Today I played chorale prelude for two manuals and pedals "Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier", BWV 731 by Bach at the super slow practice tempo. You will see my hands and keyboards from up close, so if you want to play this piece, you will find the score here.
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Have you ever wondered what is the process of learning an organ piece? Of course, most organists know that you have to learn the notes, rhythms, articulation, fingering and pedaling, ornaments, and similar things. But on a broader sense what does it really take to master it? It turns out that there are 3 stages of learning a piece: learning to play it from the score, learning to play it from memory, and learning to transpose it into other keys. Let's examine each one of them in turn.
1. Learning to play it from the score. That's the initial stage. Here you learn to play correct notes, rhythms, articulation, fingering and pedaling, ornaments, and similar things. Many people stop here. If you are fluent with this stage, you can even perform the piece in public. 2. Learning to play it from memory. Some organists choose to transcend further and memorize the piece. This stage requires a deeper knowledge and understanding of the piece. If you learn it by heart, chances are that fear of public performance or anxiety will not affect you as much. 3. Learning to transpose it into other keys. This is the ultimate stage. It takes a lot of willpower and very few people I know attempt it, even fewer actually finish it. It's a longer process because you have to travel through all major or minor keys in the system of ascending number of accidentals. Bonus Stage 4: Learning to improvise a piece based on the model composition. Here you can take composer's rhythms, texture, registration, and form, and supply with your own themes or melodies and create your own improvisation. By the way, by doing this you are fulfilling original intention of many organ composers which is this: the vast majority of pieces written in the Renaissance and Baroque periods were created with the intent of becoming models for improvisations and compositions for composer's students and future generations. If you are in the 1st stage of learning a piece that you love, don't feel bad if can't play it from memory or transpose it. Being fluent with musical text means a lot to the performance level and quality. If you nonetheless have finally memorized it, know that this is really a small but important victory. However, I'm sure there are quite a few people among my readers who are not satisfied with their current stage and would want to graduate to the next. If that's the case with you, know that each stage takes considerable amount of time and effort. I think the most important thing for you, if you want to advance, is to enjoy the process every day, every hour, every moment that you practice and feel that you a taking the right little steps which inevitably will lead you to success if you won't stop now. Imagine that you find it hard to play pieces from memory in public, although the memorization process isn't particularly difficult. But when you are in the middle of the piece, suddenly, without any special reason, you are lost.
Additionally, you can only read organ music quite slowly, perhaps too slowly for the best results, especially those with multiple sharps and flats. This is true not only for real organ compositions but also in playing hymns. On top of that, lack of music theory foundation is causing you to struggle. This is evident from the fact that when you play from the score, it says very little to you. You can't recognize the patterns, cadences, musical ideas, figures, modulations, and colorful chord progressions. And of course, you know what you should do - put in more effort and work harder but so far your progress has been too slow. If concentration, theoretical knowledge, speed of reading music, and memorization are the things which hold you back from improving your success rate, then here are a few things I recommend to you for starters: 1. Learn the pieces in fragments of about 4 measures 2. Learn these fragments in solo parts, in two-part and three-part combinations first 3. Practice in a tempo slower than the concert speed by at least 50 percent 4. Each step may require 10 correct repetitions in a row 5. Practice sight-reading daily for at least 5-15 minutes 6. Sight-read pieces in separate parts first 7. Try not to look at the fingers and feet 8. Memorize the system of the circle of fifths 9. Learn a few chords and try to discover them in your pieces 10. Transpose one or two chords in as many keys as you can Apply the above tips in your organ practice and with time you will be able to improve your success rate. [HT to John] Next: Dreams and sacrifices Sight-reading: 4. Intermezzo (p. 19) from 12 Pièces, Op.16 by Leon Boellmann (1862-1897), French Romantic composer and organist. Hymn playing: Wake, Awake, for Night Is Flying Let's say you have to play a church service today and you are not prepared - you will find out the hymns only once you get to the church and the prelude with the postlude... Well, you get the idea.
Is everything lost? Can you feel the panic rising and the sick feeling in the stomach? What should you do? Call the church and say you are sick today? Or is there some hope that everything can be played just right? You can feel my answer, can't you? It still can be done. I'm not going to get into the details why you are unprepared - family emergency, poor planning and goal setting, multiple distractions over the course of the week, your personal illness etc. What I'm most concerned today is to figure out a way for you to still play the service to the best of your capacity. First of all, the most important thing is not to panic, not to freak out, and stay focused and calm, breath slowly and deeply no matter what. The internal battles in your mind are just as important to win as the external ones on the organ bench. In fact, they are even more important. In this scenario I recommend you take a deep look at your sight-reading abilities and think about what can you really sight-read on the moment's notice. Can you sight-read two parts without the pedals or can you sight-read just the tune? If you can't sight-read the hymn tune, then playing the church service is a little early for you so I assume you can at least do that. If you can sight-read the tune with your right hand and the bass line with your left - it might be all you need for an emergency like this because the outer parts are the most important ones in many tonal compositions - the soprano is often the most melodically developed voice and the bass - the foundation of harmony. If you can sight-read only the tune, do this - play the tune with both hands doubling the melody in octaves. This is not an ideal solution but if you play it rhythmically and melodically fluently, the result will be better than you will expect. It's better than trying to sight-read all four parts with many hesitations and mistakes in public. In both versions, the variety can be achieved with registration changes for separate stanzas - from the full organ, to the principal chorus with and without mixtures, adding the 16' stops and even playing with the reed stops only. What about the prelude and the postlude? One option would be to take the opening and the closing hymns and improvise two-part preludes where the free part can move in quarter notes, then eighth notes, eighth note triplets, and even sixteenth notes. You can double the length of the piece by flipping the parts and putting the tune in the left hand. Another option - choose a meter, any four pitches and improvise a short - 1-2 minute piece using imitations between the hands in the character suitable for the liturgy of today. It's easier than it sounds - you just have to move one hand while another is stationary. Repeat the same rhythms in another part. Remember, you only have to operate with four pitches (in any octave). The pedals can play slower note values out of these four pitches. White keys are easier to manage but if you add just one or two accidentals - the music will become more colorful. If you want to create a piece in ABA form, choose another set of four pitches and improvise one more section. This will be your B part. For recapitulation, return to the first set of four pitches. By doing this, you can easily improvise an interesting piece for 3-5 minutes (ABA form) or even 6-10 minutes (ABABA form). NOTE: Later sections can become shorter to retain interest and diminish predictability. Mistakes? There are none. Simply repeat a motive with the same mistake two more times and it will become intentional. The most important thing is not to think about what you cannot do but about what you can do. It turns out, you have more options than you actually need. If you can win the internal battle first keeping a calm mind, you have a chance to winning an external one later on the bench. Did David had a chance against Goliath? Of course, provided he didn't use the strategy and the tactics the biblical giant wanted him to use. In fact, with the new research it's clear that David's victory was very likely scenario. Next: Improving your success rate Sight-reading: No. 6 Der Winter will hin wichen (p. 29) from Buxheimer Orgelbuch (ca. 1450), a German Renaissance collection of organ music. Hymn playing: Awake, My Heart, With Gladness If you want to reach your goal on time and not to give in to the countless distractions we face every day, you have to consider these four things:
1. What to practice 2. How to practice 3. How much to practice 4. What's the frequency of your practice sessions In order for you to imagine what it takes to practice the right pieces the right way the right amount of time and the right time of the week, here are 16 options we have each week: 1. Not to practice at all 2. Practice the right pieces but the wrong way for the insufficient amount of time at the wrong frequency. 3. The wrong pieces the correct way for the insufficient amount of time at the wrong frequency. 4. The wrong pieces the wrong way for the right amount of time at the wrong frequency. 5. The wrong pieces the wrong way for the insufficient amount of time at the right frequency. 6. The right pieces the correct way for the insufficient amount of time and at the wrong frequency. 7. The right pieces the wrong way for the right amount of time at the wrong time frequency. 8. The right pieces the wrong way for the insufficient amount of time at the right frequency. 9. The wrong pieces the right way for the right amount of time at the wrong frequency. 10. The wrong pieces the right way for the insufficient amount of time at the correct frequency. 11. The wrong pieces the wrong way for the right amount of time at the correct frequency. 12. The right pieces the right way for the right amount of time at the wrong frequency. 13. The right pieces the right way for the insufficient amount of time at the correct frequency. 14. The right pieces the wrong way for the right amount of time at the correct frequency. 15. The wrong pieces the right way for the right amount of time at the correct frequency. 16. The right pieces the right way for the right amount of time at the correct frequency. So many less than ideal options. Which one will you choose tonight? (Because you always have a choice, right?) The first step is to figure out what are the right pieces, what is the correct way of practice, what is the sufficient amount of time of each practice session and what is the correct frequency of practice for your goal each week? Next: So you are not prepared? Sight-reading: Toccata (p. 2) from Toccata and Fugue, Op.65 by Johan Adam Krygell (1835-1915) who was a Danish organist and composer of the Romantic period. Hymn playing: A Child of The King Russ writes that his goal is to give and receive pleasure from organ music and
introduce people to the magnificence of the organ. However, lack of self confidence, patience, and correct technique are holding him back. I believe every organist should have a goal like Russ does. This is really excellent! It's graceful, elegant, and simple. If you want to gain self confidence, you first have to know your instrument, your music, and yourself. Knowing your instrument involves all the intricacies of combing various stops and stop combinations and knowing when to change the registration. Knowing your music is of course being able to play it by heart (from memory). In order to do it, you first have to master the piece from the score by repeatedly and extremely slowly playing various voices and voice combinations and the entire texture in small manageable fragments of about 4 measures of duration. A side effect of doing this is that you will gain patience and also develop correct technique. So in reality it all comes down to slow, regular, and persistent practice. By doing this you will also come to understand yourself, your strengths and your weaknesses. It's all very simple - when you practice, you move forward. When you give up, despair, doubt yourself, seek shortcuts, silver bullets, and shiny objects - then you are sabotaging your own efforts and success (until your next readjustment of focus). Although it's a long road head, the pleasure comes from knowing that you are inevitably moving closer to your goal every day one step at a time. What's your next step? Sight-reading: Introduction-Chorale (p. 2) from Suite Gothique, op. 25 by Leon Boellmann, French Romantic composer and organist. ![]() Jaime Camps: This is me at the organ in Sacred Heart Church, Montevideo. Although it is an electronic organ, is quite good and enjoyable. The picture was taken by my jobmate and friend Nicolás Farinasso, who submitted it to a contest in Phlearn and won the prize. It is now my profile image in facebook. Not anyone has a first-prize-winner picture in his profile!!! :) Thanks to Jacqui who wrote to me last night and I believe many organists around the world face the same problem: "Thank you for all your meaningful articles and videos about organ playing. I just bought a product from you last week. I would like my son, who is 16 and has grade 7 piano, learn organ. I was struggling to find a church for him to practise as I don't have an organ at home. It is so difficult to find a church for him to practise. I heard midi can help, but if there are no foot pedals, you are not practising organ. Hope you can kindly help me with this mystery." Not having an instrument with pedals to practice at home can be very upsetting. In fact, this might well be the reason stopping a lot of people from beginning their organ playing journey in the first place. So what can you do? Here are some possibilities that people usually explore: 1. Find a church in your area with an organ. Approach an organist and/or the priest/pastor and ask for the chance to practice in exchange for a small fee, donation or occasional service playing. Some churches will even let you practice without expecting anything in return. 2. Build a midi organ yourself; 3. Buy an electronic organ; 4. Buy a new or a second hand practice pipe organ with 1-2 stops; 5. Enter the virtual world and consider the virtual organ possibilities; 6. If you have a keyboard instrument, such as piano, acquire a pedalboard and attach it to the piano strings; 7. If you have a synthesizer, get a midi pedalboard or midify a regular pedalboard; 8. If you love early music, buy a pedal clavichord or harpsichord; All of these options are valid, of course. It will depend not only on your preferences but on your financial situation as well because some of the solutions are more expensive while others might be more affordable. Today I'd like to offer a solution (perhaps a temporary one) but which will allow you to practice organ playing right away without any expense: print out regular size organ manuals and pedalboard. Tape the sheets together, glue the pedalboard sheets on the cardboard (optional), place the manuals on the table and the pedalboard on the floor, put a few thick hymnals on the chair so that your feet would be gently touching the "keys" and you are ready to practice! If you want to "hear" what you are playing, you can play along with the recording or the video in the slow practice tempo. However, use this option wisely - only for practice purposes, because you might get too attached to the interpretation of others and copy their rhythms without the need to count the beats yourself. Paper manuals and pedalboard is not an ideal solution, but a temporary one. The idea here is to eliminate the excuse not to practice because you don't have an access to an organ at least until you are ready to find a better option. Some of my students in our organ studio "Unda Maris" here in Vilnius have paper manuals and pedalboards and say that it works. Have you tried this yourself? I would love to hear about your experience. Amateurs practice until they get it right, until they don't make a mistake.
Professionals practice until they can't make a mistake anymore. Being a professional doesn't cost you any more money or any more time. It doesn't require you to have more experience, better education, more famous teacher, or being born in a more privileged country. And it certainly doesn't require you to be more talented or start at the age of 5. Being a professional is an attitude. The only thing you have to do is to decide to push through and get to the other side. You can choose to be a pro. Today. Tomorrow. And the day after that. Here are the 4 categories of organ practice:
1. Practicing incorrect way incorrect things (least ideal) 2. Practicing correct way incorrect things 3. Practicing incorrect way correct things 4. Practicing correct way correct things (ideal) For every person the correct things in organ performance will be somewhat different but here are some general guidelines: 1. Within your technical abilities 2. Variety in historical periods 3. Variety in national schools 4. Variety in genres 5. Variety in character, keys, tempo, registration The correct way of practice might look more similar from person to person: 1. Show up regularly 2. Slow speed 3. Short fragments 4. Reduced texture 5. Multiple repetitions 6. Correct fingering, pedaling, articulation, ornaments, hand and feet position Identifying where you are within the above 4 categories of practice is the first step. (HT to John) When you receive unwanted and annoying commercial email from some marketer (even though you have clearly unsubscribed), you understand that he is acting in the urgency of the short-term results: "Get some easy money fast". He's sacrificing his long-term success, impact, trust and his relationships over a few pennies.
On the other hand, when you follow an organisation or a person who is so insightful and generous, you cannot help but wonder at his long-term commitment to lead, inspire, and change the people around him who want to be changed. All of this is true also in organ practice. There are people who rush through the pieces, rarely stopping to fix mistakes, for whom it's OK to play with accidental fingerings, pedalings, and articulation. If it's not obvious to them how the piece is put together, they will not bother to find out. They are cutting corners, always focusing on short-cuts: "Quick, I have to play something for this wedding tomorrow." But others are patient. They can wait. They can wait for weeks, months, even years for the results of their honest efforts. Unlike the short-sighted greedy marketers or impatient organists, they will still be around years from now, still practicing their art while their competition will be long gone after another magic bullet. Withstand the storms of your mind. |
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Drs. Vidas Pinkevicius and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene Organists of Vilnius University , creators of Secrets of Organ Playing. Our Hauptwerk Setup:
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