Piano pedals explained: what the three pedals do

A piano has two or three pedals. The right pedal lets the notes ring on. The left pedal makes the sound softer. The middle pedal does one job on a grand piano and a different job on most uprights. The right pedal is the one a student uses first and uses most.

The three pedals at a glance

Pedal	Names	What it does
Right	Damper pedal, or sustain pedal	Lifts all the dampers, so that every string rings on
Left	Soft pedal, or una corda	Makes the sound softer and a little thinner
Middle, on a grand	Sostenuto pedal	Holds only the notes that are down when it is pressed
Middle, on many uprights	Practice pedal	Lowers a strip of felt between the hammers and the strings for quiet practice

Some pianos have only two pedals: the right and the left.

The right pedal

Each string has a damper, a pad of felt that rests on it. When a key goes down, its damper lifts. When the key comes up, the damper falls back, and the sound stops.

The right pedal lifts every damper at once. Notes keep ringing after the fingers let go. Other strings hum along in sympathy, and the sound grows richer.

The skill to learn. A pedal held too long turns the music to mud, since old notes ring into new ones. Pianists clear the sound by changing the pedal: the foot comes up and goes down again just after each new chord. This is called legato pedaling, or syncopated pedaling. The foot moves a moment after the hands.

The left pedal

“Una corda” is Italian for “one string.”

On a grand, the left pedal slides the keys and the hammers a little to one side. Each hammer then strikes two of its three strings. The note is softer, and its color changes.

On an upright, the left pedal moves the hammers closer to the strings. They have less distance to travel, so they hit with less force.

The middle pedal

On a grand, the middle pedal is called the sostenuto pedal. It catches the dampers of the keys that are held down at that moment and keeps them up. Those notes ring on, and every other note stays crisp. Few pieces need it, and students meet it late.

On many uprights, the middle pedal drops a strip of felt in front of the hammers. The piano becomes much quieter. Some call it the practice pedal. It often locks in place with a push to the side.

On some uprights, the middle pedal sustains only the low notes.

How pedal marks look in the music

Mark	Meaning
“Ped.” under the staff	Press the right pedal
A star or an asterisk	Lift the right pedal
A line under the staff with small notches	Hold the pedal along the line, and change it at each notch
“una corda”	Press the left pedal
“tre corde”	Lift the left pedal

Many pieces have no pedal marks at all. The player and the teacher decide.

When children start to use the pedal

A child needs to reach the pedal with the heel on the floor and still sit well at the keys. Many young students cannot. Two things help.

• A pedal extender is a box that sits over the pedals and brings them up to a child’s foot.
• A footstool gives the feet a place to rest until the legs grow.

Read piano bench height and footstools for kids.

Teachers often add the right pedal after a year or two of lessons. Good pedaling depends on listening, so the ear has to be ready too.

Pedals on a digital piano

A digital piano has no dampers and no strings. Its pedal is a switch that tells the instrument to let the notes ring. Many come with one pedal, and some models take a three-pedal unit. Read piano or keyboard for a beginner.

A short history

The first pianos had no pedals. Players worked the dampers with a hand stop, and later with a lever under the keyboard that they pushed up with a knee. Mozart’s piano had knee levers. Foot pedals became the norm in the early 1800s, in Beethoven’s lifetime.

Things to do together

Ring and stop. Press the right pedal and play a few notes. Let the pedal go, and hear the sound stop.

Mud and clean. Play a scale with the pedal held down the whole way. Then play it with no pedal. Talk about the difference.

Sing into the piano. Hold the right pedal down, and sing one note into the open piano. The strings sing the note back.

Watch the hammers. On a grand, look inside and press the left pedal. The whole row of hammers slides to the side.

Print and play

Read parts of the piano for kids, the piano for kids, and grand piano and upright piano: how they differ. For a piece that uses the right pedal all the way through, read Clair de lune for kids.