Designing a pedal assist for a grand? to pedal damper with left foot
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It is becoming increasingly likely that I will have to have surgery on my right foot. If so, that means I won’t be able to pedal with my right foot for possibly two months or maybe more. I don’t want to be forced to play without the pedal during that time, and the last time I tried, it seemed like playing the damper pedal with my left foot would not work. (Although maybe it will and maybe I’ll try it again this evening)
I googled around and didn’t see any “pedal extenders” designed to allow you to pedal with your left foot, the only ones I saw were for children, to allow those with short legs to reach the pedals.
So it seems like this ought to be something one could design (my husband is quite crafty). But also you wouldn’t want to design something that would damage the pedals, or the finished etc.
How would you go about trying to design something like this? (For the record, we don’t have a 3D printer).
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Btw here’s one of the single pedal extenders, designed to raise the pedal but it’s still on the right side. I would want something that comes over to the left… I was wondering if modifying an existing one would be possible, but it doesn’t seem like it.
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Or I’ll just pedal with my left foot, no modifications…
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Check with your tech! There have been discussions online about making knee pedaling possible for clients - so techs have thought about options before. Most of these have been more permanent solutions that involve a redesign to the trapwork under the piano. Probably more than you want to do!
Starting with the design picture, I'd add an "up and over" section to the left and then down to pedal level. Lots of possible issues with twist and stability come to mind...
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Check with your tech! There have been discussions online about making knee pedaling possible for clients - so techs have thought about options before. Most of these have been more permanent solutions that involve a redesign to the trapwork under the piano. Probably more than you want to do!
Starting with the design picture, I'd add an "up and over" section to the left and then down to pedal level. Lots of possible issues with twist and stability come to mind...
Most of these have been more permanent solutions that involve a redesign to the trapwork under the piano. Probably more than you want to do!
Yeah, I definitely don't want a permanent modification. (Trying not to think about worst case scenarios where that would be necessary!)
@Rontuner said:
I'd add an "up and over" section to the left and then down to pedal level. Lots of possible issues with twist and stability come to mindRight, it seems like "up and over" would have lots of room for falling over, or breaking...
Someone on Piano Tell wrote:
disconnect the mechanism (e.g. the vertical rod) of the Una Corda and Sostenuto pedals, then make a horizontal bar to link all three pedals so that they depress/release together.
What do you think about that? Presumably this would be reversible. And I rarely use the other two pedals, so if I could get the left pedal to connect to the damper, temporarily disabling the other pedals, that would be ok.
Is this possible?
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Hm. Interesting approach. Take a look at the back side of your pedals where you would disconnect the two rods. If there is enough room, that might be the best place to clamp two bars across? With the pedals rounded in the front, that might prove more problematic to get a solid clamping force between the pedals.
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Hm. Interesting approach. Take a look at the back side of your pedals where you would disconnect the two rods. If there is enough room, that might be the best place to clamp two bars across? With the pedals rounded in the front, that might prove more problematic to get a solid clamping force between the pedals.
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Two bars, possibly covered with thin felt or leather on the side that will touch the pedal. (hopefully in the back) Probably stronger to be long enough for 4 vertical bolts - 2 between pedals and 2 on the outside.
Yamaha C3? That's the piano at our choir practice tonight. I can take a look.
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You might be surprised at your ability to use the pedal after surgery. I was pedaling the same day of surgery, and every day since my total knee replacement on December 30th. Of course that depends on what type of surgery you have. But, as long as your Doctor approves, I say go for it! Trying to pedal with your left foot might prove to be less than ideal/accurate. Would it be akin to writing left handed if you're right handed?
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Two bars, possibly covered with thin felt or leather on the side that will touch the pedal. (hopefully in the back) Probably stronger to be long enough for 4 vertical bolts - 2 between pedals and 2 on the outside.
Yamaha C3? That's the piano at our choir practice tonight. I can take a look.
Yamaha C3?
Yamaha C2 (2020), I assume the pedal design is the same between these two models.
You might be surprised at your ability to use the pedal after surgery.
Unfortunately, probably not. I think it's two weeks of complete immobility along with NWB, and then another 2-4 of total NWB, and then the slow return to weight bearing and PT would start. It's a horrible process and I want to avoid it if at all possible! But my doc visit last week was kind of grim.
The problem is that this is open surgery. They would have to make an incision along the back of the heel up about 3 to 4 inches. The achilles would have to be removed from the heel bone (because they have to shave off two locations along the back of the heel bone to address a bone deformity and also a bone spur) and then the achilles has to be reattached. I asked the doc about what contributes to successful outcomes, and one of them was adhering to the recovery protocol. So I most definitely would not be pushing it!
Probably at some point, I would be cleared to pedal (presumably/probably earlier than clearance for a return to weight-bearing), but it could be 8 weeks before that clearance.
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You might be surprised at your ability to use the pedal after surgery. I was pedaling the same day of surgery, and every day since my total knee replacement on December 30th. Of course that depends on what type of surgery you have. But, as long as your Doctor approves, I say go for it! Trying to pedal with your left foot might prove to be less than ideal/accurate. Would it be akin to writing left handed if you're right handed?
I was pedaling the same day of surgery, and every day since my total knee replacement on December 30th.
That's great! How are you doing now?
Trying to pedal with your left foot might prove to be less than ideal/accurate. Would it be akin to writing left handed if you're right handed?
What I noticed when I tried it yesterday was that I could get the pedal down, but I couldn't get go up and down... And I felt like my body was twisted. I don't know, maybe I can make it work some how...
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I don't know if I can describe what I'm thinking, but I'll try anyway.
What if you made a box with a hinged pedal in it, and weighted, to rest on the floor to the left of the piano's pedals. The pedal would need to be long enough to create sufficient movement to move the real pedal. Attach a very strong type of thin cord to the pedal so that when you push down on the pedal the cord is pulled down. This next bit is where you may have reservations: You'd have to screw two eyelets into the bottom of the keyboard--one of each side of the piano's pedal unit. The cord from the boxed pedal would run up to the eyelet on the left, across the underside of the keyboard, through the eyelet on the right, and down to the real pedal where it would be attached to the back of the pedal. When you pressed the boxed pedal, the cord--traveling up, across, and down to the real pedal would lift the back of it as if you were pressing your foot on the front of it.
Maybe it's an unrealistic design. It depends on strong cordage and the willingness to screw eyelets into the piano's underside. And, I don't know if you'd be able to get enough power from it to actually lift the back of the real pedal.
Maybe this makes sense, maybe not. I hope so.
The industrial revolution cheapened everything.
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I wonder if your doc could prescribe some sort of rigid boot for you to put on for piano playing.
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Ah, achilies repair... I went through that back around 2000 and mine was a slow recovery with no weight bearing to start. I grew to hate crutching.
Do you also have a digital? Perhaps that would be the easiest beginning step using a plug in pedal that you could place where convenient.
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I don't know if I can describe what I'm thinking, but I'll try anyway.
What if you made a box with a hinged pedal in it, and weighted, to rest on the floor to the left of the piano's pedals. The pedal would need to be long enough to create sufficient movement to move the real pedal. Attach a very strong type of thin cord to the pedal so that when you push down on the pedal the cord is pulled down. This next bit is where you may have reservations: You'd have to screw two eyelets into the bottom of the keyboard--one of each side of the piano's pedal unit. The cord from the boxed pedal would run up to the eyelet on the left, across the underside of the keyboard, through the eyelet on the right, and down to the real pedal where it would be attached to the back of the pedal. When you pressed the boxed pedal, the cord--traveling up, across, and down to the real pedal would lift the back of it as if you were pressing your foot on the front of it.
Maybe it's an unrealistic design. It depends on strong cordage and the willingness to screw eyelets into the piano's underside. And, I don't know if you'd be able to get enough power from it to actually lift the back of the real pedal.
Maybe this makes sense, maybe not. I hope so.
This next bit is where you may have reservations:
Yikes, Bernard, I couldn't even read past that!! No holes in my piano!!
@rontuner what happened to your achilles? Did it rupture, or did you have a problem with your heel?
My problem is that the heel deformity apparently triggered achilles tendonopathy, so both the heel bone needs fixing and the achilles tendon itself.
Re a digital... I don't currently have one. My mother has one, but it's the furniture type, I'm not sure how easy it would be to move the pedal for that.
if this were longer term, I might consider just getting one. I wonder if you can attach an extra pedal to a furniture type and just override the sustain pedal....
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Sounds like a great opportunity to practice Bach and other Baroque composers using only finger legato! Even Schumann recommended that pianists do some organ study to improve legato and learn finger substitutions.
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Sounds like a great opportunity to practice Bach and other Baroque composers using only finger legato! Even Schumann recommended that pianists do some organ study to improve legato and learn finger substitutions.
Sounds like a great opportunity to practice Bach and other Baroque composers using only finger legato!
I know, I know…
I would just rather make repertoire choices based on what I want to play, as opposed to have to make choices based on something I’m not able to do.More to the point, that isn’t the kind of music I am motivated to play. Sorry, I don’t mean to whine, but the whole thing is depressing. I am certain to go stir crazy as it is, and not being able to play piano (the way I normally do) is just going to make it worse. I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself during that time.
Anyway, if nothing else, the impending immobility will hopefully compel me to polish and record all the things I’m working on beforehand.
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This next bit is where you may have reservations:
Yikes, Bernard, I couldn't even read past that!! No holes in my piano!!
@rontuner what happened to your achilles? Did it rupture, or did you have a problem with your heel?
My problem is that the heel deformity apparently triggered achilles tendonopathy, so both the heel bone needs fixing and the achilles tendon itself.
Re a digital... I don't currently have one. My mother has one, but it's the furniture type, I'm not sure how easy it would be to move the pedal for that.
if this were longer term, I might consider just getting one. I wonder if you can attach an extra pedal to a furniture type and just override the sustain pedal....
@rontuner what happened to your achilles? Did it rupture, or did you have a problem with your heel?
Weekend warrior driveway basketball. Mine didn't completely tear which complicated diagnosis. Primary care doc got it wrong and I hobbled around for a few weeks until I saw a specialist and he got it right away.
I was also going to suggest Bach - nevermind!
I looked at the C3 pedals last night and the back side woudn't work on those, but the front side seemed a bit flatter than I remember so perhaps a clamp across that side could be possible? See what your husband thinks? You should be able to press up from under the piano on the lever that the pedal rod pushes, allowing the pedal rod to slip out of the hole at the back of the pedal on the left and middle pedals.
The really cool solution would be to use one of those plug in pedals for a digital to activate a little servo-motor to push up on the back side of the pedal from the floor. Way beyond my expertise, but I'm sure some engineer type could come up with something from off the shelf parts!
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Here's a lever idea for a drum that may give your husband some ideas? Something like this would need to anchor to the pedal box for stability
Link to video -
Here's a lever idea for a drum that may give your husband some ideas? Something like this would need to anchor to the pedal box for stability
Link to video@Rontuner hmmm that's interesting to see.
So when you push down, the lever goes up, but I would need something where I push down, and then it pushes the pedal down... Mechanically, that seems more complicated.
Someone at PT wrote:
IMO anything with enough leverage to depress the right pedal from the left is going to be big and heavy and any slight bump is going to dislodge it or nick your pedal box/lyre.
There are probably a lot more logistical challenges than I realize....
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