How a piano works

The information on this page is important to know before your piano lessons.The pedals of the piano also affect its sound:

THE RIGHT (SUSTAINING) PEDAL. This pedal sustains notes, so that they last longer than they normally would. Contrary to popular belief it does not make notes sound louder.

When the right pedal is pressed down, the damper felts are lifted off all the strings, so that each note played continues to sound after its key is released.
This pedal can be very helpful to the experienced player. However, it will cause piano playing to sound jumbled if used incorrectly. For this reason, in your beginner piano lessons you should not use the right (sustaining) pedal until other aspects of playing have been learned.

THE LEFT (SOFT) PEDAL. This pedal makes the piano sound softer.
When the left pedal is pressed down on an upright piano, the hammers move closer to the strings, so that they strike the strings with less force and produce less sound. On grand pianos, the soft pedal moves the entire keyboard slightly to the right, so each hammer strikes fewer strings for each note, giving a softer, thinner sound.
The soft pedal is used for special effects in some music. It can also be helpful if you wish to play without disturbing other people.

THE MIDDLE PEDAL.

This may produce one of several different effects:

• On some pianos, it is a 'sostenuto' pedal which enables selected notes to be sustained while other notes are played normally. This feature would normally only be used by very accomplished pianists.
  
• On other pianos, the middle pedal may be an extra-soft pedal, or it may activate a mechanism which gives the piano a 'jangling' sound. For your beginners piano lessons, do not be concerned if your piano does not have a middle pedal - it is not needed for most piano playing. Learning to play the piano could be a difficult task, without the other pedals, but without the milddle pedal you can still make it.
  

Try playing different notes with each of the pedals pressed down in turn, so that you can watch what happens inside the piano and hear the different sounds each pedal gives. Notice that the effect of each pedal ceases when you take your foot off.

REMEMBER to close your piano after the piano lessons - when you have finished watching the different parts work, so that no damage is caused to the mechanism.

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