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One of the features of all the Yamaha Clavinova CLP range is the ‘half-pedalling’ function. I have to confess that until about 10 years ago, I’d never truly used this feature in my teaching. With beginners, there isn’t really too much need to use this, but as soon as you start to progress, the idea of using the half pedal begins to come into reality.
Putting your foot on the damper (sustain) pedal allows for harmonies to blend together, unfortunately, it can be misused or just misunderstood, so whole passages merge together in somewhat discordant pain rather than the subtle effect that the composer may have required.
Half pedalling is the use of the damper pedal in order to allow sustain just enough to move to the next harmony. On an acoustic piano it works as the foot controls how far the pedal goes onto the physical strings. You may be forgiven for thinking that this can’t happen with a digital piano, but the Yamaha have added this function to all the Yamaha Clavinova range, giving far more control.
I think it might be time to put in a little festivity here to help explain: let’s take a Christmas Carol such as ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’.
The homophony requires equal weighting from each finger to allow the separate voices to be heard, however, it can sound rather sterile with gaps between the chords without any pedal.
The alternative is full sustain. Where this runs into issues is that it blurs the harmonies together, so if you are playing with a choir for example, the individual parts cannot be heard as well.
The half-pedal option is a perfect compromise. You can press the pedal far enough to ‘capture’ the harmony, then release and replay as you move through the music.
There are so many pieces of music, not just church hymns that require the nuances of the half pedal technique.
I’ve recorded an audio demonstration of this feature below.
I have a student currently learning Chopin’s Prelude number 4 in E minor and this is a wonderful example of where half pedalling is so important to allow the treble to sing over the repetitive chordal bass.
This prelude is so easy to lose the singing melody of the right hand to a heavy bass that is overly sustained, or to make it sound disjointed with no pedalling at all. The use of half pedalling enables just sufficient harmonic connection. Have a listen here to Khatia Buniatishvili playing it.
If you are interested in the Clavinova CLP – 785, drop us a line below. We also offer part exchange on some instruments if you are looking to upgrade.
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Comments:
Thanks very much Rachel. A really clear explanation of this technique.
I love all of the pieces in Opus 28 – especially No. 4.
Without half pedalling, it’s either too staccato or very “muddy.”
By the way, I love how Katia plays the melody just off the harmony rather than bang on it. That very gentle grace note feel really makes the music sing.
Chopin would have been very proud – even at his funeral!