Let's talk about the damper pedal (or the sustain pedal). I was made aware, several years ago, that I would often abuse the damper pedal in practicing and performance situations. It wasn't until I was without a damper pedal for a performance that I realized, my show is going to sound like a staccato mess without it... Which led me to the conclusion of: If the end goal is to have the tone sustained, why am I in such a hurry to release the keys once the pedal is down? After I noticed that I was doing it, I started hearing it from other artists, too. Now, I'm writing a blog about it!
For Pete's sake... When the damper pedal is just held down without any rhyme or reason, the piano sounds drunk! All of the notes are slurring into each other and not going away...
What would it look like to sober that piano up and take a few days to practice without the damper pedal -for the sake of clarity?
Keep in mind, if you are classically trained -or prefer sheet music to block chords- You may very well encounter pieces that call for a damper and then a quick transition. Do what's written (and yes, if the damper pedal is NOT written in... then don't use it) This post is more for the pianists that are accompanying themselves whilst singing.
Here's an excellent example of what true legato (without damper) sounds like:
Now, block chord accompanists that sing, stay with me! Listen to the left hand. Hear how smooth they are playing? That's some REAL legato (smooth playing). Imagine working out a broken chord line for the piece you are working on versus relying on the damper? The song "Come Sail Away" comes to mind (with the moving left hand). You can always block the chord out with your right hand while your left is moving. Food for thought...
Here's the practice challenge:
come up with an eighth note pattern for your left hand
Key of C:
[FOR THE CHORD PEOPLE] :
RightHand: C Major Chord
LeftHand: Individual notes: C - G - E - G - E - G - E - G
(root-5th-3rd-5th-3rd-5th-3rd-5th)
[FOR THE SHEET MUSIC PEOPLE]:
Practice this little excerpt at about 120BPM. Be sure to honor that rest in measures 1 and 3 -and hold out the whole notes in measures 2 and 4. The ultimate goal is to make the left hand sound as smooth as possible without using the damper pedal! Give it a shot!
That's what I've got! If you try it out, let me know how it goes!
Until next time,
-T.