What does the right pedal of the piano do?

Answer 1

Often mistakenly called the 'loud' pedal, it is anything but. The right pedal, when depressed, causes the dampers on the strings to move away so that when you play a succession of notes, each note does not stop sounding when you play the next one. So this pedal is called the 'sustaining' pedal because, if used wisely, it can create a smoother performance when one is needed. However, too many poor pianists hold down this pedal unnecessarily to create a 'smooth' effect, but all they achieve is a mishmash of horrible sound as one chord is sustained into another. So if you are learning the piano, use it wisely! Incidentally, pianos have at least one or sometimes two other pedals. The leftmost pedal on a grand piano has the effect of moving the keyboard slightly so that the hammers hit only one string per note, instead of the usual two or three. This has the effect of making the sound much quieter and softer. When you see 'una corda' written in piano music this means 'one string' and is an instruction to depress the left pedal during that passage of music. In upright pianos, there is also a 'una corda' pedal, but in uprights it has the effect of moving the hammers nearer the strings (or in cheap pianos of moving a thin piece of felt between the hammers and strings) which has a similar effect. On some pianos, there is a third, middle pedal. In cheap pianos, this moves a thick piece of felt between the hammers and strings making the sound very soft and woolly. This is used for practicing passages that you don't want to play loudly yet as they may be full of mistakes (so as not to disturb the neighbors!)! In jigher-priced pianos, this middle pedal has a sustaining effect that is not like the right-hand pedal. If you play a note and then press the middle pedal, this one note is sustained when all subsequent notes are not. This is useful if you want, say, a chord to sustain throughout another passage and you do not have enough fingers to hold down the chord and play the other notes as well. You could use the right-hand sustaining pedal, of course, but this would have the effect of sustaining the chord and all the notes of the subsequent passage, resulting in a messy sound.

Answer 2

Generally the fourth pedal raises the hammers nearer the strings and reduces the touch depth. This enables the player to play very softly (and rapidly, if necessary)still employing the full tone of the instrument.

It can be also used with the 'shift' pedal for even more effect.

On some other brand pianos, (more modern ones), the 4th pedal is designed to make a honky-tonk sound.