“The Pedal is the Heart of the Piano” — Vladimir Horowitz
Shackleford Pianos can add a sostenuto or practice pedal to your piano to further enhance your piano playing enjoyment and expression.
All pianos are made with a minimum of two pedals. On a grand piano the left pedal, (known as the "soft" pedal, or "unacorda" moves the entire piano action mainly to the right (though some makers choose to move their actions to the left), quietly and accurately, so that in the middle sections only two of the three strings are struck for one note, this changes the volume and the tonal colour of the piano dramatically.
The left pedal or "forte" or "sustain" pedal lifts the dampers away from all of the dampened strings to let them resonate freely. Lifting the weight of all the dampers off of the strings also allows the soundboard to resonate more strongly, again giving the piano a totally different tonal colour.
The middle pedal on a grand piano is known as the "sostenuto" pedal, this pedal when activated holds the damper of of the string of the note that has been struck, the sound of this note can then linger on without the keys having to be depressed.