Although sight-reading is a must for any organist, some people still have the common misconceptions about this skill. Without properly understanding the myths that surround the sight-reading ability, it will be difficult to advance to a new level at reading music on the organ. These myths are based on some people's fear which slows down progress in sight-reading. Today I will explain some of the most common myths about this very practical and useful skill.
1. This skill can't be taught. Some of my readers have told me stories how they were told many years ago that this skill cannot be mastered in a step-by-step fashion. However, the truth is that in fact, systematic step-by-step approach is the best way to practice sight-reading. While learning to play slowly single voices in an unfamiliar piece, combinations of two voices, combinations of three voices etc. the fastest progress is achieved. 2. This skill is difficult to master. This idea is also based on incorrect preconceived notion. In reality, if we approach the process of learning to read new music on the organ from the right perspective, then it is very easy to progress in sight-reading. The only important thing to remember is the need to practice slowly, regularly, and in a step-by-step fashion. 3. The skill is easy to forget. I have heard some people say that once you learn this skill, it requires constant hard work to maintain this ability. However, it can be compared to riding a bicycle. Once you learn how to ride a bicycle, even though you might have taken a break of several years, this skill quickly comes back after a short period of adjustment. The same principle is valid in sight-reading. 4. Only geniuses can master this skill. We all have our role-models, the great composers and organists, like Bach, Dupre or any other master from the past or present times. Therefore it is easy to start believing that only these great people have mastered this skill. However, if only we approach the learning process very systematically, every one of us is capable to advance in sight-reading. 5. This skill takes several hours of practice a day to learn. Although this might be partially true in organ playing in general, mastering sight-reading really takes not more that 15 minutes a day of regular practice. This is such an insignificant amount of time that with proper motivation we can practice even while watching a TV show or a movie during the commercials. 6. Not every organist needs to practice this skill. Some organists who believe they have the sufficient skills at reading new music at sight. However, this myth is easily broken once such an organist tries to sight-read a difficult organ composition written in imitative counterpoint, such as fugue. Intricate dialogues between independent voices make playing such a music fluently and without mistakes and interruptions an extremely difficult task. Therefore, no matter how far you have progressed in organ playing, there is always a room for improvement. Consider the above myths about this skill when you prepare to improve your music reading abilities on the organ. Find a collection of music that you love and start playing 1 page a day for the next several months for the best results. Take a slow tempo and play separate voices, combinations of 2 and 3 voices, and finally, the entire 4-part texture. If you really want to develop unbeatable sight-reading skills, check out my systematic Organ Sight-Reading Master Course which is intended for organists who want to perfect such seemingly supernatural abilities as playing fugues or any other advanced organ composition at sight. To successfully complete the practice material of this course will only take 15 minutes a day of regular and wise practice but you will learn to fluently sight-read any piece of organ music effortlessly.
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Organists who struggle with sight-reading, often try to perfect their skills
and start playing unfamiliar pieces from their favorite collections regularly. However, while doing so, they often have trouble looking ahead at the organ score, playing fluently and without mistakes. In this article, I will give you the advice on what is the best way to practice sight-reading on the organ. The problem of looking ahead while playing new music on the organ is really an important one. Inability to look ahead while playing and unfamiliar music leads to mistakes, lack of fluency etc. Concerning the issue of how many beats do you have to look ahead while playing new music I would say that it depends upon tempo. The slower the tempo, the less beats you have to look ahead. In an ordinary tempo of 60 beats per minute, approximately 1 measure is enough to look ahead. But if you take a really slow tempo like 40 beats per minute, then looking 2 beats ahead are usually fine. However, in the pieces where the meter is 2/2 there are 2 beats of 2 half notes per measure. So that means while practicing slowly, you need to be looking ahead 1 measure. In addition, it is better to lean backwards a bit while sitting at the keyboard. Sitting this way will allow you to see the big picture well while sight-reading at a normal tempo. It is like driving a car - the faster you go, to further ahead you are supposed to look. I also recommend when you prepare to play a new material, you have to mentally prepare for it as well. Don't open the score and jump right into sight-reading without the proper preparation. Take some 20-30 seconds to look over the piece, notice key signature (and key), meter, try to discover the more difficult measures in terms of chromaticisms or rhythms, such as syncopations etc. This way you will be prepared for what is coming. Then when you start playing the piece, try to look a some 2 beats ahead. But don't worry, if this is going to be a difficult task at first. After several months, when you have progressed far enough, your note-reading ability will become much better and you will be able to look ahead easily. It is just a natural process of practicing. Finally, don't make the mistake of playing all parts together right from the beginning. Unless you can sight-read fluently and without mistakes in notes, rhythms and articulation all parts together in a slow tempo, I strongly recommend practicing separate voices first, then taking two various combinations of two parts combined, three voices, and only then the entire four-part texture. Use the above tips, find the collection of organ music that you love, and start sight-reading it one page a day for best results today. Remember that only 15 minutes of wise and regular practice in playing new music is enough to begin to see some tremendous changes in your ability to play new music at sight. By the way, if you really want to develop unbeatable sight-reading skills, check out my systematic Organ Sight-Reading Master Course which is intended for organists who want to perfect such seemingly supernatural abilities as playing fugues or any other advanced organ composition at sight. To successfully complete the practice material of this course will only take 15 minutes a day of regular and wise practice but you will learn to fluently sight-read any piece of organ music effortlessly. Some people who signed up or are intending to sign up for my new "Organ Sight-Reading Master Course" have been asking me some important questions. I thought these questions might be valid to other organists, so I am sharing them with you today. (By the way, to everyone who has already signed up... congratulations! This is going to be an awesome time!) 1) Question: What is the duration of this course? Answer: This course is designed to be taken over 9 months - once a week I will send you the sight-reading materials to download, save, print and practice. 2) Question: I have no possibility to practice during the following 2 months so I was wondering, if I buy this master course in one payment now, would it still work if I kept all the materials you send each week and compile it and start working on it when I have the time available? Answer: I completely understand that some people will be unable to practice for 9 months straight. That's why there are no deadlines in my course. When you receive practice materials, save them for later date and when you are ready, you can begin to work at your own pace. In fact, if you practice for a while and something comes up and you have to stop for some time - don't worry, you can pick up where you left (with some repetition of previously learned material, of course). Sign up for Organ Sight-Reading Master Course 3) Question: Is the material to be covered only once (from beginning to the end of that day's section) and then not ever repeated; or is it meant to be sight-read, and then mastered before proceeding on the next day to the next section? Answer: Playing once is enough because it is sight-reading but if you have time, playing two or tree times will be even better. Basically it also depends on how easy it will go. If you feel that the material at the beginning is easy to sight-read fluently at a slow speed, you can speed up the tempo a bit. Just try it and you'll get the feel of it. For best results Pick such a tempo which allows you to avoid mistakes. Sign up for Organ Sight-Reading Master Course 4) Question: How is the practice material structured? Answer: I am using a very systematic step-by-step approach. At first, you will learn how to sight-read separate voices (soprano, alto, tenor and bass), then all of the possible combinations of 2 voices, later we move to 3-voice combinations, and finally - the entire 4-part texture. Even though you might have very limited technical abilities today, while practicing the materials of this course you will begin to feel how each new combination is just one step way and never out of reach. 5) Question: How long does it take to learn the practice materials for each day? Answer: Your total time spent practicing sight-reading should not be more than 15 minutes a day. The real results of this course come not from long hours of practicing every day but from the regular and wise practice over the period of nine months. 6) Question: How unique is this course compared to any other sight-reading course available today? Answer: There is no other organ sight-reading course like this on the market today because it is so systematic and is based on one of the greatest master-pieces of human mind - Bach's "The Art of the Fugue" (plus some of the best known organ works of Bach as well). 7) What if I get stuck in some difficult spot? Will you help me solve the problem? Answer: You will receive an unlimited email access to me over your subscription time. So if you get into any problem along the way or have a question of any kind, just ask me - I'll be always here to help you out. Sign up for Organ Sight-Reading Master Course Look for the special offer with 30-day-money-back-guarantee at the bottom of that page which will expire this Monday. I'll see you on the inside! Vidas Pinkevicius Perhaps the majority of organists would agree that sight-reading is a must for any organist. It is such a useful tool in organist's profession because we constantly are in need to play music at sight either as solo performers during liturgy or as accompanists for choirs, soloists, and instrumentalists. Having an unfamiliar score in front of you and knowing that it is quite out of reach for you is indeed one of the worst feelings an organist could have. To help you learn this skill, I will give you my personal recommendations on how to practice sight-reading.
First of all, I believe that this skill can be learned like any other skill we have to do. Some people believe that only geniuses can play anything at sight. We all have read stories about Bach's notorious ability to play new music with ease. However, we tend to forget how much Bach and other geniuses had to practice in order to achieve such heights. In fact, Bach himself admitted once that it is not possible to sight-read everything. Ideally a great musician should be able to sight-read compositions of medium level of difficulty with ease and fluency. To achieve this, we need to practice specifically sight-reading. It is a good idea to devote some 15 minutes of each practice session just for that. I think many people like playing organ pieces at sight. It gives them pleasure to hear new music every day. However, the success of sight-reading exercise depends on the playing speed, difficulty level of the composition, and organist's attention to detail. In fact, that's where many people fail. Ideally, we should feel no tension and stress when sight-reading. If we do, this means either our practice tempo is too fast or the difficulty level of the piece is too great or both. It is probably better at the beginning to play easy music at sight in a very slow tempo with no mistakes than to play it up to concert tempo but constantly failing in each measure. If sight-reading all parts together is too advanced, you can try playing separate parts and voice combinations. By the way, this is exactly the same method I use to learn new clefs. From there we can go into practicing music in open score notation and orchestral reductions. Find a collection of organ music of your level that you love and start sight-reading one page a day. If you practice according to the above suggestions, keeping in mind slow tempo, difficulty level, attention to detail, solo voices, and voice combinations, you will be surprised how much stronger your skill in playing new music will become. You just need to be very systematic about it and stick with it at least for several months. If you really want to develop unbeatable sight-reading skills, check out my systematic Organ Sight-Reading Master Course. To complete the practice material of this course will only take 15 minutes a day of practice but you will learn to sight-read any piece of organ music effortlessly. This is the second part of the article “How to read music without looking at the keyboard”. You can read Part 1 here.
Feel the sharp keys with your fingers. This particular trick might help you to facilitate reading music without looking down. As we all know, the sharp keys are arranged in groups of two and three. For example, by feeling the edges on the left side of the group of two, you can find C, or on the right side – E. Similarly, feel the edge of F sharp and find F, or touch B flat and find B. If you have to make a leap to some natural note, first try to locate the sharp note which is closest to it. All of this requires that you do not lift your fingers off the keyboard but keep them in contact with the keys at all times. In other words, our hand movements should not be vertical (like at the piano sometimes) but horizontal. Somehow feeling the keys with your fingertips helps you to achieve precision even in leaps. By the way, for managing leaps, I recommend to use the finger preparation technique. Take a slow tempo. When you practice, I always recommend taking such a tempo that you could avoid making mistakes. At a slow tempo, it is easier to control your movements and to think where each particular note is. If you see a skip in your score, make an appropriate mental note and your finger will respond correctly. At first, your leap might be a little off, but still it would be a leap. If you make such a mistake, it is best not to go ahead and play the piece all the way through. Instead, go back, try to correct this mistake, and play with precision at least three times in a row. Practice each voice separately. One of the reasons why reading music without looking at the keyboard can be difficult for organists is that they often play all parts (including the pedal line) together. If you struggle with it, obviously, it is too complicated to play the entire musical texture. How can you know if it is too hard to practice for you this way? Make an experiment – take an organ piece of your choice with or without pedals (it could be a hymn, too). Now try to play it through it once in a slow tempo. If you make more than 3 melodic or rhythmic mistakes in one page, then my guess is either the piece is too hard for you at the moment or you should practice it differently. Instead of playing all parts together right from the beginning, practice each voice separately first. This should be easy enough for most people. Just play the soprano line slowly and count your mistakes. I bet they will not be too many. If you still make more than 3 mistakes in one page playing this way, the piece might just be too complex for you at the moment. Should you change to an easier piece? It depends. You could try practicing in shorter fragments (perhaps 1-4 measures) at a time. Whether you choose an easier piece of organ music or stick with the current one is up to you. Just try to correct your mistake and play your fragment with precision and confidence at least 3 times in a row. Later combine them in 2, 3, and 4 voices. After playing each voice has become easy, now it is time to start practicing your work in combination of two voices. Remember not to look down at the keyboard. If the previous step was successful, this combination should not be unreasonably hard either. The next logical step would be to practice in three part combinations and finally, the entire four part texture. In conclusion, I believe you can be successful at reading your organ music without looking at your fingers. It just takes regular, slow, persistent, and wise practice. 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. Quite often my organ students ask me how they can learn to play organ without looking down at their fingers. This is a common problem people face in the beginning stages of their organist career. First of all, let me say that it is not always a bad idea to look at the keyboard. If you play pieces from memory this is, of course, only natural. Where else should you look if there is no musical score present? However, if you play from the score, then it is best to look at the music (at least most of the time).
Playing from the score develops your ability to sight-read music. However, playing from the score and looking down at your fingers will slow down your progress at least in one specific area: knowing your keyboard and feeling it. This is crucial if you want to be a truly good sight-reader. Without this ability the task to sight-read music in fast tempo will be too hard. In this article, I would like to share with you my personal recommendations how to learn to read music without looking at the keyboard. At this point, you have to understand why the beginners at the organ (or piano) always want to look down. You see, when we first start playing an instrument, we do not know where each note is located on the keyboard. In addition, usually we are slow on reading notes as well. All of this creates a situation, where we naturally want to see what exactly is we are pressing. Just think how you first learned to type on the computer. Unless you were trained professionally, at first, you probably used to type with just two fingers. You did not know (or remember) where each letter or character on the computer keyboard was located. Therefore, you looked at them and at the screen constantly. Now, if you have much more experience with typing, it is sufficient for you just to look at the monitor most of the time. Likewise, in reading music we first want to look down at our fingers. However, to facilitate your advancement, try to resist the temptation to look at your fingers. In other words, force yourself not to look down. Do not be discouraged if you hit the wrong notes; just remind yourself that developing this skill takes time. You see, the fingers have the ability to memorize the distances between the keys. Provided you are practicing regularly and resisting the temptation to look at the keyboard, after a few short months, you will already start feeling the difference in your progress. Developing this skill requires time. The great blind organists like Louis Vierne, Jean Langlais, Helmut Walcha and many others have been able to master such a complex art. If they could achieve that level being blind, we obviously have a chance, too. We just have to have patience and practice regularly. I hope you understand that there is no magical way to learn to sight-read music overnight. The amount of time needed to see the progress varies from person to person but I think that if you spend at least 30 minutes a day for 3 months practicing sight-reading wisely (more on that in Part 2), you will start to see some real changes. In 3 months that will be more than 44 hours of practice. Wouldn’t you think that you would be better at this skill if you had 44 hours of serious practice under your belt? Compare that to driving a car. After 44 hours of practical experience, we would still be at the basic level but certainly not freshmen anymore. I think that in my country they require 30 hours of driving with the instructor before you can take a driving exam. Anyway, you get the idea. Just keep practicing your organ music, stick to it for 3 months, and enter the next level after that. This article continues in Part 2. Here you will find more tips on how to get better at sight-reading without looking at your fingers. 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. Reading music can be a challenging task. Some people believe that this skill cannot be taught. This is not correct. Just like any other skill music reading can be taught, practiced, learned, and perfected.
In this article, I will discuss some of my personal favorite techniques which might help you to get better at music reading. Use them regularly and over time it will get easier for you to sight-read musical scores and organ compositions. There is one thing which I have to clarify here. These suggestions are for people who already know how to read notes of the treble and bass clef. If you are looking for tips how to learn to read music from scratch, this article will not teach how to do that. Instead, it will give you the advice on how to get better at sight reading. First of all, let us think about the chorales and chorale harmonizations by Bach. They are so beautiful and their harmonies are spectacular. We know that Bach never wrote a treatise on harmony. But these harmonisations are like a real textbook of harmony. Many theorists after Bach analyzed them and developed a system of tonal harmony. So going back to these chorales, one thing I do regularly is to sight-read them. Just one page per day. Of course, many people have difficulties in playing Bach's chorale harmonisations. You see, although these pieces are short, they contain 4 fairly independent parts. So it might be too hard to play such a choral for you. If this is the case, this is what I would do: Take one page per day. But don't play both hands and feet together yet. Start with one voice only: the soprano and play one page just this voice quite slowly. Take a comfortable tempo. The next day play next page the soprano again and so on until you reach the end of the collection. You will start noticing much improvement along the way. By the time you finish the collection, the soprano line will be easy for you. Then start sight-reading other voices like you did with the soprano (bass in the pedals with the 16' registration). Then play in combination of two voices... Then in 3 voice combinations... Finally, play all parts together (soprano and alto in the right hand, tenor in the left, and the bass in the pedals). This approach takes a while to go through various voice combinations. But in the end you will feel much more confident about reading music. If you really want to develop unbeatable sight-reading skills, check out my systematic Organ Sight-Reading Master Course which is intended for organists who want to perfect such seemingly supernatural abilities as playing fugues or any other advanced organ composition at sight. To successfully complete the practice material of this course will only take 15 minutes a day of regular and wise practice but you will learn to fluently sight-read any piece of organ music effortlessly. The road to achieving a high level in organ playing can be a lifelong journey. This is so because organist's profession requires a person to have many skills. That is why people studying at universities and conservatories to become organists need to take many different music classes. Although all of them are vitally important to the aspiring organist, there are four which I consider indispensable.
1. Organ Technique. In this field, we learn the basics of organ playing. These may include depression and release of keys, legato touch, finger independence, glissando playing, finger substitution etc. The same holds true to the pedal playing. This area of study involves playing specially designed exercises which develop specific organ technique. Some people do not consider the basics of organ technique very important and they start teaching organ with organ repertoire right from the beginning. I think that although this can be done, playing repertoire from the start might be sometimes too difficult for the beginner. However, the repertoire can be incorporated and mixed with the exercises quite successfully. 2. Organ Repertoire. This area, of course, involves practicing and performing many organ compositions from various national schools and historical periods. Because the organ repertoire is so vast (the earliest surviving music was composed about 700 years ago), every organist can learn something from it that is interested and useful. Naturally, the Bach organ works are the main emphasis of most organist's repertoire, but various other important schools need to be learned as well. For example, very popular among organists today are French Classical, French and German Romantic, North German Baroque, 20th century French repertoire. However, I think one can benefit from playing other lesser played composers from the Italian and Spanish Renaissance, English Baroque composers etc. 3. Organ Registration. Organists would not have sufficient skills, if they did not know the basics of organ registration. This involves knowing how to register specific types of organ composition, how to mix the stops, how to achieve balance between manuals and pedals, how to adjust historical registration practices to different modern organs etc. It is important for an organist to know how to make a good seamless crescendo, how to apply principles of terrace dynamic, how to make good use of the swell pedal etc. All these things can be learned if we study organ registration practices. 4. Sight-Reading. Organists also need to sight-read new repertoire pieces every day. This is the skill which will be very useful when organists have to accompany choirs or collaborate with other musicians. Without practicing sight-reading regularly, organists will have difficulty of reading and learning new music. It often happens that we are given new music to perform with choirs, ensembles, and soloists just a few days in advance (or less). If a person does not have good sight-reading skills, he or she might have much trouble and stress learning to play these new pieces fast. So you can see, how these four areas of study (organ technique, repertoire, registration, and sight-reading) are crucial, if the organist wants to be successful. By the way, do you want to learn to play the King of Instruments - the pipe organ? If so, download my FREE video guide: "How to Master Any Organ Composition" in which I will show you my EXACT steps, techniques, and methods that I use to practice, learn and master any piece of organ music. |
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Drs. Vidas Pinkevicius and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene Organists of Vilnius University , creators of Secrets of Organ Playing. Our Hauptwerk Setup:
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