what does the pedal to the far left on a piano do?
IIRC, it’s the “soft” pedal. It shifts the hammers closer to the strings, so they don’t hit the strings as hard. It gives it a muted effect.
And just in case you’re wondering what the middle pedal on a piano does.
I thought the shift was to the right, causing the hammer to hit either 1 of 2 or 2 of 3 strings. Thus less strings hit equals softer noise. The piano at my church needs work on because when the soft pedal is down a couple of the hammers are also hitting the first string on the next key. It produces a weird twang sound of two notes clashing. Not pretty.
But following Walloon’s link, it said the soft pedal moves the hammer closer to the piano so what do I know.
Wolverine – as you might guess from the link, the pedal does different things depending on the piano. The general use is to make the music softer, but some pianos move the hammers nearer the strings and others shift the hammers to the right. I believe the better pianos do the latter.
In my experience, virtually all upright pianos move the hammers closer to the strings, attempting to simulate the effect of the shifting on virtually all grand pianos. This is commonly referred to, in piano music, as “una corda” or one string. Often these words appear in a score indicating the pedal should be used.
The term originated when piano pitches were produced with a maximum of two strings, so shifting the hammers took you from two strings to one. On modern pianos you are going from three to two in the upper register and two to one in the middle register.
Although the general effect is one of making the music softer, this is not always why the pedal is employed. Good pianists don’t need to rely on the una corda pedal to create pianissimo effects. Composers, and pianists when they feel like it, use the pedal to subtly change the tone of the instrument to render certain passages unique from other passages. This tonal shift is the real reason to be for the pedal.
"5. Finally, the middle pedal is sometimes only decorative, having a spring to push it back up after you push it down, and nothing else. "
Ha! I love this one! The “Door Close” button of the music world. Thanks, Walloon!
I’ve seen pianos where the soft pedal places a piece of cloth in front of the strings, so the softening effect is similar to clapping your hands while wearing gloves. I don’t know why it was original placed there, but I use it when others in the room don’t want me to play, so that it’s not as loud, and doesn’t annoy them as much.
On my piano, the middle pedal does that, and you can lock it down to hold the effect. I just tested to refresh my memory on what the left pedal does, and I can’t tell! Volume is the same. It does something, though, because I can feel it on the keys when I depress the pedal. If the piano weren’t piled full of stuff, I’d open it up and see.
My right pedal is, of course, a normal damper pedal.
Your right pedal is a damper? Not sustain?
I’m pretty sure that the left pedal is for shifting gears, while the right one is for gas.
OpalCat, the pedal that sustains is called the damper pedal.
<nitpick>
Because the term “tonal” already means something entirely different in musician-speak, musicians prefer to use the word “timbral” (pronounced “tambral”) to refer to the sound-qualities of an instrument.
</nitpick>
Huh. I thought that the damper pedal was the one that made the sound softer.
that what our does
it moves a bar which has a piece of lint cloth attached and interposes it between the hammers and the strings
so muting the percussion.
You mean it’s not the clutch?