Pedal

A pedal (from the Latin pes, pedis, meaning 'foot') is a lever activated by one's foot, sometimes called a "foot pedal" (but all pedals are used by a foot). It may specifically refer to:

Transport

Music

Piano pedals

Piano pedals are foot-operated levers at the base of a piano which change the instrument's sound in various ways. Modern pianos usually have three pedals, from left to right, the soft pedal (or una corda), the sostenuto pedal, and the sustaining pedal (or damper pedal). Some pianos omit the sostenuto pedal, or have a middle pedal with a different purpose such as a muting function also known as silent piano.

The development of the piano's pedals is an evolution that began from the very earliest days of the piano, and continued through the late nineteenth century. Throughout the years, the piano had as few as one modifying stop, and as many as six or more, before finally arriving at its current configuration of three.

The individual pedals

The damper pedal

The damper pedal, sometimes called the sustaining pedal, is used more often than the other pedals, and is placed at the right of the array of pedals, most conveniently accessible to (mostly right-footed) players. The damper pedal raises all the dampers off the strings so that they keep vibrating after a key on the keyboard has been released. In effect, the damper pedal makes every string on the piano a sympathetic string, creating a rich tonal quality; it is probably this effect that lies behind the common saying that the damper pedal is "the soul of the piano". The damper pedal has the secondary function of allowing the player to connect into a legato texture notes that otherwise could not thus be played.