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I'm writing a piano piece, for most of which I would like to use a blanket con pedale instead of marking pedals for each measure. However, at exactly one point, there are two nonconsecutive measures which should not be sustained, like this:

A segment of a grand staff showing three complete measures of music. The second one and the incomplete measures on either side are marked with explicit Ped/* notation, while the first and third have no pedaling and their notes are marked staccatissimo.

What is the proper way to notate the absence of pedal for these two measures, while still making clear that all the surrounding material should be pedaled at the player's discretion?

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The first non-pedaled measure can be marked senza ped., the next measure can use either a standard pedal indication as in the question image or con ped., and then another senza ped. for the other non-pedaled measure. After that, con ped. will serve.

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  • I would have no problem, if the weird "Leò" marking was changed to whatever font is actually understandable these days, and if the texts were with pedal and without pedal instead of something in Italian. :) Dec 23, 2021 at 12:40
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    @piiperiReinstateMonica If you've not already seen it, you might be interested in Why does the pedal sign look like “Leo”?.
    – Aaron
    Dec 23, 2021 at 14:00
  • That's where I got the "Leò" idea from. If it was written with a contemporary commonly understood font, nothing of value would be lost. Dec 23, 2021 at 16:13
  • The indication secco ("dry") in piano music means staccato, but usually entails using no pedal.
    – DjinTonic
    Dec 23, 2021 at 16:45

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