pedal diagrams

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

What’s also really important is to move the pedals so you don’t hear them. There are a lot of sloppy pop/jazz players, or used to be, whose pedals were very messy.

BELOW!!!!

If you want to do a diagram above, create your own design, Instead of lines, the pedal marks could be little feet.

[unknown-user]

The way I’ve always seen pedal diagrams published (and my teacher write) is that at the beginning of the piece the pedal diagram may go above or below but otherwise it is explicitly above the staff. My memory could be wrong but I doubt that it is.

[tula-ruggiero]

I was taught to write the diagrams in above the staff and can only remember seeing them published above. Putting them below would be distracting and difficult to read, possibly making it harder to play than having no diagrams at all. I cannot remember seeing anything published with them below, but I am going from memory. I doubt you will reach a consensus though with people shouting back and forth.

[Mel Sandberg]

I have never even heard that there was meant to be a specific place for the pedal diagram, (above or

[carl-swanson]

I agree with you Mel. It’s fine to have rules for writing pedals and pedal diagrams. But the goal has to be a piece of music that is easy to read and is uncluttered. So to that end, I would say my first choice would be to put the pedal diagram above the staff and the pedals below. But if that is just not possible then you have to write them in wherever it’s possible.

Something that bothers me much more, particularly on rental parts, are markings that are illegible, on a 45 degree slant, that are written over notes or other markings, or that are scrolly or curly. Pedals in particular should be written in CAREFULLY in straight up and down block letters, in dark pencil, with care that there is blank space around them and that they do not touch any other markings or notes. They should be written in, CAREFULLY, as large as space permits. If they are written in clearly like that, then anyone can read them at a glance.

In printed editions that include pedals, the markings are almost always too small to read easily. Again, they should be printed in as large as space permits.

[Misty Harrison]

Hi, I’m Salzedo-trained and have always put the diagrams above the staff. I find the diagrams below the staff confusing because it’s hard to tell what part of the music they reference. I think it’s also standard to put them above the staff.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

Please read The Modern Study of the Harp, where pedal diagrams first appeared. It is clearly stated there how to draw them and where. Putting them anywhere is a definite way to create confusion as to what they apply to. Putting them consistently below the staff, where they are adjacent to pedal markings is sensible and clear in application. An alternative is in the page margins.

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

I agree with Carl about the legibility factor: I hate seeing diagrams all aslant or floating around in space so that it is not clear which bar they refer to. Most of the

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

I don’t think that negates what he created at all, it is unfortunate in my view, is all. Other composers have certainly used it, and some harpists, certainly. The main barrier was that orchestra parts could not be converted retroactively. It still makes the most sense for solo playing. His original design for diagrams puts a little box

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

What might be a little clearer is that harpists tend to use Salzedo’s notation, or not, one or the other, more often than a blending, which creates confustion. That’s why I think it should be used completely and correctly, or not used.

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

Just while practising an orchestra part now, I had to erase a pedal diagram that was at the bottom of the page and re-write it above the staff, simply because my pencil, eraser and felt picks sit on the music stand shelf and get in the way of anything written too low on the page. Maybe that is another reason why people are writing them in above the staff.

[carl-swanson]

-Even if Salzedo stated that they should be below, he wasn’t infallible-

OH MY GOD ELIZABETH!!!!!!! He wasn’t infallable??????????

[Briggsie B. Peawiggle]

I like them above the staff, but then I am a commie pinko

[Christian Frederick]

Briggsie,

That is VERY funny! I had a good chuckle.

Some people here are sounding like the Fox News version of the Harp World.

[Briggsie B. Peawiggle]

Christian,

The devil made me do it.

Briggs

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