Why 3 Pedals Are “2 Much” On An Upright – Part 1
Poor Vertical (Upright) pianos. They are considered the neglected step-sisters of the grand piano. And to some extent, this is not too harsh of a criticism, as their touch and tone is definitely a compromise, and a cut below that of their older grand sibling. No true pianist has any delusion that he or she can get the same sound and playing experience from an upright as a fine grand. This is true even for the taller and higher-quality uprights, for reasons which we made clear in our earlier Feb. ‘09 post, "Upright Pros & Cons."
Still, upright pianos are a necessity in the modern home and school room, because of their compact fit, their easier transportability, and their considerably reduced cost. The majority of home pianos are still uprights, with a 75% to 25% margin over grands. And studio uprights fill the classrooms and practice rooms of even the more prestigious musical institutions. This is a good thing, overall, because it’s forced all piano manufacturers to make the sound and touch of their uprights as "grand" as possible, and has resulted in some significant improvements on the finer uprights.
One of the early attempts to make people think they were getting the full "grand piano" experience from an upright purchase was the sales-pitchy use of a highly misleading misnomer – calling the taller verticals "Upright Grands" in the early 20th century. Upright Grand?? Now there’s an oxymoron if there ever was one, quite like "jumbo shrimp." No, Virginia, there is no Santa Claus, and an upright is an upright, and a grand is a grand, and never the twain shall meet. I still get calls weekly from people asking if I’ll come tune their "upright grand." I ask, "Is it a grand or an upright?" They reply, "It’s an upright grand." I patiently say, "No, that’s just a sales tactic. If it’s a vertical piano against the wall, it’s an upright…if it stands free on three legs, it’s a grand." Sometimes I can feel their spirit sinking over the phone, like, "Damn you for telling me that, it was so much cooler to call it a grand turned upward!" Sorry, it’s not a grand, even though the strings may be as long as some shorter grands. Refer to the link above for more clarity about this.
The other way makers tried to seduce you into thinking the upright was just as "complete" as the grand was to include 3 full pedals, "just like on a grand," even when only one of them performed the same function as it’s grand counterpart, and the other two either feigned similar functions or often did nothing at all! That’s right, on many upright pianos, the middle and far left pedal are just for show!
But on most uprights, all 3 are indeed functional, and here’s how they work:
The damper pedal (far right pedal) works just the same as on a grand, pulling all the dampers off the strings, so they can all sustain freely until letting up on the pedal.
The middle pedal performs a sort of faux-sostenuto function. It lifts only the bass section dampers off the bass strings, allowing the player to hit a big octave or chord in the bass, and have it keep sustaining, whilst they plink short or staccato notes in the upper sections. Not nearly as selective as the grand version, but as we said, there are very few pieces of music written for true Sostenuto pedaling, so it’s adequate.
Modern piano manufacturers, especially the Oriental pianos, realized this next-to-never usage of the middle pedal for Sostenuto, and decided to assign it a completely different function: pulling a thin strip of felt down between the hammers and the strings (sometimes called a "mute bar") to make your playing extremely soft and muffled, so you can practice late at night, or whenever, without disturbing anyone else in the home. Thanks to the inventiveness of companies like Yamaha, this has now become the more common function of the middle pedal on all uprights.
Next, in "Why 3 Pedals Are ‘2 Much’ On An Upright – Part 2," we’ll take apart (and throw away!) the dreaded left pedal on uprights…
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