"Jingle Bells" Piano: Sustaining Pedal

Video Transcript

"One thing that every piano has is a thing called a sustain pedal. I'm playing on a keyboard, so what I actually have is an external sustain pedal. And a sustain pedal's job is to actually let a note ring out and actually create a good feel for it. It's important though that if you're going to use the sustain pedal that you don't want to press it down the whole entire time you're playing. If you do that you'll create a muddy sound when go to your next couple of chords and it won't sound good at all. The important thing to remember when you want to use the sustain pedal is to let up as you're making the transition from one chord to the next. So, as an example, we're going to play a C chord here, the very first chord of Jingle Bells. If I'm going to make a transition from C to an F chord, I don't want to hold down the pedal the entire time. Because it blends in the chords and it creates some sort of funky sound. Now if I wanted to make a smooth transition, what I would do is play the C chord, let up as I move my fingers to the F. As you can see it creates more of a crisp sound and actually makes it sound a lot better to the ear. So, a good rule of thumb, as you're transitioning from one chord to the next, make sure that you release the pedal and then press it back as you're going to the next chord. Keep in mind, however, that a sustain pedal is not necessary for every song. A simple song like Jingle Bells will do just fine without one."