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I've always played in digital pianos, usually with my foot on the pedal 24/7 which never sounded bad.

Now I tried 2 different real strings pianos, and what happens is that if I play with the foot on the pedal like I'm used too, it sounds loud and lasts very long as if the piano was very soft, sometimes mixing 3 tones together

Not only sounds it awful, I can't barely listen to myself unless I set the pedal loose often, and play very very carefully.

The strange part is that when I listen to pianos played live while on youtube or something, it never sounds that bad or intense.

Has anyone had this experience?

Maybe you just need a good lesson or instructions on using the sustain pedal on a real acoustic (real string) piano. I know I over-use/over-pedal the sustain pedal, so maybe I need a lesson on using the sustain pedal too.

Also, from my perspective, there is big difference in half-pedaling on a digital piano and an acoustic. A huge difference...

Good luck, and welcome to Piano World!

Rick

For what it's worth: No one who plays an acoustic piano, whether popular, jazz or classical music, ever plays with the damper pedal down "24/7" as you put it. As Rickster suggests, you definitely need a lesson or two in pedal technique. Moreover, those may not have been very good digital pianos that you played on if the music coming out of them "never sounded bad" with the pedal down continuously.

Watch a few videos where you can see the pianist using the damper pedal and you'll see that a good pianist, professional or amateur, uses the pedal constantly and changes it (basically) as the harmony changes. Learn to use it properly, practice it correctly, and the use of the damper pedal becomes automatic, something you do instinctively without thinking.

Regards,

Samples on digital pianos tend to decay or "die out" more quickly than those of acoustic pianos in good condition. Also, if you're used to playing a digital piano with a lower amount of polyphony, then notes will stop sounding while you hold the pedal down...essentially "cleaning up" the sound that you hear, as you overwhelm the digital's ability to sustain consecutive pitches.

Just curious what you have to hold the pedal down 24x7 for. Are you play ragas?

This ^^

Some digitals (in truth, probably all to some degree or another) do cause excessive pedalling because they tend to have insufficient sustain. Acoustics played in the same way will tend to give you a muddy cacophony of noise as all the notes merge together because they sustain for so long.

When switching to an acoustic there is an adjustment period and the switch encourages better pedal technique in the along run. I have played mainly digitals all my adult life and only relatively recently acquired my grand and for many reasons, including pedalling, I am glad I did.

To the OP - your experience is fairly typical I would say. It's well worth persevering with acoustic pianos.

On an acoustic, you need to pedal with your ears, as every piece will be different. Begin by experimenting with a pedal change with each tone change. Experiment with that. Pedal with the chord or immediately after the chord is played? Play a measure or an entire piece without any pedal? Experiment and Record yourself pedaling different ways. It is an art to get the sound you want. ... but fun to learn.

I agree with everyone. Having just gone from a digital to an acoustic (real strings), not only is the pedaling technique different, but how you actually hit the keys is much different, too.

When I first began really trying out acoustic pianos, I thought all of them were so LOUD! Don't get me wrong: they can be. Many digital pianos just don't do a good job with dynamics (getting a "softer" sound if you play the keys lightly). There are some that do, and have all sorts of settings you can adjust (almost to the point of driving yourself crazy); but an acoustic piano is an entirely different animal. I think a lot of relatively new "digital only" players tend to strike the keys more forcefully, as the main adjustment in volume is with the volume control as opposed to adjusting how you touch the keys. So, the first few times playing an acoustic is an eye opener!

After playing for a few months now mostly on an acoustic, I don't think it's excessively loud, and I'm learning (at least I think I am learning!) to better control dynamics with how soft or hard I strike the keys.

These are all my personal experiences as a newbie.

For everyone playing digitals, the first thing to do is to push the sustain level right up (if the digital allows you to). All digitals have poor inherent sustain as the default setting (to avoid sampling artefacts sounding too obvious), except the fully-modelled ones.

You can learn to pedal properly from these videos. (Listen very, very carefully!) Legato pedalling is an essential skill for any pianist to learn, whatever genre of music you play:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV1GW3PGx8o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_d8oask2VU

Don't forget, pedalling is a skill that needs a lot of practicing, because it needs to become second nature so that you can pedal 'with your ears'.

I'm just wondering if the OP is not playing Western music on the piano at all, but playing ethnic music from a tradition where very long sustains are necessary.

Certainly true of the older models but don't think this is true any longer. The first thing I did when choosing a dp a couple of years ago was to check the sustain.

Yes - the pedal is your third hand.

As our PW friends have already mentioned the sustain pedal is very different on an acoustic piano with good sustain capability. You have to learn to gently rest your right foot on the sustain pedal without depressing it. Your left foot gently rests on the una corda peddle without depressing it. It takes a bit of time to learn that first.
Secondly try some pieces with pedaling notation. If you don’t read music, lift the sustain pedal at every chord change in the bass. Lift the sustain pedal at the end of a musical phrase. Give you and the listener’s ear a break for the next musical phrase. It takes time to learn. After playing acoustic piano for many years I still get a bit of “pedal anxiety” when learning a new piece.
And of course practice, practice, practice. You will build a bit of calf muscle. You might also find some good tips and tricks on the Adult Beginners Forum. I seem to remember the pedaling subject is discussed frequently. Best wishes and Good Luck!

Your Roland is fully modelled, I believe.......(like mine ).

[quote=bennevis]
Your Roland is fully modelled, I believe.......(like mine ).
Yes indeed, but I wasn't referring to Roland. If anything I would say it's sustain is too long.

Its exactly what I did once I got home, also increased the volume of it as well.

Sorry, I hadn't meant to upset you. We are all anonymous here and I have no idea where you are located or know your background. There was a PW member recently who needed very long sustains for ragas and the Kawai he was using had problems with this. The western musical tradition doesn't using extremely long sustains for 24/7 damper pedal usage.

Clearly you are upset by the mention of ethnic music. I don't know why but I am sorry for having brought this up.

Does polyphony come into this as well? I remember reading reviews on the Korg G1 and coming across a comment about polyphony in this one https://www.pianodreamers.com/korg-g1-review/ to the effect that, ah well, I'll quote - hope they don't mind:

Korg clearly states that each note can take up to four polyphony notes depending on how many oscillators it uses.

All Grand Piano sounds on the G1 Air use 4 oscillators, and we get 30 (120/4) notes that the instrument can produce at the same time, which, as I said, is enough for comfortable playing.

By the way, other digital pianos work in the same fashion, it’s just not every manufacturer clearly states how many polyphony takes each note you play.


Seeing as my old Casio has something like 24 note polyphony (but probably not 4 oscillators per note) keeping the pedal down all the time produces no mush at all, just smooths things out nicely! On my old acoustic, lots of pedal meant lots of interesting sounds from its internals!

My older Casio Privia PX310 only has the 32 note polyphony. However, that means that 32 notes will sound and sustain at the same time. That is a lot of notes if you ask me. I don't know that I've ever noticed that some notes I play weren't playing or sustaining. So, based on my level of playing skill (which ain't much:-), the 32 note polyphony seems to be plenty good enough.

I do, however, notice a big difference between the Privia PX310 and my acoustic pianos when using the sustain pedal. Something is definitely different, and I got rid of the cheap little square plastic sustain pedal that came with the Casio and bought a Yamaha digital piano sustain pedal. That was an improvement, but the sustain on the digital is still nowhere near that on my acoustics, in terms of sensitivity.

For the record, I much prefer to play my acoustic pianos, unless I'm jammin' the boogie at an outdoor event or venue...

Rick

Good advice on the bolded. Some classical pieces such as the first movement of the "Moonlight" sonata were written to have the sustain pedal depressed the whole time. Tells you the difference between modern grands and earlier grands back in those days. Apparently the sustain was quite limited.