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Many years ago a piano teacher told me that Horowitz and Michelangeli played mostly with the soft pedal engaged, lifting their left foot only for very loud passages (ff and fff). A pianist-neighbor once explained that she played everything with the soft pedal down, "because fast passages are easier to play with the soft pedal down, and because that's the way Horowitz and Brendel play."

Do the greatest pianists really play with the soft pedal down almost all the time? Or is that an exaggeration?

Don't three strings, in general, produce better sound than two? Don't the hammers get worn down faster (and hardened) where the two strings are constantly hitting them?

My three children are just now learning to play our grand piano. Should I teach them to play mostly with the soft pedal down?

Are quick passages really easier to play with the soft pedal down?

Any insights on soft-pedaling would be most welcome.

Personally, I'm always surprised to find how many advanced students in general don't use the soft pedal nearly as much as they could. It provides real sensitivity and gives you the ability to - if you use it correctly with the damper pedal - make some amazing colors in softer passages. If you watch a very sensitive, well-trained pianist, their left foot will very often be around that pedal. This does not mean that one should not be able to play soft without the pedal, but I think people sure become more aware of the soft pedal and it's coloristic possibilities.

HOWEVER

If your children are just learning to play the piano, PLEASE don't tell them to keep the soft pedal down most of the time. Pedaling in general is not something thats introduced until well into the lessons, and the soft pedal even later. If they are just told to "play with soft pedal", without the ears knowing what it can or cannot do, then what's the point? Wait for a few years until they are starting to play repertoire that demands the soft pedal, so they can understand it's use in context.

Because most of the pianos I practise on - including the Kawai upright at my high school - have an undesireably harsh and bright tone, I use the soft pedal most the time, so much so that it is habit when I play, but I know that this isn't a good thing, becuase I end up doing it subconciously even when the use of the soft pedal isn't needed.

I say don't use it unless in a performance, and only if you can't achieve the same tone with your fingers.

It's a habit you don't want.

The marking for Soft Pedal is Una Corda actually meaning that only one of the three strings is struck by the hammer. Using this marking would greatly help individual notes to sound clearly in faster passages. And of course it achieves instant pianissimo whenever you want it. But on anything other than a really good piano that pedal is too noticeable and doesn't do much for me.

Yes, I thoroughly agree with not teaching the Soft Pedal until the student has achieved dynamics without it. And by that time if they don't need Soft Pedal they may be in a better position to evaluate.

The "soft" pedal on an upright works differently, of course, than the una corda pedal on a grand. That is the reason that I strongly recommend that one not regularly use the soft pedal on an upright. Since the mechanism of the soft pedal moves the action closer to the strings, the amount of "touch" required to produce sound on an upright is totally different when the soft pedal is engaged. Students can get into the habit of that "feel" of the action and have some difficulties adjusting to the action when the soft pedal is not engaged.

On a grand, on the other hand, the feel of the action is not changed because the mechanism shifts the entire action to the left, so that each hammer strikes only two (or, in some cases, one) of the three strings normally struck without the una corda.

There, too, on a grand the una corda should be used only for pp playing and for tone color effects, and not simply for reducing volume to p. If one has a decent grand to practice on - which is not, alas, always the case - one should learn to control volume without resorting to the use of the una corda. Indeed, one of the signs of a good action on a good grand is ones ability to control volume without the use of the una corda pedal.

Regards,

As a youth, this is exactly what I did when practicing on an old upright in our small family home. Since no one appreciated my practicing, I made every effort to disturb the house as little as possible, so I always used the soft pedal when practicing.

It took me several years not only to get out of the habit of having my left foot on the soft pedal but also to get out of the habit of using it all the time.

I am aware that many concert pianists often have their left foot on the una corda pedal when performing, but this doesn't necessarily mean that they are using the pedal; they are, hwoever, ready to use it without having to make any physical adjustment to their position. Left foot on the una corda and right foot on the damper is almost a "default position" with many pianists.

Regards,

Without evidence to the contrary, I would be inclined to doubt the first statement. Pianists of this caliber are well aware that on a grand the use of the una corda pedal has no effect on the feel of the action. The pianist-neighbour may be using an upright, but she is misinformed if she believes that the use of the una corda on a grand makes the action easier to play.

Horowitz et al may have used the una corda pedal more than others; I don't know. If they did, it was certainly for tone color and not to lighten the feel of the action.

On an upright, however, the action "feels" lighter when the soft pedal is used, because the entire action is moved closer to the strings when the soft pedal is engaged and there is less distance for the hammers to travel; hence, an easier feel to the action.

Regards,

Back when I played seriously, I almost never used the una corda to control dynamics. It was done to affect tone.

That was the way I was taught. Just throwing that out there.

I think the soft pedal does two things:

1. It moves the hammer sideways so it hits one-fewer string of the bichords and trichords.
(Obvisously in those first few bass notes there is only one string that still must be struck.)

2. It uses a portion of the hammer felt that is less used, and is therefore less-compressed and softer, giving a mellower sound.

If you used the soft pedal MOST of the time then THAT portion of the hammer felt would get harder from more use.

Wouldn't that reverse the soft vs. hard tone qualities?

My teacher in general discourages the soft pedal, particularly in a dimenuendo passage, saying that he can hear a change in tone color, and i ought to be able to do the diminuendo without the soft pedal. I quibble with him a bit on this, because I don't believe that a change in tone color is necessarily a bad thing. Singers allow a change in tone color all the time over the length of a note, such as when they change vowel. Or, in a somewhat similar way, they will add vibrato towards the end of a sustained note. I know that adding vibrato is not quite the same as changing tone color. Still, I think I have a point.

Do most of you feel in general, that a change of tone color in a diminuendo passage is a bad thing?

On my piano, a small Yamaha grand, there is a pronounced change in color with the soft pedal. There is very little change in color on his Steinway D, but he insists he can hear it. I've pointed out that he can see when I use the soft pedal. He agrees he can, but says it doesn't affect his judgement. I'm not convinced.

So anyway, I find myself using the soft pedal frequently for a change in color when I play my piano, and differently for my lessons.

Tomasino

It sure does. I had been overusing the soft pedal (for trying-not-to-disturb-others-in-the-house reasons), and the tone had reverted to the same as normal tone. Also, my tech could tell by looking at the hammers what I'd been doing. After voicing, it's back to how it should be, and I'm playing with the lid down now if I want to avoid disturbing people.

Exactly - I was just telling my tech/tuner about my now more frequent use of the Una Corda (which I just did recently), and he cautioned me not to play hard when using it so I don't harden that portion of the hammers. If used only in pp then of course it shouldn't be an issue. But constant use means one is limiting the tone potential of the piano with the three strings which doesn't make sense outside of pp.

Thanks to everyone for all the interesting replies.

Following up on this, I watched a number of YouTube videos of Horowitz, Michelangeli, and Brendel. You could see their pedaling some of the time, and it did seem as if they had the left pedal down quite a bit. In one fast piece by Michelangeli there were a couple of close-ups of his feet, and he seemed to be holding the left pedal down while pumping the right.

Not that my meager observations are proof, of course. With crummy YouTube quality it was not always clear if they were holding the left pedal down or just had their left foot resting on it; and much of the time the camera angle did not let you see their feet.

I guess someone who has seen them in concert--from a very good seat--could tell more about their alleged heavy use of the una corda.

I do not think my neighbor, who plays a grand, meant that Horowitz or Brendel held down the left pedal in order to make it easier to play fast. She was making two separate points: 1) Great pianists hold it down, and 2) she can play fast passages more easily when she holds it down.

Frankly I doubt that Horowitz etc. held down the soft pedal so much, but I have heard that point so many times that I cannot help but wonder if it is true.