Piano pedal effects

I heard in a piece by a composer at my school where he used a pedal effect, slowly dampening the keys after he hit/strum the strings in the piano. I've been a bit interested in trying to learn of what pedal effects are available to composers (as of now, I suppose). Obviously I could just experiment on the piano (and I have ;)) but perhaps someone here could share some information on the subject....

I'm writing a little piano piece, in my spare time, and begin the piece by "loudly pedaling" at the beginning of a measure of silence. I'm sure stuff like this has been done before, but I don't know when/who/what used it :P. Does anyone hear know of any pieces/composers? I realize that I'll likely be getting a lot of "avant-garde" music :P.

oh, and I've looked up extended piano techniques, but still haven't found anything with pedals. This couldn't possibly be an original idea :huh:...

Beware of my random thoughts...

Have you thought of holding the damper pedal down and tapping the piano in certain spots? Maybe tap the soundboard with the eraser end of a pencil or something...

A bunch of fun effects are possible with sympathetic resonance.... and the middle pedal is darn fun to play with. Also, on some piano, especially uprights, by pressing the soft pedal hard enough, you can get the hammers to strike the strings. Maybe have a chord held, then strike the dampers to reveal the chord....

Er, I'm looking more for only pedal effects, no getting up and whatnot :P. Though you do have some good ideas...

Careful, precise timing can create some cool effects. Try playing a loud chord then, almost immediately AFTER releasing the chord press the sustain pedal. If done correctly you should hear a sudden change in dynamics without the sound ever actually stopping.

And, as Enigmus said, stomping on the dampen pedal can do a lot of stuff and should have a lot of room for experimentation. Try silently pressing a chord, stomping on the dampen pedal to sound it, then release and immediately press the sustain pedal.

Or you could play a chord, release, immediately sustain to hold the sound quietly, then stomp on the dampen pedal to increase the volume of the chord again.

I'm kinda curious myself now:ermm:

You can also play with pseudo-pedal effects without even using the pedal. A strange kind of sustain can be heard if some of the notes of the piano are pushed down gently without sounding the strings. It usually works best with the lower strings, as their partials are more audible. These then become sympathetic strings which resonate when other notes are played. The resonance is much thinner than a full pedal, leaving individual short notes distinct, but providing a kind of ambience that surrounds them.

It's also possible to achieve harmonics on a piano by doing the (almost) reverse. After a passage of pedal-down playing, silent notes can be played (preferably ones that have not just been struck), and the damper pedal released, leaving the resonating strings' harmonics alone.

As far as pedal effects go, they can be useful, but bear in mind even grand pianos can have fairly limited ablities; some have relatively shallow pedals, and this results in an almost binary-like system - either on or off, with very little inbetween. Upright pianos tend to have deeper pedals, as the mechanism is different (the mechanism generally is "pushed up" in an upright; it is "pulled down" in a grand piano), which makes them often more open to more subtle types of pedalling.

L.

You can always indicate half-pedaling or even indicate raising your foot slowly, so that it kind of "jingles" the strings.

Crumb has used the piano in very novel ways. Basically, some of the most common techniques are plucking the strings inside the piano, dampening a string, plucking with the fingernail, glissandoing on the strings, play harmonics, depress a few (or a lot, a cluster works amazingly) keys silently, then depress the sostenuto pedal and then hit high keys very hard (it sounds better if you depress keys in the low register), or if you simply play somewhere high (it creates a kind of ghostly echo).

About other effects, you can try preparing a piano (much like John Cage, Wolff or even Aphex Twin), or even hitting various parts of the piano (much like Lachenmann).

And there's probably many more things to do with the piano, but I can't think of anything else right now :P Enjoy :D

The sustain pedal can even be used to great effect without going into any "special effects", just by (as pianoman has said) using it at the right time for the right duration. Traditional pedal notation is rather imprecise, so a while ago I experimented with writing a separate pedal part with a precise, rhythmical notation, denoting both the pressing down and lifting of the pedal. The uses of this are quite fascinating: You can actually write some sort of polyrhythm where the pedal-rhythm is totally independant of the actual note rhythm, which allows you to create a soft, subtle pulse beneath the "melody". Also, I love playing with the tiny variations in timbre and resonance that you get when you play a note without pedal, but sustained, with pedal, staccato but with pedal, with the sostenuto pedal, etc. which all create a slightly different sound. (For example playing a staccato note with the sostenuto/middle pedal that has been "prepared" on the same note sounds slightly different than playing the same staccato note with the right pedal, as in the latter case you get more resonance from the other strings.) These are of course very subtle effects, that may be lost when there's too much going on at the same time.

Lastly, there's also more to the "una corda" (left) pedal than how it's usually used. Most people never consider using it in forte, for example, but personally I love the effect of a loud, but less brilliant and "grandiose" sound, especially if you combine it with very quiet sounds without the left pedal (and possibly with the sustain pedal), which in contrast become truly shining. Liszt used the left pedal in forte too.

Oh, and I absolutely adore the moderato/"practice" pedal that some upright pianos have. I wish my piano had this :(

That's a really good one, the one with the differences of playing the same note staccato with the two different pedals.

My teacher also showed me the other day some things which are normally for electric guitar, and they have magnets in them which make any metallic strings they are put on vibrate, and he used them for a piece he wrote for harpsichord (they create an amazing sound, I have to tell you). I assume you can also use them on the piano, and you can use them in combination with any of the pedaling effects or prepared piano as well (like dampen the string while having the magnets vibrate it etc). I have to remember how they are called..

Edit: Got it, they are called "EBows" :D

As far as pedal effects go, they can be useful, but bear in mind even grand pianos can have fairly limited ablities; some have relatively shallow pedals, and this results in an almost binary-like system - either on or off, with very little inbetween. Upright pianos tend to have deeper pedals, as the mechanism is different (the mechanism generally is "pushed up" in an upright; it is "pulled down" in a grand piano), which makes them often more open to more subtle types of pedalling.

I partially disagree with this statement. It's true that the pedals on an upright are generally less "shallow" in the sense that the pedal itself is physically capable of moving a greater direction. However, I would not say that this means that they are open to more subtle pedaling. Grand pianos (at least good ones) are in my experience more responsive to what you're actually doing. Many effects that work on a grand are less effective on an upright. Vice versa, not so much.

For repertoire examples you might want to check out "Notation in New Music" by Erhard Karkoschka. Its scope is more how to notate stuff than how to do stuff, and it is not at all piano-centered, but you'll probably find something in there. At the very least there will be some ideas for particular scores to go look at.

That's a really good one, the one with the differences of playing the same note staccato with the two different pedals.

My teacher also showed me the other day some things which are normally for electric guitar, and they have magnets in them which make any metallic strings they are put on vibrate, and he used them for a piece he wrote for harpsichord (they create an amazing sound, I have to tell you). I assume you can also use them on the piano, and you can use them in combination with any of the pedaling effects or prepared piano as well (like dampen the string while having the magnets vibrate it etc). I have to remember how they are called..

Edit: Got it, they are called "EBows" :D

Ahh, yes! My former piano teacher used those all the time in improvisation (she was a free-jazzer). They're fun!