User:Tsavage/sandbox

Piano pedals are foot-operated levers that change the instrument's sound in various ways. Modern grand pianos usually have either two or three pedals, from left to right, the soft pedal (or una corda), the sostenuto pedal, mainly found in American-made grands, not European, and the sustaining pedal (or damper pedal). Some pianos have a middle pedal with a different purpose, such as a muting function also known as silent piano. On uprights, the soft pedal is actually more properly called a half-blow pedal, achieving a similar effect using a different method to accommodate the different string setup.

Most modern grand pianos in the US have three pedals: the soft pedal (una corda), sostenuto, and sustain pedal (from left to right, respectively), while in Europe, the standard is two pedals: the soft pedal and the sustain pedal. Most modern upright pianos also have three pedals: soft pedal, practice pedal and sustain pedal, though older or cheaper models may lack the practice pedal. In Europe the standard for upright pianos is two pedals: the soft and the sustain pedals.

The development of the piano's pedals is an evolution that began from the very earliest days of the piano, and continued through the late nineteenth century. Throughout the years, the piano had as few as one modifying stop, and as many as six or more, before finally arriving at its current configuration of three.