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. Vidas: Let’s start episode 687 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Steven, and he writes: “Vidas, Here are my responses to your questions. 1. What is your dream for organ playing? My dream is to improve my playing with the most effective way to practice and get the most out of my practice time. 2. What are 3 most important things that are holding you back from realising your dream? A. Effective practice and getting the most out of practice time. B. Better registrations for the music C. Being more confident in my playing Currently practicing Widor’s Toccata from his 5th organ symphony and Vierne’s Finale from 1st symphony and Carillon de Westminster. And these works of J.S. Bach: Toccata and Fugue in d minor BWV 565 Fugue in D BWV 532a Praeludium and Fugue in d minor BWV 549a The Gigue Fugue, BWV 577. Thank you for all you two do in assisting others to improve their playing skills at the organ. Steven” Vidas: Well, where shall we start, Ausra? Ausra: It’s up to you. You choose. Vidas: Okay, this is a long message, but let’s decipher a little bit. Unpack it. Right? His dream is to improve his playing with the most effective way to practice and get the most of his practice time, which is rather generic. Ausra: Yes, it’s very generic. Vidas: It doesn’t say much. But then let’s maybe talk about challenges, and then pieces that he plays a little bit mentioning. Ausra: Sure. Vidas: So the first: Effective practice and getting the most of practice time. Ausra: Well, I don’t think you can find a magical way that with sitting down at the organ you will learn all those really difficult pieces that we read here. So basically, you just have to practice every day very diligently and spend at least a couple of hours at the organ bench. Vidas: Yeah, if he is practicing one, two, three pieces from this symphonic repertoire and four major pieces by Bach, that’s a lot! Ausra: Yes, that’s really a lot, and what I noticed, that from his repertoire that he selected, actually his repertoire doesn’t show variety. And when I say about variety, I’m meaning that, for example, that if he would choose to practice an entire symphony, let’s say, by Louis Vierne, he would get different pieces in that symphonic cycle. Vidas: Or Widor’s symphony. Ausra: Yes! But now, if you choose only loud and fast pieces as I see on his list, then I don’t know how to make your practice really effective because you can really hurt your hands. Vidas: Exactly! You practice for a couple of hours, 7 major pieces… Ausra: And basically, these are almost all Toccatas, or Fugues, you know! Vidas: Yeah, Toccata style pieces. It’s really difficult. If you think of Toccata and Fugue as two different movements, so it’s even more than 7 pieces. Right? It’s 7 plus 1 and 2… 9 movements in total! Ausra: So if all these pieces are new on his repertoire list, I would never learn them all at the same time. It’s really unrealistic. Vidas: And what’s the point of playing them all together at the same time? You will not be able to play them all in one recital or in one church service as a postlude or prelude. Definitely not. So you need variety, as Ausra says. I understand that some people value loud and fast organ music, and especially famous, loud and fast organ music, which is a shame sometimes, because there is so much wonderful slow and famous organ music—slow and soft, famous organ music. If you only are interested in famous work. Plus there are so many undiscovered composers or forgotten composers who created either slow music or fast music but we don’t know about it. Ausra: But even, you know, when talking about these composers mentioned here—Bach, Widor and Vierne—there are so many pieces written by them that are really worth our attention and could add very nicely to the variety of repertoire, for example all the Chorale works by J. S. Bach. Vidas: Yes, it definitely would hurt my program if I only played Toccatas and Fugues and Preludes. Ausra: Or by Louis Vierne also there are other cycles. Vidas: Yes. Maybe with Vierne I wouldn’t start with symphonies, I would start with probably “24 Pieces in the Free Style,” which could by played by hands only or with pedals—optional pedals. Ausra: Because look, if you are playing only fast and loud pieces, and you are talking about problems of making registrations, actually like all these pieces mentioned by J. S. Bach, they can all be played with one registration: Organo Pleno. That’s it! Vidas: Principle Chorus. 16’, 8’ 4’, a 5th mixture, a 2’ and you can couple another manual to the same Hauptwerk great division, also Principle Chorus without 16’, so it would be 8’, 4’, 2, and mixture with a coupler to the Great, and with the principles 16’, 8’, and 4’, and Posaune with mixture. That would be quite enough. Ausra: And Vierne and Widor, they usually describe what they want from the registration, so it’s not a problem to pull out the right stops. But again, there wouldn’t be much of a variety because all those pieces are also toccata like and really fast and virtuosic pieces. And well, if you are talking about effective practice ways, you need to have quite a selection of repertoire, and never work on more than two or three big pieces in your repertoire at one time. You need to have shorter pieces, you know, softer pieces, slower pieces. That way, you can alternate in your practice time. Because if you only play fast and hard, you definitely will damage your hands, and once it’s done, usually there’s no way back. Vidas: Exactly. If you practice for 20 minutes those 9 pieces on your list, for two hours, 20, 20 20, 20, 20, 20, that’s only 6 pieces that you can do in two hours. You need three hours just to spend 20 minutes on each piece, and that’s even not a lot. Right? You need, I think, at least 30 minutes for each piece. So in two hours, I don’t know how much time you can devote to organ playing each day, but on average, 2 hours is a good amount of time. You could only do four major pieces… Ausra: That’s right! Vidas: So, as Ausra is saying, look at softer and slower pieces, both from Romantic and the Baroque repertoire that you like. Surely there are more pieces than you wrote on the list that you would be like to be playing. You know, pieces by Baroque composers like Buxtehude. They’re easier than Bach’s Chorales, some of them. Ausra: Definitely easier than Bach’s Preludes and Fugues or Toccatas. Vidas: Yes. And you mention as number C challenge being more confident in your playing. That will solve your problem with confidence. If you only play fast pieces, it’s hard to be confident. I would never be confident if I only played fast pieces. Ausra: I know! And physically, how can you do it in one recital to play only fast and loud? And people would get tired, too, after listening to Organo Pleno all the time. Vidas: I think he’s not thinking about a recital, definitely, because he would… from the start he would plan a more varied program, I think. Ausra: Yes, but of course, if you are a church musician, too, then you of course can play a loud Prelude and Postlude, but in the middle of the service you wouldn’t play Toccatas or even Fugues. Vidas: Exactly. So that’s our best advice to you, so I hope you will take it! Thank you guys for sending your questions; we love helping you grow. This was Vidas, Ausra: And Ausra! Vidas: And remember, when you practice, Ausra: 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 Buy Me a Coffee platform and get early access: A: Find out more at https://buymeacoffee.com/organduo
Comments
The other day I went to Vilnius Franciscan church and decided to improvise a chorale partita on a hymn tune Abide with Me on their beautiful new Kalnins/Januszkiewicz organ. Thanks to Alicja Dacewicz for letting me use the Big Blue! Hope you will enjoy it! We support Ukraine: https://www.blue-yellow.lt/en If you like what I do, you can buy me some coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/organduo PayPal: https://PayPal.Me/VPinkevicius My Hauptwerk setup: https://www.organduo.lt/tools.html Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online: https://www.organduo.lt/total-organist Secrets of Organ Playing - When You Practice, Miracles Happen! https://organduo.lt Listen to my organ playing on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0ckKPIvTWucoN3CZwGodCO?si=YWy7_0HqRvaZwBcovL-RKg Hope you will enjoy this majestic Entree in F Major by Fernand de la Tombelle. I recorded it at Vilnius University St John's church. Score: imslp.org/wiki/50_Pi%C3%A8ces_pour_harmonium_(La_Tombelle%2C_Fernand_de) We support Ukraine: www.blue-yellow.lt/en If you like what I do, you can buy me some coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/organduo PayPal: PayPal.Me/VPinkevicius My Hauptwerk setup: www.organduo.lt/tools.html Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online: www.organduo.lt/total-organist Secrets of Organ Playing - When You Practice, Miracles Happen! organduo.lt Listen to my organ playing on Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/0ckKPIvTWucoN3CZwGodCO?si=YWy7_0HqRvaZwBcovL-RKg Vidas and I just returned from our concert trip to Pärnu, Estonia where we participated in the 20th Pärnu International Organ Festival. We had a pleasure playing two very distinct organs at St Elisabeth church - the Kolbe organ from 1928 and the Kriisa organ from 2010. Thank you to Ines Maidre for invitation! Hope you will enjoy this video of our recital! It's nice to remember Vidas' and my lazy holidays in Palanga earlier this summer. All we did was walk in the parks, swim in the Baltic Sea and in general took it easy. But because organ music is our life we always mix pleasure with a little bit of work and recorded a few videos for our fans on our folding MIDI keyboard. Hope you will enjoy this Elevation in C Major by Lefebure-Wely from his collection Vade Mecum de l'Organiste and Hauptwerk Salgareda sample set! We support Ukraine: https://www.blue-yellow.lt/en If you like what I do, you can buy me some coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/organduo PayPal: https://PayPal.Me/ausramotuzaite My Hauptwerk setup: https://www.organduo.lt/tools.html Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online: https://www.organduo.lt/total-organist Secrets of Organ Playing - When You Practice, Miracles Happen! https://organduo.lt Listen to my organ playing on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2pXxZgiFPMKiqBRYi9rSLT?si=Xe1nTroTSmOGPtv8bP8MSw This is a charming aria I found in one of the harmonium collections from French prolific composer and organist Renaud de Vilbac (1829-1884). It turns out with a little thinking it could be adapted wonderfully well to the organ texture as well. Hope you will enjoy the sounds of Hauptwerk Nancy sample set! Score: imslp.org/wiki/Perles_de_l'harmonium_(Vilbac%2C_Renaud_de) We support Ukraine: www.blue-yellow.lt/en If you like what I do, you can buy me some coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/organduo PayPal: PayPal.Me/VPinkevicius My Hauptwerk setup: www.organduo.lt/tools.html Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online: www.organduo.lt/total-organist Secrets of Organ Playing - When You Practice, Miracles Happen! organduo.lt Listen to my organ playing on Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/0ckKPIvTWucoN3CZwGodCO?si=YWy7_0HqRvaZwBcovL-RKg
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 690 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Andrew, and he writes Dear Vidas, My answers to your recent questions: 1. My dream is to be able to play the organ confidently in the liturgy and perhaps in recitals occasionally. 2. The 3 most important things holding me back from this are: - Poor sense of timing and rhythm - Lack of focus and concentration in practicing - My legs are both slightly twisted outwards, which makes some pedaling uncomfortable (especially around the middle of the pedalboard; I cannot place my knees close together without great effort) Nonetheless, I am finding Total Organist a very useful resource and community. I find your daily emails especially helpful. My best wishes to you and Ausra from England, Andrew V: That’s very nice to have a Total Organist community member write a message like this. A: Yes, very nice indeed. Thank you, Andrew. V: And I know this Andrew writes sometimes in his daily responses to these questions in our community on Basecamp, which is very good. A: Sure, that keeps community spirits up. V: Yeah, if nobody wrote, only we, or even if we were silent, so it would be like an empty house. A: That’s true. V: Now a few more people are participating. Not everyone, though. Some people are just, you know, reading perhaps. Not actively participating and engaging. But those who are participating, I think they are getting quadruple results, because they are thinking about their own practice deliberately, right? The question, for example, ‘What did you do today in organ playing?’ right - sometimes if you don’t think about anything, you don’t have anything to write about if you don’t play. And if you don’t have an answer for this day, and you get the same question tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, maybe you start thinking, “Oh, maybe I start practicing, have to start practicing,” right? Because Vidas and Ausra are sending these questions for me. So that’s really nice that Andrew is an active member of the community. So Ausra, start with some recommendations, please. A: Well, as Andrew says, three important things that are holding him back - poor sense of timing and rhythm. I think that’s the thing that you really need to work on, because if you are a church musician and accompanying congregational singing, then the sense of good timing and rhythm is crucial. And I think in general for musicians, sometimes people think that the right notes are the most important thing. And of course they are very important, but I think the rhythm comes above all. V: That’s because in any given piece in any piece from the Common Practice Period, rhythm gives probably, we would say, ‘flow’ of the melody. And if you lose the sense of flow, you cannot understand the melody. If you lose a little bit of notes but you keep the sense of flow, the melody, the sense of the piece is still intact, right? A: Yes. And you know, from my experience of many years playing myself and teaching others and listening to others, I could say that there are very few people with a really poor sense of rhythm. Usually, if you cannot keep good rhythm, it means that you don’t listen to what you are playing. V: And a way of listening to your playing is actually actively counting. Counting the beats and subdividing the beats if the piece is difficult. A: And yes, actually you need to do it aloud at least at the beginning. And later maybe you just use your tongue, subdivide with your tongue. And by subdividing, what I mean is the smallest value, rhythmic value in the piece is sixteenth, you need to subdivide everything into sixteenths. It might seem crazy for you at the beginning, but that’s a very good way not to lose the rhythm and be precise. V: And one example would be like this: one ee and a, two ee and a, three ee and a, four ee and a, in 4/4 meter. A: Yes, and it doesn’t mean you have to do it for the rest of your life. But for a while yes, until you get a good sense of the rhythm. Another thing, if you are accompanying the hymns for congregation, you really need to sing them. Because if you will sing with congregation, maybe not loud, but just for yourself in your head, then you will know where are the best spots to take breath, and naturally it will help you to be better while accompanying hymns. And of course with your solo pieces too, you need to basically sing each line. Remember with Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra, she pushed us to sing each line. And occasionally she would ask for us to sing. Not for example the melody, but tenor voice, let’s say. V: While playing or while not playing? A: Both ways. So I guess this should help you to improve on the timing and rhythm. Because some people will just say, ‘Oh, just put the metronome and practice with the metronome.’ I don’t think this is a good approach. Maybe sometimes just h to check if your tempo is correct, then yes. But not playing all the time with the metronome. I don’t think that’s the right approach. V: Mm hm. And his second challenge is lack of focus and concentration in practicing. A: Well… V: Which could be improved regularly, by regularly doing the same thing over and over. A: Yes, and I think if you start count and subdivide, and do all the things that we talked just before this, I think this will help on your focus and concentration. Because this constant counting and subdividing keep you concentrated in your practice. V: I agree. And of course the third problem about his legs twisted outward, there’s nothing he can do, obviously. A: I know, but you know, somehow people always complain about their legs, like they are looking inward or backward or whatever. I had a student at UNL when I was a doctoral student. He was majoring in piano performance, and he was also a doctoral student in piano performance. And he was a very tall man with really long legs. And he would keep complaining to me about his legs every single lesson. It just drove me mad, because I’m a sort of short person with short legs, but I never complain, although it gives me physical difficulties too. Remember the last recital on the Edskes organ, where you could not regulate the organ bench. You could make it higher, but not lower. V: Mm hm. A: And remember me playing that Druckenmüller piece , Prelude and Chaconne in D Major. V: You had to literally, physically shift your body to the right. A: Yes, basically I was jumping on the organ bench sometimes in order to reach the pedal on the lower level or the higher level. But I did it, and it was fine. It was clean and clear and everything was just nice. So you really have to adjust depending on what kind of body you have. But please don’t feel that you have to hold both knees always together. I think that’s such a wrong idea. And before going to the states, I didn’t even know that such a rule exists. But in America, everybody’s crazy about this idea, that you need to keep your knees together. And for me physically, that’s just impossible. Because basically my hips are too fat I would say. And to holding knees always together would make my organ playing and pedaling simply impossible. So basically I just don’t worry about it. And in Baroque music, while playing Bach, I just don’t know how this could help you to make a good articulation in the pedal. V: The probably more important than keeping knees together is to try to play with the toes, the big toes of the feet in that portion of the feet. Not sure if it’s possible for Andrew, because he says his legs are twisted slightly outwards. But see what he can do, right? How much he can shift his feet, how much he can play with the inner portion of the feet. A: Well, because you really need to adjust every rule to yourself and not to blindly follow it, but to see what works for you and what does not work. V: Yes. It wouldn’t be placing knees together, but it would be in that direction a little bit. Whatever is comfortable to you. A: Yes. And maybe you need to adjust the height of the bench better, or to sit closer to the manuals. You just need to experiment to find what works best for you. And actually your body will tell you, because if you are keeping your knees together and it’s causing you pain or really you feel very uncomfortable, then don’t do that. Don’t follow it blindly. V: Yes. Always stop and rest before you’re tired. And that would be the best way to practice also. So thank you so much Andrew for your question and answer, and being an active member of the Total Organist Community. This is really precious. A: Yes, thank you very much. 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 Buy Me a Coffee platform and get early access: A: Find out more at https://buymeacoffee.com/organduo Today I'd like to share with you Recessional in D Major, Op. 2 by my friend Dr. Steven Monrotus, composer and organist from the US who is the author of the blog "Organ Bench": www.organbench.com This piece was dedicated to me some years ago and I have recorded it at Vilnius University St John's church using the keyboard style without pedals. Steven recently asked me to record it with pedals at our church. Hope you will enjoy it! Score: www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/recessional-in-d-major-for-organ-digital-sheet-music/22320050?aff_id=454957 We support Ukraine: www.blue-yellow.lt/en If you like what I do, you can buy me some coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/organduo PayPal: PayPal.Me/VPinkevicius My Hauptwerk setup: www.organduo.lt/tools.html Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online: www.organduo.lt/total-organist Secrets of Organ Playing - When You Practice, Miracles Happen! organduo.lt Listen to my organ playing on Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/0ckKPIvTWucoN3CZwGodCO?si=YWy7_0HqRvaZwBcovL-RKg Could this be the shortest piece that Cesar Franck wrote? It has only 3 measures. It's Amen in C Major from l'Organiste. Here are the chords: C C6 F Am G C (or in the functional harmony I-I6-IV-vi-V-I) There's also another Amen in F Major from the same collection which is 3 measures long but I chose the first one for this video. I have recorded it using Hauptwerk Nancy sample set. Let me know what you think! We support Ukraine: https://www.blue-yellow.lt/en If you like what I do, you can buy me some coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/organduo PayPal: https://PayPal.Me/ausramotuzaite My Hauptwerk setup: https://www.organduo.lt/tools.html Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online: https://www.organduo.lt/total-organist Secrets of Organ Playing - When You Practice, Miracles Happen! https://organduo.lt Listen to my organ playing on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2pXxZgiFPMKiqBRYi9rSLT?si=Xe1nTroTSmOGPtv8bP8MSw I wish more of such beautiful organ music would be sounding during Roman Catholic Masses today. I recorded this Elevation in D Major by Louis Alfred James Lefebure-Wely while on vacation in Palanga near the Baltic Sea with Ausra. She did the camera work behind the scenes. Hope you will enjoy my folding MIDI keyboard and the sounds of Hauptwerk Salgareda sample set! We support Ukraine: https://www.blue-yellow.lt/en If you like what I do, you can buy me some coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/organduo PayPal: https://PayPal.Me/VPinkevicius My Hauptwerk setup: https://www.organduo.lt/tools.html Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online: https://www.organduo.lt/total-organist Secrets of Organ Playing - When You Practice, Miracles Happen! https://organduo.lt Listen to my organ playing on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0ckKPIvTWucoN3CZwGodCO?si=YWy7_0HqRvaZwBcovL-RKg |
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
|