Amazing Day: Adding Pedal

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman,
and today we're going to learn how to
add pedal to "Amazing Day."
let's get started by checking out the score.
In the score, where you will see pedal markings is down here under this grand staff.
You see these long lines with these little arrow looking things?
Those are pedal markings.
Let's talk about what all the little pieces mean. When you see this part this little corner shape,
that is a pedal down mark.
So it is at that moment in the music that you
that is a sign to you to place, go ahead and press
down your damper pedal
as you begin this piece. Now when you have one of these little arrow looking thingies,
that is a pedal lift,
and remember how we've been practicing with our damper pedal doing this up down motion.
So that is a pedal up/down.
You are going to lift the pedal
as you play the note. It will usually
point. That little arrow is pointing to
a chord or a note usually,
and as you play that note the instant your fingers go down, that is when your foot goes up,
and then you place it back down,
you know just a moment later basically.
So just a quick up/down, and the up is timed with the
playing of that chord or note.
That's a pedal lift, and then you'll see we have
another pedal lift, another pedal lift,
another pedal lift, another pedal lift,
another pedal lift. So those are those up downs, up downs, and then
way down here at
the bottom of the page this is a pedal up.
When you see that symbol, your pedal comes up.
Now let's check out our pedal markings on page two of the piece.
Okay, on
page two do you see any petal markings on this line?
Measure 17 to 20.
There are no lines underneath here, so you'll play this line with no pedal.
That will give us a cleaner sound on that line.
If you use pedal
on that line the notes can get a little blurry sounding. We want a nice crisp clean sound.
Where's the next time you play pedal? Can you point to the measure where we bring the pedal back in?
If you're pointing right here, you're correct.
As you play this chord, your pedal will come back down.
So you'll press the damper pedal,
and then you'll lift it here, and that's to
keep these low notes from sounding blurry or fuzzy.
Okay, you'll find that if
you keep the damper pedal down through those notes,
it will create kind of a muddy
sound.
It's kind of a mushy, bleh sound.
So lift the pedal as you tie that
quarter note to this next quarter note.
That's where the pedal lift occurs. That
brings us back to our D.C. al Coda.
Now let's jump down and take a look at the coda.
We've got an up-down, up-down, we hold it,
we lift again so these notes don't sound muddy.
No pedal in this measure, we put the pedal back down,
and we hold it down until we play the last chord, and we can let go of the pedal as we release that final chord.
Now that we know how to read these pedal markings, let's try to actually add pedal on the piano.
Now a quick review of pedal technique,
make sure you've got your heel on the floor.
We're using our right foot so we can play the right
pedal which is our damper pedal.
It's helpful to have shoes on, and
make sure your foot is covering enough
of the pedal to be able to firmly,
comfortably press it down.
Now with your foot in that position,
let's take a look at the beginning of this piece, and we're
going to use just left hand alone with
pedal for starters. So,
just let your right hand take a break. It'll be enough for your brain to think about using your left hand
with your right foot.
So as you play that first chord,
your pedal comes down, or you could actually start with the pedal already down because
you know, when you're sitting down to play this piece,
go ahead and put the pedal down.
And then you'll notice that with the pedal down, it's very easy to move your hand up to the next chord,
and the sound is going to keep going automatically.
That's very handy right?
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
Now, let's try that together. Okay? Ready, go
ahead and press your pedal down,
and let's play the first two measures, go:
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
Now you'll notice as we come to measure three,
there is a pedal lift marking,
and that means as we play this next chord,
at the same moment that our
fingers go down, our foot has to come up.
1
See on beat 1 I lifted my foot at the same moment my fingers go down, and then I immediately
put the foot back down and that will hold that chord
in time for my hand to move up.
Okay, so let's watch measures one through four.
I'm going to start with my pedal down 1 2 3
4 1 2 3 4
up-down 3 4 1 2 3 4
Now, pause t ...