As I have hinted in yesterday's post, my 2nd day Easter service was quite an adventure and a good lesson for us all. Today I would like to elaborate a little on this and give you some details of what was going on there in hope you will learn from my experience as well.
I was prepared to improvise at this service on some of the most famous Easter hymns, such as Jesus Christ is Risen Today and others. But when I came to the church I met my priest who after greeting me with the words "Alleluia" asked me if there wasn't going to be Handel's Alleluia for the organ during service. I answered that this was a good wish but knew that I don't know this piece from memory and I left the score at home (plus I haven't played it for several years now so I was sure it wasn't going to be a nice performance anyway). Besides I felt like the priest was not really serious because he must know that such things have to be asked for quite in advance (I don't approach him with the special request for the theme of his sermon just before the service starts, for example. In fact, I would never do such a thing even a month in advance - there are some professional boundaries we must honor). But when I was going up the stairs to the organ loft I started thinking maybe I should give Handel's Alleluia a try. I thought people would enjoy it. Besides - I like musical challenges. But how can you play a piece, if you don't have a score and don't know it from memory? I decided to take my own advice and improvise on the beginning few lines of this piece. It should have been a prelude before the service - so really not very long - 2-3 minutes of duration should have been just fine. I turned on my organ, choose Organo Pleno with mixtures registration on all three manuals (just in case) with III/I coupler and principals and 16' Posaune with I/ped coupler in the pedals and began to play. I foolishly chose the C major key and soon realized that the original is in D major so yes, I had to transpose it in my mind (at the beginning in the video you can probably feel a short moment of this sudden unpleasant realization). In the short few moments I had for preparation before playing I thought up a rather simple plan for this improvisation. I was going to present this Alleluia theme in various related keys of the C major scale (d, e, F, G and a - not in this particular order, though) and connect the thematic entrances with modulating sequences taken from the fragments of the theme. The end of the improvisation was supposed to be about 30 seconds after the bell (announcing the beginning of the service) rings. That's about time when the priest has come to the altar in our church. As I was playing, I didn't have my watch on but kept one eye (and ear) open to this bell sound... The time passed but there was no bell sound so I had to keep on playing. But here's the thing: how do you keep on improvising when your original plan for improvisation was rather short? I guess improvisation is such a handy skill for any organist because you can make it shorter or longer according to the situation. It's not easy to find a nice place to stop in a written down organ composition but if you are spontaneously improvising, you can make it as long or as short as you wish. This means that your original plan can be extended with more modulations and more sequences which was exactly what I did then. What was supposed to be a rather modest prelude of 3 minutes of duration, became a rather solid 8 minute piece. If you are curious what I played, watch this video, since I recorded it. The performance is not perfect, there are a few wrong notes here and there but I think it's worth sharing it with you not because you can see how can I play without mistakes or because I want to entertain and amuse you (that's not the point). What's more important here is that you can see what can YOU do with such a famous theme (or in fact with any other theme) for 8 minutes. So what lessons can my readers draw from my musical adventure of yesterday? 1. Some fear and anxiety in such situation is fine but if your mind feels paralyzed, then it's not a good sign. If you feel paralyzed or in panic, it means you are biting more than you can eat at the moment. Start with small baby steps. 2. A good knowledge of harmony and chords is of paramount importance for such improvisations. 3. When playing modulating sequences for connection of the theme presented in various keys add or omit one accidental at a time. For example, if you are modulating from F major to G major, first modulate to C major (omit the Bb) and then modulate to G major (add F#). For sequences use a dissonant four-note chord and its resolution, just like we are learning in Basic Chord Workshop. 4. You don't have to know the entire piece from memory. In fact, the less you know, the better. A short theme or an episode of 8 to 16 measures is usually sufficient. You just have to be able to transpose your theme to various keys. 5. In order to have a variety of texture and color, play some episodes on the secondary manual without the pedals only. This gives you a nice time to think ahead of what are you going to do next. 6. Maintaining a steady tempo is vital in improvisation. You might miss a few notes and a lot of your listeners will not notice a thing but if you miss a beat, slow down, or speed up without any good reason - then the feeling is not so nice. 7. When you prepare for some sort of recapitulation or re-entry of the theme, or return of the main key, the dominant pedal point works very well - it builds up the tension. 8. When you are prepared to end your improvisation, incorporate the tonic pedal point with the shorter or longer excursion to the key of the subdominant. 9. In order to feel a little more secure, don't start improvising in public right away. Improvise for a friend or a family member first (even recording yourself feels very different, right?). In church service, start small - perhaps invert soprano with the tenor or re-harmonize the bass. Another good way to start improvising is to memorize your hymn and transpose it to various related major and minor keys, connect various stanzas with different modulating bridges, add a coda at the end and it will sound and feel quite nice. 10. Don't blame yourself for any mistakes. Record yourself, analyze what happened, learn from the mistakes, find any nice tricks to reuse in the future and move on. 11. Lower your expectations. Your progress is more important than the result. If you improvise even a little better now than 6 months ago, then you are on the right track. I hope that my experience has inspired you to create musical experiments of your own and start your own adventures. By the way, do you have a musical adventure or experiment from this Easter (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil, and Easter Day) to share? If so, please post them to the comment section.
Comments
Would it be helpful to you, if I played an improvisation of the organ verset and you could at the same time really hear me talking and describing what's happening in the improvisation?
Here are a couple of examples: Verset in F Major Verset in D Minor I think it would really help my students of Organ Verset Improvisation Master Course, so I'm adding these narrations as a bonus. This way they could hear what I hear and see what I see. My new Organ Verset Improvisation Master Course is launching today. Click here to find out the details.
I think you'll find that this course will not only provide the teaching that you need to take your improvisations for church services to the next level but also it will be highly inspirational for your own creativity. My aim with these videos is that you will get an impression that you are looking over my shoulder and see what I see when improvising for church services. Sometimes you will even hear a church bell ringing or a priest speaking to prove that they were really played live without any edits. If you are struggling to find proven ideas and techniques for improvisations - I know how you feel - I've been in your shoes more than once. I remember some 18 years ago when I first started playing for church services, my improvisations sometimes were rather ugly, long and without direction. A senior friend once came up to me and told me very politely: "You know, I think it's better if you refrain from improvising during church services". This was very motivational, I can tell you! So I had to think what didn't work this time and where I wanted to go next. I had to learn these techniques the hard way. You are lucky - you have this course. Over the last 10 days, I spent every evening substituting for a colleague and playing for Masses at the little church of the Holy Cross here in Vilnius which houses a lovely 19th century organ with one manual an pedals.
It was a lot of fun, especially because I decided to improvise preludes, offertories, communion music and postludes. These are pieces lasting anywhere from 1 to 3 minutes. These short compositions traditionally could be called versets. Here are a couple of examples of one in Bb major and another in E minor (In these videos you will see my fingers from up close). I'm aware there are people among my readers who would find learning this kind of improvisation especially practical because they could apply these skills in their own service playing later on. Luckily, I recorded everything (and much much more) and decided to create a video course called "Organ Verset Improvisation Master Course". If you would be interested in learning this kind of verset improvisation on the organ and enhance your service playing, stay tuned for further details soon. Canonic technique can be quite intimidating for people who want to learn improvisation on the organ. Keeping strict intervals and rhythms in a polyphonic texture requires not only a well-developed technique but also quick thought processes because your mind has to direct the fingers (and not the other way around).
However, you can look to canons from another perspective, namely, as a fun way to create imitations. And this is not as difficult as it may seem at first. Here is one of the simple ways to do it. A menuet is a Baroque dance written in a triple meter (usually 3/4). It has a binary structure of two equal halfs both of which are repeated. Improvising menuets is a lot of fun because the music is dance-like. In this post, I'm going to teach you how to improvise simple menuets on any keyboard instrument.
First of all, I recommend using two parts - one for each hand. The upper part will have a melodic interest while the lower part will provide a harmonic foundation. Use basic chordal notes of the tonic, dominant and subdominant chords in the left hand. 1. A: Play a melody of 4 measures long. (measures 1-4). 2. B: Repeat the same melody but with intervals inverted and finish on the dominant note (measures 5-8). 3. A: Repeat Step 1 (measures 9-12). 4. B: Repeat Step 2 but finish on the tonic note (measures 13-16). 5. (Optional) Repeat measures 1-16 with additional melodic ornamentation and figuration. 6. A: Similar melody but start modulating to the dominant key - raise 4th scale degree (measures 17-20). 7. B: Create a cadence in the dominant key (measures 21-24). 8. A: Start returning to the tonic key (measures 25-28). 9. B: Create a final cadence in the tonic key (measures 29-32). 10. (Optional) Repeat measures 17-32 with additional melodic ornamentation and figuration. So in reality you can see how the first half starts and finishes in the tonic key while the second half starts in the tonic, moves to the dominant and finally finishes in the tonic key. NOTE: If the piece is a minor key, then the modulation is best done to the relative major key (a key with the same number of accidentals). In each measure, use any combination of quarter-note and eighth-note rhythms. For the end of the cadences, finish with the dotted half note. If you like challenges, feel free to alternate the rhythms between the hands which will create imitations. By the way, if you want to learn to play simple and beautiful menuets and other dances from the Notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach, check out this course.
A: 2 min., 3/4 meter, use the notes F, G, and A exclusively.
NOTE: Do not use any other notes except the ones listed. Feel free to use any rhythms that can work for these meters. You may play in any octaves you want. Share your experience in comments.
A: 2 min., 5/8 meter, use the notes G and A exclusively (Flute 8') B: 2 min., 4/4 meter, use the notes G and A exclusively. (Flute 4') A: 1 min., 5/8 meter, use the notes D and E exclusively. (Flute 8') C: 1 min., 3/4 meter, use the notes E and F# exclusively. (Flutes 8' and 4') A: 1 min., 5/8 meter, use the notes C and D exclusively. (Flute 8') B: 1 min., 4/4 meter, use the notes C and D exclusively. (Flute 4') C: 1 min., 3/4 meter, use the notes G and A exclusively. (Flutes 8' and 4') A: 1 min., 5/8 meter, use the notes G and A exclusively. (Flute 8') NOTE: Do not use any other notes except the ones listed. Feel free to use any rhythms that can work for these meters. You may play in any octaves you want. Share your experience in comments. Set your timer for 10 minutes and improvise a piece in ABACABCA form:
A: 2 min., 4/4 meter, use the note C exclusively. B: 2 min., 3/4 meter, use the note C exclusively. A: 1 min., 4/4 meter, use the note G exclusively. C: 1 min., 6/8 meter, use the note A exclusively. A: 1 min., 4/4 meter, use the note F exclusively. B: 1 min., 3/4 meter, use the note F exclusively. C: 1 min., 6/8 meter, use the note C exclusively. A: 1 min., 4/4 meter, use the note C exclusively. NOTE: Do not use any other notes except the ones listed. Feel free to use any rhythms that can work for these meters. Share your experience in comments. Quite a few of my organ students asked me how I choose special harmonies which help to produce very colorful improvisations. To help you start your own improvisation journey and to inspire your creativity I decided to record a detailed video with explanations and actual demonstrations (thanks to Paulius who was behind the camera). In this video, I will teach you about colorful ways to improvise on the organ using simple three-note major and minor chords. I hope you will find it useful and inspiring.
|
DON'T MISS A THING! FREE UPDATES BY EMAIL.Thank you!You have successfully joined our subscriber list. ![]() Authors
Drs. Vidas Pinkevicius and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene Organists of Vilnius University , creators of Secrets of Organ Playing. Our Hauptwerk Setup:
Categories
All
Archives
July 2024
|