A sustain or sustaining pedal (also damper pedal or loud pedal) is the most commonly-used pedal in a modern piano. It is typically the rightmost of two or three pedals. When pressed the sustain pedal "sustains" all the strings on the piano, removing the dampers from all strings and allowing them to vibrate freely. This serves two purposes. First, it assists the pianist in producing a legato (playing smoothly connected notes) in passages where no fingering is available to make this otherwise possible. Secondly, raising the damper pedal causes all the strings to vibrate sympathetically with whichever notes are being played, which greatly enriches the piano's tone. A grand piano A piano is a musical instrument which is classified as a keyboard, percussion or string instrument, depending on the system of classification used. ... Sustain is a parameter of musical sound in time. ... In musical notation legato indicates that musical notes are played smoothly. ...

The sostenuto pedal, in contrast, sustains only notes which are depressed at the time the pedal is depressed. In music, sostenuto is a term from Italian which means sustained, and occasionally also implies a slowing of tempo. ...

Vibraphones also have sustain pedals that allow the metal bars to ring. Luigi Waites plays a vibraphone, July 29, 1999 The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the percussion family. ...

The use of the pedal is often a matter of disgression to the musician, but there is special notation when the composer wishes to specify it. The most common is the use of a horizontal line below the grand staff, which lifts up and down with the pedal. An alternative notation is Ped where the pedal is supposed to be depressed, and * to show where it should be lifted. The Grand Staff using both bass clef on the bottom and treble clef on top allows for four octaves of notation, counting the two high ledger lines for Soprano C and two ledger lines below bass clef for Deep C. It is known as the grand staff because the two...