Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner sustain pedal ... a thought, an issue?

I like to sit a little higher than most folks and that causes a slight issue with my pedaling. When my heel is on the floor the angle of my foot when my toes are resting on the pedal is a little too much for me.

I'm going to make a little 'platform' for my heel to raise it up a bit. All it will be is a piece of wood about 3\4" thick with that non slip material on the underside and perhaps a piece of carpet glued to the topside.

Anyone here use something to raise your foot a tad for the sustain pedal?

I suppose another way to approach this would be to remove the wheels from the legs and lower the entire piano but that seems like too much work though it would lower the pedal harp considerably.

I had the same issue. I relized that the floor was too low, so to speak, for both of my feet. Lowering the bench would not help since the height was correct for my arms and hands, and the pedal height would not change in any case. I built a platform a little over an inch high, with non-skid feet on it and a dark brown memory foam mat on it. It's big enough for both my feet to be comfortable on it and it has made a great deal of difference. I don't know why I have not seen that as a problem before. Maybe I'm just getting older. I highly recommend you do something like that. Makes a world of difference.

This explains why some female pianists (I name no names) wear such high heels when playing - they have tight calf muscles like you. Then there is the odd pianist (I name Alice Sara Ott) who prefers to play barefooted....

I've noticed that some people[ mostly men] that have larger feet tend to have to have their right foot at an angle rather than straight forward. All that really matters is that you can get clear pedalling.
That is a skill all its' own.

rada