Have you ever observed the feet of theater organists in performance? They are able to play the notes with their left foot while pushing numerous toe studs for registration changes and swell boxes. All of their pedal technique depends on the left foot. However, if theater organist wants to play classical organ music where both feet technique is required, he or she will find it extremely hard to use both feet in the performance. In this article, I will provide the tips which will help theater organists to develop both feet technique on the organ. Beginners at the organ with no pedal playing experience might also find this
article helpful. First of all, we have to realize that any skill, including pedal playing, must be acquired through regular and patient practice. No matter how good you may be at the theater organ, when it comes to classical pedal playing, it is just plain too complicated in the beginning. Do not despair, however, and understand that you will have to take the same steps as you would in theater organ playing. Majority of music composed for accompanying silent movies on theater organs requires constant registration and color changes to imitate different orchestral instruments and different moods of movie episodes. In performing such music, the organist has to change registration either by pushing pistons with the thumb or use the toe studs with the foot. Most of the time, since both hands are particularly busy, theater organists use the right foot for toe studs and leave only the left foot for pedal playing. As a result, they have a virtuoso left foot technique but underdeveloped right foot. What this means is that whenever such organists want to study classical organ repertoire, they have to start with some easy pedal exercises in order to achieve the same ability with the right foot gradually. Do not start practicing pedal scales from the beginning. Although pedal scales are one of the best ways to develop a perfect pedal technique at the organ, they are obviously too difficult for the beginner organist (and for theater organist as well). Pedal scales are too advanced because you need to use toe-heel technique constantly. As this is too complicated at first, start with some easy exercises which will not involve using heels in the beginning. Choose alternate toe exercises first. The easiest pedal exercises that theater organists could practice are alternate toe exercises. This means that they involve using left and right toes only in alternation. For example, play ascending and descending sequences of thirds. Such exercise might look like this: C E D F E G F A G B A C etc., or C A B G A F G E F D E C D B etc. In addition, play ascending and descending lines of fourths: C F D G E A F B etc., or C G B F A E G D F C etc. Exercises in fifths are also perfect for the beginning: C G D A E B F C etc. or C F B E A D G C etc. Play these exercises legato with alternate toes in a slow tempo. As they become easy, you can choose different exercises using heels as well. Remember, that the development of the correct pedal technique requires regular and patient practice. As everything in organ playing, both feet technique takes time to master but it is well worth the effort because the whole new dimension of organ music will open up in front of you. An invaluable resource for pedal exercises is Organ Technique: Modern and Early by George Ritchie and George Stauffer which I highly recommend. 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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There are numerous instances in organ music, where the organist has to change position of the feet. Such places might include scale passages, ascending and descending melodic lines, sequences etc. If such passage is played incorrectly for extended periods of time, chances of developing lower back pain are quite high. If you are curious to know how such lines should be performed, this article is for you.
First of all, it is important to maintain the straight position of the upper body, face the music rack, and point your knees to the direction of the feet. However, in playing melodic lines which extend from the right side of the pedal board to the left side (or vice versa) it is not possible to perform such passages with ease and fluency without changing position. In other words, if you play on the right side of the pedal board with your both feet and have to jump suddenly downwards to the left side, you have to switch to different position. Push-Off With the Opposite Foot When Changing Position When suddenly changing direction and position on the pedal board, apply the following trick and you will be able to achieve the precision without pain and strain of the lower back. If you play on the right side of the pedal board and want to switch to the left side, find a suitable note in your music and push-off with your right foot. As you push-off with this foot, move your lower body in a position where your both knees are pointing in the direction of the feet (left in this case). On the contrary, push-off with the left foot, if the melodic line ascends to the right. It is very convenient to change position on the long note of the pedal line. However, if you see only fast-moving notes in such episode, you still can achieve the same effect with correct repetitive practice. Take this fragment, and play it in a slow tempo a few times and try to change position as described above. Practice this fragment until you can play it correctly at least three times in a row. Consult Your Physician If the Pain Persists Note that the above trick applies only in cases when the lower back pain arises from the incorrect playing habit. However, as we all understand, lower back pain might have various different reasons. In such cases and if the pain persists, it is best to consult your physician for medical advice. The correct technique of changing the position is discussed in detail in Organ Technique: Modern and Early by George Ritchie and George Stauffer which I highly recommend. 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. In addition to hand and feet coordination and articulation, pedal playing is one of the greatest challenges the aspiring organist must overcome. Everyone wants to play those difficult pedal lines with precision and confidence. However, as we all know it is not that easy to achieve it. It is not unusual that a beginner organist might press the wrong note even in technically straightforward episode, not to mention the fast moving passages and scales. In this article, I will show you how to play accurately pedal parts of your organ compositions.
Use pedal preparation. One of the main tricks which help to achieve accuracy in pedal playing is pedal preparation. This technique helps to program the correct notes in advance and is not very difficult to implement. In order to apply pedal preparation, study the pedal of your organ piece and pencil in the next note for each foot in parentheses indicating toe or heel above or beneath the note. Then practice your pedal part in short fragments repeatedly (10 or more times). Move the foot to the next position as soon as the previous note is released. If you wait for the moment to play and move only then, it will be already too late. Just move instantly and let your foot stay there waiting for its turn to play. You will begin to notice that the movements of the feet become automatic and that both feet will have a short moment of resting on the next pedal before actually playing it. Play with the inside of the foot. Try to use the inside of your foot for the depression of the pedal. In other words, play with the big toe or the inside portion of the heel. This technique helps to point the knees inward regardless of the length of your legs. When you play on the outer edges of the pedal board, change the position by pushing off with the opposite leg. Again, at first you will have to think about playing with the inside of the foot. Later it will become automatic because you will form a good playing habit. Write in pedaling and stick to it. I suggest writing in correct and comfortable pedaling for all your pedal parts, easy or difficult, at least in the beginning stages of your organist career. Use pencil and don’t hesitate to change it if you feel any strain or tension. Even more important is that you stick to the pedaling and play the same way every time. Otherwise your feet will get confused and chances to make mistakes will be greater. Feel the position on the pedal board with your toes. Try to keep your feet close to the sharp keys. This technique allows you to feel the exact position on the pedal board with your toes. For example, you know that sharp pedals are arranged in groups of two and three. Try to locate the F by feeling the edge of the F sharp with your toe. Similarly feel the C sharp and play the C. Resist the temptation of looking down to your feet. It is OK to make mistakes while practicing. Just play it over and over until you get it right. In order to make it automatic, play some more times correctly. Look at the music at least when you play not from memory. Keep the feet in contact with the pedal board at all times. When you have to move your feet try not to lift them off the pedal board. Instead, slide the feet to the desired pedal while always touching the surface of the pedal board. In other words, the movements of the feet should be horizontal and not vertical. This technique also helps you to get acquainted with the pedal board and play the correct notes with ease. It is especially important that you pay attention to both feet. Do not forget the foot which is resting – relax and let it touch the pedals slightly without pressing them. Do not use force. Avoid hitting the pedals with unnecessary strength and imagine you play mezzo piano. Depress the pedals with as little power as possible and keep your legs relaxed. In other words, there should not be too much noise when playing the pedals. Of course, on tracker organs some noise cannot be avoided because of the mechanics. This kind of relaxed manner of playing helps to be in control of articulation. Your movements will become very economic and you will feel the fatigue much less. If you follow my suggestions every time you sit down to practice your organ music, you will improve your pedal technique tremendously. The accuracy while playing complex pedal parts will become much better. Of course, practicing wisely requires a strong will and patience but I can assure you from my personal experience that it’s worth the effort. If you are serious about pedal playing, I highly recommend studying Organ Technique: Modern and Early by George Ritchie and George Stauffer. This comprehensive method book has separate chapter on pedal playing with many important exercises. 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 the final Part 5 of the series of articles about common mistakes in pedal playing. In order to have a full picture, please read the Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 as well.
Looking at the feet when playing the pedals. This can happen quite often, especially at the beginning stages of organ playing. Since the pedal board is unfamiliar to the beginner organist, there is always a strong temptation to locate the keys by looking at them. However, it is always better to look at the music and try to feel the pedal board with our feet. If we insist on not looking down, then after a very reasonable time we will begin to feel where any specific pedal is. Pedal preparation also helps to achieve that. It is like driving a car. At the beginning you have to think where all the pedals are, how the shift stick works, how to switch on the headlights, how to turn on the windshield wiper etc. But if you use your car long enough, it all becomes automatic to you. Of course, when you have to drive another car, again getting used to it takes some time. However, if you are an experienced driver and had a chance to drive many different cars in your life, the time required to adjust is very insignificant. This is exactly the same situation with organs. But looking at the music and not at the feet is very important and greatly facilitates the progress. Not using the entire leg in early music. In order to depress the pedals we usually use the motion from an ankle which is the correct way to play music written after around 1800s. However, not every organist knows that for early music, and especially on historical instruments or replicas of old organs the depression of the pedals should be done using the entire leg. This theory is debatable whether or not it is applicable to the performance of early music on modern instruments. We should at least try to adhere to it when playing old instruments or instruments that are built in old style. I will explain the reasoning behind this technique. You see, in the Baroque period, the most common practice instrument for organists was clavichord (yes, there were many pedal clavichords built in the 17th and 18th century as well), and not organ. Churches were not heated and organists also needed bellow operators to practice organs in churches. So many of them practiced at home on clavichords and performed on organs during services and other public occasions. Therefore, it was the clavichord technique which became the basis of organ technique (at least in German speaking lands). I don’t want to get into the clavichord technique too much because it is a broad and fascinating topic on its own right. Let’s just say that on the clavichord, if we want to achieve a nice sound, we use the weight of the entire arm (not fingers) and leg (not ankle). So the depression of the pedal keys is achieved mainly using the weight of the leg. Otherwise the string of the clavichord would not make a deep and reverberating sound. In consequence, this technique was applied to the pedal playing on old organs as well. It is really important that you develop the right practicing habits early on in your pedal playing. Being strict with yourself and paying attention whether or not you are making the mistakes in your performance can save much precious time. However, it is never too late to start fixing the mistakes and forming the right playing habits. If you follow my suggestions carefully, you will have more chances to perform difficult organ music with confidence. I have written earlier about the secret to a perfect pedal technique. That's an article about Marcel Dupre's recommendations. You might find his suggestions surprisingly simple yet very powerful. If you would like to know more about pedal playing, I highly recommend studying Organ Technique: Modern and Early by George Ritchie and George Stauffer. This method book has separate chapter on pedal playing with many important exercises. 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 4 of the series of articles about common mistakes in pedal playing. In order to have a full picture, please read the Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 as well.
Playing too deep on the sharp keys. We should strive to depress the sharp key on the edge of it. So don’t go too deep. Although this might seem very insignificant, keeping the foot on the edge of the sharp key makes the glissando to the natural key very easy. For example, if you want to make glissando from F sharp to G with the toe of your foot, just place the foot on the edge of F sharp and you will have to move just a little. Do not lift the heels into the air. On the contrary, if you play too deep on the sharp keys you have to move your foot much more in order to slide to the white key. In addition, toe-heel technique works much better if we keep the feet on the edge of the sharp keys. In other words, the movement of the foot required is very small when we play close to the white key. For example, in order to use toe-heel technique on F sharp and G, play the F sharp with your toe on the edge of this key. As you depress the G with your heel, just release the F sharp with your toe but do not lift it into the air. I recommend you practice the pedal part of your organ piece very slowly to properly observe these details. Playing too far on the natural keys. This mistake is perhaps even more common among organists than the previous one. Basically the rule is simple - stay close to the sharp keys when playing the naturals. In other words, the feet should be able to feel the edge of the sharp keys which helps to hit the right pedals. For example, when you play F with your right toe, place it so that it would be almost touching the F sharp. Then you would feel the edge of the F sharp with the outside of your toe. However, if you place your right foot on the F too far from sharp key, chances of missing the next note with the same foot are much higher. Lifting the feet off the pedal board. I have met many organists who don’t pay attention to this rule. It is not very serious mistake but it does make a difference if we think about the precision in pedal playing. For a beginner, it is quite a challenge to find the right keys on the pedal board without looking at them. We should slide the feet from one key to another but without lifting them. In other words, the motion should be horizontal and not vertical. Then we could feel the distances from D sharp to F sharp and from A sharp to C sharp with our feet and orient ourselves accordingly. So keeping in contact with the pedals at all times helps to get used to the pedal board and play the right notes. In addition, if we play without lifting the feet off the pedals, we use much less energy. This is because to slide the feet is easier that to lift them into the air in terms of weight. Think of how much your leg weigh. Obviously if the foot is touching the pedal, you just have to slide from one key to the next. Otherwise you have to work against gravity. The list about these common mistakes in pedal playing continues in Part 5 of this article series. 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 3 of the series of articles about common mistakes in pedal playing. In order to have a full picture, read the Part 1 and Part 2 as well.
Not changing the position. In order to play passages in the outer edges of the pedal board fluently, we need to shift the position. This technique also allows us to feel comfortable and avoid unnecessary tension of the body. However, not every organist knows how to use this technique properly. Actually, it is quite simple. When you need to make a large leap in your pedal part, push off the pedals with the left foot if the leap is upwards. Likewise push off with the right foot when there is a large leap downwards. As you push off with your foot, make sure you shift the entire lower part of your body, too. The upper body has to stay stable facing the music. This technique makes playing pedal scales very easy and comfortable. Just shift the position a few times over the course of the scale. By the way, the great resource of playing pedal scales and other exercises is Organ Technique: Modern and Early by George Ritchie and George Stauffer. Playing hands and feet together from the beginning in polyphonic music. Because polyphonic organ music, such as four voice fugues can be very exciting yet quite challenging to learn, I don’t recommend learning the fugue by playing hands and feet together right away. Of course, you may sight-read the fugue a couple of times in order to get familiar with the music, but real practice should be done in a different way for best results. Unless you are very experienced in sight-reading and organ playing in general, learn separate voices of the fugue first. Later practice two-voice and three-voice combinations. Only then you will be ready to play the full four-part texture. Practicing otherwise makes learning the correct articulation quite difficult. In addition, because of complex polyphony you may not be able to pay attention to details in your pedal playing technique. Note that you can subdivide the piece into smaller fragments and learn them in this way first. Then combine the fragments into larger episodes. It may seem time consuming and you may think that playing all voices together from the beginning would be faster. However, if you want some serious progress in your organ playing, have patience, take your time to learn the piece really well and don’t rush. Then you will be able to master any organ composition. Not using pedal preparation. If you know what pedal preparation is all about, chances are that you are practicing correctly. The easiest way to explain how pedal preparation works is this: after playing one note in the pedal part, immediately move your foot to the next position and wait for its turn to play. In other words, as you release one pedal, move the foot to the next note in one fluent motion. This technique helps to achieve precision in the pedal playing. However, even though we may know the right way to play, we don’t necessarily take the steps which lead to success. For some reasons, sometimes we are just happy if we press the right notes on the pedal board. Of course, using pedal preparation takes some serious mindset and patience but I can guarantee that it’s worth it. You see, if we insist on preparing for the next note in the pedal part and practice that specific fragment repeatedly, after a while it will become automatic and the foot will just know were to go next. At first you may even use the pencil to mark note heads in advance in parentheses. Later, it will all become natural because you will develop the habit of pedal preparation. The list about these common mistakes in pedal playing continues in Part 4 of this article series. 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 of the series of articles about common mistakes in pedal playing. You can read the Part 1 here. These mistakes inhibit the progress of an organist and form incorrect playing habits. The quality of the music also becomes not as good as it could be. Therefore, it is important to recognize these mistakes and try to correct them.
Using heels in the Baroque music. There are exceptions to this rule, but the tradition is that we should avoid using heels in early music. This is because the pedal boards of historical organs very often are built in such a way that playing with heels would be quite difficult. For example, the pedals of the French classical organs are very narrow and short. Even more so is with Renaissance organs. By the way, using toes only technique it is much easier to achieve the desired articulation – articulate legato touch. However, not every organist is taught this way even today. This is partly because the legato school of organ playing was applied to the early music for a long time. Avoiding heels in the Romantic and Modern music. I have met some organists who play even the 19th century and 20th century compositions with toes only. Toe-heel technique has strong foundations in the Romantic organ tradition and we should not hesitate to use it when it is appropriate. My guess is that some organists avoid using heels for various reasons but one of them might be that they don’t know the principles behind toe-heel technique. They don’t know how to do efficient and solid pedaling for scale passages. In consequence, the pedal part performed in such a way might sound too choppy and detached. Using left foot only. This is quite normal way of playing for theater organists and I am not criticizing them now. They need their right foot for many toe studs they have on their organs; they also use this foot for swell pedal and crescendo pedal excessively. Their left feet technique becomes very efficient and virtuosic. However, there are some organists who hesitate using the right foot for pedal playing. This is partly due to the lack of proper training. They are only capable of playing long sustained notes in the pedal part and much of the concert organ music is inaccessible to them. Although people who start playing organ from the beginning using the correct technique definitely have an advantage here, but it is never too late to start forming the right playing habits. Playing with too much power. Have you observed organists who play the pedals (and the manuals for that matter) with such tremendous force that you could even hear the unnecessary noise coming from their feet (or fingers)? I have met such people and they really would benefit much more if they could try to relax their feet (and hands) and not hit the pedals with too much power. Actually, we should have the feeling of playing about mezzo piano on the pedal board. Use only as much energy as you need to depress the pedals and not more. Anything above the minimum power just creates that extra noise, makes the articulation imprecise and creates a chance of even breaking a key or something in the mechanics of the organ, like a tracker. The list about these common mistakes in pedal playing continues in Part 3 of this article series. 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. Pedal playing is arguably one of the most attractive skills that an organist needs. In order to develop a high level pedal technique, one has to practice pedal playing correctly. However, many people fail to move their pedal technique to the next level because of incorrect practicing habits. Are you making these common mistakes in your pedal playing? Read on to find out.
The height and the distance of the organ bench are incorrect. Sitting too low or too high on the organ bench will form an incorrect playing habit. Try to adjust the bench so that your feet should be hovering and touching the pedals but not pressing them. The distance from the keyboards should be adjusted that when you sit normally, your feet should be almost touching the sharp keys. Some people like to position the organ bench diagonally with the left side further from the keys. This habit is incorrect and actually unhealthy for our body because we would then always sit stretched a little to the left side. Completely different story is with historical organs. If you ever have a chance to play organs from the 17th, 18th, or 19th century, you may notice how low or how high their organ benches are. It is just the way it is. We have to accept it and adjust to the instrument, not the other way around. But with modern instrument there is often a way to sit on the bench in a convenient position. Playing with the outside of the foot. This is perhaps the most common of all mistakes an organist can make. I see it over and over again in many of my students as well. Look at your technique and see if this is something you should work on. Try to always play with the inside of your feet. The contact is made with the big toe. When you play with your heel, also depress the pedals with the inside of your heel. Note that you should not lift the part of your foot which is not playing higher than necessary. That way you will avoid unnecessary strain. Not keeping your heels and knees together. The previous mistake is actually connected with this one. If you play with the outside of your feet then naturally your knees are looking outward. On the contrary, try to always keep the knees together, at least for smaller intervals. The heels then should also be connected and both feet would move as one unit. This is crucial when playing pedal scales and other fast pedal passages. Of course, when we have to play wider intervals, it is not possible to keep the heels together. In this case, just try to play with the inside of your feet. Not writing in pedaling. Many people find the task of writing in fingering and pedaling boring and too much time consuming. This is partly because they might be quite good at their piano technique, in which case writing in fingering is not always necessary. However, pedal playing is entirely new skill for any organist. Whether or not he or she has any experience on the piano is not as important for their pedal technique. It only seems time consuming. In reality, it saves a lot time because once the correct pedaling is written in, then all you have to do is to stick with it. Of course, sometimes we may write in an incorrect or awkward pedaling and then we have to change it. That’s OK. As long as you know what is correct, what works, and what doesn’t you should be fine. By the way, as you advance in your pedal technique and organ playing in general, there will not always be any need to write in fingering and pedaling. You will just form correct playing habits will be able to play on the spot. These are the mistakes that many organists do when playing with their feet. But the list continues in Part 2 of this article. I have written earlier about the secret to a perfect pedal technique. That's an article about Marcel Dupre's rocommendations. You might find his suggestions surprisingly simple yet very powerful. If you would like to know more about pedal playing, I highly recommend studying Organ Technique: Modern and Early by George Ritchie and George Stauffer. This method book has separate chapter on pedal playing with many important exercises. 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. Playing organ pedals can be a challenging task. All these fast moving passages with our feet can give the organist much trouble and it can be frustrating to learn difficult pedal lines. However, there is one secret to overcome challenging pedal parts and develop a superb pedal technique.
Perhaps the most famous organist of the 20th century, the Frenchman Marcel Dupre once wrote that the secret to the perfect pedal technique is the flexibility of an ankle. Here I would like to tell you a little story about Dupre when he was a teenager. This story is of course related to pedal technique, as you will see. In his youth, Dupre used to practice a lot on the piano. If fact, the very first piano pieces that he learned was a collection called "Musical ABC". It consisted of as many little pieces as there are letters in the alphabet. So Dupre learned them all during one summer. When he started to play the organ, one time he cut one of his wrists on the broken glass. The cut was quite dangerous - only millimeters away from the main nerves of the hand. So for some months he could not play the organ with his hands. Did he gave it up? No, he started practicing the pedal playing. In fact, he was so furious that he could not play with his hands and as he wrote later, he started playing the pedals with vengeance. By the way, all these months he practiced pedal scales and arpeggios. He became so good at them that he could play any musical passage with his feet on the pedals. Later in his life, he even published a collection of all major and minor scales and arpeggios as a help for organists to perfect their pedal technique. Of course, we all know about how good are scales and arpeggios for our finger technique. Some people practice them regularly. However, pedal scales are underused, and not too many organists know their real value: they help to achieve the flexibility of an ankle. No wonder why organists of the French school develop an unbeatable pedal technique. We all have heard of French women organists playing with incredible high heels unbelievably hard pedal line with ease and elegance. This is how they achieve that level of mastery: they practice pedal scales. So this is the secret how to achieve a perfect pedal technique: practice pedal scales and arpeggios regularly and you will have no difficulty with your challenging pedal parts. 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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