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Pedal keyboard

A pedalboard (also called a pedal keyboard, pedal clavier, or, with electronic instruments, a bass pedalboard[1]) is a keyboard played with the feet that is usually used to produce the low-pitched bass line of a piece of music. A pedalboard has long, narrow lever-style keys laid out in the same semitone scalar pattern as a manual keyboard, with longer keys for C, D, E, F, G, A, and B, and shorter, raised keys for C, D, F, G and A. Training in pedal technique is part of standard organ pedagogy in church music and art music.

Pedalboards are found at the base of the console of most pipe organs, pedal pianos, theatre organs, and electronic organs. Standalone pedalboards such as the 1970s-era Moog Taurus bass pedals are occasionally used in progressive rock and fusion music. In the 21st century, MIDI pedalboard controllers are used with synthesizers, electronic Hammond-style organs, and with digital pipe organs. Pedalboards are also used with pedal pianos and with some harpsichords, clavichords, and carillons (church bells).

History[edit]

13th century to 16th century[edit]

The first use of pedals on a pipe organ grew out of the need to hold bass drone notes, to support the polyphonic musical styles that predominated in the Renaissance. Indeed, the term pedal point, which refers to a prolonged bass tone under changing upper harmonies, derives from the use of the organ pedalboard to hold sustained bass notes.[2] These earliest pedals were wooden stubs nicknamed mushrooms,[3][4] which were placed at the height of the feet. These pedals, which used simple pull-downs connected directly to the manual keys, are found in organs dating to the 13th century. The pedals on French organs were composed of short stubs of wood projecting out of the floor, which were mounted in pedalboards that could be either flat or tilted. Organists were unable to play anything but simple bass lines or slow-moving plainsong melodies on these short stub-type pedals. Organist E. Power Biggs, in the liner notes for his album Organs of Spain noted that "One can learn to play them, but fluent pedal work is impossible".

Design[edit]

Keyboards[edit]

Pedalboards range in size from 13 notes on small spinet organs designed for in-home use (an octave, conventionally C2–C3) to 42 notes (three and a half octaves, G1–C5) on church or concert organs. Modern pipe organs typically have 30- or 32-note pedalboards, while some electronic organs and many older pipe organs have 25-note pedalboards.


Besides the number of pedals, the two main identifying aspects of a pedalboard are:

In non-classical music[edit]

Jazz organ[edit]

After jazz organist Jimmy Smith popularized the Hammond organ in jazz in the 1950s, many jazz pianists "... who thought that getting organ-ized would be a snap ..." realized that the Hammond "... B-3 required not only a strong left hand, but studied coordination on the pedals to create the strong and solid "jazz bass" feel."[14] Barbara Dennerlein combines advanced pedalboard techniques with agile playing on the manuals. Organists who play the bassline on the lower manual may do short taps on the bass pedals – often on the tonic of a tune's key and in the lowest register of the pedalboard – to simulate the low, resonant sound of a plucked upright bass string.


In popular music, pedaling style may be more varied and idiosyncratic, in part because jazz or pop organists may be self-taught. Also, pedaling styles may differ due to the design of electromechanical organs and spinet organs, many of which have shorter pedalboards designed to play primarily with the left foot, so that the right foot can control a volume (swell) pedal.

Organ shoes

Bass pedals

Keyboard bass