Do you ever feel like practicing organ the right way is a really great burden? Or perhaps you are frustrated that you can't master some particular place in your organ piece? If this happens, very often people feel lack of patience and want to stop practicing organ or they might take another piece without properly learning the current one. Fighting this problem is easier than you think. In this article, I will give you tips and advice on how to overcome lack of patience when practicing organ playing.
First of all, let's imagine that your dream in organ playing is being able to play the great works of Bach. This is a great dream, of course, which requires a great plan and wise practice. Obviously, this dream is a long-term one because it will take at least several years of concentrated effort from your part. So it is only natural that sometimes you might get frustrated and feel a rising impatience which slows down your progress.
If your lack of patience is holding you back from realizing your dream, then of course you have to persevere. I'm not immune from this problem either. However, it helps if I remember my goal which might be very specific, like master a specific piece, prepare for a recital etc.
So I guess if you experience lack of patience, remember your grand dream of being able to play on a good level big Bach's organ works. Or even better, subdivide your big dream into several others of a smaller scale, like learning a particular piece in a particular number of days. This will be your short-term goal or dream. Then think of what steps you should take in order to realize your dream.
For example, your dream might be to master Bach's Prelude and Fugue in C-major, BWV 553 in 2 weeks. This fantastic composition, the first from 8 Little Preludes and Fugues has 3 pages of 4 lines each which makes 12 lines total. In order to learn this piece in 2 weeks, you will have to learn 1 line a day and repeat the previously learn lines every day. So in about 12 days you will have learned this prelude and fugue.
This will be your plan. However, you are probably aware that the fugue is usually more difficult than the prelude to learn because of its polyphonic imitative writing style. It may well happen that you run into several problematic place while learning the fugue (especially when there are pedal entrances). And all of a sudden you want to quit practicing this piece and take another composition which is easier to learn. That's a very realistic situation for many organists.
So if you ever face a problem of losing patience and running away from the organ bench, think of your plan. Then no matter how impatient you might be or how boring it may be to practice this piece, all you have to do is to stick to your plan and continue practicing the right way which will lead you to success.
You just have to remember that sticking to your plan is like going from place A to place B on a train. Your plan is like train tracks and if you just follow these tracks, you will inevitably reach your destination.
On the contrary, if you give up practicing for some reason, lose patience or switch to an easier piece without properly mastering the current one, then you are sacrificing your progress. This is a very good thing to remember because your time is very limited and precious.
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.
Many beginner organists struggle with reading 3 staves of organ score. They have the obvious question - is it possible to look at all 3 of them simultaneously or is it better to pick one part and focus on it exclusively while playing the others from memory? Or perhaps is there another solution to this intricate problem? In this article, you will find some tips for your organ practice which will help you to read organ scores easier.
First of all, let me explain how people who struggle with sight-reading play from the organ score. Usually they look at the left hand part most of the time and play other parts almost from memory.
This is especially true when they play pedals. Since pedals are the most difficult part to master, many have a tendency to look at the pedal board. This is not so great. Unless playing from memory, we should force ourselves to look at the organ score exclusively.
So is it really possible to play the organ while looking at the 3 parts at the same time? In order to understand the complexity of this question, we need to know how our brain works.
I have to say, that it is impossible for a human brain to process several different things simultaneously. We can pay real attention to only one thing at a time. We may think we can watch TV and eat at the same time, or drive a car and talk on the cell phone but in reality, our focus is always shifting from one task to another.
The same rule is valid in organ playing, too. When we play from a 3-stave score, we have to constantly shift our attention from the right hand to the left hand to the pedals. So it's OK for you to play and look at the left hand stave. It is only natural to look at it while playing because normally it is more difficult than the right hand part (at least for right-handed organists).
Perhaps even better is to shift our attention constantly from one part to another. For example, depending on the difficulty level of each part, you can focus on the left hand part in one measure and on the pedal part - in another. If there is a manual change in this piece, perhaps look at the part which has this change and so on.
Remember that you will most likely behave differently when sight-reading and playing a composition which you know very well. The thing is the work you are sight-reading is completely unfamiliar to you and you will need to pay attention to many details and constantly shift your focus from one part to another.
A little different story is with composition you know well. The deeper is your knowledge of this piece, the less you have to look at the score. Obviously, the piece you have already memorized does not require any looking or following the score at all.
Since every person is different, you can discover by yourself where you look while playing by selecting two pieces of your choice. One composition has to be completely new and another - already mastered (memorization is not required). Compare your behavior and eye movements while playing each work. Finally, the more you play from the scores (both new and familiar), the better you will become at reading them.
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.
Many church organists have a dream in giving their best on Sunday services and learning new pieces to enhance their worship playing. However, sometimes they might lack motivation to practice new music because their might have good sight-reading skills. If you find yourself in this situation, I will give you some ideas which will help you to solve this problem and to advance in organ playing.The goal to learn new music as opposed to sight-read them is wonderful. In fact, the two are strongly connected.You see, if your primary goal is to play in church, then this might well be your motivation behind learning new music for services. You don't need to play everything new every Sunday since this will be a very great burden. You want to enjoy music and not to feel like you have to prepare something new in a short amount of time.Usually there are 4 places for organ music in the worship service of various denominations today (prelude, offertory, communion, and postlude). One possibility for you would be to learn one new short work each week or every two weeks and repeat others from your current repertoire. This piece does not have to be long nor too complicated. In fact, a chorale prelude of 1-2 pages is an optimum duration for liturgical organ playing.If you like sight-reading, this does not necessarily mean you should stop practicing it. In fact, this is a tremendous tool in any organist's arsenal of skills. Many people would like to get better at sight-reading, so if you already have reasonable skills, you have an advantage. An ability to play unfamiliar music at sight makes a process of learning new pieces much easier.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.
I often suggest organists two practice both sight-reading and learning new material regularly. This ensures that both skills are being developed at the same time.The ultimate goal would be to be able to play the music that you love at sight fluently, without interruptions, and mistakes. However, you are probably thinking that nobody can achieve this level.There is a story about Bach, who was a great sight-reader and usually could play anything written on the music sheet. But one day during his visit with his friend he made a mistake on the harpsichord by trying to play the same spot three times in a row and said: "No, it is not possible to sight-read everything".So the take-away message for you would be to take a piece of your choice and practice it on a deeper level for church service. For best results work in separate voices and voice combinations. Practice in short fragments to avoid mistakes.
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.
Many organists tell me that mistakes can be very difficult to fix in organ playing. If they fail to correct the mistake or can't play the piece fluently and without interruptions, they feel like they have to give up practicing organ and do something else. In this article, I will share 6 tips with you of how I overcome frustration when playing the organ.When playing the organ, I make mistakes, too and I get frustrated, of course. But for me it is inspiring to know that many other famous organists have taken the same path and had similar problems I have.In fact, the great Bach himself was known to have superb sight-reading skills. He had a habit of playing some unfamiliar pieces on the harpsichord while visiting with his friends. Usually he could sight-read them very well on the first try.But one time, as he was playing one particular work on the harpsichord, he got stuck at one spot. He stopped, went back a few lines, played it again, and got stuck at the same spot for the second time. Surprised, he tried again the same thing but made a mistake in the same place for the third time. Then he said, "No, it is not possible to play everything."Isn't this an encouraging thought? To think that the genius who was said to be able to play anything written on the music score by his contemporaries, himself admitted the limitations of human nature.So what does it mean for you? You see, it's OK to make mistakes. When you try to correct them and it doesn't help, it doesn't necessarily mean you should give up your organ playing because of this.Have you taken note of how many times do you usually try to correct the mistake before you give up? Thomas Edison, the inventor of light bulb, was known to have 10000 failed attempts in this project but he didn't give up. And of course, organ playing is a lot easier than inventing a light bulb. You will not need so many repetitions.You just have to approach this problem from a different angle and perspective. This will help you to stay positive. Here are some things that are worth remembering:1. Try to remember your goal. It could be both short-term and long-term goal in organ playing.2. Create a daily practice schedule. This schedule or plan will help you to know the steps necessary to achieve your goal.3. When you practice, always take a slow tempo. Practicing very slowly helps to avoid mistakes.4. Choose pieces of your technical level. Many people take compositions that are too difficult for them at the moment. Save them for the future.5. Learn the piece in separate voices and voice combinations. This is especially helpful for playing polyphonic music, such as fugues.6. Master short fragments first and later combine them together. This technique helps to correct mistakes very quickly.Try these 6 tips today in your organ practice and you will be surprised how much easier is to stay positive and not to give up your organ playing.
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.
Every organist sooner or later has to face the question of what is the most efficient way in memorizing music. Since every person is different, it is no surprise that we all use different systems when it comes to learning and playing music by heart. Discover the main approaches in memorizing organ music by picking the answers from this quiz that suits your learning style.How do you memorize organ music?A. I learn in fragments of 4 measures. This is a system that the French master organist Marcel Dupre used in his playing and teaching. Basically, you have to subdivide the piece into many fragments each having 4 measures. Then you memorize measures 1, 2, 3, and 4 of this fragment separately always starting and finishing on the downbeat. Repeat each measure as many times as you need to master it.Then learn 2 measures (1-2, 2-3, and 3-4), 3 measures (1-2-3 and 2-3-4), and finally, 4 measures (1-2-3-4). After you master these 4 measures, go on to the next fragment, memorize it in the above manner and so on.B. I learn in separate voices and voice combinations. The famous German blind organist Helmut Walcha was fond of this system. This approach is especially valuable for learning polyphonic organ music, such as fugues, Baroque chorale preludes, music of Bach etc.You first learn soprano, alto, tenor, and bass, separately from the beginning until the end. Then memorize combinations of two voices (soprano-alto, soprano-tenor, soprano-bass, alto-tenor, alto-bass, tenor-bass) and three voices (soprano-alto-tenor, soprano-alto-bass, soprano-tenor-bass, alto-tenor-bass). Finally, play all four voices from memory.C. I learn by memorizing a piece in fragments of one measure and later doubling their size. With this system you start by learning a piece and stopping every measure. Then play two measures at a time from the beginning until the end. Then master your piece in fragments of four measures, one line, two lines, one page, two pages and so on.D. Depending on the difficulty and style of the piece any of the above.E. I don't use any particular system for memorization. I just play my organ piece many times over and over and somehow naturally the music sinks into my memory.F. I am scared to death of memorization and believe that only geniuses can play the music by heart.If your answer was A, B, C, or D it means that you have a system for memorization and this process is more of a science than art for you. If your answer was E, I suspect that sometimes you might struggle in playing the piece from memory not to mention the process of memorization.If you answered F, then you could give it a try and discover the strengths and weaknesses of each approach by starting to memorize an organ piece of your choice today. Having a system of some sort will make this task much easier than you might think and you will have a lot of fun in the process.
Do you have your own system in memorizing music? You can share your answer in the comment section below.
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.
Some organists have electronic organs with one octave pedal board at home which they use for practice. While this idea is very practical, such organists have to face several difficulties with this kind of instrument. In this article, I will discuss what problems arise when organist has an electronic organ for practice purpose and how these difficulties might be overcome.
One octave pedal board may be the cause of the back pain, if used incorrectly. It might arise from playing with the right foot in the bottom of the pedal board of such organ. This kind of instrument is mean to be played with the left foot most of the time. And of course not that kind of music with the independent pedal part like most of classical polyphonic organ music. Incidentally, the right foot usually is busy operating the swell pedal and pressing the toe studs where available.
Originally, the electronic organs with the short pedal board were intended either for playing classical transcriptions from popular works or the arrangements of tunes from pop music. In both cases, the texture is rather homophonic with the melody in one hand (usually in the right) and chordal accompaniment in another.
The pedal part in such music is mostly the bass voice which only supports the chords and serves as harmonic foundation. Very seldom it is required to play an independent melodic line in the pedal part of such arrangements. Therefore, one can easily use only the pitches of the available one octave to play the harmonic foundation with or without some rhythmical syncopation.
Contrary to such arrangements, in classical organ music the pedal part is very often independent. The organist is required to use the entire compass of the two-octave pedal board, often playing the higher notes up to treble F. Naturally, performance of most of organ music on electronic organs with one octave pedal board is quite challenging.
The solution for this problem is rather simple. The organist could try to extend the short pedal board by attaching a wooden board with similar dimensions as the pedal board. One can go even further and draw the rest of the notes on this wooden board. This way it is possible to pretend and imagine the full pedal board very easily (and avoid dangerous tension in the back).
Some organists try to compensate the short compass of the pedal board by lowering the pedal part in various places of the music score. This is a possible solution to the problem but is rather inconvenient and might cause some frustration. Instead, it is probably better to extend the pedals with a wooden board.
If you will continue playing pedals on your electronic organ, it is best if you avoid playing with the right foot on the extreme left side of the pedal board while practicing. This may mean adjusting the pedaling when necessary. In addition, use the idea of extending your pedals. Otherwise, you could try to get some practice time in churches that have organs with pedals of at least two octaves in compass in your area.
By the way, do you want to learn to play the King of Instruments - the pipe organ? If so, download my FREE video guide: "How to Master Any Organ Composition" in which I will show you my EXACT steps, techniques, and methods that I use to practice, learn and master any piece of organ music.
In order to achieve success in organ playing, you need to have some guidelines and someone who can help you to reach your goals. This is why having a good mentor, instructor, or a coach is vitally important if you are serious about playing organ. In this article, I will describe the ways how a mentor can help you advance in organ playing.
A good mentor is the one who has sufficient expertise, solid training, education, and experience in teaching others to play the organ. He or she would help you in many ways in becoming a better organist.
Typically in an organ lesson, you would just need to bring your clean organ score and a notebook. Your instructor would help you to write in all the fingering, pedaling, registration, articulation - all of these details. In addition, your instructor may even teach you how to mark all these details. He or she would write the step-by-step plan for your daily practice in order to master an organ piece.
All you need to do then is to follow your instructor's directions and you will inevitably succeed. A true instructor knows how to master the piece you will be playing because he or she has done so himself or herself many times. In fact, a real expert may have mastered a thousand or more pieces like the one you will be learning.
However, personal coaching is valid when you trust your instructor and when he or she is really good, of course. But of course one thing is even more important here - you have to have the inner motivation to succeed.
The thing is that your mentor cannot do the work for you. He or she cannot learn and master the piece for you. You have to do the work. Your instructor can show you the way to success but you have to take that road and travel yourself.
So you have to trust your instructor and try to do your best. The more precisely you follow your instructors directions, the faster will you progress in organ playing. If your instructor says to practice for 30 minutes every day and you only play your piece for 20 minutes 3 times a week, you know it won't work.
If your instructor tells you to practice every fragment of your piece until you get it right 3 times in a row and you only play your piece 3 times from the beginning until the end without correcting your mistakes, you know that your advancement will be much slower.
Sometimes there are situations when we feel lost, when we loose our focus and inner motivation to succeed and persevere. That's where our instructor or a mentor comes in. A good mentor will push you a little further each time and will help you to find your motivation.
As you can see, overcoming the obstacles in organ playing is not an easy task. However, all the difficulties may be overcome with the right way of practicing and trusting your mentor. The reward for your hard work will be that you can truly enjoy any piece you are learning and progress further in your journey towards perfecting your organ playing.
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.
Some organists live in an area where finding a decent practice organ is difficult. They may even have to drive for many miles to play the organ. However, the solution might be quite simple, without the constant need of commuting. In this article, I will give you 4 powerful techniques for practicing organ playing without an organ.
1) Practice on the piano. Practicing organ pieces on the piano also helps to build up your technique. For this practice to work you would only need to use the special organ touch on the piano (mp) without using too much force. And of course, replicate the necessary organ articulation. If your organ piece has a pedal line, you can imagine it and play it on the floor.
Yes, you don't see the pedals this way, but what is more important, you are making the necessary movements with your feet. You can sing the pedal part while playing the rest on the piano. This will help to listen to the pedal line (and will develop your ear training). See my article about piano practice for more details.
2) Practice on the table. You can take your organ practice one step further. Play your manual part on the table, and the pedal on the floor. I have written about this technique in detail in this article.
By the way, I use the piano practice to prepare for recitals whenever I stay at my summer cottage where I have the piano. The table practice works fine for me when I'm traveling. Just last Friday, I had a concert in the famous Riga Cathedral where I stayed at the hotel and practiced on the table. It worked great.
3) Practice with your organ score only. This is a very effective way of practicing but not too many people use it. For this practice to work, you don't need any instrument at all, just your organ score. In fact, you don't even need a table for your finger work. All you need is to imagine your music and your playing while looking at the score.
As you practice this way, try to follow the music with your eyes and focus on each measure. The more details you can imagine and notice, the better your practice will be. You can notice the fingering, pedaling, articulation and other elements. Very often when we play an instrument, our minds will wonder around and we loose focus which is not a very effective way of practicing. You will be surprised, how much your focus will improve when you practice using your organ score only.
4) Memorize the piece and don‘t use any instrument. This technique is a continuation of the previous tip. We all know the power of practicing from memory even though we perform the music from the score. By memorizing the piece you will know it on a much deeper level. You will internalize the piece – that is why they call it „playing by hearth“.
However, this tip takes memorization even one step further. Here you don‘t need an organ, piano, or table. Just imagine that you are playing the piece the way described in the third tip. Your fingers and feet should not move. In fact, you can practice this way while lying in bed – just before you fall asleep for the night. Again, the more detail you can imagine, the better.
This will be a tremendous help for improving your focus also. If you are not used to it, at first you will find hard to even imagine one line because your focus might be not as strong. However, with time you will be able to complete the entire piece without losing focus.
Note that these tips are not a real substitute for organ practice, but if you can combine organ, piano, table, organ score, and your memory regularly - you will have a powerful practice routine. Try any or all of the above techniques today. You will save a lot of gas money this way needed for commuting.
You can also 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.
One of the main things that keeps many organists from practicing is the lack of time. They say they would want to play the organ more but their job takes so much of their time, not to mention commuting, their families and other important tasks they have to do during the day. However, I believe it is possible to squeeze in more organ practice time in your day. Try applying the following 6 tips and you will be able to spend more time playing organ without sacrificing your other important responsibilities.
1) Prioritize your time. Take a look at your daily tasks and try to make a list of them on the sheet of paper. You will have 10 or more things that you do each day. You will be surprised that some of the things are not really important. So number this list from the most important to the ones that can be omitted. This way you will be able to have more time for organ practice.
2) Practice during TV commercials. You may not realize this but TV commercials might be a great time to practice organ playing. Usually there are 3 or more times when commercials are shown during a show or a film. Each commercial might last at least 5 minutes. This gives you to play the organ at least for 15 minutes or even longer.
3) Practice longer on the weekends. If you work from 8 to 5 on weekdays, then the most productive time for your organ playing might be the weekends. You can spend even 2-3 hours on the organ bench this way. However, make sure you rest every 30 minutes, stretch, have a drink and relax your mind and body.
4) Limit distractions. If you look at the usual day of an ordinary person, you will soon notice at least several distractions which are serious wasters of time and energy, if used not efficiently. These are various social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and many others. Note that I am not suggesting you should avoid them completely. Just check your email twice a day. The same applies for social networking sites. You can spend the time saved on your organ practice.
5) Get up earlier or stay up longer. The great times for organ playing during the day are mornings or evenings. 30 minutes might be all you need for practice. Note that you can spend this time doing other important tasks that you need to accomplish which in turn will allow for more organ practice time during the day.
6) Have a constant practice schedule. Whatever time you choose for your organ playing, make it constant. Put it on your calendar so that you will know the exact time each day for playing the organ. Let your family members know about your commitment and ask for their support.
Although these tips may seem self-evident, only surprisingly small number of people put them into action. Many of them would want to spend more time practicing the organ but they lack perseverance to see their commitment through. Just like anything worthwhile, organ practice takes conscious effort from the organist's part but if you stay focused on your goal, you too, can do it.
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.
Many organists share a common dream - to be able to play effortlessly on the organ like the masters do. They want to achieve this level, when the listeners have the impression that their fingers and feet play without any conscious effort from their part. If you would like to reach such heights in organ playing, study the following 6 tips.
1) Pay attention to details. When you are practicing a new organ composition, make sure that musical text is correct. This includes playing without mistakes such details as notes, rhythms, fingering, pedaling, articulation, phrasing, ornaments and registration. To achieve the best results, play the above points at least 3 times correctly in a row.
2) Develop a good finger and pedal technique. If you truly wish to play the organ at the level of world-class organists, you should regularly practice some special finger and pedal exercises which will strengthen your technique. My personal favorite exercise collections are Hanon's "Virtuoso Pianist" and George Ritchie's and George Stauffer's Örgan Technique: Modern and Early.
3) Use pedal and finger preparation. This technique is one of the main tricks used for playing automation. In order to successfully implement it in your practice, try to work in short fragments repeatedly. As you depress one pedal with one foot, slide the other foot in a position for the next note immediately and let it rest there waiting for its turn to play. The same principle applies in finger preparation.
4) Correct your mistakes. If you play your organ composition from the beginning until the end, there is a high risk of making mistakes in many places. It is best to work in fragments of 1-8 measures at a time depending on the level of difficulty. Once you make a mistake, go back to the beginning of the fragment, correct your mistake and play this fragment at least 3 times.
5) Practice in a slow tempo. Your organ playing will be much more precise if you practice at a tempo in which you can avoid mistakes. This usually means taking a slow tempo. Remember that practice is not the same as performance. While performing the piece you might be required to play much faster, slow down in your everyday practice to achieve the best results.
6) Keep your fingers and your feet in contact with the keyboard and the pedal board at all times. This technique will allow you to feel the keyboard and the pedal board better. This means that although the finger or the foot is not playing, it should still be touching the key or the pedal. Just let them rest on the keys or the pedals.
As you can see, your practice should be very focused and precise. You must have a very clear picture of what it is you are trying to accomplish in each practice session. If you want to be able to play the organ effortlessly like any of the top-level organists can, start using the above 6 tips today.
You can also 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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