All pianos and most keyboards have a pedal, or at least in the case of keyboards, there is a socket for a plug to plug in a pedal. Using the pedal, or in the case of pianos, the pedal on the right, can really enhance your playing.
The pedal, which is technically the sustain pedal, is good for sustaining the sound of the notes much longer than they would without the pedal. This is because in acoustic pianos, the stopper for each string is prevented from stopping the vibrating strings inside. In electronic instruments, the effect is digitally produced.
The great thing about the pedal is because the strings are not stopped or cut short in their vibration, they vibrate for a considerable time longer, creating an almost blurring effect with the notes. This can be a really good thing because it can instantly make your music sound more blended or floaty. The great thing though, because of this blurred effect of the notes, it can also help hide wrong notes. Most piano players find this a huge benefit because it seems to improve their playing significantly without having to put much work in.
There is a down side to pedaling as well. If the pedal is kept down for too long, the music goes from sounding floaty to sounding quite muddy. This can easily be fixed by changing the pedal regularly. Changing the pedal regularly means lifting off the pedal and then immediately depressing it again. This will definitely help in preventing a muddy sound.
The biggest down side is where you can rely on the pedal too much and you literally have it depressed all the time when you practice. I made this mistake when I was a teenager and I used the pedal so much, that I didn’t really focus on the subtle nuances that I was supposed to, because everything just ended up sounding blurred. I even used it when I was practicing my scales and one time when my teacher asked me to start playing my scales (it had been a few weeks since she had last heard me play my scales) and when I started playing them, they sounded terrible. They were quite uneven and they sounded quite disjointed. My teacher was probably disappointed, but not as much as I was disappointed with myself. Over the next few weeks, I got out of the bad habit of always using the pedal and instead I used it when absolutely necessary.
In some ways, I’m glad I made that stupid mistake because since then, I have always been deliberate and sparing in my use of the pedal. I recommend that you take the approach of less is more when it comes to pedaling.