Four Things Every Organist Should Know When Working With Choir Director

03/04/2012

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Many church organists have to deal with choir directors every week. Their duties include interacting with directors, accompanying the choir during rehearsals and services. Even concert organists often play the organ part in choir concerts. Knowing what to expect from the choir conductor might save them much time in preparation and frustration in performance. In this article, I will share with you 4 things that are common for many choir directors and conductors which every organist should be aware of.

Conductors often like fast tempos. Very often choir directors take too fast tempos when performing with the organ. In a church setting, we have to be aware not only of the original tempo indication but also
of the acoustics of the space. If your church has huge reverberation, chances are that the tempo has to be more moderate, even though it is written allegro, vivo, or vivacein the score. If your choir director forgets about adjusting to the acoustics, politely remind him or her about that.

Conductors might forget to show when the organist should to start playing. It is not uncommon that the choir director is under a lot of stress during rehearsal or performance because there is so much to think about. Among the things that they might forget to indicate is the organ entrance. This might happen if the choir part enters after the organ. Be prepared for such situation and ask politely if they could show you the organ entrance.

Conductors might forget to show when the organist should stop playing. This issue is the exact opposite of the previous point. If the choir finishes the piece earlier than the organist, normally you would expect that choir director would show the ending for the organ part as well. However, be prepared to finish on your own. This is OK, if both of you have mutual understanding. Otherwise discuss this issue with your conductor during the rehearsal. This might save you some guessing and frantic movements in a stressful performance situation.

Conductors do not always wait for registration changes. Although the organist often has to change registration during the piece by hand, not every choir director will be aware of the challenge of this task. They might start a new episode or even a different piece without waiting for organ stop changes. If you feel that you need more time in order to successfully change your registration, politely ask your conductor to wait for you. Looking at the mirror and having eye contact always helps.

Keep these things in mind when working with your choir director either in the
rehearsal, service or a concert. As a result, your performance be more
successful.

The practical techniques of accompanying the choir with or without a conductor are discussed in Organ Technique: Modern and Early by George Ritchie and George Stauffer which I highly recommend.

By the way, do you want to learn to play the King of Instruments - the pipe
organ? If so, download my FREE video guide: "How to Master Any Organ Composition" in which I will show you my EXACT steps, techniques, and methods that I use to practice, learn and master any piece of organ music.
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How to Lead the Choir and Play the Organ at the Same Time?

02/08/2012

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In many churches, in addition to playing the organ organists must also lead the choir. This often happens in smaller congregations were funds are limited to hire a separate choir director. Conducting and leading the choir require very different skills and education than that of an organist. Today I would like to give you some advice on how to lead the choir and play the organ at the same time.

Lead with Your Head

When you play the organ and want to be able to conduct the choir, you can lead with your head. This means that whenever you need to show your choristers the entrances, simply use your head movements. Similarly, your choir members will know from your head when to stop singing. Just imagine that your head is your arm and make small but exact movements. In order to show your choir the entrance, try to move your head downward and at the same instant upward with one crisp motion.

Play Three Voices in the Right Hand

If you play the hymn on the organ and need to conduct your choir, you will need at least one free hand to do that. This means that you should take soprano, alto, and tenor in the right hand (because the hymn tune is in soprano) and play the bass with your feet on the pedals. However, quite often you will find that because of the open chord position, it is not possible to play more than two voices with one hand. If this is the case, another option would be to rearrange the chord position into a close position.

In open position chord, the three upper voices can be more than an interval of the fourth but not more than an octave apart. The simplest means to achieve the close position while maintaining the soprano part intact is by flipping the alto and tenor voices. Imagine a C major chord in an open position, such as c-g-e1-c2. The alto takes the e1 and the tenor – g which requires two hands to play the chord. Now flipping the alto with the tenor you will get c-e1-g1-c2 and you can play the three upper notes with the right hand easily. The entire hymn can be rearranged this way while preserving the original voice leading. This technique takes some practice, of course.

Conduct with the Left Hand

Now when you play with your feet and your right hand only, you can conduct with the left hand. Simply use whatever scheme you need to conduct the meter properly. Use your free hand to show choir entrances and stops also. You can even make some dynamics with your free hand. If your movements are small, your choir will sing softly. To achieve a stronger sound, use wider movements. Make sure that you point to the correct portion of your choir if only a part of it is entering at any particular spot.

Practice Conducting and Playing at the Same Time

If you try to conduct and play at the same time, you will notice right away how tricky it might be. It is very easy to hit the wrong notes or start conducting incorrectly or both. This happens because your hands must accomplish very different tasks. In other words, you need to achieve hand coordination. Perhaps even more importantly, your brain must also do the same. In order to achieve the fluency while conducting and playing at the same time, you will need to practice your movements. Practice your hymns or anthems ahead of time. Repeat the small sections as many times as you need to do them correctly at least three times in a row. Then combine the shorter fragments into longer episodes.

The practical techniques of accompanying the choir with or without a conductor are discussed in Organ Technique: Modern and Early by George Ritchie and George Stauffer which I highly recommend.

By the way, do you want to learn to play the King of Instruments - the pipe organ? If so, download my FREE video guide: "How to Master Any Organ Composition" in which I will show you my EXACT steps, techniques, and methods that I use to practice, learn and master any piece of organ music.
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How to Achieve Legato in Playing Anthems and Choral Accompaniments on the Organ?

02/08/2012

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For many church organists, service playing involves not only performing hymns but also accompanying choir in anthems. One of the main difficulties in playing choral accompaniments on the organ is the legato touch. Although many different kinds of articulation are used in accompanying the choir on the organ, the legato is the most common. Without the proper legato the music might sound too choppy. In this article, I would like to give you some advice on how to achieve legato in playing anthems and choral accompaniments on the organ.

Write in Fingering

Very often people do not play with a good legato because they do not know the best fingering. Because it is harder to use the proper fingering if it is not written in the score, I suggest that you write in your fingering. It is especially important that places which are the most difficult in achieving legato would be fully fingered. Do not hesitate to change the fingering if you find a better solution. However, erase the old markings and write in the new ones as you practice for best results. The same applies for the pedal part, of course.

Finger Substitution

Finger substitution is generally accepted as the most common means to achieve a perfect legato on the organ. However, it should be used wisely. For example, most often there is no need to apply finger substitution in a one voice passage because the legato can be achieved by using position, scale and arpeggio fingering in such a case. However, for episodes which require playing more than one voice in one hand, you can use finger substitution technique. Basically how it works is like this. While holding the same key with one finger, you substitute it with another finger.  In chromatic music, this technique can work on chords where you substitute more than one finger at a time (double or even triple substitution).

Finger Glissando

If finger substitution cannot be achieved and all your fingers are busy, another option would be to use finger glissando. With this technique, you slide from one key to another using only one finger. In some cases, double glissando is also a possibility (sliding from two sharp keys to two natural keys). However, make sure that there is no other way to achieve the legato besides glissando. Quite often you can take the burden of one hand by playing a few notes with another hand. Whatever you choose, always write in your solution in the score.

Finger Crossing

Like finger glissando, finger crossing is not a very popular technique but sometimes it is necessary to use it. In finger crossing, you place the longer finger over the shorter one and vice versa. This technique is useful in playing wider intervals, like sixths, sevenths, and octaves legato. Usually finger crossing works best with fingers 3, 4, and 5.

If you take my advice, write in fingering and use finger substitution, glissando, or crossing in your choral accompaniments, you can achieve a perfect legato even with small hands. More often than not the legato playing depends not on the size of the hands but on the choice of the fingering.

The practical techniques of accompanying the choir with or without a conductor are discussed in Organ Technique: Modern and Early by George Ritchie and George Stauffer which I highly recommend.

By the way, do you want to learn to play the King of Instruments - the pipe organ? If so, download my FREE video guide: "How to Master Any Organ Composition"  in which I will show you my EXACT steps, techniques, and methods that I use to practice, learn and master any piece of organ music.
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