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Hello i was wondering if someone can give me some advice on this technique? I am teaching myself and I am not sure that I am doing it correctly and I dont want to get into bad habits! So any advice please

The idea is to play something in such as way that as the hand goes down the pedal goes down shortly afterwards. For example, play a C chord and then depress the pedal half a second afterwards. Next play another chord (F or G) and then lift and depress the pedal almost immediately after.

What you are trying to do is as the hand goes up to the next phrase, the pedal remains down but lifts and depresses quickly after the first note of the next phrase is started. This is bound to sound very clumsy because showing it would be more beneficial. The aim is basically to make a piece of music sound smooth without sounding muddy or cluttered. Over-use of the pedal can produce this result.

I have found that as I progressed as a musician, you tend to use your pedal almost instinctively. Make the sound smooth but not muddy.

Thanks, that is pretty much what I have been doing and it makes perfect sense! I am sure with practice,as you say it will become second nature to me

I have found that alot of the time I don't use syncopated pedaling at all, in Classical works, I tend to pedal on the beat and use less overlapping. I have to plan a lot of my pedaling carefully and then modify it to suit the instrument/hall.

That said, syncopated pedaling is a very important technique to learn and is particularly useful in more modern music, especially church music, and larger scale romantic works.

Tread carefully..... (get it??)

See what Gieseking has to say about treading in time.....