Piano Pedal Basics: The Sustain (Damper) Pedal

The earliest surviving acoustic piano was built by Cristofori in 1720. If you come to the Met museum in NYC, you can actually view this piano in person! If you look closely, you will see that it has no pedals.

Piano builders eventually realized that pianists wanted ways to sustain the sound more efficiently as they played. Over the next 100 years, the piano evolved from having no pedals, to having hand and knee levers, to eventually having the modern mechanism of a single sustain foot pedal. By the 1830s, the sustain pedal became a standard. The sustain pedal (also called the “damper pedal”) on a piano is always located on the right side of the three (or sometimes two) foot pedals. 

How do pianists know when to use the sustain / damper pedal?

If you look at the sheet music for various piano pieces, you will quickly notice that some pieces have many pedal markings, some have a few, and some have none at all. So how do you know when to use the pedal? There are a few factors at play.

Firstly, you must know a little bit about the composer and the style in the time period which the piece was written.

With Baroque composers such as J.S. Bach (who died in 1750), it’s common to come across some arguments whether we should use the sustain pedal. This is because pedals weren’t widely being used at the time.

There are some cases where it is undeniable that it would be appropriate to consider use of the piano pedal. We know that Classical composers such as Mozart, for example, used knee levers instead of foot pedals. It is actually safe to say that all Classical piano music from Mozart and on was composed and designed with the right pedal in mind.

Early on, composers very rarely wrote in pedal markings. This is because it was the job of the musician or the music editor to figure things out. This is why you will often see many discrepancies between editions of pieces of music.

Most Romantic (19th century) and modern composers took the time to write explicit pedal markings in their scores. Something you also must consider is the style of the piece and the articulations the composer has included. For example, if a modern composer has written many staccato notes in, and no pedal marking, it usually does not make sense to use the pedal in that context.

If you see no pedal markings in your sheet music, you must use your knowledge to figure out the pedaling on your own!

How to use the sustain (right) pedal on the piano

When you begin to learn how to use the sustain pedal on the piano, the absolute #1 rule is that your heel should always be on the floor. When you press the pedal with the ball of your foot, your heel should never lift from the floor. This can be a challenge for younger children due to their height – a piano pedal extender and constant reminders can help with this. If you don’t follow this rule, then your entire body will be off balance, which is not good for your piano technique.

The next thing to consider is that all pianos are very different from one another. The depth and action of the pedals are not nearly as regulated as the depth and action of piano keys. This means that some pedals are very shallow and tight, and some are deep and loose. One should always test the pedals before your begin playing. It is necessary to feel the point at which the pedal starts working and the point at which the pedal is fully released.

There are actually some techniques that are called half-pedals and even quarter-pedals when it’s not fully released or released gradually but this is something for the very advanced players. 

In most cases you need to make sure that you are simply fully releasing the pedal when you change it. If you fail to do so your playing will become “muddy” and this can ruin all other great things you do at the piano.

What is the difference between direct and delayed pedaling?

Direct pedal is when you press the pedal exactly at the same time as when you press the piano keys. The next time you need a pedal, you will also press it exactly at the same time with your fingers. As a result, there will be a gap in the sound between your pedals. This is the easiest way to pedal; however, it doesn’t work in all scenarios.

Adelayed pedal is much less intuitive: instead of pressing the pedal down together with your fingers, you lift it up and then immediately press it down again. If your piece calls for a delayed pedal, you can use the direct pedal for the very first note, or press the pedal before playing. After that, use delayed pedaling for each subsequent change. 

This YouTube short video demonstrates exactly how to achieve both ways of pedaling on the piano:

Which way of pedaling is best for my piece? 

The way you pedal a piece on piano is dependent upon each individual situation. Generally speaking we can speculate that the delayed pedal is used 90% of the time and direct is 10%. 

Earlier styles of classical music often have “crisper” textures with a lot of staccato and non legato articulation. In these situations, pedaling has to be direct and usually is on the shorter side. Fast movements of Mozart’s or Haydn’s pieces are a good example of this scenario. More legato-based textures of Romantic and later styles almost always call for a delayed pedal. 

We suggest that you practice your delayed pedals a lot until it becomes your second nature. Believe us that at some point it will! If you don’t have a delayed pedal in your piano technique toolbox, then you will be stuck at a certain level of piano skills, and with it you can go further to more details and sophistication in your playing!

If you need help learning how to use the pedals on the piano and want to become even better at direct and delayed pedal technique, consider taking piano lessons! It’s a lot easier to learn with a competent teacher. Riverside Music Studios offers piano lessons in Manhattan.

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