Hi there, this post is advice about my daughter, but I teach piano (so may well meet the problem in the future too) and would be grateful for opinions from other teachers (or examiners!).

My daughter is taking Grade 3 LCM piano in a couple of weeks (I teach her, by the way). One piece, called Sentimental Waltz (any other LCM teachers may know it) has pedalling virtually all through. I was reluctant to choose it because she is a tiny 10 and can barely reach the pedals, but she loves the piece and was desperate to learn it.

Anyway, we've done lots of work on pedalling and she is now pedalling it very smoothly. Technically, she is in all the right places and the pedalling sounds good. But the piece loses something when she pedals - I don't know how to describe it better than that. When she plays without the pedal, it is less smooth, and obviously lacks pedal, but it has a "something" in terms of feeling and emotion and spark. When she pedals, although I think it is technically better, that "something" seems to be lost. I suspect that she is still putting so much concentration into the pedalling that there isn't much room in her mind for anything else.

I'd probably prefer to sacrifice a bit of technical prowess for a bit of extra emotion and spark. But I suspect the pedalling in this piece is compulsory, or that's how it seems in the blurb. So I don't know quite what to do. Every other aspect of the Grade 3 she is really strong on and I worry she will sacrifice a possible distinction for this piece, which it is too late to change.

What would you do?

Is she aware of the difference herself when she plays with the pedal? Being aware of it could be half the battle. If in doubt, I'd agree with David that she should play the piece with it rather than without it - but let her hear herself on a recording, and compare the two performances.

Don't forget it's only Grade 3, too! The way she plays when she's not pedalling just might be way beyond what would be expected at Grade 3; the musicality, if slightly lost at this stage, will re-emerge later once she finds herself able to pedal more automatically without concentrating so hard on it. It could be physical too! If she's literally stretching her body to reach comfortably, then she won't feel so relaxed.

Hope it all goes well!

Have you considered buying a pedal extension? I have seen kids as young as 5 using it in recitals.

I know that piece well. Only use the pedal for the beginning and end sections and not at all in the middle. i.e bars 1 to 12 and bars 33 to 47.