Quiet Practice - quiet pedal / blankets?

[lettersquash]

Hi, I have an upright piano and I'm conscious of the loudness disturbing either the neighbours or my partner, and I've got into the habit of using the quiet pedal almost all the time. It doesn't seem to cause a problem with the tone (or I've just got used to it), but I wondered if I should stop doing that - what are the main problems I might cause myself. I'm a returner, tackling mainly lower grade pieces. As an alternative, I wondered if I might add blankets or other material on the inside or outside of the cabinet, which will interefere less with the mechanism but just reduce the volume. Thanks.

[quantum]

Are you referring to the practice pedal that puts a layer of felt in between the hammers and strings?  It's ok for practice, but don't do it all the time.  If you use the practice pedal too much you risk developing a disconnect between learning hand movements and learning listening skills.  You need to be able to listen to the tone of the piano and relate the sounds you hear with the physical actions you make, that includes the quality of tone you are producing at the instrument. 

Use it only when necessary, say for late night practice.  When you are working on the later stages of learning a piece, things like interpretation or tone production, it would be wise to not use the practice pedal.


If you are using the left pedal (soft pedal on vertical, una corda on grand), don't do that as it is a bad habit.  The left pedal has a use, and it's not to make you less obtrusive to your neighbours.  Use blankets if needed, but not the left pedal. 

[debussychopin]

Also, the disturbance neighbors may receive or complain about is twofold:

one, the piano sound produced, obviously.

second, which is more obscure to the player to be noticed (because of the piano sound overlay), but however perhaps even more obtrusive than the piano sound itself, is the piano key "knocking" whenever you depress a key at a moderate strike velocity (which means, mostly all the time then).

The sound of the key hitting the piano board can be heard even if you play a digital piano at silent/w headphones.
Try this: if you have the piano on a second floor and a garage  or another room perhaps on the first floor right underneath the piano (like I do ) or if not, just have someone play some scales and then put your ear up to the nearest wall or some part of the floor away from the piano, and you will most likely hear the rapid woodlike thudding of the keys hitting the piano board.
I tested myself i put the digital on silent , had my wife play a bunch of scales (not pounding), and went downstairs into the garage and the clacking noise was evident, enough to make me think how that would really bother a neighbor if heard even to a smaller degree, for hours at a time.

[lettersquash]

Yes, it's the practice pedal, I guess! Is that all it's for - it's not used for expression in pieces? I think I've forgotten that if I ever knew, and imagined maybe you use it for pp or ppp. 

Of course I realise I need to be gentler with my action without the pedal, and that's what's concerning me, that practising too long with the pedal down will interfere with developing a good technique. I think I'll stop doing it.

I saw a video where a piano teacher had a grand covered in a quilt or something and I figured it was probably for reducing the volume. I'll try something similar. I'll still get the range of dynamics, which is important, it'll just all be slightly quieter. It's mostly for my partner's benefit in the livingroom (the piano is in the hall and not against the adjoining wall) so it's easy to get her feedback when I'm practising and she's watching TV.

I don't think the neighbours will be affected too much at a further remove. It's on the ground floor, so it's not so much a problem of sound going down, and I don't think the thump of the keys is likely to be a problem at all. The action is pretty light. I have an electric piano and I've noticed how noisy that is on the keys with the sound off, but the action is awful, much heavier.

Many thanks.