How To Solve Using The Piano Or Keyboard Sustain

Pedal in 15 Minutes

It’s important when learning a musical instrument to dedicate regular time slots to help you progress

into a great musician.

After learning piano or keyboard for a few months you will feel ready to introduce the sustain pedal

into some of your more advanced pieces of music.

Using the sustain pedal really helps bring out the colour and expression in a song and is an essential

part of learning keyboard and piano. It does exactly what the name suggests and sustains the notes

of a piece of music.

It can be picked up in as little as fifteen minutes if you are familiar with your song and how the

rhythm progresses throughout.

If you want to learn how to apply the sustain pedal into your music then read through the

checkpoints below to assist you with this: -

The easiest way to describe when to let the sustain pedal ‘breathe’ is to imagine if you were

singing or talking continuously - at some point in your conversation you will have to take a

small breath.

The sustain pedal is usually put down at the start of a bar of music, released at the end of

the bar and then put down again for the following bar.

An alternative way of thinking when to press the sustain pedal is to count the rhythm of your

music. For example most pop songs are in Common Time(sometimes referred to as four-four

time) which is equal to four beats per bar. So if you play by ear or by memory clap this

rhythm to find the start of the beat/bar.

To co-ordinate the sustain pedal by counting to the rhythm the pedal will need to be pressed

down on the 1st

beat of the bar to create the sustain effect. To ensure it doesn’t sound too

muffled you then need to release the pedal on the 4th

beat of the bar, and bring it back

down on the next 1st

beat.

Spend 5 minutes of your practice getting yourself used to the feel of the pedal and press the

pedal down on the 1st

beat playing a single note to a metronome beat of around 60 beats

per minute.

Once happy with this then introduce it your music playing it slowly to help the co-ordination

of the pedal.

Make sure your first piece of music played with the pedal is an easy piece as you will have

the sustain to also think about.

It can take many years of practice to reach the standard to be able play your own one hour song

repertoire on piano or keyboard.

But what if there was a simple method that could show any beginner how to do it in just 12 days?

Find out how it’s done...Easy Keyboard Lessons