a hammer to strike the strings, whereas a harpsichord has a mechanism to pluck the strings.
The piano has the ability to play at different volumes, whereas the harpsichord can only play at one volume.
The piano has a sustain pedal and the harpsichord does not have a sustain pedal!
This means that for music that was originally written for the harpsichord, we tend not to use the sustain pedal so that we can play the piece as it was originally intended to be played.
Matthew Cawood
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