How to end a note on piano: the ending is also played
I listen to how a note ends as much as to how it starts. The end of the note is also played.
So how to end a note on piano? Listen to how the key comes up. With the pedal up and with the pedal down, how you leave the key is part of the sound. Then choose the ending the music asks for.
With the pedal up: the key coming up and the damper
With the pedal up, the sound stops the way the key comes up. Let the key come up fast, and the damper cuts the sound clean. Let it come up slowly, and the sound thins out first.
You can hear it on one note. Strike it the same way twice, let the key come up fast once and slowly once, and you get two different endings from the same start.
In your own pieces, I would start listening at the last note of a phrase, with the pedal up. Play the phrase to its end and listen only to how that last note stops. A clean cut, or does the sound thin out first? And was that your choice, or did it just happen?
Pedal down: leaving the key still makes a difference to the sound
With the sustain pedal down, how you leave the key still changes the sound. Fast or slow, it has an impact, certainly also with the pedal in. I show it here on a chord.
The foot decides how much of the ring is cleared. I wrote about that in half pedaling, the position between down and up. Here the pedal stays down, and we listen to what leaving the key still changes.
With the pedal down and the dampers off, you still hear how you leave the key
You can read online that with the pedal down and the dampers off the strings, how you leave the key makes no difference anymore, and my answer to that is: "It may be logically true, but it is in reality not true."
It sounds logical, because the dampers are off. Then play the same chord twice with the pedal down, just as loud both times. Leave the keys very fast once, and keep them down with full weight once. You hear the difference in how the chord rings on.
The difference is there, even though the dampers are off. Try it on your own instrument, and listen.
Pedal down, leave the chord fast: more resonance
Pluck a chord, like the trampoline effect: strike it and leave the keys very fast. With the pedal down, it creates more resonance.
In the trampoline effect on repeated notes, the hand bounces off the key into the next repetition. Here it is one chord, and what it shares is the push away from the keys.
Horowitz does this most of the time. He pushes himself away from the piano, and you get this lightning effect. For your own chords, leave the keys very fast and listen to what rings on after.
Pedal down, hold the chord with full weight, just as loud: a rounder depth
Or keep the same chord down with full weight, just as loud. It gives a more round depth to the tone. Arthur Rubinstein usually does this.
I wrote before about arm weight and finger coordination in tone production, how the weight reaches the key through concentrated fingers. That post is about the weight arriving when you strike. Here it is about keeping the chord down with full weight after the strike, and listening to how it rings on.
Two endings with the pedal down, and I don't pick a side
I use both, depending on what I want. More resonance or a more round depth, neither ending is the correct one. Horowitz most of the time leaves the chord fast, Rubinstein usually keeps it down, and I don't pick a side between them.
Mostly nobody chooses
But mostly nobody chooses. The key comes up somehow, and the note ends the way it happens to end. And with a tight arm you can't really choose how the key comes up.
Choosing how the key comes up: a free wrist, concentrated fingers, and when to leave the key
So what does it take to choose? What I work on for this is a free wrist, concentrated fingers, and when to leave the key. They work together, whichever of the two endings you want.
When you leave the chord fast, you push away from the keys. When you keep it down with full weight, the keys stay pressed in all the way. In both, the fingers stay concentrated, and in both you decide when you leave the keys.
When you try both ways, check each time whether your wrist and arm are still free, or tight.
Try this
Take a phrase in the middle of the keyboard. Start with the pedal up, where you hear the clean cut and the sound thinning out.
- Find the last note.
- Let the key come up quickly, then slowly.
- Press the pedal, play a chord.
- Leave it fast. Hold with weight, just as loud.
- Listen, and choose.
Play the chord a few times each way. If one comes out louder, play them again until they are just as loud, and then compare how they end.
Where this is built
The same ending everywhere sounds monotonous, even with all the correct notes.
In the Academy we train a free wrist, concentrated fingers and when to leave the key. Let's work on your endings together. Bring a piece to a live lesson, and I will listen with you to how your notes end.
