An acoustic piano typically has three pedals, the soft pedal on the left, the

sostenuto pedal on the middle, and the sustain pedal on the right. Those first

two allow for some interesting delicate sounds that most people have no idea

about because they're too busy riding the sustain pedal.

Welcome to Strong Songs, a podcast about music. I'm your host Kirk Hamilton and as

always I'm so glad that you've joined me to talk about piano played with the

soft pedal, piano played with the sostenuto pedal, and okay mostly piano played

with the sustain pedal. The episode you're about to listen to is entirely made

possible by my listeners. I'm so happy to be able to make this show freely

available and add free to anyone who wants to listen and that's possible

because of my patrons. So if you're digging strong songs and you think hey

you know I'd pay for this. Go to patreon.com slash strong songs. I am very

excited for this episode. It's been a long time coming a dive into a legendary

song by a legendary piano player and one of those songs that I've got and a ton

of requests for over the years. It's a seven and a half minute saga that I can't

wait to dig into. So let's pour some wine, break off some garlic bread, and do this

there. All songs tell a story one way or another but some of them are more

direct about telling that story than others. Some songs don't just tell one

story they tell multiple stories stories within stories each with the beginning

a middle and an end each taking you somewhere new as the chords and melodies

unfold and time moves backward and forward and backward and forward again. A good

story needs a good setting not just for the story itself but for the telling and

...