Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum What is the point of pedaling here?

There is only 1 note being playing between notes, could I just not pedal? It would sound the same anyways right?

Pedaling does more than just sustain the notes being played. By lifting the dampers off the strings it allows those open strings to resonate with the one being placed, giving a richer, warmer sound. Most modern digitals, except for the cheaper ones, can simulate this.

At this level of music, it is more important to learn the proper coordination of pedal while you play then to go for any kind of sound effect. You should learn to pedal down after you press the note, not at the same time; and up pedal as you press the next note, then down pedal again. This requires a bit of practice. Also, on an acoustic piano, you should learn to up pedal only enough to dampen the sound without causing a slamming sound as the dampers hit the strings. Never treat the pedal as a switch. If you have a digital piano, this last part is impossible to practice.

Notice the music is marked molto legato. This means your pedaling should be smooth and not affect the legato nature of the sound all at pianissimo. Pressing down on the pedal changes the pressure on each key, so it requires a different touch to play pianissimo than without the pedal as well. Of course on a digital piano, this is impossible to practice. Simply do the best you can.

This is the end of Alfred book 2, "moonlight"...did you complete the first book and finishing book 2. If you follow the course most all your questions would be answered.

I think you will see what the point of pedaling is if you compare how the piece sounds with the pedal to how it sounds without it, i.e., full/rich vs. bare naked.

I have a digital piano, would it even matter if I don't pedal the one note? I will anyways cause it is easy, however on a digital piano I am not certain if I will hear the correct effect.

That depends on the digital piano. Generally speaking the more expensive, the better job they will do at reproducing pedal effects. That's a sweeping generalization of course. I'm not sure if your Casio does that or not.

I don't think there will be much difference on the Casio PX-150. A digital piano with multi-layer sustain samples would provide better simulation. However, you should do your best to learn to pedal even if the difference is small. You never know when you will have a better piano. The trend for digital piano owners is that they upgrade very frequently. You don't want to learn basic things from scratch later when you could start now.