It happens very often that organists were quite accomplished in their youth. For one reason or another they stop practicing playing the organ and gradually their playing skills decrease. Little by little their finger technique is not as good, their pedal technique is not as advanced and their hand and feet coordination doesn't work that well anymore. But later in life they discover that they want to come back to organ playing and start practicing the right way. So they wonder what the best way to get back to solid organ playing skills is. If you are interested in gaining your technique, coordination and fluency, then this article is for you.
Very first thing to remember is that you have to come back to organ playing very gradually. You see, even if you were quite accomplished in your early career, many years perhaps have passed without you practicing the organ so naturally you have much less ability right now. So what I recommend for you when you practice organ is to take easier pieces than you played in the past. Spend some time with them and you gradually will be getting in a better shape. Another thing to remember is that your practice time also has to be quite modest at the beginning. Even though you might have practiced for many hours during the day in your early years, it doesn't mean that today you have the same kind of stamina. So start practicing for small periods of time of about 30 minutes long, take frequent breaks and rest a little. This will help you not to overexert yourself and keep motivated for years to come. Additionally, you can start working on your finger and pedal technique and hand and feet coordination exercises. I recommend playing manual and pedal scales, arpeggios and other special exercises. These technical exercises will help you to get in a better shape and regain your former organ playing skills. Finally, remember that you have to have some fun so choose your organ pieces wisely. Play organ compositions that you love and enjoy and never forget that organ practice is a privilege. Whenever you practice these organ compositions, make sure you fix your mistakes, work in small fragments, choose a slow tempo, and practice in separate voices and voice combinations. With time this will help you to advance in organ playing and get back to your solid technical skills.
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Have you noticed that playing left hand part on the organ in many cases is much more difficult than the right hand part? Or when you try to play a two-part combination of left hand and pedals, usually you make many more mistakes than in playing right-hand and pedals?
There are a couple of reasons why you find these problems: 1) Many people are right-handed and naturally they use their right hand more frequently than the left which in turn just makes the left hand under-developed. 2) A lot of people start playing the organ after having some experience with the piano. On the piano, the left hand takes the bottom stave while on the organ you have to train your left hand (and the brain) to play the middle stave. So how do you strengthen your left hand technique? There are a couple of useful things to remember here: 1) You can practice special left hand exercises, scales, and arpeggios regularly. Over time this will help to make your left hand technique more developed. The goal here is to reach the same level of dexterity and independence with the left hand as with your right. 2) As you practice your organ compositions, remember to play the left hand part (and left hand and pedals combination) many more times than with the right hand. For example, if you normally play an episode with right hand 10 times, than play it 20 times with the left hand. The same is for left and pedals combination. 3) I have noticed that some organists play hymns this way: soprano and alto is played by the right hand, tenor and bass is played by the left hand. At the same time, the pedals double the bass. I hope you are not playing this way because it greatly slows down the development of left hand and pedal independence - left hand has to learn to play different melodic lines than the feet. Do you want to make your left hand as strong as the right hand? Then start applying these tips in your practice today. It will not be long before you start seeing some tremendous changes in your technique. 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. Have you ever wanted to know one organ technique which would make your pedal playing automatic? In other words, instead of struggling to hit the right notes with your feet, would you like to know how to achieve the level when you could play any pedal line fluently even without thinking on auto-pilot?
The answer is simple: make use of pedal preparation technique. Here is how it works. As soon as you release the note with one foot, slide it in place for the next note of the same foot with one swift motion. Don't depress the new note yet but let it wait for it's turn. Do the same with another foot for the entire pedal line of your organ piece. If you tried it on your organ, you would soon discover that at first you really have to think about the next note and its preparation. So now you might have an obvious question - how many times should you repeat the pedal passage to make it fully automatic? What I have found from my personal practice is that I need to repeat a small pedal fragment (about 4 measures) in a slow fully controlled tempo 10 times for 10 days in a row. That makes a total number of 100 repetitions (more in cases for extremely difficult music). This make sense when you think that it takes about 80-100 times of repetitions of the word in a foreign language to fully sink in in our long-term memory. If you haven't ever used this organ technique in your pedal playing, I encourage you to try it out. Make a little experiment. During the period of the next 10 days, learn one passage of pedal part with pedal preparation and another passage of similar length and difficulty without it. You will be amazed when you compare your fluency of both passages. 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. I hear this question a lot: what's the least amount of time required to work on improving your organ technique through technical things, such as exercises, scales, arpeggios, and chords and still see the progress in the long run?
Although I'm not a big fan of "minimum efforts" when it comes to organ practice, I can understand people who are asking this question. Not too many people can devote 3-4 hours a day for practicing organ music. Only full time concert organists can do that and even they have to face multiple other tasks in their day. So it's only natural for a person who only has, say total of 60 minutes a day for organ practice to wonder if it's reasonable to expect results from a short period of practicing technical exercises. What I had found through my personal practice is that it takes about 10 minutes of playing just to warm up my fingers. So anything less than that will hardly produce any effect in the long run. But if you could spend about 20 minutes a day playing scales, arpeggios, or Hanon exercises after a period of 2 weeks you will begin to notice some gradual improvement of your technique and stamina. If you want to improve your pedal technique, then 15 minutes of daily playing of scales and arpeggios with your feet will do the trick. Of course, keep in mind that your practice in developing your organ technique should be wise, meaning that every detail should be correct: notes, rhythms, tempo, fingering, pedaling, articulation (perfect legato whenever possible), hand and feet position, pulse among other things. It is dangerous to try to play faster before you are ready for it. Please note that this advice is only for people who absolutely can't find more than 60 minutes of time for organ practice. On the other hand, if you have more time available in your day, devoting up to 1 hour for technical studies would be much more beneficial for your development as an organist in general. 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. Everyone of us knows that playing piano exercises can make wonders for your manual organ technique. However, playing through the collection like Pianist Virtuoso by Charles Louis Hanon can seem a little too boring for some people.
Personally for me, the results which are gained from such practice over time are far greater than the need to force myself to keep up playing. But if you feel like you need a greater motivation to play these exercises, here is what works absolutely wonderfully for me. Instead of playing every exercise from Part I and most of exercises from Part II in C major, like it is written, I play them in different modes but use the same fingering. You too, can choose any mode that you want and play each exercise in a different mode. In fact, you can create an entire system of modes (Lydian, Ionian, Mixolydian, Dorian, Aeolian, Frygian, Locrian, Pentatonic, Blues, Octatonic, Whole-tone etc.) You can even go wild and play 7 modes of limited transposition as used by Olivier Messiaen. If you don't know the names of these modes, no problem - just play everything from C but with different accidentals (1 sharp, 1 flat, 2 sharps, 2 flats, 3 sharps, 3 flats etc.). This will keep your mind engaged and focused. Try this approach in your organ practice today. I have to say that playing Hanon exercises in such a manner is not at all boring. In fact, it is very musically interesting and even addictive because in addition to supercharging your organ technique, it also helps to improve your music theory skills. Moreover, because the modes constitute an integral part of modal improvisation in the 20th century French style, playing Hanon exercises using different modes will definitely improve your improvisational skills. 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. A couple of weeks ago when I asked my readers what it is they struggle the most in achieving their goals in organ playing, I was surprised how many of them answered "Organ Technique".
I wasn't expecting this answer to show up so frequently in their emails because I constantly write about these technical issues of organ playing, among other things. When I think about it now, of course it makes sense - lots of people find their left hand technique too weak in comparison with the right hand. Techniques like pedal preparation are so powerful in making ones pedal playing automatic, yet so few people really take advantage of it in their daily practice. In particular, I found that left hand and pedal coordination is a real pain for the majority of organists. This is so true because when people come to the organ after having studied piano for some time, one of the first things they need to overcome is this notion of reading music from 3 staves (and the bottom stave is not suited for the left hand part, as in the piano, but for the pedals). So in order to help overcome the struggles many people are having with their technique, today I have finally completed my new audio Organ Technique Training. If technical aspects of organ playing are holding you back from achieving your dreams, I suggest you check it out. Sometimes I get asked why is it so that not every person who is aware about early pedal technique uses it? In other words, why some people still play early pieces using heels although they know that the original way was to play with toes only?
Or why many people still use finger substitution for Baroque music when they are aware that it came into fashion only in the Romantic period when there was a need to play with perfect legato? I think it all depends on the person. It might well be that such an organist was taught toes only technique for the early music but as it often happens, some people get distracted and don't apply in practice the techniques they learned some time ago. That applies to some of my colleagues, too. They might know about this but still use toe heel technique and finger substitutions for this kind of music. It really feels awkward the first time you do it the right way. You have to get used to that. But the right kind of instrument also helps you to feel the correct touch and technique. So if it was a modern instrument with standard keys and AGO radiated pedalboard, then not too many people feel they need an "early" technique for such instruments. To me, it would be counter-productive to practice "the modern way" and the "early" way. But that's me. Other people feel different about it. In fact, I was talking about this point with one of my colleagues a few months ago here in Lithuania, and he said the following: "when I will go to play the Silbermann organ in Saxony, then I'll re-learn the piece." He was playing computer organ at the time. What a waist of time and energy - isn't it better to learn a new piece the right way during that time? 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. Do you struggle when playing organ music which has many sixteenth notes, especially in the left hand part? Or perhaps your trills and other ornaments sound uneven when you execute them? Or maybe it seems impossible for you to play organ pieces with precision, clarity, and ease?
If so, I have an idea for you - 100 day scale and arpeggio challenge. Here is how it works: At the beginning of each day organ practice, you simply play one major and one minor scale and arpeggio with the same number of accidentals for one week. Then on Week 2, you practice G major and E minor. On Week 3, play F major and D minor. Then D major and B minor, B flat major and G minor and so on. In other words, you always play a pair of major and minor scales and gradually increase the number of accidentals until you reach 7 sharp and flats. Play these scales and arpeggios 3 times every day. Here is how can test the results of this challenge: Pick an organ piece that you have never practiced before and play it once on Day 1 and on Day 100. Do not play it anytime between these days. The results on Day 100 might surprise you. 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. Are you struggling with your pedal technique and have a temptation to look at your feet while playing the organ? It is important that you overcome the need of looking at the pedals and focus your attention to the organ score. If you are experiencing such problems while playing pedals, it means you are at the stage of development as an organist when you don’t know your pedal board well enough. Therefore, you naturally want to look at the pedals. The sooner you get over this challenge, the better your organ technique will become. So, how to look at the score and be able to play the correct notes with your feet?
Play with the inside of your feet and point your knees inward. Very often organists who struggle with their pedal technique place their feet in such a way that the pedals are depressed by the outside of the feet. Such habit is especially common among men. This is because men are normally larger than women and they have different sitting habits. Usually when men sit, they do not keep their knees together. If you sit this way on the organ bench, this simply means, you will depress the pedals with the outside of the feet. However, the precision in pedal playing can be attained if you play with the inside of your feet. So this means, that even men have to try to keep the knees together or at least point their knees inward. Therefore, try to depress the pedals with the inside portion of your feet or with the big toes. If you play this way, gradually your technique will become much more precise, you will get used to the pedal board faster and will not need to look at your feet. Do not use force. It is not uncommon for organists with previous piano experience to use excess power in their playing. They transfer their background from piano to the organ and press the keys in the same manner. On the piano, dynamics can be achieved by using more or less power but on the organ this method is useless because the keyboard does not react to the applied force. We can see the same situation in pedal playing when organists depress the pedals with so much energy that there are unnecessary sounds. Such playing can even damage the pedal action. Is you use too much force when playing with your feet, you might feel some strain and tension in your legs and ankles which might lead to mistakes. So, if you want your pedal technique to become very precise, play the pedals mezzo piano. In other words, use only the amount of energy which is needed to depress the pedals and not more. If you want to achieve the level when you will feel and know your pedal board very well, focus on the organ score, point your knees inward, play with the inside portion of your feet, and do not use unnecessary power. If you are interested in perfecting your pedal technique, an invaluable resource is Organ Technique: Modern and Early by George Ritchie and George Stauffer. By the way, do you want to learn to play the King of Instruments - the pipe organ? If so, download my FREE video guide: "How to Master Any Organ Composition" in which I will show you my EXACT steps, techniques, and methods that I use to practice, learn and master any piece of organ music. This is Part 2 (steps 5 and 6) of the article about how to use hymns which help you to achieve hand independence in your organ playing. You can read Part 1 here (steps 1 through 4).
5. Take the tune in the left hand and use the thirds and the sixths in the right hand and repeat the steps 1 through 4. By now probably you are starting to realize that we are developing your left hand technique while the right hand plays the hymn tune only. This step will teach you how to play faster notes in the right hand as well. Now play the hymn tune in the left hand as written but add an extra voice in the right hand, first note against note as in step 1. You may sometimes use the notes from the bass line in your right hand, but it will not always sound nice. By the way, the technique when you invert the voices and play the top voice in the bass and vice versa is called invertible counterpoint. Invertible counterpoint is indispensable polyphonic trick to use if you want to create any imitative polyphonic piece, as invention, fughette, or a fugue. As I mentioned before, this technique will not always work with your hymns, because there will be instances when you will find the interval of the fifth between the original bass and the soprano voice which in inversion will become a forbidden fourth (it is not actually forbidden, but its use is greatly limited and specialized). At any rate, the best way to construct your new soprano line in this step is to use the thirds and the sixths against the bass which always sound nice and sweet. After note against note exercise becomes easy, play two against one, three against one, and finally, four against one as you did in the steps 2 through 4. 6. Alternate motion between the hands. Steps 1 through 5 will develop your hand independence and teach you about a special kind of polyphony – contrasting polyphony - where voices are independent but very different both melodically and rhythmically. However, if you want to move your hand independence and polyphony to the next level, step 6 will do exactly that. It is called imitative polyphony when voices are independent but at the same time they have much in common – they imitate each other either melodically or rhythmically or both. In order to achieve that, try to alternate movements between the hands. For example, in measure 1 let the soprano move in faster notes, in measure 2, this will be done by the bass part etc. You see, one voice is stationary while the other moves; then they switch roles. After practicing this way for a while, you can alternate the motion every 2 beats and later even every beat. By the way, one hand can play step 2 and the other step 4 as well! By practicing this way you can create nice choral partitas or variations which will also enhance your service playing. You can use these variations for hymn introductions or preludes. As promised, these steps will help you to develop your hand independence using two voice texture or bicinium, of course, but without knowing, actually, you will be improvising as well. In order to achieve the greatest results, I recommend you choose at least 10 different hymns and work your way through each of the above steps at a slow tempo. Do not proceed to the next step unless you can play slowly (but fluently) the previous step at least three times in a row correctly. By the way, would you like to know more about any aspect of hymn playing on the organ? Please share them in your comments below and I will do my best to answer your questions. By the way, do you want to learn to play the King of Instruments - the pipe organ? If so, download my FREE video guide: "How to Master Any Organ Composition" in which I will show you my EXACT steps, techniques, and methods that I use to practice, learn and master any piece of organ music. |
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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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