Robert Estrin: Your Piano Technique Is Suffering Without Knowing This Pedal Secret - From the Piano Expert

Of course, the piano originally, like the instrument next to me, had no pedals.

So you had to be able to connect with the fingers, like on the harpsichord, the predecessor of the piano.

No pedal, no sustained pedal there either.

Now, did you know, for example, that Johannes Brahms didn't even have a sustained pedal on his practice piano? Now, why would he want to practice without the pedal so much? Well, you're going to discover that today.

Here's the secret.

The pedal on the piano, as you well know, holds all the notes.

You put the pedal down, and all the notes hold until you release the pedal.

So it can be a wonderful tool to connect things.

But actually, the purpose of the pedal, it goes beyond just connecting what you can't connect.

It's also an expressive element can be added with the pedal.

But how to know where to add the pedal and where not to depend upon the pedal, the only way to really know that is to practice without the pedal a great deal.

I'm gonna demonstrate with the Chopin Prelude in E minor, and I'm going to play it for you And I'm going to play it a mediocre performance first with the pedal, and then I'm going to explain how practicing without the pedal will benefit this.

Now, it's not terrible, but if I were to play that same exact way without the pedal, this is how I'm playing.

I'm really depending on the pedal to connect everything.

I'm not connecting anything with the fingers.

Watch.

So that's what I'm doing, and it sounds decent when you add the pedal.

But watch the difference.

I'm going to play it now with the pedal connecting with the hands.

You get the idea.

Now, what am I actually doing? Now I'm going to show you the secret.

I'm going to play it without the pedal, but notice the tremendous legato I work to achieve in both hands.

Not just the melody, but even in the repeated chords in the left hand.

This is what I'm actually doing to achieve that super legato and control.

you So, why is that so important? Well, by connecting what you can possibly connect with your fingers, the pedal then becomes used for expressiveness, for making melody notes sing more.