The sustain pedal is the pedal on the right of the group of 3 pedals you will find on a typical acoustic grand piano, or an upright or spinet. When pressed, it forces the felt dampers to lift from the piano strings so that they can continue to vibrate and make sound. When the pedal is released, the damper comes down on the string and stops it, thus stopping the sound. This is useful in piano playing because in practically anything you play, you do want control of how long the particular chord or note you're playing continues, without having the manually hold down each keycontinued.............
If you're starting your piano hobby with a portable electronic keyboard, the sustain pedal is a box that plugs in to the back of the keyboard. The box is actually a pedal that does the same thing as the bigger pedal on a piano.The sustain pedal on the digital piano is much bigger and operates more like a pedal on a real piano because when playing the 88 keys of a good digital piano with weighted keys, you need the control afforded by the bigger leverage.
Here is an example of what a piece of music would look like that calls for sustain. You can see the "Ped." begin the call for the pedal on the F chord. The notation of the chord involves a curved line called a "tie". The tie goes to a half note that is not played but merely "sustained" by the continued sound of the original F chord. When the rest appears, an asterisk tells you to release the sustain pedal so that the sound stops. There are many other variations on a sustain situation but my intention here is to simply get you started.
Listen to Dorothy explain and demonstrate the sustain pedal on a portable keyboard:
