The Gift of Pedals

Positive Pensées

Kathy King

The Gift of Pedals

“Life is like a piano.  What you get out of it depends on how you play it.”

Tom Lehrer

On a piano there are 3 pedals, they all serve a purpose.

One sustains, one dampens, and one is sustenuto.

Each pedal serves a purpose in the crafting of a melody.

When you choose the sustain pedal, it blends the melody.

It makes the sound continue, even when you have left those keys.

The damper, or soft pedal, or the Una corda dampens the sound.

It makes the sound more subtle, a little softer sound. 

The sostenuto sustains only a few notes at a time.  You play the notes, touch the pedal and the piano maintains their sound.  

You can play other notes with sostenuto, but they are not maintained.  The notes almost sound like staccato, almost like the trillings of a bird. 

Life is much like pedals, if you take a moment to see. 

Some things sustain, some things soften, and others hold in place.

So let us learn from pedals they are after all how we have such beautiful melodies.

Pedals.  Kind of an interesting choice, right?  The piano is an absolutely amazing instrument.  I am often in awe of just how the keys, the strings, the hammers, and the pedals work.  First, we will talk about the sustain pedal.  It is rare to encounter a piece of music that does not use the sustain pedal.  The pedal basically enables you to play a note, when you lift your finger from the note, a damper pad stops the note from ringing out.  The sustain pedal removes the damper pad from the note allowing the notes to ring longer.  If we liken this concept to life,  what sustains us?  Is it a diet of news, social media, or negative influences?  Or, do we have a diet that is awash in constructive and pragmatic exercises?  There is a caution with the sustain pedal.  In the words of the composer Claude Debussy: “Abusing the pedal is only a means of covering up the lack of technique, making a lot of noise to drown out the music you are slaughtering!” That was a harsh sentiment but Debussy did have a point.  Too much of anything will muddy up our focus and our attitude.  Hence, we must maintain a more productive way to use our sustain pedal.  The sustenuto pedal is a lot like the sustain pedal; the difference is that the pedal only holds the notes that are already being played at the moment when the pedal is down.  This pedal is what we are made of.  Our roots, our soul, our moral compass, our scruples.  Hopefully those scruples are to do good to those around us.  When other notes are introduced to the sustenuto pedal they still add to the melody; they are just not sustained in the base chord.  In life this is other people, other opinions, other notions that may or may not resonate with us but we can have them in our life.  They contribute to the melody.  Finally, the last pedal.  Some refer to it as the damper pedal, others refer to it as the soft pedal.  It is also referred to as the Una Corda pedal.  Most strings in a piano are grouped in threes.  When you use this pedal, it shifts the entire keyboard to the right, making a softer sound.  What are the dampers or soft things in life?  They may be our moments of meditation, moments of pause.  It could be people who help us find our center.  Or, we could be the person that shows others how to be the voice of reason, the voice of encouragement, or a gentle reminder that we can do this.  For me the damper pedal is to take a moment and listen.  After all, we have 2 ears and one mouth.  Sometimes it is good to just listen.  There are also many methods of pedaling.  Delayed, half, preliminary and simultaneous.  These methods mean that we are all different, we all bring a different mindset to the table. A different sound, a different melody that can make our world a much better place.  I leave you all dear readers with the words of Arthur Rubenstein: “The pedal is the soul of the piano.”.  Let’s be pedals! 

*Source flowkey.com