{"id":1643,"date":"2020-07-24T06:35:02","date_gmt":"2020-07-24T13:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/?p=1643"},"modified":"2023-01-13T15:36:29","modified_gmt":"2023-01-13T23:36:29","slug":"sound-better-at-the-piano","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/sound-better-at-the-piano\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fastest Way To Sound Better At The Piano"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There is ONE thing you can do right now that will INSTANTLY make you sound better at the piano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing else will make as big a difference for so little effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you ready?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drumroll, please!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Use the pedal!<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s amazing how much of a difference the pedal can make to your playing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just by using the pedal, you can go from sounding amateur to professional. Form clunky and disjointed to smooth and beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s kind of the best-kept secret of piano playing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, once you start playing with the pedal, you\u2019ll never go back (trust me).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this lesson, I use a simple version of F\u00fcr Elise to demonstrate the difference the pedal makes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Download your copy of the music here<\/a><\/b><\/center>\n\n\n\n

A Look at the Pedals<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What do I mean by the \u201cpedal\u201d? When I say the pedal I\u2019m talking about the sustain pedal<\/a> (or damper pedal as it\u2019s also known).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Generally, whenever anyone says the word \u201cpedal\u201d in relation to the piano, that\u2019s what they\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sustain pedal does exactly what you think — it sustains<\/i> the notes. So that even when you stop playing a note with your finger, the sound will continue to ring out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This allows you to connect notes and chords together seamlessly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what the pedals look like on most pianos. Acoustic pianos generally have 3 pedals. The sustain pedal is on the right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sustain<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Keyboards usually have only one pedal, that has to be plugged into the back of the keyboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many beginners find it difficult to use the pedal, simply because there\u2019s so much else going on that it can be hard to add another level of complexity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to use the pedal to sound better at the piano<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The pedal can make you sound so much better. But if you don\u2019t use it correctly, you\u2019ll end up sounding worse!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because if you just press and hold the pedal, all the notes you play will just blend and mush together into a big, musical mess!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You have to release the pedal every now and then to keep it sounding beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our lessons, you\u2019ll notice a digital keyboard<\/a> above the piano. In the top left of that, there is a little circle with the word, \u201cSustain\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every time I press the sustain pedal down that circle goes green. When I lift my foot off the pedal it goes white again. Like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when you watch a lesson, keep an eye on how I\u2019m using the pedal while I play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A great tip that will work in every situation is to lift your foot off the pedal every time you change a chord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Play the new chord, and then quickly release and press back down on the pedal. It will \u201cclear\u201d the old notes and sustain the lovely new notes to keep the tune sounding beautiful without getting muddled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final Thoughts<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Like all things, learning to use the pedal takes a bit of practice, but once you get it, there\u2019s no going back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have some more exercises<\/a> to help you work on your pedaling skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Try it for yourself. It really is the fastest way to sound better at the piano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have fun, and happy pedaling!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*This article contains affiliate links, which means we might earn a small commission from the product seller if you make a purchase. For more info, check out our <\/em>privacy page.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s one thing you can do to instantly sound better at the piano… use the pedal! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":1647,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[509],"tags":[865,1069],"class_list":["post-1643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technique","tag-affiliate","tag-gsotp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1643"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10975,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1643\/revisions\/10975"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}