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Hi! I have upright piano and I don´t mostly use this pedal, I think the sound is too soft, sometimes I don´t press it completely, just to the middle, it´s better I think. I can play very quietly without it.
Do you use this pedal often? Is necessary for andvanced pianist to use it?

Funny you should ask.....The last couple of nights, I did small performances as part of a movie showing -- and the piano was an upright. I had the exact same issue with the soft pedal, and therefore hardly used it at all, and when I did use it, I only put it down a fraction -- just like what you said.

The soft pedal works differently on uprights than on grands (as you know) but I had never played any other upright where there was this issue. Still, it didn't "throw" me very much because I rarely put the soft pedal down all the way anyway, on any piano.

It's good to get into the habit of just pressing it down part of the way -- especially on grands. Not counting professional pianists, I think most people probably do usually put it down completely whenever they use it. That's a mistake. The main thing that's bad about it is that you hit the strings with the same exact part of the hammers all the time (and the same part where other people hit it too). That part of the hammer then becomes hardened, and so it doesn't give as nice a tone. Also, besides the tone being worse, it is the same tone all the time, while if you press the soft pedal down just a fraction, and if you use different fractions at different times, you use an infinite variety of positions on the hammers, and you have the possibility for different shades of tone. I admit that this is hard to do, and most of us probably can't really, so I wouldn't put a lot of emphasis on it; but the other thing is definitely true.

Is it "necessary" to use it? Not on such a piano. I think I went through one or two of my pieces without using it at all. But with pianos in general, you will be sacrificing a lot if you never use the soft pedal. Don't use me as an example but for what it's worth, on most pianos I'm on the soft pedal the majority of the time.

I hope this is helpful.

The first time I played the Raindrop Prelude I had downloaded a version from the net that had "una corda" for the middle section instead of the usual "sotto voce". I really didn't like it (even without knowing at that time it shouldn't have been there anyway) and just automatically played it "sotto voce". Particularly with repeated notes I think the soft pedal doesn't sound too nice.

I have an old upright grand and I always press the pedal to the maximum because it moves the hammers closer to the strings and lowers the keys so it makes it much easier to play pianissimo (this is not the case on a grand). Plus it does make the piano a bit quieter and that is a good thing in my household. When i get a digital piano, I doubt I will ever really use the pedal again.

Be careful putting the soft pedal down different lengths on grands - this usually shifts the keys over, and can create some problems with how the hammers strike the strings, causing strange wear-and-tear problems in a very uneven fashion on the hammers. This can affect playing without the soft pedal eventually.

Just a little warning - there is a reason some pianists push it down the same way. It depends on the piano.

Soft pedal is crucial for advanced piano playing. It's important not to overuse it. It's important to use it sometimes at all dynamic levels, not just pp.

It doesn't work on an upright piano, though. If you really want to be a great pianist and you only have an upright to practice on, I would recommend you avoid using the soft pedal. They are that different.

I've never used it. I've never really learned how.

On a grand the una corda ALWAYS shifts the action, which is why an upright doesn't truly have an una corda.

Thanks for answers Do you have some tips where to use it? My teacher always said it, but I don´t have lessons on holiday and I´m learning new pieces, thanks
I try to use it when there is pp or ppp...

Well, basically, you put your foot down on the pedal, and then you play....

The only important things to keep in mind are:

while depressing the soft pedal DOES decrease the amount of sound produced overall by the instrument, it's more of a colour thing. It tends to kill the brightness in the sound, so if you want something to be quiet, light, yet brilliant, you should probably acheive this with your fingers, and not with the soft pedal.

It's not to be used as a crutch. It is very easy to slip into the bad habit of using the soft pedal automatically whenever the composer puts p or pp in the score.

Playing f with the soft pedal can be an interesting effect, as well.

Well, not always, but most grands shift the action.

No matter how the pedal works, the result is variable. My feeling is that the soft pedal is not very useful.

Where did you ever hear that?
Unless there's some situation with some grands that I can't imagine, it's the exact opposite.

It simultaneously shades the tones more as well as decreasing the volume of the sound as you press with various degrees. I find when I hold it down completely, I can make fluttery-arpeggio passages (like in Chopin's 3rd scherzo) sparkle with a great deal of brightness, but still be hushed.

It's extremely useful for just colouring the sound a bit....I rarely hold the thing down fully, but when I want varying degrees of colour, I try pushing it down.

Trust me, several pieces are impossible to play without use of the soft pedal (a big example being Ravel's Une Barque sur l'ocean, because I'm playing it at my exam tomorrow....).

How do the "others" work?

I wondered the same. You should be able to sit on the thing all day long if it suits you.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but even though you're saying you wondered about the same thing I did, it seems like you're actually agreeing with him more than with me!!

He's saying there's a problem if you don't "sit on it" (i.e. if you press it down only some fraction).
I'm saying there's a problem if you do.

Ah, well, now that I reread his post I can see where you could take him to mean sitting on it to a degree. At any rate, you should still be able to sit on the damned thing (completely) all day long if that's what floats your boat (with no worry that is).

Well, I think you misunderstood my clarification probably because of that parenthetical thing I put in there, which bollixed it up.

So, let's forget what I said before.
Main thing I'm saying: If you sit on it completely, the exact same part of the hammer hits the string every time. That part of the hammer gets compressed ("grooved"), and hardened -- which affects the tone. If there's some way this wouldn't occur, I can't imagine what it would be.

Good Lord...I thought I was specific enough...
There's usually not a problem if you hold the pedal down the whole way when you use it.
There can be a problem if you half-pedal, or micro-pedal, using the Una Corda.

It's fairly simple once you understand how it works. Your hammer is getting uneven wear from the strings, if you half or micro pedal using the una corda. Sometimes you're hitting just one string, sometimes you're hitting just half a string, etc.
You're also getting uneven wear with holding the una corda down the entire way, but a good tuner can deal with this. The problem arises when there is no consistency on where the wear occurs.

A tuner who has spent some time adjusting how the una corda works can explain it better than me.
Just make sure, if half-pedalling with una corda, etc - to let your tuner know. He can do the checks that tuners do to make sure it will work properly, and occasionally check for wear. Adjustments now can save a lot of grief later down the road with your hammers.

You were never unclear in the first place.
You were absolutely clear. I just don't see how you can think it gives "uneven wear" when you make the hammer hit the strings at an infinite array of different points, as opposed to the same point all the time.

It's the opposite.