About pedaling...

In some sheet music, I see "con ped." written with no asterisk written after it. While I know this means that I should use the foot pedal, how do I play the pedal without it sounding muddy? In other words, what kind of rhythm do I use in playing the pedal on music that says use the pedal, but doesn't indicate where to use it and where not to?

Well, as a general rule you should hold the pedal down for every bar. When a new bar arrives, release and push down again. Also if you are playing lots of heavy/bass notes you might want to change more often. Also if you notice any harmonic changes within a bar you might want to change as well so you don't clash harmonies! But this is not very often to see in beginner pieces, or in harder pieces ether.. But Im working on a Choping with this kind of pedal work now, so It do ac our

But as a final note; Use your ear when practicing and try to listen for mushiness, the more you do, the better you get at noticing harmonic clash and mushy sound!

Hello!

Pedal is a subtle thing to master... The rule with "one bar = one pedalling" doesn't really make sense except if there is really one chord for the whole bar.
Fist of all, there is not just "pedal" or "no pedal"; there is also half pedal, quarter pedal, whatever... Look at your dampers, try to feel how they release the strings... Of course if you have an electric piano you lose all subtelty about this part.

Then about when to press it and when to release it: Always press it a millisecond AFTER having pressed the note or chord you want to maintain, NOT BEFORE. This will already avoid a lot of muddyness.
Then, if there is a melody in the medium or lower range, don't press the pedal throughout it, as it would make the melody sound muddy.
Don't press it throughout a bass change, as already said.
Try to press it just enough to bind notes or chords that would sound "dry" without it; create a legato effect using it. Of course, there are many effects one can give with the pedal, depending on the piece, the composer etc...


Em... Why is my message marked on red?

Pedaling is hard, still struggeling with it, it's quite easy to over use it

I cant see my dampers or feel the strings, but that doesnt mean my body cant learn how to control the damper pedal on the digital piano. It has 127 levels and I can use different velocity curves the change the way it reacts.

EDIT: You got a guru point, that's why it's red ( a good thing )

Oh, thank for the answer!

Of course there are high-tech digital pianos that try to imitate a real pedal, but it's still more difficult to feel and to use with exactitude than on an acoustic instrument.

But whatever kind of piano you have, the rule with the melody in the mediums and bass range should do it. And also never push the pedal too early during a piece.

However, pushing the pedal during a silence BEFORE striking a chord is recommended, as it will allow the overtones to develop more fully. But you need the time to prepare it: it can't be done during a fast section (unless you already have an excellent pedalling technique... at least better than mine lol)

One other thing about pedalling -- it's really easy to use too much without realizing it, especially for beginners. I fell in love with the pedal as a child -- I actually liked the "mush" for some reason. Anyway, my teacher noticed this and for the first two years or so of lessons would not allow me to use the pedal in anything until I had completely memorized the piece without the pedal. The "reward" was to incorporate the pedal at the end. It used to bother me a lot that I couldn't use the pedal while learning a piece -- it always sounded so dry but it certainly taught me a hard lesson about this problem. It also taught me how to play legato without relying on the pedal for help and that's a useful thing especially in playing Bach and other early and Baroque composers. All the same -- I still love the effects you can get with a pedal and I wish I knew more about half and quarter pedalling.

About half pedalling and such effects, all you have to do is, before playing, to press the right pedal and try to listen to the dampers going up. Try to feel at what point they start moving, at what point the strings are set free. Because the only section of the pedal which has an actual effect on your sound is here: on this very small interval between full dampering and no dampering. It takes practice to be able to modulate sound using this, but it's very useful! It expands the tone-span one can use, and it allows differents types of "mushy" effects...

Thanks for the explanation -- I'll try it out.

VictorCS wrote:Pedaling is hard, still struggeling with it, it's quite easy to over use it

I hear you. I started on a piece a while ago with pedaling. Crazy. It's hard enough to get my 2 hands to cooperate, and now my foot has something to do as well? Arrrg!

i find the ear mussel the best for pedaling i have just invested in a cam corder to so i can record performances then i can re watch and hear for a third person point of view i think may help