una corda

[david456103]

do you guys pre-prepare which sections of a piece you will use the una corda on? or do you just improvise with it?
also, is it just me, or does the una corda shift the keys on a grand piano to the right(by like 2 mm roughly)? so wouldn't it be important to pre-prepare when you're going to use the una corda to avoid slip-ups during performance??

[j_menz]

It's not just you, that's how it works.

Having been raised on uprights (and still mostly playing them), I have to think about when to use it, as I find the "soft" pedal best left alone.

[iansinclair]

I do pre-prepare, as you mentioned -- and precisely because using it can cause distraction (it's not so much the key movement distance, as just simply the movement for me).

That said, I use it to change tone colour, not to change volume (although it does decrease the maximum volume, obviously -- but you should be able to get PP without it, at least on a decent piano).  I don't use it all that much.

[david456103]

is it acceptable to hold the una corda for long periods of time in a piece?? my teacher discourages it, and i understand why(since its more for color), but in a piece like ravels ondine from gaspard de la nuit, wouldn't it make sense to keep it down for say the first 7 pages(up to the first marking of forte)??

[iansinclair]

is it acceptable to hold the una corda for long periods of time in a piece?? my teacher discourages it, and i understand why(since its more for color), but in a piece like ravels ondine from gaspard de la nuit, wouldn't it make sense to keep it down for say the first 7 pages(up to the first marking of forte)??

I'd say that that's more of an artistic decision, and may depend almost as much on your feeling for the piece as well as your instrument and the hall you're playing in as it does on anything else.  I have to admit that I probably wouldn't hold it that long, but that's me.  I tend to use it to for colour contrast between phrases, particularly if they are very similar phrases.

[ted]

I have always used mine quite a lot and the keyboard movement doesn't bother me. The haptic part of my brain deals with it without my conscious intervention. It puzzles me why some are distracted by that, especially if they have played grands for many years. It gives me that little bit of extra dynamic control when playing, and more especially recording, in my lounge. As I very rarely play anywhere else, what is generally thought correct in professional situations need not bother me. The pedals are part of the instrument; I therefore use them to whatever musical advantage presents itself.

[tdawe]

do you guys pre-prepare which sections of a piece you will use the una corda on? or do you just improvise with it?
also, is it just me, or does the una corda shift the keys on a grand piano to the right(by like 2 mm roughly)? so wouldn't it be important to pre-prepare when you're going to use the una corda to avoid slip-ups during performance??

Yes, it moves the action of the piano to the right, so that the hammer only hits two strings instead of three. Hence the name, 'una corda' from when pianos had only two strings instead of three.

As for when I use it, I generally only use it as indicated, because it also really changes the tone quality not just the volume. In fact it should never be used to change the volume.

[thorn]

I do pre-prepare, as you mentioned -- and precisely because using it can cause distraction (it's not so much the key movement distance, as just simply the movement for me).

That said, I use it to change tone colour, not to change volume (although it does decrease the maximum volume, obviously -- but you should be able to get PP without it, at least on a decent piano).  I don't use it all that much.

I'm of the same opinion- una corda is for colouring rather than volume.

The original poster mentions Gaspard de la nuit. There are bars at the end of Scarbo where Ravel marks 'f' but specifically asks for una corda. In Le Gibet, he asks for una corda for the whole piece even though it gets to 'mf' in places. So we can assume that for this specific composer at least (if you don't want to apply it to everyone), una corda is a colouring device. Again in Ondine; yes a lot of una corda is certainly required in the opening, but in my own performances of the piece that pedal has been up and down a handful of times even on the second/third pages. Additionally I don't think there's a bar in the entire piece that you can have the sustain pedal down all the way through, but the sustain pedal is a much more complex issue.