Can we make the whole song as if we pressed on the sustain pedal?

• Apr 26, 2022 - 01:39

If we played a song and have the MIDI file, can we adjust it in MuseScore so that it is like we stepped on the piano's sustain pedal the whole time?

I was going to export it as an .musicxml file and see if I can do something there but I am not sure what attribute to use to add sustain to the whole song.


Comments

In reply to by dragonwithafez

thanks. works like a charm. I suppose Pedal with Pen and Line means never ending the pedal, while Pedal with Pen and Asterisk means release the pedal at the end... so I guess the release pedal at the end may mean stopping the sound a tiny little bit earlier, while never ending just meaning let it go on... probably this subtle difference.

But I just tried Pedal with Pen and Asterisk and played it... it is never ending as well... so I am not sure.

In fact, if I start with file01.midi and then use Pedal Pen and Line, and then export it as file02.musicxml, and then close the file, open file01.midi and then use Pedal Pen and Asterisk and export it as file03.musicxml, then the two musicxml files have the exact same content in it.

In reply to by lycha0206

The lines behave exactly the same, they release the pedal wherever the end of the line is. So that's why you start by Ctrl+A to select all - now the end of the line is the end of the score, regardless os which line type you add. The different line types are just different ways of notating the same thing.

Not that anyone would normally ever play that way; we usually are constantly releasing and engaging the pedal every time the harmony changes.

BTW, it's "ped" (short for "pedal"), not "pen". It's just a weird script that for whatever reason is popular for this purpose.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

because like long time ago I learned the simplified version of Moonlight Sonata 1st movement. I am not sure if that one is sustain all the way...

so as a musician, can they denote: after the last note, release the pedal, vs, after the last note, let the pedal go on? But I guess the musician may not want the first case (probably an uncommon case) and if they do, they can just say, release the pedal before the last note, and then when the player plays the last note, there is no pedal any more

In reply to by lycha0206

Definitely it would be wrong to leave the pedal down the whole way on that piece, or anything written by Beetheon or any other well-kwown composer. it's a technique I'd expect only in highly experimental modern piano music, where is either only a single chord (perhaps a minimalist piece) or else the dissonance that results from multiple harmonies founding at once is actually desired.

But the norm is to change pedal every time the harmony changes, as I said. That's typically every few beats or so. The pedal change looks like this:

____/\____

where the little angle bracket points to the note where you are supposed to do the change. MuseScore supports this as lines ____/ and \____; just add them so one starts where the other ends and MuseScore aligns everything automatically.

In rea performance, the change is accomplished by quickly lifting your foot as you play the note, then immediately putting your foot back down. MuseScore simulates this correctly as well.

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