Hello!

I have just been re-reading "The Art of Teaching Piano" and thinking about pedalling, the way I teach it and how I can improve. I would be very interested to know at what level teachers here believe students should start learning to pedal throughout pieces. I feel that there is a degree of musical maturity required in good pedalling as well as a good control of other aspects of technique which only comes with time. Pedalling is quite confusing when you start, like patting your head and rubbing your tummy...learning to do it well I think could best happen around grade 4. I think using touches of pedal at the end of phrases can be introduced earlier to get the pupil used to having their pedal ready etc.

Many of my pupils were rather prematurely thrown into it last year as there was a piece set for Grade 2 in the Royal Irish Academy of Music ("Song of Twilight", which is gorgeous) which required careful pedalling throughout. I taught it like this: learning the left hand chords without pedal, looking at the fingering and trying to create as legato a sound as possible by fingering carefully from chord to chord. Pupils might have covered two or four bars a week, which would involved maybe four chords at most. While doing this pupils were set a simple exercise involving chord playing and pedalling to practise the timing (play the chord, put down the pedal, change the chord, change the pedal etc). For pupils who found this challenging we did the same with a C major scale. We talked extensively about pedalling 'with your ears'. On their own instruments at home they all sounded fine. In their exams however many of them received comments about slightly muddy pedalling which I suspect is to do with the experience of using a different instrument. I feel a number of factors come into play here: 1) these pupils are all around 12/13 and hitting puberty; lots of them seem to go through a slightly malco-ordinated phase around then! 2) at grade 2 maybe pupils are lacking musical maturity and experience to react under pressure to a foreign instrument and to adjust accordingly. 3)My pupils may suffer slightly by being taught at home; they are not exposed to other instruments. 4) Maybe they just needed more time to do a better job!

Any ideas or thoughts? Sorry for the long post!

Thanks and happy Wednesday!

I give mine pedal exercises to play as soon as they have enough leg lenth to reach it, although some will have to sit well forward to do so. As long as they can get their heel on the floor as they use it I am happy. I have some simple pieces that I have written for beginner pianists that include some pedalling. I think that it is important that they really understand what the pedals do, and my first pieces would be those with well edited pedal markings.

Thanks for the response Petrat. So would you ask a pupil of around 8 or 10 to adjust their posture for specific pedal exercises and then as they grow they don't need to?

i had thought of this after I posted as another issue for pedalling. I used to have a pupil who was very talented and very small. She simply couldn't reach the pedal without almost standing up! So I avoided it completely with her until her legs got a bit longer. By this stage she was around grade 2/3 and had good understanding of what she was trying to achieve. She learned to pedal very quickly (and nicely!)

Any further insights?

The Schaum blue book has a good introduction to pedalling - the pictures are a bit out of date, but the principle is sound!

That's the same one I use with my pupils. Gives them a feel for the general principles, although it can be a while (because of the books I use after that) before I have them using pedal very regularly.

I have to say that I introduce pedalling as soon as we come to a piece that needs it and as long as the student's co-ordination has developed. This is for both adults and children.

The only thing with children is that, as you say, they often can't reach the pedal without sliding half on/half off the stool!

What I'm doing at the moment with one particular prep test student who is really too small, is that we practice without pedal for her piece, but at some point during the lesson I let her play it with the pedal (as she is really very good at it and it sounds lovely). I have told her however, that she shouldn't use the pedal in the actual Prep Test, because she often makes mistakes due to the odd position she's standing in!

I couldn't touch the floor til I was working towards Grade 4 when I was learning. My teacher never had me standing up to practice pedalling, and I wasn't penalised in exams (distinctions all the way). I learned it for Grade 4.

Has anyone here used the A-Leg-Gro-Ped which is an all-in-one adjustable foot-stool and pedal extender? I bought one last year after reading about it on here and I am quite pleased with it. The pedal apparatus works best on our upright piano so I tend to use it as an up and down foot-stool for the grand piano the most. Great for very little legs!

Thanks for all the responses! I will have a look at the Schaum Blue Book in the music shop tomorrow. Joan Last talks extensively about it in her "Young Pianist" book. I'll be interested to see if there is significant cross-over.



I would LOVE one of those. But a number of factor prevent me including teaching in lots of different locations...I have enough to lug with me from house to house as it is! But on the happy day when I am based in one place I fully intended to get one.

Do your pupils bring it to their exams?

I haven't used it for exams, lessons or performances away from home yet but it has a very handy carry bag. I use the Blue Schaum a lot too.

I was very interested to hear recently that the original Joan Last tutor books have been re-published. I remember her 'Cats' book vividly as a child and one called 'Facts and Fancies' or something like that. There might be some great pedal effect ideas in there as her music was so descriptive and imaginative.