Using Sustain on a Synthesizer

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Part of the video series: Keyboards & Synthesizers for Beginners

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Summary: How to use sustain on keyboards and synthesizers; get expert tips and advice on playing electronic musical instruments in this free music lesson video.

Views: 421 | Tags: instrument, piano, keyboard, play, playing, synth, synthesizer, studio, electronic, sequencer, musical equipment, musical instruments

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About the Expert

Ben Anderson Ben Anderson has been playing piano, keyboards, and synthesizers for almost all his life. He took lessons as a young child and took easily to music. Performi... read more

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Video Transcript

Using Sustain on a Synthesizer

Hi, I'm Ben Anderson with Expert Village, and today I'm here to talk to you about sustain. Sustain will help determine how long your sound is going to hold on for. If I sit here and play piano without using a sustain pedal, the sound doesn't really sustain at all, unless I hold the pitch out myself. It will sustain in that case. But just by sitting here and plucking away at keys, the sound isn't going to sustain at all. However, with a sustain pedal, if I hold my foot down on a sustain pedal and play the same thing I did before, the sound then carries over and is held out longer. Another time you might want to decide to use sustain is in a live performance setting, determined by what style of music you're playing. If you're playing something that's really choppy, and the notes aren't going to be held for very long, then you're not obviously going to want to use the sustain pedal. However, if you're playing a much more melodic piece with, say, a sound like an organ, or something like strings, for example, you might then want to use a sustain pedal to help sustain that sound and carry it over to give it a more luscious, melodic feeling to it, compared to using it with a rock song. So, here is what playing strings without sustain would sound like if I just held it. The sound stays and sustains for a little bit. Now, if I hold down the sustain pedal and I play it, the sound will stay for as long as I want it to by holding my foot down on the sustain pedal.