From the live class

The keep-it-going pedal

Most beginners are frightened of the pedal. Stephen renames it, and in doing so removes the reason to be.

Before the pedal, two things come first, and both are smaller than you think.

You start with two fingers. That is genuinely it — and by Stephen’s reckoning, learning to play with two fingers takes about two days at ten minutes a day. Then you add a single finger in the other hand, which gives you bass underneath. Another two days. You will not win a Grammy yet, but you have made a real piece of progress and you can hear it.

Then comes the part people brace for. On an acoustic piano it is the pedal on the right-hand side; on a keyboard it is the one that plugs into the back. It has an intimidating Italian name, which Stephen sets aside in favour of what it actually does.

What it actually fixes

Play without it and the sound stops the instant you lift your finger. That is the reason beginners sound like beginners: the playing is jumpy, disconnected, each note sealed off from the next. Hold the pedal down and the notes keep ringing into one another. Nothing about your hands has changed. The gap between them has.

This is why it is worth learning early rather than saving for later. It is not an advanced flourish — it is the difference between notes and music, and it is available to you on day three.