Welcome to Part 2 of:
How does a Grand Piano work?
We've seen what happens when a key is pressed...
In this video, I'll show you what the foot pedals do
and how they work on the inside.
That's coming up!
At the bottom of the piano,
you'll find the three foot pedals.
These are used to change the sound of the piano in different ways.
The left one is called the una corda pedal,
or more commonly known as the soft pedal,
the middle one is called the sostenuto pedal,
and the right one is called the sustain pedal -
also known as the damper pedal.
Each pedal is pinned in place,
pressing it down causes the other side to go up,
which causes the rods to go up too.
You can see that the rods affect
several mechanisms that extend inside the piano.
Let's go through each pedal
to show you what it does and how it works.
When the sustain pedal is pressed,
you'll continue to hear the sound
even after the keys are released.
The sound will then stop, once you release the pedal.
If we look up here, you can see something is happening.
Press the sustain pedal.
Release the sustain pedal.
If you remember from Part 1 of this video,
this part is called the Damper.
When a key is pressed or released the Damper is raised or lowered,
just for that one string.
Down here is called the Damper Lift Rail;
when it is raised, it pushes up all of the Dampers.
This means you'll continue to hear the sound even after
individual keys are released.
Let's take a look underneath the piano now.
Pressing the sustain pedal causes this rod to go up.
The rod pushes this lever up -
You can see this spring here keeps it pressed down most of the time.
The lever then causes another rod to get pushed up inside the piano;
this causes the Damper Lift Rail to rise,
which then raises all of the Dampers.
The sostenuto pedal is similar to the sustain pedal,
but it only raises the Dampers
for keys that are being played at that time.
Let me show you.
Play some keys,
press the sostenuto pedal,
and now release the keys.
You can see the Dampers for these keys are still up;
that's why we can still hear the sound.
Release the sostenuto pedal,
and the Dampers go down again.
Let's get a good look without the action assembly.
This bar here, is called the Sostenuto bar;
if I were to cut it in half,
this is what the cross-section would look like.
When the sostenuto pedal is pressed,
it will rotate like this.
On each individual Damper,
there's a tiny piece of felt sticking out.
So we play some keys, press the sostenuto pedal,
and when we release the keys
the Dampers catch on the bar.
Let's watch that again.
The mechanism is similar to what we've seen before.
When the pedal is pressed,
it raises this rod which pushes on another lever.
This time the lever is pinned in the middle.
As this side goes up the other side comes down,
which pulls this rod down from inside the piano.
This rod comes down, which rotates the bar and catches the Dampers.
Pretty neat, huh?
The soft pedal, as you might guess, well...
it makes the piano softer.
When you press it,
the whole keyboard is shifted to the right.
Let's take a look up here.
Normally, the hammer hits all three strings.
With the Damper pedal pressed,
the hammers are moved over just enough,
so they hit only two of the strings -
this gives each note a softer sound.
And now for the mechanism...
Pressing the soft pedal raises a rod and another lever.
You can see this lever is a bit longer;
it has a piece that goes up into the piano.
As the lever is lifted,
the end is shifted over just slightly;
this causes the entire action assembly
to move by just a touch.
It's just enough so the hammers miss a string.
Incredible music can be created
by playing the piano keys
in combination with the pedals, at just the right time.
Hey everyone, I'm Jared.
I'm the guy that makes these animations.
If you learn something about the piano,
I would love to hear about it in the comments.
Thanks again for watching and I'll see you next time.