• Sophia

  • Post #110

Ah the Harp Song. My first encounter with the pedal. Can you tell I'm pedal obsessed? It's true 😁 But it's one of those skills that take a minute to learn and then a lifetime to master. I love it!

Congrats on your progress!

  • Kaydia

  • Post #111

Thank you, @Sophia. I'm envious of your obsession with the pedal. I wish I could say I was looking forward to more pieces with pedaling, but I'm not feeling it at the moment. 😬😅

  • Sophia

  • Post #112
  • Edited

Right???? Well as a child I watched people playing (grand) pianos often, and always tried to figure out how they did that exactly. It seemed so random! I'd ask my mom (pianist, but obviously not a teacher type) how she did that, and her usual reply basically was "you just do it". So it took me all these years to finally learn it, and it was this post that suddenly made the light bulb explode inside my head:

WieWaldi when the hand goes down (in my case LH), the pedal goes up.

It was like the sun started to shine, rainbows in the sky, birds singing, springtime at last.... EUREKA! So simple!

But yeah, then of course getting the actual coordination of limbs to cooperate, that's an entirely different story. But that too is gradually happening to the point where sometimes, just sometimes, I am pedaling without actually thinking about it 😂

Edit: omg, I now realize I probably told that story of the pedal fascination 3 million times by now. Please forgive my senior moment in the endless repetitions of the same statement in endless variations 😁

P.S. Have I ever mentioned before that I have a pedal fascination? Well............ Ok I better run before the men in white coats are sent this way 🤣

      • Kaydia

      • Post #113

      Sophia It was a good read. First time I've heard that story. Though, to be fair, in my elderly years I do sometimes forget things. 😂 In any case, I love the enthusiasm. Maybe I, too, will one day have a similar eureka moment. 🙂

          • Sophia

          • Post #114

          Kaydia Maybe I, too, will one day have a similar eureka moment.

          Haha, yeah, you never know. Might as well have fun with our hobby, right?

              Oh, just wait until they stop putting the pedal notations on the score. Then youse guys will really be having fun.

                • Kaydia

                • Post #116

                Sophia Haha, yeah, you never know. Might as well have fun with our hobby, right?

                Absolutely!! 👍👍

                  • Kaydia

                  • Post #117

                  Player1 Oh, just wait until they stop putting the pedal notations on the score. Then youse guys will really be having fun.

                  (I'm going to pretend you're being sincere about the "having fun" part.) Sounds good. Looking forward to it. 😂

                      Kaydia

                      When you get to the Intermediate level, the pedal markings start to just disappear without warning. By this time you should know "how to do it" and not need notation on the sheet for it.

                      Which you will so don't worry.

                      This piece is an example. It has no pedal notation in the score and if you go to youboob and read the comments you can find out why.

                        • Kaydia

                        • Post #119

                        @Player1 Once upon a time I had a Gordon LIghtfoot album. Brings back memories. Anyway....

                        I read the comments and saw her reply to someone where she said, "It should be assumed for music at this level that the sustain pedal should be used tastefully (i.e. change the pedal with harmony shifts)." Per my googling, a "harmony shift" could be a chord change. That sounds helpful. But I can imagine it's not that simple.

                        Well, for now I'm grateful for the pedal markings so I have the visual to help coordinate my hands and feet. 😄

                          Kaydia

                          As you progress you'll find it actually is that simple. You'll hear the harmony shifts as well as how the harmony gets muddy if you don't lift when you should.

                          But for now, just follow the book. It'll lead you to where you want to go.

                              • Kaydia

                              • Post #121

                              Player1 As you progress you'll find it actually is that simple. You'll hear the harmony shifts as well as how the harmony gets muddy if you don't lift when you should.

                              But for now, just follow the book. It'll lead you to where you want to go.

                              That's good to hear. Thanks again for your help.

                                I'm working on two pieces at the moment; "Beautiful Brown Eyes" and "Alpine Melody".

                                I started with "BBE" and thought I had it down fairly well when I wrapped up my practice yesterday. But today I thought I'd run through it one more time, and when I did that it all fell apart. So it for sure needs more work. My 2 biggest issues are hesitations between the chord changes and timing the pedaling to be after, not on the note. I'm having the same issues with the other piece, "AM" as well.

                                It's time to focus on focused practice! And slow practice. Slow, focused practice.

                                Kaydia Well, for now I'm grateful for the pedal markings so I have the visual to help coordinate my hands and feet. 😄

                                I have those scores without pedal markings, but I put them in myself on places where there is some irregularity - where I either need more pedal changes, or less. It is not difficult, you'll learn to hear it very well.

                                *
                                ... feeling like the pianist on the Titanic ...

                                    Animisha I have those scores without pedal markings, but I put them in myself on places where there is some irregularity - where I either need more pedal changes, or less. It is not difficult, you'll learn to hear it very well.

                                    I'm glad you said, "learn". It'll be great to one day hear what other people are hearing when they leave comments on videos where they're offering pedaling critiques/suggestions.

                                        Kaydia This day will come!

                                        *
                                        ... feeling like the pianist on the Titanic ...

                                          Two more pieces completed: "Beautiful Brown Eyes" and "Alpine Melody". Basically was just more practice with chords and pedaling. On these two my chord changes took longer to smooth out than the pedaling did. Admittedly, by smooth I mean playing the chord in time, not necessarily that the 3 finger chords always sounded as one. Looking at you D7 in the RH!

                                          Congrats on your progress 🙂 Both very sweet pieces, you might find yourself revisiting them quite a lot.

                                            Sophia Thank you. I did like them both and may indeed revisit them both at some point.

                                              I've moved into the Middle C Position section. First was an easy two-line piece called "Thumbs on C!". I basically sight-read that one and quickly moved on.

                                              Next was "Waltz Time", which didn't sound like something I'd ever want to dance to. But I kept with it until I had the cres + dim parts sounding reasonably decent.

                                              After that were two similar pieces: "Good Morning To You!" and "Happy Birthday To You!" They're the same, except HBTY replaced some quarter notes with eighth notes. It was actually a bit of a challenge to not automatically use eighth notes on the GMTY piece.

                                              That's it for this update!