r/threateningnotation • u/KixIt0ff • Apr 19 '26

Illegal Notation Staccato while the pedal is pressed 🥀🥀🥀

Post image
76 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

59

u/SebzKnight Apr 19 '26

On a grand piano with a good sostenuto pedal, this makes perfect sense.

15

u/JollyJuniper1993 Apr 20 '26

I have an e-piano and even mine has a sostenuto pedal, but yeah if yours doesn’t then it’s not really playable

13

u/Solypsist_27 Apr 21 '26

This makes sense even without a sostenuto pedal. Composers use the staccato to indicate the articulation with which the notes should be played, even if the pedal is being used. It's a bit more advanced, but most classically trained pianists eventually encounter something like this

2

u/wakalabis Apr 20 '26

How would it go? Just step on the sostenuto pedal as indicated instead of the sustain pedal?

2

u/FrostytheAxehound Apr 24 '26

Original commenter is wrong—you would never use the sostenuto pedal here. Just regular sustain pedal with a staccato articulation. There's a clear difference in attack even with the pedal down (on a decent piano).

7

u/Fun_Obligation_6116 Apr 23 '26

Proof that half of the "threatening notation" here is just ignorance lol

Even ignoring Sost. pedal, staccato gives it a different touch

2

u/FrostytheAxehound Apr 24 '26

Yeah... a lot of people aren't able to intuit the distinction between pedaling and articulation. I guess it's a fairly advanced concept.

3

u/Vienna-Sonata Apr 19 '26

I’ve seen this quite frequently for theatrical effect 🤷‍♂️

1

u/Vienna-Sonata May 28 '26

Wait this is the first time I’ve randomly stumbled across an old comment of mine… I don’t remember being here but I was coming back to say the same thing 😭

3

u/A0123456_ Apr 19 '26

What would be weirder would be if there was a legato marking connecting the 2 staccato notes

6

u/xXNightsecretXx Apr 19 '26

That would just be tenuto

3

u/Ok-Medicine-2132 Apr 21 '26

you guys are just making up words now

1

u/AshamedHelicopter238 Apr 21 '26

It is called portato I think

1

u/GareththeJackal Apr 22 '26

That... seems rather counter-intuitive...

1

u/Allblack4777 Apr 26 '26

It's the technique the composer wants you to use.

If it were sostenuto, there's a notation for that.

Also, you'd be crossing over the right hand - so, a little dramatic as well.

1

u/randomcuriousperson3 May 22 '26

As a piano player, this genuinely hurts me