Beginning Piano Lessons-Sustain Pedal

When first learning songs on piano, getting both hands to operate smoothly is difficult. I remember when I first started Beginning Piano Lessons, my songs always sounded “choppy”. My songs didn’t start to sound smooth until I really knew my song down pat. Over a few months of piano lessons, the Sustain pedal was introduced, “Well hi there Sustain Pedal!” The Sustain pedal, also known as the loud, forte, or damper pedal, lifts the pads off of the strings allowing the strings to resonate until the pedal is lifted back up. Practicing new songs, especially Daily Dozen of the Day exercises with pedal here and there, it became natural in a heart beat over a few weeks. When playing piano, practicing with pedal dramatically increased my sound. But you have to use pedal in the correct places, and know when to “up/down” here and there to keep it sounding clean and not too mushy. Some music has small marks such as (^) written in the sheet music to show where pedal should be used. Though some piano songs sound better to use more pedal while others, the sustain pedal will ruin the song. Especially when too many notes are moving too fast along with vast chord changes. For a beginning piano player, I recommend the sustain pedal to be used minimally when playing a piano recital. Because of this, it is very easy to think too much about the pedal and forget about your dynamics when playing piano. Your dynamics are key to sounding GREAT.