Week 1 Assignment
Welcome to the latest two-week intensive with Eloise Kim!
The damper pedal is one of the most expressive tools a pianist has鈥攂ut also one of the most misunderstood. In this two-week intensive, we鈥檒l dive deep into the art and technique of pedaling with precision. Through hands-on demonstrations, and targeted exercises, you鈥檒l learn how to avoid over-pedaling and develop a nuanced approach that enhances, rather than masks, your finger work. We鈥檒l explore how to achieve true legato through physical connection in the hands first, and only then add the pedal to create richness and resonance. Whether you鈥檙e looking to clean up your textures, refine your tonal palette, or simply gain more confidence in your pedaling decisions, this intensive will give you the tools to use the damper pedal with intention and artistry.
Assignment #1
Pick an excerpt of any piece of your choice, particularly a piece that requires a sensitive plan for the damper pedal.
Pick a phrase or opening theme of the work to practice with no pedal. Focus on the application of finger-pedal technique demonstrated in my video, and work on achieving long legato phrases with the hands and physical movement without any assistance of the damper pedal.
While you are doing this, create a mind map of where you would like to add the damper pedal for color. You are welcome (and recommended!) to write some pedal markings down in your music to help assist with Week 2's assignment.
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Hello everyone! I have practised today. Was very intersting without pedal.
https://youtube.com/shorts/CDOVm3_-W5U?si=nOXpJFxxBu9hqZZehttps://youtube.com/shorts/Raa5SYmLkwI?si=fNF0O-4wWgXanO8V
LG Kerstin-
Kerstin Hi Kerstin, wonderful to hear that you discovered discovered a lot of the legato work with the hands without the pedal
. And yes, I do suggest to practice pieces without the pedal when first learning a work, or even when you have learned the work well and want to do some deep dive in-depth polishing of certain sections. Practicing without the pedal helps us really hear everything much more clearly and magnified; therefore we can further polish solidly to another level before adding color with the pedal. Of course, then adding the pedal is a whole another technique, but that will be focused in Week 2's assignment!
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This is the first 8 bars of Beethoven Op 90, 2nd movement no pedal. I had a hard time trying to play legato at the same time keeping the inner voices quiet.
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Ellen Weaver Hi Ellen! Thank you for sharing your video. Wonderful job! You are doing great in achieving a legato line and balancing the voices. When practicing without the pedal, I suggest it can also be helpful to practice slowly to enhance everything further in detail. And applying a more relaxed arm motion while applying the finger-pedal technique in the hands (that you are already doing) can also help create more breathing + singing line for this passage too.
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Hi Eloise,
Thank you for leading us through this 2-week intensive. Here is my attempt at the 2nd section of the 2nd movement of the Moonlight Sonata.
https://youtube.com/shorts/EVhnHLLKfKs?feature=shared
and my attempt at pedal marks. I think there are too many changes, so a more nuanced pedal will be needed? I look forward to learning more next week!
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Michele Hi Michele, great to have you, and thank you for joining this intensive! Your video looks wonderful, and I can see your focus on connecting with the fingers. I suggest also applying a more relaxed and open arm position can help achieve a longer line in the phrasings too. Your pedal-markings also look fantastic, and I do not think it is too many changes. Ideally, we actually want to change after each harmony in Beethoven's works in order to avoid blending of different harmonic chords (unless Beethoven himself indicates otherwise). I will be discussing on how to time some pedal changes in next week's exercise so hope that comes in helpful too! Pedal-ing takes a lot of trial and error too before we decide on a set plan, so this early start on writing it down first is a great before physically applying. Happy practicing!
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Eloise Kim
Thank you for that feedback Eloise! It has been very helpful for more than this exercise. I have tried to follow your advice and feel that I have made some progress, feeling more relaxed, but certainly have more to do along those lines.
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Michele Hi Michele, happy to hear the advice came in helpful! Thank you for sharing your new video :) I certainly see your hands looking much more physically relaxed and the portato articulation delivering clearly. Bravo!
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Hello! I have played Beethoven without pedal today. Although there is not much pedal needed, I can decide much better where I want some pedal, if I play without pedal. Great exercise! Thank you.
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Kerstin Fantastic playing, Kerstin! I love the energy and spirit you are applying in this recording. The clarity of the notes are also speaking out very well too. Bravo! I am glad to hear you found this exercise helpful
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Hello Eloise, I have taken a small excerpt from The Lark song by Glinka, transcribed Balakirev.
https://youtu.be/YukgS559e7s?si=j3x9D16MQa5n00UC
Score is attached for reference (bars 14 to 17)
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Sheetal Patel Hi Sheetal, great to have you here! Your video looks wonderful and the way you are connecting with your hands sounds beautiful. This is an excellent work to study pedal-ing. I would suggest to now apply a bit more relaxed arm movement on top of what you are already doing with the fingers, to help achieve more breathing room in between the phrases. Thank you for sharing, and happy practicing!
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Thank you Eloise Kim for your feedback. I squeezed in some practice at lunch time today to try to play relaxed. Personally I find my hands / fingers look terrible when watching the playback of my videos
Hopefully this is an improvement ? -
Sheetal Patel This looks so much better, Sheetal! Thank you for sharing. The physique looks much more relaxed now, and it is helping your tone project while maintaining a nice singing character. Definite huge improvement! As a next suggestion, in this particular excerpt for mainly the RH, approaching with a bit more flatter finger approach will help achieve an even more warmer tone. Your LH approach is fantastic, and I am hearing more breath in between while maintaining a longer line.
Here is a fascinating video by John Browning that talks about the flat finger hand position at the opening: https://youtu.be/Eru9FDvUfz4?si=qwXYocPfJkkX15tN
Fantastic work again, Sheetal!
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Thank you once again Eloise Kim for your feedback and sending through the link re playing with flatter fingers. I shall incoperate this during my next practice.
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Sheetal Patel You are very welcome, Sheetal! I hope it comes in helpful for your next practice
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Here鈥檚 a video of me slowing down, trying to play legato with a more relaxed arm, no pedal. I would love to get your feedback. I鈥檓 still bothered by the inner voice being too loud. From the opening bars of Beethoven Op 90, 2nd movement.
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Ellen Weaver Hi Ellen! This piece is great. I had the same problem with 2. movement of Pathetique. I have practiced the upper voice alone and the bass alone and the inner voice as soft as I can. Then put together - upper voice with bass and then all together. My teacher told me sometines I should practice the inner voice by pushing the right keys so softly that you have no sound. Maybe that helps. LG Kerstin
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Kerstin Thanks for taking the time to look at my video and respond. I notice in your video how relaxed you look. Something for me to aspire to. I know what the end result needs to sound like but it鈥檚 taking me a while to figure out to get there. I appreciate your suggestion!
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Ellen Weaver hank you for sharing this video! This looks beautiful and your physique looks much more relaxed-Bravo on the improvement. And I like the tone you are achieving in the melody line very much. I also completely agree with Kerstin 's advice on practicing each of the voices separately to find the balancing of each voicing before putting it together. This can be applied to your next step of balancing so we can really hear the top singing line while the other voices are supporting yet still heard by pressing with appropriate depth to the keys. Great work, Ellen!
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Hello Eloise! I am really excited to do this challenge because I am really struggling a bit with my pedaling in this Ponce Intermezzo - No. 1 - measures 16-19 where is has those left hand grace notes. I want to refresh the pedal for each measure but I also cannot reach a 10th so my struggle is to refresh without also creating an audible break in the sound like it got chopped off between the grace note and that first main left-hand note. I was trying to experiment with potentially holding down the top notes in the right hand while playing that grace note in the left to help with this, but not sure if this is a good solution either. I would really welcome any suggestions. Thanks!
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Andrea LeVan Hi Andrea, I recently learned this piece. What worked for me in those bars, 16-19, was to make sure the pedal catches the grace note in the left hand, so it needs to be engaged before you play that grace note. In bars 17-19 I change the pedal on the 2nd beat rather than hold the pedal down for the full measure.
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Andrea LeVan Hi Andrea! Thank you for joining this TWI! And wonderful choice of repertoire. I love Ponce's works, and it is special to see it again here. Yes, it is certainly a big leap of an interval in that LH grace note in measure 16, and you will need to catch that bass in the pedal. I will show how to do this in next week's video when I show a similar passage of the LH in the Gershwin example.
But also when you practice without the pedal, I would suggest playing with a lower wrist in the LH so that the hand is approaching that interval with an 'open' hand position. Your idea of holding/lingering at the top voice of the RH is also a good idea. But because these thirds are also quite wide apart, a similar technique can be applied to the RH as well of the 'open hand' position with a lower wrist. I talk about this a lot in my teaching, but also making sure the full arm is relaxed with your approach helps achieve the right sound. It is not going to be possible to 'connect' everything, and perfectly normal to sound like there are a few 'hiccups' but doing our best to do all the work in the hands first can help achieve our goal quicker of achieving a warm-beautiful legato sound without relying on the pedal for that :) Happy to upload a video about lower wrist/open hand position approach on this excerpt for you, later today!
And thank you, Ellen Weaver for that suggestion! Absolutely great!
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Andrea LeVan To follow up from my response about the 'open hand position' comment, here is my video attached!
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Eloise Kim this is really helpful thank you for the video tutorial
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Ellen Weaver thank you Ellen!
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