Musician Demonstrates a Clever Piano Muting Pedal

German musician Nils Frahm beautifully demonstrated the Palm Mute Pedal, a very clever 3D printed, foot-operated piano muting pedal that was invented and developed by his friend Otto Sammy. Although this was the first time Frahm ever used the pedal, the footage was done in just one take.

After setting it up, playing with it, and geeking around, I asked Nils, if I could make a short video of him using the pedal. He agreed and surprised me with this beautiful demonstration of the Palm Mute Pedal in the first take.

Sammy states that he was interested in music for as long as he can remember, so he used his downtime during the pandemic to develop an idea he’d had for several years.

In the spring of 2020, COVID-19 forced me to stay at home from my studies in musicology and physics at Aarhus University. I had the first idea for the Palm Mute Pedal five years earlier but without doing anything about it; the idea seemed too crazy and it was way out of my league.

He further states that he knew the idea was good, but it was a great deal harder to bring it to life.

I very soon found out that the project would be a lot harder than I originally thought and require a whole new variety of skills that I did not even know existed. Most importantly, during initial tests, I began to realize that the Palm Mute Pedal was not a gimmick: it sounded better than I had anticipated and had a potential far exceeding my original expectations. So I decided to carry on and learn the skills required to make the Palm Mute Pedal a reality.

Palm Mute Piano Pedal

Other musicians, including Eik Octobre and La Louve, also tried out the Palm Mute Pedal.

via Boing Boing

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.

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