Take an old method book on pedaling and appearance at the pedal symbols at rock bottom of every measure. Study the patterns of when the best volume pedals is held down and when the pedal is lifted. inspect the chord changes within the progression. If played correctly, your music won't sound like one long blur!
Having an understanding of the mechanism helps too. If you look inside an acoustic piano you'll notice that dampers rest on the strings. Whenever a key's pressed while holding down the damper pedals the dampers are lifted from the strings allowing the strings to freely vibrate. This produces the harp-like sounds or sustaining of sounds. it's to not be wont to produce a rise in volume as most of the people believe, but is to sustain the sound being produced until the pedal is released.
Brief Definitions and Uses of the Piano Pedals
Damper pedal: Right pedal wont to sustain sound, wont to produce harp-like effects.
Sostenuto pedal: Middle pedal wont to prolong a sound and allows you to play against it with out the harp-like effect of the damper pedal. for instance if you wanted to play an important sound within the left side of the piano then play a fast staccato against it within the upper register of the piano. it's best through with this pedal.
Una corda pedal or soft pedal: Located on the left wont to produce soft sounds, because the hammers inside the piano only hit one string. Una- One.
The action of a piano feels lighter with the damper pedal down because the foot is holding the dampers off the strings rather than the fingers. i like to recommend to all or any my students to first learn a piano piece with out the pedal. That way you're learning proper timing and just over all being comfortable with the song. Then plow ahead and add the pedal where indicated.
Another important reason for not using the pedal initially is that technique improves fastest without the pedal because you'll hear exactly what you play without interference from previously played notes. you ought to be actively controlling the tone, keeping those fingers on the brink of the keys.
I like to use the pedal for Fur Elise with those beautiful broken chords.
Did you recognize that the pedal was practically non-existent before Mozart's time? The pedal was basically fully developed by Beethoven's time, although it had been not yet totally accepted as a significant musical tool. So, we've Chopin to thank for the utilization of the pedal in our piano playing. Chopin used the pedal extensively to inject a further level of logic into his music and fully exploited all the various ways of pedaling.
You can get a legato effect without an excessive amount of blurring by rapidly lifting and depressing the pedal whenever the chord changes. Enjoy your pedal practice!