Pedal to the Rescue

Is there anything more boring than pedaling?

It's one of those things you don't think about—until you need it to swoop in like a superhero to save your unintentionally choppy notes.

This morning I found myself thinking about pedaling in my "You Are My Sunshine" arrangement. So far, the only real pedaling I've used has been for the "stride pedaling effect" in the second playthrough, toward the beginning of the arrangement. But when I listened to my videos from yesterday, I realized I'm having to "cut short" some notes in the section where I'm crossing hands back and forth.

It makes sense. If I'm pressing a key in the bass and have to rush to get to the high treble, I'm going to have to pick up a little sooner than I might otherwise. The result is a short, rushed sound at the end of each phrase.

Hence the need for pedal—specifically the sustain pedal to do some connective work while my right hand is in midair. So in my brief piano session this morning, all I practiced was using the pedal in that one crossed-hands section. It doesn't feel as natural as the pedal usually does, as I have to press it for a full beat, pick it up immediately afterward, and then press it down again for a half beat, then pick it up immediately, just to press it down again for another full beat. Wash, rinse, repeat, throughout that whole section.

Not easy, but by the time I finished my 20-minute practice, I was playing it correctly at a slow tempo. It'll take some more work, but I'm confident it will start to feel natural before long.

See, that wasn't so boring, was it? If you're still awake, or if you'd rather see the possibly less-boring video, here it is! (CORRECTION: In the video, I refer to the middle pedal as the una corda pedal when it's actually the sostenuto pedal. Oops! Clearly I needed more coffee this morning!)

Comments

Eureka! Secondary Dominant!

I am such a nerd, and I love being a nerd! Today I was working on Section 5 of You Are My Sunshine, specifically on getting this section up to performance level. In other words, I was practicing being a performer , not an arranger . But then, of course, I came up with another idea. I had just played the delicate sixths and descending rag rolls of "when skies are gray" (I chord) and then moved to the parallel octaves of "you never know, dear" (leading to IV). The shift sounded abrupt to me. Harsh. It needed something. It needed musical WD-40. Something to ease the hinge between textures. And then I stumbled upon it! Right before moving to IV, I can slip in a V7/IV — a secondary dominant! So I tried it, and it sounded so good that I actually yelled "Secondary dominant!" out loud in my house like I was Archimedes discovering water displacement in the bathtub. It's such a small thing. One little chord. But it smooths that transition, leaning the harmony ...

The Rusty Lock and Key

I'm in a room. There's a door in front of me. On the other side of that door is a whole world of adventure and imagination and joy and delight, but for the moment, I'm locked in this gray little room. The door itself has a lock that is all rusted. I've tried to open it in the past, but I've never gotten very far. Sometimes I try to scrape the rust off the lock. I also have a rusty old key that I occasionally try to polish. Each time, after I've made a little progress, I'll put it into the keyhole in hopes of opening the door. It turns a half a millimeter or so, but the brief excitement at my progress dies quickly when I realize, once again, the lock isn't opening. I set the old key aside, and from there I can forget about the door, the lock, and the world outside, for months—years, even. But then something happens—I hear birdsong, or I catch a glimpse of color—and I pick up the key and start picking away at the stubborn rust. That dark little room is my ...

Ode to Joy Day 3: Patterns, Shapes, and Short Breaks

As I work through Rebecca Bogart's Learn New Repertoire Faster challenge , I'll be posting more extended updates here on my blog. Days 1–3 Day 1 was analysis, listening, and generally scoping out the territory of the music . The road trip to Florida last week turned out to be Day 1, even if I didn't label it that way at the time. Day 2 was fingering and the start of my first "batch": measures 0-7 (intro), 8-15 (Section A), and 16-23 (Section A'). Day 3 (today) was about recognizing patterns and continuing work on Batch 1. Batch 1: Intro, A, A' The intro isn't difficult, and it will likely be one of the two easiest sections in this piece. Still, the syncopation is a little tricky, so I took some extra time with it. I've already memorized it, as the chord progression is pretty straightforward and the melody is just a single line (no harmony notes). There is one big augmented chord at the end that required some focused work. Sections A and A' ar...

Picking Up the Pieces: A Piano Practice Journal

Search This Blog