The sustain pedal, also called the damper pedal, is the rightmost pedal on the piano. When pressed, it lifts all the dampers off the strings, allowing notes to ring and blend together even after the keys are released. It is by far the most frequently used pedal and gives the piano its characteristic singing quality. Legato pedaling, also called syncopated pedaling, involves pressing the pedal immediately after playing a new note or chord and then releasing and re-pressing with each new harmony; this connects harmonies smoothly without blurring different chords together. A common mistake beginners make is holding the pedal down too long, causing harmonies to blur into a muddy, indistinct sound; the key skill is learning to change the pedal with each new harmony. Beginners should practice hands alone without pedal first, then add the pedal slowly, listening carefully for clean harmony changes, for instance by playing a simple chord progression and changing the pedal on each chord while listening for any blurring between chords.
The soft pedal, or una corda, is the leftmost pedal on the piano. On a grand piano, it shifts the entire hammer mechanism slightly so that the hammers strike fewer strings, producing a softer, more muted tone color; on upright pianos, it moves the hammers closer to the strings for a similar effect. The sostenuto pedal is the middle pedal on most grand pianos. It sustains only the notes that are being held down at the moment the pedal is pressed, while subsequent notes remain unaffected by it. The sostenuto pedal is used selectively in advanced repertoire where specific notes need to ring while others change.
The piano produces different dynamic levels through hammer velocity: pressing a key faster makes the hammer strike the string harder, producing a louder sound. The pianist controls this through arm weight, finger speed, and touch. This is why the instrument's full name is pianoforte, Italian for soft-loud. The standard dynamic markings, from softest to loudest, are pp (pianissimo, very soft), p (piano, soft), mp (mezzo-piano, moderately soft), mf (mezzo-forte, moderately loud), f (forte, loud), and ff (fortissimo, very loud).
Crescendo means to gradually get louder and is often indicated by a hairpin symbol that opens to the right or by the abbreviation cresc. On piano, the player progressively increases finger and arm speed into the keys to achieve this effect. Sforzando, abbreviated sfz, means a sudden, strong accent on a single note or chord. The pianist makes an abrupt increase in force on that note, then typically returns to the previous dynamic level, creating a dramatic, attention-grabbing effect. These expressive tools, combined with thoughtful pedaling, allow the pianist to shape phrases and convey a wide emotional range.