I hear this question a lot: can you learn to play the organ if you are 79 years old?
I don't know. I'm not 79. But keeping in mind people who have reached this age and still continue to practice, I think, yes you can. You see, when people are young, they are always rushing - trying to achieve their goals. But when you are 79, you don't have to rush anymore. You just have this tremendous life experience behind you. So you can enjoy organ practice - every minute of it, every single moment, every breath you take. Don't try too hard - just make this activity as pleasant as possible. Don't think about those 10000 hours needed to excel in organ playing. Just do one hour today. That's it. If tomorrow comes, practice one more hour. If you think about it, we don't know if we will be here tomorrow. Regardless of our age. So the best we can do is to treasure the day that we still have - today. If you do this every day for one year - you will move a mountain. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide.
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Practice is a privilege, as my professor Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra always said to me.
Privilege which we have to be grateful for. So many people would wish to practice organ but they can't. If you can touch this King of Instruments and some of the most beautiful music ever created by a human being - that's something to be really grateful for. Practice is not a burden. It's not something you have to do. It's something to enjoy. Because every single minute spent on the organ bench wisely moves you closer to your goal one step at a time. Baby Steps - it's a privilege to be able to take them every day. Practice Is a Privilege - write this down and post it where you can see it every day. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide. Slow/Fast is a relative thing.
For some people fast progress is when someone can learn how to play the organ in 2 hours. To me fast progress is if someone can learn to play the organ in 10 years. I don't believe in shortcuts in organ playing. Of course, we have to practice smarter and not harder. More efficiently, but still it takes years to develop your technique. And technique is only the beginning in the art of organ playing. Just think of organ practice as basketball. Just imagine how many times does a basketball player from NBA has to make those throws into the basket? At least 10000. That's from every different angle and position. Did you know that Thomas Edison made 10000 failed attempts before he succeeded inventing the light-bulb? He believed in himself and never gave up. It is said that if you want to excel at something, you have to put in at least 10000 hours of practice in order to become an expert. If we practice 2 hours a day, that 13.6 years. For 4 hours a day of practice, that's about 7 years. You would think it is frustrating to wait so many years until you reach your goal? Yes, it is. Don't wait - enjoy the process. I think you just have to enjoy every single minute on the organ bench. Result is not a goal. Process is a goal. Never ever give up. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide. Playing mindlessly through the organ piece from the beginning until the end with a hope that it somehow get better is really frustrating for many people.
If this is the situation you are currently in, I feel your pain. If you are hoping that these difficult pedal passages will get better on their own, you are hoping in vain. Or if you think that this complex imitative texture in the fugue will get any easier with time, think again. Maybe that works for people who only enjoy playing the pieces that they love. For a serious organist, this is not good enough. But even if you only want to be able to play the composition, wouldn‘t it be more enjoyable to be able to play it well? How would it feel for you to achieve the level of competence when you can play the piece you love with precision, clarity, and ease? Here is a thought: Always have a goal for your practice. It might be very small one (in fact, it‘s usually best to have a definite, precise, and measurable goal). Then think if each repetition of the piece gets you closer to the goal or away from it? Now that would improve results of your practice, wouldn‘t it? By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide. For many organists practice forming the right practice habits is a real challenge. This is because very often they are stuck in a practice routine which is inefficient and does not produce the results they want. In this article, I am going to teach you how to change the wrong practice habits into the ones that will lead you to success.
Imagine that you really like playing organ and spend time with this instrument every day. In fact, you might be so in love with the organ and its music that you play it for several hours. However, as it often happens, somehow you don't see the good results of your practice. Sounds familiar? The thing is your practice has to be not only regular but also wise. Because your time is limited, you have to apply only the most efficient practice methods there are. In other words, it would be foolish to hope to see the results of your efforts if you just play the pieces in a casual way. But many people make this mistake, they just play the compositions from start to finish without proper attention to details, without correcting mistakes and without forming the right practice habits. Is this what happened to you? Don't despair because you know what is the most beautiful thing in all this? That despite all our mistakes we made while practicing incorrectly in the past, a year ago, a month ago, a week ago, even yesterday... we can start a new chapter in our life today, remember our goal, devise a plan with the steps necessary to achieve this goal and start implementing these steps every day in the correct way. That's it. It's that simple. Is it easy? No. Because when we have to apply these steps in practice, our incorrect practice habits we build up in the past just dictate the way we behave today. But we can surely fight back and don't give up because there is so much to learn and so much to discover. I think practicing wisely might be also fun. If you truly love the music that you are playing then it all comes naturally. You just need to speed up the learning process. One of the best ways to practice is to take a slow tempo and work in small fragments of about 4 measures each. Don't just jump right into playing all parts together as it will not sound nice right away. Instead, practice solo voices, then combinations of two voices, three voices, and only then the entire four-part texture (if it is a four-voice composition, of course). Try these tips in you practice today and remember that even if you spent many months practicing inefficiently and incorrectly, you can start forming your right practice habits from now on. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my free Organ Practice Guide. Or if you want to learn to improvise in the style of Bach, I suggest you check out my free 9 day mini course in Keyboard Prelude Improvisation. Many people ask me about whether it is better to practice many pieces at the same time or just one or few for best results. In other words, is it better to go wide or to go deep in organ practice? In this article, I'll give you my thoughts about this topic.
You see, it all depends on the situation you are in. If you are preparing for an organ recital and you have some 9 or 10 organ pieces then you have to find a way to practice all of them from time to time. But if you are playing organ just for fun, it is probably more beneficial to you, if you could practice just a few pieces at a time. Let me explain why is it so. The thing is that every fragment of your piece, every combination of 2 and 3 voices requires at least 3 correct repetitions to successfully master it. I would say that even playing solo voices at least 3 times in a row correctly is a very first step. And all of this has to be done in a slow tempo. Then the answer to the question about wide vs deep practice is quite clear. If you have time in your day to practice many pieces at the deep level like I described above, then of course you can play 9 or 10 of them in one practice session. But be aware that this kind of practice would require at least 4 hours a day of your time. Not everyone has this kind of perseverance, right? Plus we all have other different responsibilities during the day. So what is the best solution in this situation? I suggest subdividing your entire program into blocks of 3 or 4 compositions. Then practice one block on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and leave the rest of the program for Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. In other words, you can alternate the two parts of your program so that you can easily practice them on a deeper level in each practice session. Note that here I don't mean the sight-reading practice. The sight-reading should be done by playing new and unfamiliar compositions once or twice in a systematic manner. By practicing sight-reading, you don't need to master each piece and play it many times correctly. But with practicing organ repertoire, deep practice is much better than wide practice. If you are preparing for an organ recital, then playing the entire program occasionally is also necessary. This will give you the required stamina and endurance to perform a long program without breaks. Use this advice in your organ practice today. Try to go deep and you will begin to notice some tremendous improvement in your pieces and your technique in a matter of just a few weeks. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my free Organ Practice Guide. Or if you really want to learn to play any organ composition at sight fluently and without mistakes while working only 15 minutes a day, check out my systematic master course in Organ Sight-Reading. Some organists have a difficult time measuring their true progress. If they practice every day, they might see very little day-to-day progress. Therefore, it gets very frustrating for them when they make mistakes in organ playing. However, there is one experiment you can make to see your if you are making a true progress.
Don't feel discouraged about your mistakes in some pieces. Stay the course and you will find that the progress is usually just around the corner. I understand that it might be difficult to see the progress for yourself because you are measuring yourself everyday. There is one thing that is used in measurements and testings of all kinds in many educational systems which you can take advantage of. Take an unfamiliar piece and play it through just once. Record yourself playing this piece. You will make many mistakes, of course. Too many, actually. And that's the point. Then leave this piece alone and practice your own compositions which you normally practice daily. After several months you come back to that new piece and play it once again (and record it). Then you'll see what happens. The thing is, because you are practicing many different pieces now, your overall level improves and because of that your sight-reading abilities also improve gradually. So when you come back to this new piece after a few months, you will be able to sight-read this new piece at a higher level than before regardless of whether your practiced it or not. Does it make sense? So that's why it is better to stay positive when you are noticing yourself making mistakes in your organ playing. Because you meet yourself practicing every day, you just can't appreciate how much you are progressing in reality. It is kind of similar if you meet a person and go away for a few months, come back and you notice how much he or she has changed. But if you spent that time with this person every day, you just couldn't notice many important changes that took place. The same is with organ practice. You just have to give it time and test your progress after a few months to notice some tremendous changes in your abilities and technique. Just test the two different recordings of the same piece. And that's when it get's really inspirational and exciting. Try this technique in your organ practice today. Test yourself and you'll be surprised about your true skills and progress. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my free Organ Practice Guide. Or if you really want to learn to play any organ composition at sight fluently and without mistakes while working only 15 minutes a day, check out my systematic master course in Organ Sight-Reading. Are you frustrated because some of the lines of your organ pieces are easier to learn while others take so much time just to get the basics down? Are you wondering why is this so and how to overcome this challenge? In this article, I will explain it in more detail.
You see, a lot of this to me is simple mathematics. Some parts of the piece are easier than the others. For example, if the fugue starts with just one voice without pedals, this will naturally be much easier to play. If you can play one voice smoothly and without interruptions after just several careful repetitions, it doesn't mean you will have the same success when you have 4 voices with pedals. Adding one more voice add just one more constrain to your practice. It is like just one step further. Especially having pedal part in you score can complicate things because naturally you are much better with your hands than you are with your feet. You have to be ready for the next step. For example, if you take 3 voice combination without mastering 2 voices and separate voices first, then the success will not be as great as it might be. My advice is not to advance to the next combination unless you can play the current one fluently and without interruptions at least 3 times in a row correctly (with correct fingering, pedaling, notes, rhythms, articulation, and ornamentation). So you see how in reality there is no need to be frustrated about slow progress. You have to understand that there are no shortcuts in organ playing. If you want the fastest possible progress, just stick to the systematic practice method when you learn by voice, by two voices, by three voices, and by four voices one short fragment at a time in a slow tempo. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my free Organ Practice Guide. Or if you really want to learn to play any organ composition at sight fluently and without mistakes while working only 15 minutes a day, check out my systematic master course in Organ Sight-Reading. If you have several organ pieces in your practice list or if you are preparing for a recital, you naturally have to face a question about what is the best way to practice them. In other words, if you have a due date, do you work on one piece at a time until you master it and only then take another composition? Or perhaps is it better to practice several pieces every day. Whatever the case might be, it is important you are ready for your performance of all the pieces on time. In this article, I will give you my take on this subject.
First of all, we have to understand what practice is. An old saying teaches that a practice is like a boiling water - without heat it cools down. In other words, you have to constantly add some effort which facilitates the progress in whatever it is you are trying to excel. In the case of organ practice, you have to practice regularly. Your organ piece will become much better over time if you practice regularly and wisely. Now let's return to the question if you have several pieces to prepare. Many people practice sporadically and without a system. In other words, they just play the pieces on their list from the beginning until the end. However, they are never sure if they will prepare them by the due date. This type of practice will not lead you very far in organ playing. Let's pretend you have 2 hours a day set aside for practicing. I recommend you approach practicing systematically and methodically in one of the following ways: 1. Treat all the pieces on your list as one long piece. In one practice session, learn several lines or a page for 2 hours in a slow tempo. Then the next day repeat the previously learned material and learn several new lines of music. It is best if you learn one short fragment (up to 1 line of music) at a time. This way you will eventually approach the last page of the last composition on your list while practicing for 2 hours daily. Remember to reinforce the pieces that you have mastered so far regularly. If learning new music would require you to repeat a certain passage up to 10 times, it is enough to repeat the previously mastered music 3 times. 2. Practice several pieces every day for 2 hours. With this approach, you will have to alternate the pieces on your list every other day. For example, take one half of your program and practice it on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Then take another half of your program and practice it on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Again, when learning new organ music, repeat each fragment 10 times slowly in separate parts, combinations of 2 voices, 3 voices, and finally all parts together. When you repeat the music that you already know, repeat all parts together 3 times in a slow tempo. Whether you choose the first or the second approach, for best results, make sure your fingering, pedaling, notes, rhythms, articulation, and ornamentation are correct in each repetition. Do not forget to take a break every 30 minutes or so, stretch and relax for 5-10 minutes. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my free Organ Practice Guide. Or if you really want to learn to play any organ composition at sight fluently and without mistakes while working only 15 minutes a day, check out my systematic master course in Organ Sight-Reading. Many of my organ students are struggling with regaining focus in their organ practice. They find themselves searching for shortcuts, doing meaningless tasks, or just playing the pieces without the necessary attention to detail.
They might also skip practice for a few days, which in turn slows down progress but creates an urgency to see the results faster. So they play the easy spots only without mastering the difficult place. In the end, results can be very disappointing and even dangerous in the long run. If you find yourself in a similar situation, you need to refocus your organ practice. 1. Identify your goal in organ practice. Let's say you want to learn to play some particular piece fluently and without mistakes. 2. Think about what's holding you back from achieving your goal. It might be that you are having difficulty finding practice time each day. Another common challenge is the difficult spots in your music. 3. Think about what results will you get from practicing the wrong way. Just think what would happen if you continue to practice the way you are used to. Perhaps skipping some days without practice or playing only the easy spots in your music. Would you think the results will be great or not? 4. Think about what's need to be changed in order for you to reach this goal. If your challenge is practicing every day, then obviously you have to find a way to practice every day, even as little as 20-30 minutes. Perhaps you should limit your distractions which are not essential? Think also how you can force yourself to play and master the difficult spots in your music? Yes, you just need to show some will power and play the challenging episodes first. 5. Think about how you will feel when you overcome this challenge. Will you be proud of yourself? Will you be able to play this piece for your friends or family? What would they say to you? I bet they also will be proud of your achievement. But most importantly, you will develop correct practice habits which will set you on the right course for the future. 6. Think about what it would mean for your to overcome your challenge. Are the benefits of the final result will be worth to you to push yourself one step further each time? 7. Take action - just practice the correct way. If you did all the previous steps in your mind, now it is time for action. Reading this article won't give you the results you want. Practicing the right way will. Use these steps to refocus your organ practice today. Show some persistence and perseverance and you will succeed. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my free Organ Practice Guide. Or if you really want to learn to play any organ composition at sight fluently and without mistakes while working only 15 minutes a day, check out my systematic master course in Organ Sight-Reading. |
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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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