After twenty strokes
Water is warm in the lake - It's time to practice. Yesterday mezzosoprano Egle Sidlauskaite and performed at the church in Seduva as part of Tytuvenai Festival. It was fun: from Handel to Amazing Grace, from Stradella to organ improvisations. By the way, people demanded not 1 but 2 encores. I hope you'll enjoy this audio recording.
Today's question was sent by Ugochukwu:
What have been your experiences so far as an Organist, what's the best way of practice, what should be practiced and when? Listen to our full answer at #AskVidasAndAusra Please send us your questions. We love helping you grow. TRANSCRIPT: Vidas: We're starting Episode 21 of #AskVidasAndAusra" podcast. Today's question was sent by Ugochukwu. He wants to know what are some of our experiences so far as an organist and what's the best way of practicing? What should be practiced and when? Ausra, so when a person asks you about your organ practice experiences, usually it's not simple curiosity, is it? It's because your experience is supposed to be helpful to other people, right? Ausra: Yes, but it's actually a very broad question. I don't know how to answer it in a few sentences. Vidas: Well, let's start from the beginning. A little bit smaller segment of this question is what should be practiced and when? Meaning, what kind of pieces, what kind of music, should you practice? And then the second part of this question is when? Ausra: Well, everything depends on your situation in life, because in my life I had so many different positions as an organist and as a teacher, so it's hard for me to tell. Because when I was working in church, definitely a large amount of my organ repertoire was related to the church, to the church music. I had to practice hymns and do interludes and to prepare for hymn festivals and think about liturgy, what is appropriate to the church service. Then, of course, when I was a student for many years because I have two master's and one doctorate and, of course, bachelor degrees, I had to play a lot of repertoire overall. Now when I'm performing recitals my repertoire and my practice depends on them. Vidas: My experience is sort of similar to yours because we always did things together and my answer to Ugochukwu might be that you have to dig deep into your own needs, your own goals. What do you want to accomplish in organ playing for yourself in long term, maybe five years from now? Dig a little bit deeper, make a segmented plan of practice, and take small steps and see that each step is taking you closer to your goal. Ausra: Yeah, sure. I remember when working in church always liturgical year was so important because you would practice different repertoire, for example, for Lent time and different repertoire for Christmas time. So you would have to look at the text of the music and find appropriate pieces. Vidas: Right, because those chorals for the Nativity usually have special meanings, special connection with the Nativity scene and those are especially suited for this Christmas period. Sometimes even Advent, those waiting for Jesus’ birth. In short, I think people should plan their practice appropriately to their needs, to their goals. First of all, you have to figure out what you need to accomplish in, let's say, five years from now. You have to have a vision, right? Ausra: Sure. Vidas: Never practice just for today, for tonight. Always be far-looking; that helps you in the long run. And then the second part, Ausra, is when to practice. That's easier, right? Ausra: Yes. Vidas: How would you answer this question? Ausra: You have to practice every day. Vidas: Every day. Can you take breaks? Maybe you could practice twice a day and then take a day off? Ausra: Well, definitely you can take a day off if you need it, but it's easier, it's better actually, to not skip a day. Vidas: I like to imagine practice like taking vitamins. Okay, I can skip one day of vitamins and take two vitamins the next day. Would that work? Ausra: No, I don't think so. Vidas: But it's not a catastrophe, right? If you took two vitamins once, that would be still okay, I think. Once. But if you do this regularly it would be bad for your stomach. So if you skip, let's say, a week of practice, and you say you usually 30 minutes a day and you skipped a week of practice for some reason and then the next week you want to make it up and you practice seven times 30, maybe three and half hours. Sometimes it's possible, but still you need to take breaks. How about comparing this to vitamins? Seven vitamins in a row; that would be very bad, right? Ausra: Sure. Vidas: So the same is with organ practice. It's better to take small steps, practice regularly, every day, and then in the long run this kind of regular practice will always pay off. So, guys, this was Vidas. Ausra: And Ausra. Vidas: And please send us your questions. We hope to help you grow as an organist and the best way to connect with us is through our newsletter from the blog www.organduo.lt. Go there and subscribe if you haven't done so, and then you can reply to our messages. That would be the best way. This was Vidas again. Ausra: And Ausra. Vidas: And remember: when you practice ... Ausra: Miracles happen.
Comments
By Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene (get free updates of new posts here)
Do you sometimes find that even though you haven't played a piece or two in 23 years, you can play them much better than others which you are just sight-reading? I experienced this some 10 hours ago. Today I practiced 3 preludes and fugues by Bach: in C major (BWV 547), in C minor (546), in C minor (549) and Adagio from C major trio sonata, BWV 529/2. I have played all of them before, BWV 546 some 20+ years ago. Surprisingly, today I was able to do it slowly but quite fluently. Definitely better than BWV 545 in the past which was new to me. What's the deal with this? I think it depends on how well you have mastered your pieces before. It's like riding a bicycle, remember? Once you learn it, the old skill comes back quite quickly regardless of how many decades you haven't touched it. One more reason to be very precise in learning new music today, isn't it? By Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene (get free updates of new posts here)
Why when you are practicing your organ piece for months sometimes you don't see any improvement but at some point all of a sudden your playing gets more fluent, almost overnight? This question bothers me a lot. Last Tuesday I heard one of my students play Prelude and Fugue in D minor, BWV 554 from the score with Vidas' fingering and pedaling. She was struggling to play it clearly and without stopping from September! And only this Tuesday it started to sound like it could be ready for public performance in a few weeks. 8 months had passed without any noticeable improvement! What's the matter here? I think the improvement was there but we couldn't hear it. Do you think that she should have just stopped practicing and showed up this Tuesday? Of course not. So what about you? Do you have a piece which you play for months without any result? Do you feel like spinning your wheels in organ playing? Actually you're not spinning your wheels (if you're practicing honestly and regularly). And it's just a matter of time when the real breakthrough will reveal itself. Progress can't be rushed.
By Vidas Pinkevicius (get free updates of new posts here)
This morning I went to church to practice for my upcoming "More Palatino" recital. I'm playing works of Bach, Robertsbridge Codex, Ockeghem, Sweelinck, Scheidemann, Krebs, Lefebure-Wely, Peeters and improvisation at the end. To be exact: „Christ ist erstanden“, BWV 627 by Johann Sebastian Bach (18th c.), „Adesto“ from the Robertsbridge Codex (14th c.), Kyrie from „Missa pro defunctis“ by Johannes Ockeghem (15th c.), "More Palatino" variations by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (16th c.), Praeambulum in G by Heinrich Scheidemann (17th c.), "Jesu, meine Zuversicht“ by Johann Ludwig Krebs (18th c.), Offertoire „Grand Choeur“ by Louis James Alfred Lefebure-Wely (19th c.), Aria by Flor Peeters (20th c.) and my improvisation. So today I'd like to share with you this live practice video. Enjoy! Let me know if you have any questions.
PS This Thursday we start my Vidas Live Coaching program. Don't miss it. It's free for Total Organist students.
By Vidas Pinkevicius (get free updates of new posts here)
This morning I went to church to practice to prepare for my upcoming "More Palatino" recital and as I was playing, I thought about how can I help you grow to the next level in organ playing faster. I realized that producing fingering and pedaling for organ scores doesn't necessarily give you results that you want. Sure, it will save you many hours and put you on the right track but you wouldn't necessarily know if you're playing correctly. Yes, I can create training programs that teach you many things (and I do that) but what do you do when you feel stuck? When you don't know what to do next... When you're afraid you're not going to make it in time for the recital or church service... When you keep hitting the wrong notes consistently... When you can't find the right pedals on the pedalboard... When you sit down to improvise and don't know what to play... When you try to sight-read organ music it's just too overwhelming... When you can't manage 4-part hymn playing texture... When you don't know what kind of organ stops to use on your piece... When you don't know what those chords in your piece mean... When you try to create an accompaniment for a hymn but keep playing with parallel fifths (or maybe you're not even aware of this)... Basically you need feedback. Personal and relevant feedback from somebody who was stuck in the past but figured out the way to overcome these challenges. So today for a limited time I'm going to invite you to join my live coaching class where you can ask me the burning questions that you have. Let me help you advance to the next level in organ playing faster. By Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene (get free updates of new posts here)
How to clean up your organ piece so that inner voices would sound clearly? The other day one of my students played for me Adagio by Albrechtsberger. When she played the inner voices didn't sound well. I suggested to practice maybe a couple of lines at a time and playing only solo parts at first. This worked. This Adagio has 3 manual parts and this fragment started sounding much better. We even didn't repeat each step multiple times. Just one time was enough to make a difference. Then she played two part combinations for me in this fragment. Not surprisingly, the places where the messiness in articulation was present originally, now this fragment was almost without any mistakes. After that she was ready to take on all 3 parts together. I asked her how would she feel to be able to play it like that the entire piece? "Of course, this would be amazing", she said. "It would move me to the next level". But what would it take to be so meticulously precise with her practice and repeat each step with a laser-focused intent? She said, "It's a choice - to start practicing like a pro". By Vidas Pinkevicius (get free updates of new posts here)
A student of mine asked me how to know if Handel's Hallelujah Chorus is too difficult for him to learn? This got me thinking even deeper: Have you ever been in a situation when you started practicing a new piece, perhaps worked on it for a while only to discover it's too advanced? And you would quit and go on to the next piece. And the same thing would happen to you with the next composition, right? So as you're jumping from piece to piece you're realizing you're not getting anywhere. So how to know that a piece of organ music isn't too difficult to you to master at the moment? I came up with a simple idea which will help you determine that. When you are about to choose the piece to practice do this: Write down what is the first step for you. In other words, how would you start learning it? What would you do first? If you can't answer this question with absolute certainty it would work, then the piece is too advanced. Experienced organists don't even think about this consciously. They know. They just do it. But if you're struggling with learning new pieces, this might help. And remember... When you practice, miracles happen. By Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene (get free updates of new posts here)
Do you ever feel like you have exhausted all your ideas in your organ practice? Has your playing become emotionally grey and perhaps you even want to quit the organ altogether? I know how you feel. When I was practicing the organ a few days ago, I felt like something was missing. Not like I was going to quit playing because I'm a professional and know that these feelings will pass. But it was still not a pleasant feeling. A feeling like I had no inspiration to practice or something. Like I was forcing it. Does this situation ring a bell to you? What you need to do is to take a day off. Just one day without organ. So I did. I took Vidas for a long walk along the river. We met 3 birds chasing each other (probably a love triangle), a dog who was trying to swim upstream to his master but seemed to be getting nowhere (I hope he at least swam to the shore before he was exhausted). Then we saw a neighbor walking her 3 dogs and having a hard time keeping them in check. We stared at this woodpecker who beat so hard against the stem of a pine tree that I thought his head will crash. All it took was this hour in the woods. After that everything was different. I decided not to play the organ that day but felt determined to make up for it tomorrow. It worked. The walk gave me a better sleep at night. I woke up actually eager to practice. When I sat down on the organ bench, my mind drifted into a bliss. I didn't notice how fast the time was going. Instead of those 30 minutes on the bench, I spent more than 2 hours. Try it when you feel like you're spinning your wheels at the organ. And remember... Organ takes you beyond reality. By Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene (get free updates of new posts here)
I had a strange experience the other day when playing a piece on the organ. By now I usually don't need to write a lot of fingering and pedaling. I do it in the most crucial places. But this piece had all of the fingerings written in. I'm repeating it from my previous studies. When I played very slowly, I could follow each and every finger. These were good choices. Really helped to achieve the desired articulation. But then I wanted to speed up to check how I'm doing at the concert tempo. That's when the problems started to appear. First, my eyes didn't move that fast from one finger to another. And pedaling choices were confusing at this speed. Then I decided to step back a little and to play as if from the distance. To have a bird's eye view on the score. This helped. I guess my eyes didn't have to be stuck on the fingering and pedaling. Now I could just make music and let my muscle memory do the work. It's like driving a car. The slower the car goes, the closer we can look at the road. The faster the speed - the further you have to look and predict challenges the car may encounter. Hope this helps you too.
By Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene (get free updates of new posts here)
You've probably seen Vidas' yesterday's live practice video of BWV 548. I've seen it too. While at school teaching kids harmony I checked my phone and here it was. When I went to practice later to church, he suggested that I should record my piece as well. He said it would be a good review before our recital. So Vidas set up a tripod and his phone and started recording me. Before I started playing he said, that no matter if I made any mistakes, I should not stop. I didn't understood why at first. After about 18 minutes when I finished Vidas asked me how I felt about it. I said OK. Little did I know that all that time Vidas was broadcasting live my playing on Facebook. When I finished playing, 180 people where already watching it, reacting, commenting and sharing it. I couldn't believe it. I hope you will enjoy the replay of this video too. I'm glad I didn't stop. |
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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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