Vidas: Hello and welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast!
Ausra: This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better organist. V: We’re your hosts Vidas Pinkevicius... A: ...and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene. V: We have over 25 years of experience of playing the organ A: ...and we’ve been teaching thousands of organists online from 89 countries since 2011. V: So now let’s jump in and get started with the podcast for today. A: We hope you’ll enjoy it! V: Hi guys! This is Vidas. A: And Ausra. V: Let’s start episode 597 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Bill. And he writes, I put in 15-30 minutes a day working on the sight reading course. I've been working on BWV 543 Bach Prelude & Fugue in A Minor mostly beyond that. Two things that frustrate me are it takes me about 3 months to learn these big fugues (practicing about 1.5 hours/day) and the playing the strings of 32nd notes evenly at high tempo. Any suggestions to speed up learning and play better at high tempos would be appreciated. I do like the sight reading course, it certainly has me reading better! Regards, Bill V: So, Ausra, do you wonder why Bill is struggling with BWV 543 so much? A: Well, you know, it’s one of the major pieces by J.S. Bach, and my suggestion would be, if it takes for you 3 months to learn such a piece and you still struggle playing 32nds in the fast tempo right, it means that actually this piece is actually too hard for you, for right now. If I would be you, I would go back to an easier repertoire. Make sure you have played all 2 part and 3 part inventions, you have done some of the Well Tempered Clavier, you have played all 8 Preludes, Small, Little Preludes and Fugues by J.S. Bach, and even then, after starting working on a major prelude and fugue by J.S. Bach, A Minor is probably not the easiest out of them. Definitely there are easier ones. V: I should also add that you have to define what kind of level you should be when you take the new piece. I have to say, what kind of, you have to master the piece, and what does it mean, right? You have to be able to perform it for others, and then go to the next piece. A: That’s right. V: If you don’t want to share your work online with strangers, that’s fine. But please play it at least for your friends and family. You learn a piece, and you show them what you’ve learned. A: Because, you know, for the piece like this A Minor, I guess if you are at the right level to play such kind of difficulty of piece, you need to be able to do text of it, roughly in a month. If it takes you longer, it means that this piece is still too hard for you. V: You say you learned entire Clavierübung III by Bach, in a month. A: Yes. That’s what I did. But it was when I was in good shape, at the full potential of my capacity, so… V: Capacity. A: Capacity, yes. V: Was your professor George Ritchie surprised? A: Yes. V: He wouldn’t learn so fast? A: Well, I don’t know. Maybe he would learn it, I don’t know, but really I think I was getting to him sometimes at my learning tempos. V: Mm hm. Yeah, that’s right. Did you have good sight reading abilities at the time? A: Yes I did have. But you know...it’s...usually people take it for granted - if you are a good sight reader, you can learn music fast. It’s not true. I was always a really good sight reader. But usually when I play the same piece the second time or the third time, I would make more mistakes than just sight reading it. V: I can see why, because you lose concentration, yes? A: Yes. V: The first time might be the best. A: Yes, that’s how it works for me. V: Mm hm. Maybe you should try sight reading short recital! A: (laughs) Maybe not. V: Like easier pieces, and see how it goes. I did that once with 8 Little Preludes and Fugues, BWV 553-560 and it went okay. It went without major mistakes. But the feeling for me wasn’t very nice. I wasn’t relaxed. A: Well, it wasn’t true sight reading. Because you had played those pieces many, many years ago. V: Mm hm. A: And then you sort of re-sight read them again. V: Exactly, yes. A: So it’s not the same. I’m talking about… V: Completely… A: Completely new. V: I see. When you learned to sight read on the organ, did you use my sight reading master course? A: No. V: Of course not. A: It wasn’t ready at that time. V: It’s a dumb question, right? A: Yes, it is. V: And I mean that, you learned, you taught yourself just by playing repertoire. A: Yes, that’s right. V: Much repertoire. The more, the better. So I think Bill will also get better at sight reading with our sight reading course, this will be more systematic than just simply sight reading whatever you want. But Ausra says very wise suggestion: to take and learn easier repertoire first. There is on American Guild of Organist website a list of graded repertoire. For Bach music, for Langlais music, for Messiaen, for music composed after Bach in Germany. And you can see which level A Minor Prelude and Fugue belongs to. It certainly is not at the beginning and probably not even in the middle. This graded repertoire list has 10 levels. So it might be maybe level 10 or 9 or 8, something like that. So pick something from earlier levels first, right? A: Yes. Because I think that playing music, any kind of music, has to give you some kind, some sort of pleasure. And if you are playing too hard pieces that are too hard for you at that moment, you might get frustrated and disappointed. V: That’s right. And take the time to learn each piece really well. I recommend recording yourself, even if you don't show it to anybody else. Because this, knowing that you only have one chance to play through a piece without any stops. Because you know that the recording is going makes you focus much better. A: True. And you know why I'm not arguing for you to, not encouraging you to play too hard pieces. Because I know for myself, when I was at the second grade at the academy for music, at the beginning of my second year of playing organ at all, my teacher gave me to play the B Minor Prelude and Fugue, BWV 544 by J.S. Bach. And as you well know, it is one of the most complex Preludes and fugues by J.S. Bach. V: Which level, which year was that? A: Beginning of the second year. V: Wow. A: Of playing the organ. And… V: And you wonder why my teacher gave me the A Minor at the 12th grade? A: I struggled so much just to learn that music, you know? And I did it like in 2 months, but it took me such a pain, and so many hours. I put so much effort into it. I finally played it for an exam, but it never gave me any pleasure, and I never went back to this piece. Never in my life. And probably will never will. And even now, when I now listen to other organists playing this piece, I’m having this very sort of uneasy, unpleasant feeling. So basically, that teacher just ruined me this B minor piece forever. V: Young teachers are like this. They imagine things much more differently than experienced teacher would, right? But I guarantee that if you took up this piece right now, it wouldn't be a problem for you at all right now, probably. You would just slowly sight read it very comfortably. A: Yes, but I’m not willing to do it. V: Yeah. So guys, please send us more of your questions. We love helping you grow. This was Vidas. A: And Ausra. V: And remember, when you practice A: Miracles happen. V: This podcast is supported by Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online. A: It has hundreds of courses, coaching and practice materials for every area of organ playing, thousands of instructional videos and PDF's. You will NOT find more value anywhere else online... V: Total Organist helps you to master any piece, perfect your technique, develop your sight-reading skills, and improvise or compose your own music and much much more… A: Sign up and begin your training today at organduo.lt and click on Total Organist. And of course, you will get the 1st month free too. You can cancel anytime. V: If you like our organ music, you can also support us on Patreon and get free CD’s. A: Find out more at patreon.com/secretsoforganplaying
Comments
Vidas: Hello and welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast!
Ausra: This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better organist. V: We’re your hosts Vidas Pinkevicius... A: ...and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene. V: We have over 25 years of experience of playing the organ A: ...and we’ve been teaching thousands of organists online from 89 countries since 2011. V: So now let’s jump in and get started with the podcast for today. A: We hope you’ll enjoy it! V: Hi guys! This is Vidas. A: And Ausra. V: Let’s start episode 592 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Amir, and he writes: “Hi Vidas Thanks for your email! What I have now in my schedule is a daily time to practice sight reading. It does not take more than 15 minutes daily. At the same time I am redoing the exercises I have done 10 weeks ago. I find that looking at the same things again after 10 weeks of doing them, gives me more confidence that things are getting better. Most important benefit is for me to be regular in the sense of the beat pulse, and I think this is not beneficial for sight reading only but for music interpretation in general. It is better to do an intended "rallentando" than to slow down because the passage is just difficult. In addition these exercises are allowing me to predict to a certain extent my capabilities to keep a steady tempo in a piece of music. Looking at difficult passages and to have a certain estimation about how things can go, can help me to be steady. Changing to unexpected notes and rhythms is always tricky. Hoping that I am getting better. Amir” V: So, Amir is in our Organ Sight-Reading Master Course, Ausra. A: Excellent! V: And it seems that he’s spending 15 minutes a day, every day, and seeing regular practice, and seeing also regular progress, and he is actually checking the progress by playing exercises from 10 weeks ago. A: I think that he touched some very important points that I think could be beneficial to many of us. V: Such as? A: Such as that spending 15 minutes every day on something is very important. It’s more important to spend 15 minutes a day on a regular basis than to spend let’s say 3 hours once a week. I think such a case, if you spend some time every day regularly, you’ll see progress much faster. V: I have another point to make about his rallentando, conscious rallentando and conscious change of tempo. If you have to slow down, you have to know that you are slowing down, and if that piece of music changes, direction changes rhythms and pulse, you have to be quite conscious about it. Right? A: Yes, definitely! Your technical difficulties cannot dictate the tempo of the piece. If you can play it fast but some difficult passages you have to slow down, it means this tempo is too fast for you, and you need to play the entire piece in a slower tempo. V: To me, when I’m playing a rhythmically difficult piece, it helps me to play really really slowly at first. Do not speed up the passage before I can play it comfortably. Do you find it useful, too, Ausra? A: Yes, although sometimes I lack either the time or the patience to do that, but I see what you are doing, and I think it’s very beneficial. V: It takes time and patience, as you say, but you reap rewards! You see how the piece of music is getting better and better, maybe not daily, but probably weekly progress can be noticeable. Right? A: True. V: A lot of people don’t have the patience to do this, but one week is not that long, right? You can come back to a difficult passage after one week and play it through, and see that it’s not that difficult anymore. A: That’s right. I think it’s always good to go back and to play, let’s say, the same thing that you played a week ago or two weeks ago, and you will see how much better you are. V: And for your repertoire in general, I think it’s better to refresh it once in a while regularly. Keep it under your fingers and under your toes, because then you expand your repertoire, not just discarding it by learning new pieces every time, but you’re expanding your baggage of tricks. A: Yes, as you said, to keep it under your toes, I didn’t know that you play with your toes! I thought that you played with your feet! V: Oh, I have excellent toe technique! Five toe technique! A: Could you play a trill with your one foot using different toes? V: I can play two trills! Double trills! A: That’s funny. V: You know, I sometimes marvel at organists who play, or can play long recitals very frequently like maybe once a week or twice a week of difficult and different organ music every time, and I wonder what’s their secret. And the secret probably is refreshing their old material once in a while, frequently, while also learning something new! A: Well, he keeps asking me, “How can we do this? How can we do this? Tell me how can we do this?” And I’m just saying that they are more talented and more hard working than you are, so that’s the secret. V: Yeah, there is one Dutch organist whom I admire. Minne Veldman… I had to think about spelling of that name… but ok, Minne Veldman. And he plays like twice a week on YouTube, one hour long recitals, sometimes from his living room with Hauptwerk, sometimes from different churches. It's just superhuman to me. Don’t you think? And I asked him in a comment, “What is your secret? How are you able to play like three recitals per week?” because recently he posted three recitals. He actually answered, although he’s very well known and very popular, probably gets a lot of comments like this. But he answered, “Just keep playing and studying large repertoire.” This is true, right? A: Yes, this is true! V: Simple, yet effective. A: You cannot expand your repertoire if you will sit on the couch all day long watching TV. V: And talking about expanding repertoire. A: And talking about playing. V: Yeah. We all suffer from this, right? We see big names and try to emulate them and imitate them, but when it comes down to doing the work, there is no substitute. A: True. V: Thank you guys, this was Vidas, A: And Ausra! V: Please send us more of your questions; we love helping you grow. And remember, when you practice, A: Miracles happen. V: This podcast is supported by Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online. A: It has hundreds of courses, coaching and practice materials for every area of organ playing, thousands of instructional videos and PDF's. You will NOT find more value anywhere else online... V: Total Organist helps you to master any piece, perfect your technique, develop your sight-reading skills, and improvise or compose your own music and much much more… A: Sign up and begin your training today at organduo.lt and click on Total Organist. And of course, you will get the 1st month free too. You can cancel anytime. V: If you like our organ music, you can also support us on Patreon and get free CD’s. A: Find out more at patreon.com/secretsoforganplaying
Vidas: Hello and welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast!
Ausra: This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better organist. V: We’re your hosts Vidas Pinkevicius... A: ...and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene. V: We have over 25 years of experience of playing the organ A: ...and we’ve been teaching thousands of organists online from 89 countries since 2011. V: So now let’s jump in and get started with the podcast for today. A: We hope you’ll enjoy it! V: Hi guys! This is Vidas. A: And Ausra. V: Let’s start episode 595 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Giovanni. And he asks, How much is the price of an organ for a home, and where can I buy one? V: Well, this is very diverse question, I would say, right, Ausra? There is no one answer. A: Yes, there is no one answer. Because we ourselves have two organs in our home now. And one is tracker organ, which has only two stops, and it cost us a fortune at the time we got it. And now we have this Hauptwerk three manual and pedal Hauptwerk set (Update - 4 manuals now), which cost us much less money. V: Mm hm. A: Comparing to that other one. V: Because this was when we just returned from our studies in the US, and we were looking for an organ, and we were discussing various possibilities: electronic, pipe organs. We decided to go with the pipe organ even though it was very small, because we valued the mechanical touch, right? A: Well, and I still value mechanical touch. I don’t know about you, but I have strong feelings about this, and I still prefer tracker. And anyway, I think that this old electronic thing is still a piece of, well, you know what I mean, I won’t say tell this word aloud. But really, if you have already very good technique, outstanding technique, then yes, play the electronic, it won’t ruin your technique. But if you are a beginner, I strongly advise you to play tracker. V: Have you ever, Ausra, played electronic organ with tracker touch? A: Well no, I didn’t, but that’s... V: There are keyboards like that. A: I believe that this also would cost much more. V: Of course. Good things always cost a lot. And there are options, you know. You have to decide what kind of organ would you like to have: pipe organ, electronic organ, or even virtual organ? Those are not the same thing - virtual and electronic organ. Sometimes people comment on Facebook on my videos. They see both organs in our room and say, “It seems that you have a pipe organ in your house. Why are you playing on the synthesizer?” And I just pity those people, because they don’t have a clue what virtual organ is. A: Well, but I still understand why they are asking that. But it depends on what your goal in life is. I mean, if you only want to learn new music at home, yes, and you will be performing somewhere else all the time, and you are not going to record and to publish your recording, then yes, the tracker, as we have two stop, two manuals and pedals, it’s ideal for learning new music and keeping in good shape. But on such an organ, of course you will not be able to make public recordings because you will have only two stops. Of course, we could sort of add the MIDI keyboard to our tracker. V: Mm hm. A: It’s a possibility. But I sort of don’t want to mess up with it, because it might ruin the original instrument. V: Yes. It’s better to have a second virtual pipe organ, virtual, yes, pipe organ. A: Pipe organ. V: It’s called like that, you know. A: Yes, yes. V: Virtual pipe organ standing next to the real thing. Because you never know, you might need the real pipe organ for other things. And those virtual organs sound really virtually indistinguishable from real organs. It’s not the same with electronic organs, when the sound is synthesized, and comes not from the sampled, real pipes, right? But from synthesized sources. That’s the big difference nowadays. A: Well, I still hate playing the Hauptwerk. V: It’s because we have plastic keyboards. A: Yes. V: That’s all. If you had... A: I like to listen to it, but I hate playing it. V: If you had tracker action keyboards like my friends have shown me, like there are on the market, you wouldn’t feel the difference, actually. It’s the same feeling like mechanical action, tracker action organs. Those are much more expensive, of course. One keyboard could cost, I think, around $1,500. And we bought one keyboard for a little more than $100. Imagine the difference. But if you want real touch and still have the possibility to record on amazing sample sets from all over the world: smallest, largest, historical, modern organs, symphonic organs - whatever you want... A: Not all of them actually made an impression on me. V: No? A: So far, I found only two sample sets that I really liked. One is Velosovo… V: Mm hm. A: And another is Rotterdam. V: Oh yeah. A: So. But others haven’t made impression on me so far. V: It depends on many different factors, of course. If the samples that we’re playing on is surround or dry version, you know, with artificial reverberation, or if it’s recorded in surround sound with multiple microphones, that’s the difference. Rotterdam and Velosovo are surround. Therefore, we heard the acoustics of the room in our setting, too. A: But you know what is the danger of playing the Hauptwerk all the time - I think it really became your passion, and I’m afraid that when quarantine will be over, you will never go back to the real pipe organ. Because yes, it’s so convenient: you sit down on organ bench at home and you can play any type of organ you want. Any type of repertoire you want. And no tracker organ in reality will provide you such a possibility. V: And of course, you know, tracker organs are not entirely in tune, not entirely in good shape. You have to adjust your own expectations in many cases. But right now, we cannot really go to the church, right? Even with Unda Maris organ studio, we have to go once a week, but not to the church, but to the chapel of the University, on the small one manual organ. So when it’s over, of course I will go back to the church. A: Really? V: Don’t doubt my intentions. I of course will record from there too, and I will divide my time, both from the home Hauptwerk organ and the church organ. A: Well, we will see. V: Real thing is real thing of course. It’s just the convenience of having those sounds in your own practice room that’s very very beneficial right now. All right, so guys, you have to pick and choose whatever your needs are: how much you can spend, what kind of organ, what kind of touch you want to have. Possibilities are endless. If you are just dipping your toes, I think it’s not wise to invest thousands and thousands - I think actually tens of thousands of dollars into this, right Ausra? A: True. V: If you’re just starting and you don’t know if you will be playing the organ, let’s say, five years from now. A: Maybe you should acquire one keyboard and see how it goes. If you like it a lot… V: Yes! Just… A: ...and then you can expand little by little, you know, if such a need will... V: Remember what we did at first, we had just one MIDI keyboard which is made by Nektar - 61 keys. I was using this for my compositions with Sibelius software at first. And then my friend James Flores suggested, “Why don’t you download a free trial of Hauptwerk software, and you can hook up this MIDI keyboard, and try it out and see if you like it. And that’s how we started our Hauptwerk journey, with one keyboard at hand, no pedals at all. A: Yes, but keep in mind, that if you have, if you want to have Hauptwerk at home, you have to consider what kind of computer do you have. Because probably what you have right now home, won’t work very well with the Hauptwerk and you will get all kind of troubles. Like you know, can play only in a very slow tempo. V: Oh, this is sound delay. A: Yes, sound delay - it bothers me a lot. Then you might need a new computer, better computer, and so on and so forth. Basically, you know as we started all this Hauptwerk crazy journey, basically every day to our house new things arrived: new wires, new amplifiers, new all kinds of things that I don’t even know we need. V: (laughs) A: Boxes upon boxes upon boxes. V: Ausra is talking about the expansion of the Hauptwerk that we have. That’s right - if you have just regular laptop at your home, like we did before, we could use basic version of Hauptwerk very well, but if we needed this advanced version or larger sample sets, it wouldn’t work. You have to have more RAM; you have to have 64-bit computer for Hauptwerk. Check if you have an old one with 32-bit processor, then the software won’t work. But nowadays, all the computers are 64-bit. A: Well, but another thing to consider, if you want to get the virtual stuff… V: Mm hm. A: ...you need to be quite advanced in computers in general. Because otherwise… V: Yes, yes definitely. A: ...look at that Facebook Hauptwerk organist group… V: Mm hm. A: Each of them are asking, “Oh help, help, help - I bought this one and now I cannot do that one! Help, how do I plug this one, how I do this one?” V: But that’s good, because it’s a forum, it’s a group for help, for providing help to each other. If more experienced members know more, they help out. Like Andrew Grahame in our Total Organist community - he’s by the way our supporter on Patreon, too - and he wrote about his Hauptwerk journey. Did you read his post on Basecamp? A: Yes, I read it. V: He has, like maybe 100 sample sets, 100 organs in his disposal. Of course, he collected those sample sets not in one year, not in five years, but since, I don’t know, since he started back in the last decade. His journey is very extensive. And he was one of the first Beta testers of Hauptwerk, too. Where developers would send him Hauptwerk software and he would try it out and find bugs in the system, and they would correct those bugs and eliminate those for future users. So I would ask questions from Andrew, and he would gladly help out. The same is with Facebook group and Hauptwerk forum, from hundreds of people who are more knowledgeable and you’re not alone. A: So, but if you don’t want the trouble, then just get a tracker. You will just plug it in and you can practice whatever you want with no trouble. Because if I would have a virtual organ by myself… V: Mm hm. A: ...I don’t know how much time I would have to spend just to figure out how it works. Now even when you showed me how the things work, it’s still not so easy for me. Of course I can already do a lot, comparing to what I could do at the beginning, but still it’s a long journey. V: But you’re progressing, right? A: Yes. V: I can see you managing Hauptwerk with your mind only in the future, yes? A: Ha ha. V: Because your IQ is greater than mine, there is no reason you cannot figure this stuff out. A: Well, let’s don’t go in there. V: Okay. But if you guys want a tracker organ, pipe organ I mean, then be prepared to invest a sum of money that is comparable to the price of a car. A: True. V: A good new car, I mean. Okay. This was Vidas. A: And Ausra. V: Please send us more of your questions. We love helping you grow. And remember, when you practice, A: Miracles happen. V: This podcast is supported by Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online. A: It has hundreds of courses, coaching and practice materials for every area of organ playing, thousands of instructional videos and PDF's. You will NOT find more value anywhere else online... V: Total Organist helps you to master any piece, perfect your technique, develop your sight-reading skills, and improvise or compose your own music and much much more… A: Sign up and begin your training today at organduo.lt and click on Total Organist. And of course, you will get the 1st month free too. You can cancel anytime. V: If you like our organ music, you can also support us on Patreon and get free CD’s. A: Find out more at patreon.com/secretsoforganplaying
Vidas: Hello and welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast!
Ausra: This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better organist. V: We’re your hosts Vidas Pinkevicius... A: ...and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene. V: We have over 25 years of experience of playing the organ A: ...and we’ve been teaching thousands of organists online from 89 countries since 2011. V: So now let’s jump in and get started with the podcast for today. A: We hope you’ll enjoy it! V: Hi guys! This is Vidas. A: And Ausra. V: Let’s start episode 593 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Graham. And he writes, Hi Vidas, First I would just like to say thank you for your informative videos on playing and teaching the organ. Your passion and insights are much appreciated. 1. I'll mention that I am a complete beginner to playing the organ despite my musical background. I am actually a jazz guitar player who is studying music at university but who has long been passionate about Baroque organ music as well as jazz organ and I decided to start learning recently. Although it isn't serious right now (but I practice a lot) I would love to be able to one day play some of North German music such as Bach or Buxtehude and develop a good pedal technique. For now I only have access to an electric organ (I have a spinet with 13 pedals) but will try to get a Hammond with 25 pedals for practice. So in short I would say my dream would be to become fluent in some North German repertoire (and maybe the opportunity to one day actually play it on a real pipe organ haha). 2. - First limitation is my current instrument. Since I can't really practice a proper two foot pedal technique on my 13 note spinet there doesn't seem to be too much that I can play from the German repertoire. (If you have any recommendations on beginner organ music with easy pedal parts that are real baroque music that would be very helpful!) - My current technique on the manuals is limited. Since I don't have an organ teacher it's hard to know if I am using the correct fingering techniques on the manuals. I know I should use fingers substitutions but it's hard to know exactly how when reading it from a book. There's way more about piano technique online than organ it seems so it can be hard to find someone demonstrating the exact techniques. - Last, would be an effective practice plan and a clear place to start. A plan that would help a beginner start to learn how to really play the instrument. Since I'm already a musician who must play and improvise all the time it can be frustrating when switching to a new instrument yet very exciting!! Thanks again for the great lessons, keep it up! Best regards, Graham V: Well, this is a long message, and I’m already tired after reading it. A: Yes, it’s a long message. Very informative. First of all, what struck me is that if he really wants to play Bach and North German repertoire, what’s specific about this repertoire is that it all requires quite well-developed pedal technique and to have a normal pedalboard. Because as you know, all these North German instruments had these well-developed huge pedal towers. V: Mm hm. A: And if he doesn’t have pedal tower, pedals for right now, I would suggest he would look more to the South German repertoire. V: Mm hm. A: Austrian repertoire. And he could try composers such as Pachelbel, who made a big influence to J. S. Bach. Or he could look at the Georg Muffat and his toccatas, because they require very few pedal. V: Hm. This is Italian influence. A: Yes, yes, yes. And another thing that sort of struck me a little bit that he talked about finger substitutions. Again, if you are playing baroque music, North German baroque music, Bach’s music, you don’t use finger substitutions. In very, very rare cases, you might need finger substitutions when playing, let’s say Bach - but not when playing, let’s say Buxtehude. V: Mm hm. The texture has to be really really thick to justify the need of finger substitution. A: Yes, and in general, you need to play that articulate legato, or basically, you need to detach every note. And for doing that, you don’t need finger substitution. V: Yeah. If you have two voices in each hand, you don’t need finger substitution. You can do it with early music fingering and keyboard fingering and playing detached note with articulate legato. A: Because you use finger substitutions usually, and pedal substitutions as well, when you’re playing romantic music, where you have to play smooth legato. That’s where it comes handy, but not in baroque music. V: Well, sometimes people get confused if they see a score, edited in 20th century… A: At the beginning especially… V: Mm hm. A: ...or at the end of 19th century. V: Or even in the middle of the 20th century. A: Yes. V: Some editors still did this, and they get the score, they love the piece, and they start to follow the directions - legato here, legato there. So to achieve legato, you need to use finger substitutions. But what they don’t realize is that those legato signs are editorial markings, not original markings. And just general thing to keep in mind: if the music is composed before 19th century, we generally play it with articulate legato. And we can apply early music fingerings this way. Most of the time, but not always, sometimes we use thumb on the sharp keys. A: Well, in Bach I do that... V: Yeah. A: ...quite often because... V: It’s complicated. A: ...it’s complex music. V: But not finger substitutions. They are more modern… A: True. V: ...like 19th century developments. A: True. V: Same for pedal technique. If you need to play legato, then you need to use heels. But not in early music. Not in music composed before 19th century. A: Well, and if he’s looking, Graham is looking at a suitable source that he could trust, and that I trust myself, I would suggest him to look at the Ritchie/Stauffer’s organ technique book. V: Yes. You can go to our website, and there is a link right on the front page of organduo.lt, with the cover of that book. I think it’s a green cover I think, Ausra, is that right? A: Yes, but I can think you can find it in other colors as well. V: Yeah. A: Because it’s had many, many republishings, because it’s very useful, very often used in colleges for students and teaching purposes. V: Mm hm. A: And it’s good because it has descriptions, clear descriptions about different styles, and examples - not only repertoire but also exercises. And you can compare how the modern technique and the early technique differs. And you can try and to see what works for you. V: Yes. And by studying this method, you become a well-rounded musician. You learn new techniques and early techniques as well. You learn to play with toes only in the early pedalings, but you learn to do all kinds of modern tricks with heels… A: Yes. V: ...in the later music. A: In the later music, yes. But for example, if you are only looking at the baroque music for right now, then you might want to look also at the book of Sandra Soderlund. V: Mm hm. A: She talks basically about early music technique, and she also includes the musical examples. V: Yes, Sandra Soderlund. Very useful example. I think we will link, we will add a link to her book in the podcast transcription so people can click and check it out. Okay! And remember that sometimes, we do play legato in baroque music, right? A: But these are very rare cases… V: Rare cases. A: ...and they have to be marked in… V: By the composer. A: By the composer, yes. V: Or, there should be a special genre of legato playing, like durezze e ligature, chromatic toccatas… A: Slow toccatas. V: Slow toccatas by Frescobaldi, let’s say. Italian baroque school from 17th century, even 16th century, you see lots of chromaticism and chords fixed texture, and they best sound when played legato, right? Although other things by the same school, by the same composer, are to be played with articulation. A: And what I also was very happy to read in Graham’s letter, that he likes North German music. I like it too, very much. And because he’s a jazz musician, I can see how he can, why he likes it, because it has that free improvisatory nature as well as in jazz. So actually, although these two genres are separated by a few centuries, they still have some features in common. V: Yes, the great jazz improvisation tradition is still alive, and people are creating in real time. Whereas in the baroque times, it was very customary to play on the spot, spontaneous organ music with pedals, without pedals, you know? A: So if Graham in the future will develop his organ technique, he might become an excellent improviser on the organ, in a different style. V: Yes, just have to study the old models. A: Sure. V: Thank you, guys. This was Vidas. A: And Ausra. V: And remember, when you practice, A: Miracles happen. V: This podcast is supported by Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online. A: It has hundreds of courses, coaching and practice materials for every area of organ playing, thousands of instructional videos and PDF's. You will NOT find more value anywhere else online... V: Total Organist helps you to master any piece, perfect your technique, develop your sight-reading skills, and improvise or compose your own music and much much more… A: Sign up and begin your training today at organduo.lt and click on Total Organist. And of course, you will get the 1st month free too. You can cancel anytime. V: If you like our organ music, you can also support us on Patreon and get free CD’s. A: Find out more at patreon.com/secretsoforganplaying SOPP590: My dream for organ playing: To be able to play with above average results for an audience6/4/2020
Vidas: Hello and welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast!
Ausra: This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better organist. V: We’re your hosts Vidas Pinkevicius... A: ...and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene. V: We have over 25 years of experience of playing the organ A: ...and we’ve been teaching thousands of organists online from 89 countries since 2011. V: So now let’s jump in and get started with the podcast for today. A: We hope you’ll enjoy it! V: Hi guys, this is Vidas! A: And Ausra! V: Let’s start episode 590 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Hervey, and he writes: “1. My dream for organ playing: To be able to play with above average results for an audience. 2. The three most important things holding me back: a. Not good enough at reading notes. b. Have to memorize music before it can be played. c. I consciously play every note instead of letting it flow freely from the mind.” V: “Above average results…” What does that does it mean in your understand, Ausra? A: Well, it depends on the person, because I, for example, think that I’m a little above average organist. V: Not genius level? A: No. V: But for him, if let’s say he’s not good enough at reading notes, or can’t really play freely from his mind, his goals must be probably more basic, not too advanced. Right? A: I guess so, and in this last section where he talks about that he consciously plays every note instead of letting it flow freely from the mind, I think it’s because he doesn’t feel comfortable at… V: Reading notes… A: ...reading notes. V: So the challenge, number 1 for him, is to get better at reading music. A: That’s right, and that’s, I think that the sight-reading course might be helpful for him if it’s not too difficult. V: I think it’s too difficult for starters. Yeah, you have to be a little bit… like reach a basic level of reading notes, first, and then be comfortable with slowly playing through the first exercise—very slowly, like half speed, like 30 beats per minute. If you can do that, you can progress through the course, probably not week after week with every lesson like we deliver it to your email inbox, but at your own speed. If we have 7 exercises that week, it doesn’t have to take 7 days for you. For each person it’s different. Maybe two weeks you will take. Maybe a month you will take for this first week of material, and that’s okay! Right? A: Yes, I think that’s okay. And what do you think would be a good collection for Hervey to sight-read. Do you have any suggestions? V: I think we have a course a little bit more basic about sight-reading. Let me check—not the “Sight-Reading Master Course,” but something a little more foundational. Let’s see… “10 Day Hymn Playing Challenge,” for example. Hymns are little gems of four part organ music! They last between 1 and 2 minutes, and they all have four parts in this little workshop. And we have ten hymns in this course, and it’s very very basic. I’ll teach you the same, basically, techniques that you need to master any piece of music, working through single lines, then combinations of two parts, three parts, and finally four-part texture, but we don’t start with “The Art of Fugue” like in “Organ Sight-Reading Master Course.” Instead, we start with simple note-against-note texture with one voice. So soprano plays quarter notes. A lot of people can do that. Even beginners—almost beginners, I would say. What do you think, Ausra? A: Yes, I think that’s a good suggestion. I think hymns are very handy for organists. Plus, because most of the hymns are familiar to us, so it makes things even easier. V: And after that, of course, you can check, Hervey can check if he has advanced substantially in order to be able to practice through the first week of the “Sight-Reading Master Course.” Maybe the next step for him would be to play and master my other training--”Left-hand Training” and then later “Two-part Training.” These are pieces taken from Bach’s “Trio Sonatas.” Exercises first in single voice in “Left-hand Training” and then two-part texture in “Two-part Training,” but instead of playing in the original keys that Bach writes, I have transposed everything starting from, I believe, C Major, and then going through all the keys through the circle of fifths. That’s how you advance little-by-little. What about this idea, Ausra? A: Sure, I think it’s a good idea to add extra accidentals with each try. V: And maybe “Left-hand Training” would be enough before jumping to the “Organ Sight-Reading Master Course.” I think, yes, because “Sight-Reading Master Course” starts with a single voice. So with “Left-hand Training,” you master this a-little-bit-intricate rhythms in “Trio Sonatas,” not only with the left-hand, of course, you practice with your right hand, as well, and maybe with your pedals, as well, those pedal parts, slowly, of course. And then you can be kind of ready to start a 40 week journey with “Organ Sight-Reading Master Course.” A: Sure, and another thing that I would like to add to what you just said is that in order to become a fluent reader of music, you need to do it on a regular basis. V: The minimum time, I think, is three times per week. Minimum. A: That’s a bare minimum. V: Bare minimum. Every other day, basically. A: I think if you really want to see progress and won’t get frustrated, I think you would need to do it every day. V: Every day, just a little bit. A: At least a little bit of it. V: 15 or 20 minutes, preferably more. If you can’t handle sitting on the organ bench for a longer time, take frequent breaks. Before you get tired, you stop playing, you take your walk, drink your glass of water, stretch, breathe, whatever is more comfortable for you. Then, after 5, 10, 15 minutes, you come back, and you feel refreshed. Right? A: Yes, that’s right. But I think this regularity is very important. V: Right. And don’t be frustrated if you don’t see results overnight. Right? It’s a life long journey. And be content with the privilege of sitting down on the organ bench. That’s all that matters. You are making progress, it’s just not apparent to the naked eye. You have to have a microscope, basically. But, if you check the piece that had been difficult to you at the beginning after one month of your studies, or three months, or half of a year, I can guarantee, if you follow our suggestions and tips and practice procedures, you will find that the first piece that was difficult to you, then after that period of studies will become much, much easier. So you will have advanced in organ playing, I think, quite far through that time. A: Excellent observation. V: Thank you! Thank you, Ausra, for helping me guide Hervey, and hopefully it was helpful to other people, too. Please send us more of your questions; we love helping you grow. And remember, when you practice, A: Miracles happen. V: This podcast is supported by Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online. A: It has hundreds of courses, coaching and practice materials for every area of organ playing, thousands of instructional videos and PDF's. You will NOT find more value anywhere else online... V: Total Organist helps you to master any piece, perfect your technique, develop your sight-reading skills, and improvise or compose your own music and much much more… A: Sign up and begin your training today at organduo.lt and click on Total Organist. And of course, you will get the 1st month free too. You can cancel anytime. V: If you like our organ music, you can also support us on Patreon and get free CD’s. A: Find out more at patreon.com/secretsoforganplaying
Vidas: Hello and welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast!
Ausra: This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better organist. V: We’re your hosts Vidas Pinkevicius... A: ...and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene. V: We have over 25 years of experience of playing the organ A: ...and we’ve been teaching thousands of organists online from 89 countries since 2011. V: So now let’s jump in and get started with the podcast for today. A: We hope you’ll enjoy it! V: Let’s start episode 588 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Amir. He’s taking our Organ Sight-Reading Master Course. And when I asked him how his organ playing is going so far, he writes: “It was not that bad, my main difficulty are the unexpected changes in rhythms and jumping notes.” V: Hmm. I think this is a fairly common challenge. Right Ausra? A: Yes. V: Why is that? A: Because people don’t like to count. V: That’s what I suggested to him. Count out loud. When you’re playing, of course, it’s better to play really, really slowly, maybe half as fast—maybe at the 50% of concert tempo, or even 40% or 30% if you need. But more than that, you need to count out load. If you have a 4/4 meter, the best way for me to count out loud is simply divide the beats into 8th notes. “1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and.” Would that help, Ausra? A: Yes, I think it would be very helpful. Right now, I’m working on recording Buxtehude’s Chorale Preludes, and even after having the experience of playing music for...I don’t know for what… but really many years, because I started when I was five, I still have trouble sometimes if I don’t count, because what Buxtehude does, he likes to change the rhythmic formula very abruptly, suddenly and unexpectedly. And if you were not counting before, you might get in real trouble, because you sort of lose the sense of the rhythmical flow. V: Yes. I think the first one that you recorded, Chorale Prelude by Buxtehude, “Ach, Herr mich armen Sünder” I think. It has very intricate ornamented Chorale melody in the right hand. A: Well, and not only this one; I guess he likes to do it in most of his Chorale Preludes. Very few of them are even, but most of them are very varied. V: For me, what I last recorded, Brahms’s Chorale Prelude, “Mein Jesu der du mich” from Opus 122, this is number 1. And the rhythms are okay. They’re not… A: Yes, I think Brahms is pretty much very even in rhythms—at lease in these Chorale Preludes. V: Yes, unless you’re playing one of those Fugues, where you have to change between duplets and tuplets and triplets. A: Yes, that’s a different story. But now we are talking about Chorale Preludes. V: So I didn’t need to count a lot. At this stage of my career, it comes naturally most of the time, but sometimes I do need to double check. A: Well, I’m not counting Buxtehude out loud, but I do it in my head. V: But consciously, right? Doing it. A: Yes. Definitely. V: If the tempo is really slow, sometimes you need to subdivide it even more up to 16th notes. A: Yes, that’s what I did when I learned the *** Icarus. I subdivided into 16th notes. V: Instead of saying “one-and-two-and” you would say “one-ee-and-uh-two-ee-and-uh-three-ee-and-uh-four-ee-and-uh.” It’s like a tongue twister! What would it be in 32nds? People have asked me that, but I forget. A: Better not go there! V: If you need to subdivide in 32nds, this means you’re playing music that is too difficult, basically. Right? If you still need to do this. I think 16th notes are the limit for me at least. I wouldn’t subdivide into 32nds. A: Probably not. V: Right. So that would be helpful, of course, to Amir and others who are struggling with unexpected changes in rhythms. A: What about jumping notes? I am not exactly getting what he means by this question. Is it difficult for him to hit the right note after a big leap or what? Or to follow the score if it’s a jumping melody? V: Maybe both! Yeah, if you have leaps more than a fifth, yes, you can easily reach a note by a fifth because you have five fingers and an interval of a fifth requires 5 adjacent keys. But if you have a sixth or seventh or an octave or even above an octave, you have to switch position. How do you do that, Ausra? How do you adapt? Or do you not do it? A: Well, you know, if it’s Baroque music, then it’s very easy. You just have to articulate. You have articulate each note, and it shouldn’t be a problem, because you don’t have to stretch your arm to reach it to play legato. V: You move the entire wrist! A: Yes! V: But try not to do upward motion with your hand. Slide to the right or to the left. A: Yes, you need always to keep the contact with the keyboard. V: Touching! A: Touching it, yes, or almost touching it. V: You know, there was an account about Johann Sebastian Bach playing organ, and people have observed him, that he almost doesn’t depress the keys. The organ plays itself, basically, it seems, in his case. Right? Do you, can you elaborate a little about that? A: That’s a true mastery, you know, you have to be really economic about… V: Efficient… A: ...efficient about using your motions. It helps to play in a fast tempo, I would say, and to avoid mistakes. V: It doesn’t feel like work, then. It feels like a natural flow. Remember, we have observed a great Chinese cook back in the States when we were observing him prepare our steamed vegetables, I think, how he moves with his pan and with his vegetables and chopping knife, everything was so efficient, fast and barely noticeable. This is true mastery, right? A: Yes, it is. It’s interesting that you decided to compare Bach and a Chinese chef! V: Well, I mean if you do the same motion over and over again like a thousand or ten thousand times, you get really, really efficient! Right? You peel like an onion those layers of inefficiency. A: Yes, or you would get over use syndrome in your wrist for example. V: Yes, if you do it with tension! If you don’t relax muscles after using them, right way. Alright? So, Amir, with jumping notes, try to use this sliding motion with your wrists and then you will be fine! So guys, we hope this was useful to you. Please send us more of your questions; we love helping you grow. And remember, when you practice, A: Miracles happen. V: This podcast is supported by Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online. A: It has hundreds of courses, coaching and practice materials for every area of organ playing, thousands of instructional videos and PDF's. You will NOT find more value anywhere else online... V: Total Organist helps you to master any piece, perfect your technique, develop your sight-reading skills, and improvise or compose your own music and much much more… A: Sign up and begin your training today at organduo.lt and click on Total Organist. And of course, you will get the 1st month free too. You can cancel anytime. V: If you like our organ music, you can also support us on Patreon and get free CD’s. A: Find out more at patreon.com/secretsoforganplaying
Vidas: Hello and welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast!
Ausra: This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better organist. V: We’re your hosts Vidas Pinkevicius... A: ...and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene. V: We have over 25 years of experience of playing the organ A: ...and we’ve been teaching thousands of organists online from 89 countries since 2011. V: So now let’s jump in and get started with the podcast for today. A: We hope you’ll enjoy it! V: Let’s start episode 591 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Justina. And she writes, Hello, my name is Justina Pupeikytė and my dream is to get into the Royal Academy of Music and after that become a professional organist. But there are few things that are keeping me down. I have very poor sight reading skills and weak transposition. I also learn musical pieces slowly. I am not talking about slow tempo while playing that concerns me, but the time that it takes for me to learn the piece and it's long. Can you help me? Thank you. V: So Ausra, I think Justina’s question is kind of similar to the previous podcast conversation that we have recorded just a moment ago that Hervey has submitted, right? A: Yes, that’s right. V: Except Justina also is interested in transposition skills. A: Yes. So basically, I think all these three things are connected in between: the poor sight reading skills, and weak transposition, and also that the learning process is very long for her. I think these are all connected in between them. Well, the Royal Academy of Music is some of my students are studying there. Not organ, but other instruments, and well, we were really good, at least at the music theory. So I don’t know what Justina’s musical background is, but of course to be accepted to the Royal Academy of Music is quite an ambitious goal. V: Mm hm. Your students who are studying at the Royal Academy of Music… A: Actually, some of them have graduated. V: Graduated. They of course have graduated from the National Čiurlionis School of Art in Lithuania. So basically, they have professional level 12 year training beforehand. A: Yes. V: Twelve year. It’s like our gymnasium - twelve years of curriculum, very intense, starting from 6 or 7 years of old. So, imagine how much work has Justina to do in order to catch up. A: I don’t know where she is. V: Yes. A: Where she is studying right now. And what is her musical background. V: But comparing for example, your students who were admitted to Royal Academy of Music, can you have one example in your mind. Not out loud, but just in your mind. How were sight reading skills of these people? Better? A: I think yes. V: They didn’t complain. A: Well, that’s right. But of course, most of them were not majoring in piano performance or organ performance. They were string players… V: Harp? A: Harp, yes. Violin. V: Mm hm. Yeah. So basically, you have to be good at sight reading at your instrument first of all. A: Yes. V: In order to get admitted. Hm. What can we suggest? Oh of course. If Hervey’s (in the previous podcast conversation) goal is to have above average results, I think Justina’s goal must be very professional level. A: Sure. V: Not above average, but the best she can, basically. The better, the more advanced level, the better. A: Because the thing is, if she thinks that after graduating from Royal Academy of Music she will be a professional organist she will become, I would say that if you really want to be really good at your instrument, you need to be already professional before entering there. V: Mm hm. A: A school like this. Because look, well, all of these abilities to play instrument really well, we need to be start forming at a very young age. V: Mm hm. A: And I don’t, I’m not telling that you need to start to play organ in the elementary school - this is physically most often impossible, but maybe you need to have a very good piano background. V: Mm hm. You’re right, Ausra. I think what, the other thing that could be said is that Justina needs to take it very very seriously, and practice it like, not one hour a day, not two hours a day probably. Because your students, obviously they spend hours, several hours per day at least with their instruments, right? They win competitions, international competitions, before… A: Yes, that’s true. V: ...they even apply. A: And since Justina is talking about weak transposition skills, it means that she might not be ready, you know, not have enough qualification of music theory, too. Because this is all connected at the end. V: Yes. You have to understand. Schools like Royal Academy of Music or any type of conservatory or very high level college or university, they, all they do actually is expand your repertoire, right? But you don’t start from scratch there. You are already at a very high level before entering that school. So you learn to play even virtuoso pieces at the earlier level, in the high school level, right? And then you apply and get admitted, and then you broaden your musical horizons: music theory, and probably harmony, even advanced harmony and music history as well, organology, all those things, and obviously you learn tons of new repertoire in your field. You become kind of very prolific performer, I would say. You can have maybe several hours of recital program at your fingertips and your feet, right? On moment’s notice. That’s what these schools do. That’s the end result. But before you get admitted, you have to have very high level also before that. You have to be able to play virtuoso repertoire basically. A: And does she that you actually need to practice every day a lot, very diligently, and for many hours. V: Yes, and for many years, too. I don’t know, maybe this could be sped up, not 12 years study, maybe could be 6 years study, could be, for people who are highly motivated. A: But still, you cannot achieve in half a year what you might have achieved in 10 years. V: No, it’s too difficult. Life is short. A: Well, maybe if we are talking about music theory for example, then maybe yes, something might be done really fast if you have big motivation and you spend a bit of time and you have the mind of a grown up... V: Mm hm. A: Human. Then you might do the progress faster. But if we are talking about all this technical matters, meaning playing technique, you cannot push it forward too much. V: Yes. A: Because… V: It takes time. A: It takes time. Because if you will force yourself, you might injure your hands. V: Yes, yes, people do that sometimes. A: Yes, people do that, and we do that quite often actually, in the musician field. V: They overextend themselves, they practice for let’s say 6 or 8 hours per day without resting. Their body is tense. They forget to breathe, stretch, take a walk, rest, and they break down. A: So I would say, if for example I would be in Justina’s shoes, first of all what I would have to have is to know admission requirements of Royal Academy of Music. V: Yeah, what kind of repertoire do you need… A: Yes, what kind of repertoire you need to play. V: How much repertoire also. A: What kind of examinations you have to take in, and then to, some of the schools, they might send you all that information and even some tests to see how far are you from those requirements. V: Mm hm. A: And then you have to set up a goal and a plan, how fast you might achieve. V: Very good, Ausra! Do you think that recording your results, your incremental results and publishing them, let’s say on YouTube channel, would be helpful for her to track her progress? A: Well, yes, but it might take too much time, and in this case she might not have it. What I would do, another thing I would do, I would try to make some connections to the people, to the faculty members of Royal Academy of Music, if she is going, she wants to study organ performance, she might contact the faculty members. V: Mm. You mean she could go there once she has connections and play informally to professors and see what they can say about what level… A: Yes, or you know, to send her recording of her performance. I think that’s the easiest way to do it. V: Oh yeah, now you cannot travel. A: I think that’s the easiest way to do it. V: Virtually. A: If somebody would be willing to hear her. V: Yes. And critique her video or audio. A: Sure. V: Better video, of course. A: Yes, I think for these things the video is better. V: So yeah. Track her progress, and find out your requirements. A: Yes, because if you are interested in certain school, it’s always good that you will have a faculty member that would be interested in having you coming to study into that school. V: Remember, it’s a prestigious school, right? Top 20, top 10 school in the world probably, for organs. And they have applicants from all over the globe coming every year. So they don’t have too much interest in a relatively unknown person, right? We have to have personal connection. A: Yes. V: Or be extremely good. A: Or have a lot of money. V: Oh. (laughs) I hadn’t thought about it, but yes, that would work, too. All right, guys. This was Vidas. A: And Ausra. V: We hope this has been helpful to you. I think Justina’s goal, just for ending this conversation, I might add that it’s a little too ambitious for her right now. She needs to divide it, subdivide it into manageable units, right? What is the first step, second step, and then third step. If she takes those steps, she will progress in a timely manner. Not too overwhelming. What do you say, Ausra? A: Yes, I think that’s a good suggestion. V: Yeah. Step by step. And remember, when you practice, A: Miracles happen. V: This podcast is supported by Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online. A: It has hundreds of courses, coaching and practice materials for every area of organ playing, thousands of instructional videos and PDF's. You will NOT find more value anywhere else online... V: Total Organist helps you to master any piece, perfect your technique, develop your sight-reading skills, and improvise or compose your own music and much much more… A: Sign up and begin your training today at organduo.lt and click on Total Organist. And of course, you will get the 1st month free too. You can cancel anytime. V: If you like our organ music, you can also support us on Patreon and get free CD’s. A: Find out more at patreon.com/secretsoforganplaying SOPP589: I am in the process of memorizing a piece, based upon what I am learning in this course!5/20/2020
Vidas: Hello and welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast!
Ausra: This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better organist. V: We’re your hosts Vidas Pinkevicius... A: ...and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene. V: We have over 25 years of experience of playing the organ A: ...and we’ve been teaching thousands of organists online from 89 countries since 2011. V: So now let’s jump in and get started with the podcast for today. A: We hope you’ll enjoy it! V: Let’s start episode 589 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Ruth. And she writes, Hi Vidas, I am in the process of memorizing a piece, based upon what I am learning in this course! I am also trying to keep in touch with members of my church, because we did not meet last week. V: Ruth is our Total Organist student, and probably she is writing about the challenges that she’s facing during a quarantine. First of all, let’s talk about the process of memorizing a piece. What method do you use, Ausra? A: Well, you know, now I am at such a stage of my age and life that I don’t have to memorize music anymore. V: It comes naturally to you. A: Yes, it comes naturally to me, but I don’t have to perform from memory, which is a big relief, because to be honest, the memorization and playing from memory was always the weakest spot of my entire musical career. And I still have these nightmares that I come to my piano exam, sit at my instrument, and I’m ready to play, and then I realize that I forgot everything. Absolutely everything. And I still have at times this nightmare. And I realized that never in my life I have started to memorize a piece on time. V: Mm hm. A: And I was always memorizing things in a hurry, and I was never really well prepared for it. V: Mm hm. A: So I don’t know how I did all these big exams and all these big programs, how I put them in my head somehow. V: Have you used Dupre’s method? A: No, because nobody taught me any kind of methods. When I was at school, I was just, said that I have to memorize, I would say, small episodes, like two measures at a time, and put them all together. V: Mm hm. A: And then I need to learn a few spots that I would be able to start and to play from them, if something would happen in the middle of my performance. V: Mm hm. A: So. And I was also advised, if I make a mistake, that I would not go back, but I would go forward. V: Oh, jump to the next…part. A: Yes, if you repeat from that previous spot, you might make a mistake in the same spot again. That’s how it works, because those muscles have their own memory. V: Yeah, it’s funny, because when you make a mistake, if you try to repeat it, your fingers will play the same thing, unless you consciously know what you were doing wrong. A: Yes, and you know, while playing organ, I think that the memorization is basically, all the organists, I think we memorize the music naturally while working on it. But during recitals, it’s probably not the best thing to play from memory, at least not if you don’t have the organ with the piston setting… V: Sequencer. A: Yes, sequencer. Because in most cases in Europe, you have to have assistants to help you, to change your registrations during your performance. And that we, let’s say at St. John’s church, when we played, for example, Symphonic Poem by Čiurlionis "In the Forrest", we had even two assistants from both sides of the organ. That we, if we would have to play it from memory, we would have to give the music to our assistants, and we would have to have two music stands. And it would be really uncomfortable and unnecessary. So it’s better to have one score in front of organists, and that we two or four people in our case can use it at one time. V: Correct. And of course newer organs, concert organs usually have combination actions and sequencers, even in Europe. A: Yes, but unless you have really good to great memory, phenomenal memory, if you are playing all your pieces from memory, I think it narrows down your repertoire list. V: Mm hm. Because it requires you to spend considerable amount of time just to memorizing it. A: And then you are just thinking if it is worth or not. V: Yes, imagine we’re sitting this, in our living room during the quarantine, and every day we tried to record something and put it on YouTube, most of the days we upload and share with our listeners. If we had to memorize each piece, I don’t know, maybe we could do only one video per week. A: Probably yes. V: Now we can do one every day most of the time. Sometimes the piece is too difficult, though, but yeah. When you have great sight reading skills, then it takes much less time to prepare, especially if you don’t memorize it. So Ausra, you don’t advise for folks to memorize the piece, or you do? A: Well, I don’t know what is her goal in memorizing it. V: Maybe she is taking our Memorization course, that’s why she’s doing it. I don’t know. A: I think it’s anyway, for each musician it is beneficial to memorize a piece once in awhile. I think it’s good for your brain. But I wouldn’t memorize every piece that I’m learning. V: You know, and memorization is, sometimes it’s a nice substitute to improvisation. When I was not improvising, I was sometimes memorizing a piece, like a real composition. And I would memorize it and then play it really fluently, and I would imagine that I am improvising this piece, even though it’s not mine. A: That’s funny. Well, and you know, it’s very difficult you see, because some pieces of music is really easy to memorize, but some are really hard. I remember when I memorized pieces, piano pieces, it was called Perpetuum Mobile. V: Mm hm. By… A: By a French composer, what was his name? V: Perpetuum Mobile, you think it’s French? I thought it was by Weber. A: No, no, no, no - it wasn’t Weber, it was French composer. You know the guy that wrote that big piece for organ and orchestra. V: (typing) Perpetuum Mobile… A: We are really getting old! But it’s hard to remember all the repertoire that we have done in the past. V: Yeah. It’s hard to find it. A: I think it’s Poulenc. V: Poulenc, yes! A: I think it’s Poulenc, yes. V: Let’s double check. I’m Googling it now. Poulenc… Yes - on the piano, right? A: Yes, yes. V: I don’t remember it. A: Yes. I played it and I memorized it, and basically this was the easiest piece to memorize for me from the entire repertoire, because it was so well constructed and so easy form, and very easy structure, and it was really easy to memorize. V: You have a great memory, Ausra! I don’t remember anything about it. A: Well, but it was very hard for me to remember the name of the composer, but I did it finally. (laughs) V: Perpetuum Mobile, or Trois mouvement perpétuel, a 1918 piano composition by Francis Poulenc. Ha - it’s from 1918 for piano. A: So this was the easiest piece for me to memorize out of my entire repertoire. V: Three movements, right? A: Yes. But the hardest was actually when I tried to memorize the Messiaen. And I did one of the pieces from his Cataloque of Birds. V: Mm hm. A: Alouette lulu I think it was. Oh, that gave me a really hard time. It was good hygiene for my brain. V: I wonder how to spell this bird, in French? Or this is Latin, maybe? A: No, that’s French I think. V: French, right. Let’s see... (laughs) I will double check it later. So, why was it so hard for you to memorize Messiaen? A: Well, because he used the whole range of the keyboard, and there were big jumps and difficult rhythms. And sort of, it was hard for me to grasp the form of this piece as well. It’s not like classical piece, not like sonata, where you have this exposition, the themes and then the development of the themes, and then you get the recapitulation at the end. And it’s really hard when it’s no common tonal structure, too. V: You have to get his compositional technique, really. A: And actually, I know his compositional techniques fairly well by now, but I don’t think it helps me to memorize his music. V: You know from the middle period, from 1930s, 40s, but not from 1950s and 60s. A: Yes, and this is really his late work, so. V: Mm hm. Plus bird calls, they are very spontaneous. A: True, true. V: You don’t really, you can’t really systematize those into modes and Hindu ragas and talas, and those influences. Or Gregorian chant modes, or Greek rhythms in bird songs. A: Well actually, when I was learning this piece from the Bird Catalogue, I had a parrot. And she would just go crazy while hearing me play Messiaen. V: Uh huh. Somehow she would recognize it. A: That’s right. V: She would, or he - it was a boy - he would think that you would be teasing him, right? A: I think so, yes. Because he would really get frustrated. V: I once had an experiment, and I recorded his song and played him back. And he went crazy. A: Poor bird! V: Poor bird! Yeah, I wonder if he understood what’s happening. A: Probably not. V: He would love to sit and look at the mirror for hours. A: He would be like bipolar. V: Bipolar? A: Yes, bipolar. Because one day he would look very gently at that mirror and try to touch it gently, but during the other day he would just go mad and would try to hit it, and…. V: Yeah, yeah. Wonderful parrot pet. So guys, thanks for sending us your questions. Please apply our tips in your practice. They really help, they really work. And remember, when you practice, A: Miracles happen. V: This podcast is supported by Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online. A: It has hundreds of courses, coaching and practice materials for every area of organ playing, thousands of instructional videos and PDF's. You will NOT find more value anywhere else online... V: Total Organist helps you to master any piece, perfect your technique, develop your sight-reading skills, and improvise or compose your own music and much much more… A: Sign up and begin your training today at organduo.lt and click on Total Organist. And of course, you will get the 1st month free too. You can cancel anytime. V: If you like our organ music, you can also support us on Patreon and get free CD’s. A: Find out more at patreon.com/secretsoforganplaying
Vidas: Hello and welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast!
Ausra: This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better organist. V: We’re your hosts Vidas Pinkevicius... A: ...and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene. V: We have over 25 years of experience of playing the organ A: ...and we’ve been teaching thousands of organists online from 89 countries since 2011. V: So now let’s jump in and get started with the podcast for today. A: We hope you’ll enjoy it! V: Let’s start episode 587 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Maureen. And she’s our Total Organist student. And she writes, Hi Vidas, The concern with the coronavirus is ratcheting up as you will know. Scotland is beginning to grow concerned and lockdown is being implemented for next week. I thought it would be a great opportunity to play as often as possible during the time when this happens here in Scotland. I would like to study the Bach Prelude and Fugue in D Major, BWV 532 and BWV 552 (this is Prelude and Fugue in Eb Major). Is this fingered for purchase by any chance? I would love to purchase it if it is. Thank you, Appreciatively, Maureen V: So Ausra, is it available? Yes (laughs), I know the answer! Both of these scores are available. And quite a few people like to play D Major Prelude and Fugue, obviously for a single reason probably, because of this amazing D Major scale in the pedal. A: Yes. V: Have you tried playing it, Ausra? A: Yes, I have played it during my master’s studies at EMU. V: Mm hm. A: In the United States, so, I don’t think this was the most successful of my Preludes and Fugues that I have played by J.S. Bach. I would have sort of like spasm at the beginning of that opening scale. V: Yeah, that’s, this is tricky. Do you remember the pedaling that you used? A: Well, yes, I sort of recall it. V: Mm hm. Because when people ask about pedaling this particular passage, for me, of course I use only toes, but I use alternate toes. Strong beat playing with the left foot, and weak beat playing with the right foot, and alternating. But the beginning note is an upbeat, D, right? A: Mm hm. V: So I play it with the left foot as well. Left, left, right, left, right, left, right, left, right, right. And I finish with the right, because it’s the last one. A: For me, it was really hard to hit the D note with my left foot, because it was already quite high, so, and I have short legs, so… V: Mm hm. I wonder if you would play, or try playing this piece on our MIDI keyboard - pedalboard, I mean - Viscount 30 note MIDI pedalboard. Do you find it elegant and practical and easy to play? A: Well… V: Because I do! A: Well, it’s quite comfortable, but, well, it’s really not suited for old music, for baroque music, so… V: But to me, it is a little bit, I think, narrower than our house organ pedalboard, right? Or no? A: But I find our house organ keyboard/pedalboard more comfortable for me at least. V: But the thing...I mean, what’s different about it? A: Well, the touch is very different. V: Touch is of course different. A: And that’s, I think the most important thing. V: But reach, I mean, it’s smaller with MIDI pedalboard. A: Since I still have short legs, I, it’s not that narrower that I would benefit out of it. V: You don’t notice it that much? A: Well, not so much. V: But when you are playing, let’s say Buxtehude, is it comfortable enough for you, or should I buy another pedalboard, just for your legs? A: I wish that would be, you know, get that organ bench that we are waiting for, and I could practice my tracker organ. V: Let’s have two pedalboards - one for you, one for me! A: We have two. We have two organs, two pedalboards. But we have only one organ bench yet. V: Yes - Viscount organ bench hasn’t arrived yet, even though I have ordered it, what, two months ago? Yeah. A: More than that. V: More than. It’s stuck maybe somewhere in Poland. A: Why would Poles need your organ bench? V: (laughs) I don’t know. There was an incident of Polish, at the Polish border, they held masks… A: Masks. V: And gloves, probably, protective gloves. A: At the beginning of the quarantine, so. V: Yeah. Maybe they fight Corona with our pedal, organ bench. A: Who knows? New method. V: Yes, and of course Maureen is looking into BWV 552, this is E flat major Prelude and Fugue. What would you have to say about that? A: Oh, You mean this Toccata? V: No, E flat major Prelude. A: Oh, E flat major. V: 552. A: I thought about E major, you know, that you are working now. V: Mm hm. A: Well, this is really elegant piece of music. It’s my favorite, probably. V: No surprise. Can you tell us why? Because of that E flat deep note in the second page? A: Not only because of that. I find the form, musical form of the Prelude just fascinating. And that triple fugue is also really wonderful. You can see all the composition methods in one fugue, used by Bach. V: I agree. This prelude has a perfect form: ritornello concerto form. It has three themes, A, B, and C, and they alternate with each other in a very interesting way: A,B,A,C,A,B,C,A. Once I understood that, I started to think maybe I could write a piece of my own based on this form. And I did - I just added introduction and the ending, like a coda, and had my own Opus 3 Veni Creator piece. A: Nice! V: Yes. So good luck to Maureen, right? A: Yes. These are two big pieces, but if quarantine will last for awhile, she will be able to learn them both very well. V: Yes. And of course, since she’s practicing at home and probably cannot play for concerts, it’s nice to share your work virtually, on YouTube, let’s say, and this way, your work will spread. Of course, Maureen could learn this piece and submit to our weekly Secrets of Organ Playing Contest, don’t you think, Ausra? A: Well, yes. But maybe we have even more music to listen and to judge. V: Last week, we had, what? A: Ten. V: Ten - amazing record number. A: I know. V: One week, I think we will catch up to Pinky and Spiky Drawing Contest, and we will have more organ contestants. Do you believe that? A: That’s possible. I guess now people have more time to practice organ. V: Thank you, guys. This was Vidas. A: And Ausra. V: Please send us more of your questions. We love helping you grow. And remember, when you practice, A: Miracles happen. V: This podcast is supported by Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online. A: It has hundreds of courses, coaching and practice materials for every area of organ playing, thousands of instructional videos and PDF's. You will NOT find more value anywhere else online... V: Total Organist helps you to master any piece, perfect your technique, develop your sight-reading skills, and improvise or compose your own music and much much more… A: Sign up and begin your training today at organduo.lt and click on Total Organist. And of course, you will get the 1st month free too. You can cancel anytime. V: If you like our organ music, you can also support us on Patreon and get free CD’s. A: Find out more at patreon.com/secretsoforganplaying
Vidas: Hello and welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast!
Ausra: This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better organist. V: We’re your hosts Vidas Pinkevicius... A: ...and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene. V: We have over 25 years of experience of playing the organ A: ...and we’ve been teaching thousands of organists online from 89 countries since 2011. V: So now let’s jump in and get started with the podcast for today. A: We hope you’ll enjoy it! V: Hi guys, this is Vidas! A: And Ausra! V: Let’s start episode 586 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Amir, and he writes: “I think you surely heard this question before. What is the rule regarding accidentals if a note with an accidental is to be held for more two bars and after that it is repeated in the second bar, should the note change as an accidental be repeated in the second bar (in case that there is no sign of an accidental) or it is to be omitted? Thanks Amir” V: Amir is taking our Organ Sight-Reading Master Course, and in some lessons, from “The Art of the Fugue,” by Bach, sometimes you get a notation which is not entirely clear sometimes for him, so he asks if there is no sign in the new bar of a new accidental, should you repeat the new accidental or not? A: Well, that’s a good question, but actually it’s very simple, because if the note is repeated, so it means you have to hit the key again, yes? V: Mhm A: So it means that you don’t have to use that old accidental unless it’s written in, but if the note is slurred with the… V: Previous? A: Yes, from the previous measure, it means you don’t have to repeat it, and it means that that accidental from the last bar is still valid. V: Yes, I think that’s the case. A: And in general the rule with accidentals, as I teach in my Music Theory lessons is that accidental is valued for one measure, one voice, and one octave. That’s the basic rule. V: So if you have two voices in the same staff, and only one has an accidental, the other voice has to have an accidental in order to have that accidental. Right? It’s only valid for that particular voice. A: Yes, it’s valid for one voice, one measure, one octave. V: In the next measure, it has to be repeated accidental, right? A: That’s right. V: Or in the other octave, if you jump an octave up, and you want to hit that accidental, the composer has to write that accidental, too. A: That’s right. V: That’s the basic rule of Music Theory and Music Notation. If you’re not sure always, you can double check with music notation software. You notate some notes, and see how the computer generates the notation for you. It’s always clean and understandable. This way, sometimes we do check. Right Ausra? A: Well, I don’t know. I think I know Music Theory pretty well enough that I wouldn’t have to use that Sibelius or Finale to check it, but… V: You don’t think that you know more than the computer! The computer is smarter than you! A: Well, no, it’s not, and really, in these musical problems, you might find mistakes as well, so I’d better choose to believe my head. V: But what I mean is that maybe Sibelius has a current rule written, and your rule is maybe out of date! A: well, as you say, but actually what I also trust is that I trust my ear when playing music. It also tells me if that accidental is right or wrong, unless we are talking about very modern music—atonal music. V: Sometimes, you know, it’s difficult to see even with Bach, in chromatic music, if he meant a sharp or a natural somewhere. A: Yes, that’s true. And sometimes, if you would compare different editions, you might find different solutions for the same spot. Especially if we are talking about old music. V: Right. So guys, please send us more of your questions; we love helping you grow. And remember, when you practice, A: Miracles happen. V: This podcast is supported by Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online. A: It has hundreds of courses, coaching and practice materials for every area of organ playing, thousands of instructional videos and PDF's. You will NOT find more value anywhere else online... V: Total Organist helps you to master any piece, perfect your technique, develop your sight-reading skills, and improvise or compose your own music and much much more… A: Sign up and begin your training today at organduo.lt and click on Total Organist. And of course, you will get the 1st month free too. You can cancel anytime. V: If you like our organ music, you can also support us on Patreon and get free CD’s. A: Find out more at patreon.com/secretsoforganplaying |
DON'T MISS A THING! FREE UPDATES BY EMAIL.Thank you!You have successfully joined our subscriber list. Authors
Drs. Vidas Pinkevicius and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene Organists of Vilnius University , creators of Secrets of Organ Playing. Our Hauptwerk Setup:
Categories
All
Archives
July 2024
|