This is gonna sound silly, but what do the pedals on a piano actually do. Mechanically and musically?
Thanks!!
I have a piano. A giant hulking thing, that sits opposite my computer desk exactly like a border collie doesn’t.
It came with the house, and I’m damned if I know what to do with it, but the wife is intent on keeping it.
So I opened the cover and looked inside.
Pedal # 1 seems to push the hammer-shaped thingies closer to the string thingies. So when you push on the keys the sound is a little softer. Pedal number 3 moves these felt shaped wedges away from the strings so that when you push on the keys the sound lasts longer- when you let off the pedal the sound dies more quickly than when the pedal is pushed.
The third pedal doesn’t seem to be connected to anything in my piano. Which means that something else is missing that I’m going to have to pay to have fixed.
Not being a piano player or a musician of any kind, this is all just firewood to me. Hope it was helpful, but more than that, I hope someone who has some real knowledge shows up. Want a piano?
b.
What the pedals on a piano do depends on what kind of piano you have.
Let’s start with the one on the right, since this is the most frequently used as is common across all pianos. Normally, pressing on a key causes the a hammer to strike the strings. At the same time, a felt-covered damper lifts up off the strings, allowing them to vibrate. When you release the key, the damper returns to its original position, stopping the sound. Pressing the right (or sustain or damper) pedal lifts all of the dampers off the strings, resulting in a sustained sound - the strings continue to vibrate even after you’ve released the key.
The left pedal, on grand pianos, is called the una corda. Normally, pressing a single key causes the hammer to strike three strings. Pressing the left pedal causes the entire keyboard to shift to the right, such that the hammer only strikes a single string. This results in a softer, more delicate tone. On upright pianos, this is simulated by shifting the keyboard downwards, so that the pianist cannot strike the keys as hard.
The middle pedal is the least standardized. On grand pianos and certain uprights, this acts in a similar manner as the right pedal. It keeps the dampers off the strings, but only on those keys which are already depressed. That is, you can press a key, press the middle pedal, then press other keys allowing the original note to continue to play. (The right pedal, in contrast, will cause all of the notes to play.) In certain other pianos, the middle pedal acts as a bass damper pedal (i.e., it lifts the dampers only from the left side of the piano), sustaining the bass notes. In other pianos, the middle pedal causes a strip of felt to come down between the hammers and the strings, resulting in a muted sound. Finally, some pianos don’t have a middle pedal.
Obviously, these are automatics.