Are you struggling with your pedal technique and have a temptation to look at your feet while playing the organ? It is important that you overcome the need of looking at the pedals and focus your attention to the organ score. If you are experiencing such problems while playing pedals, it means you are at the stage of development as an organist when you don’t know your pedal board well enough. Therefore, you naturally want to look at the pedals. The sooner you get over this challenge, the better your organ technique will become. So, how to look at the score and be able to play the correct notes with your feet?
Play with the inside of your feet and point your knees inward. Very often organists who struggle with their pedal technique place their feet in such a way that the pedals are depressed by the outside of the feet. Such habit is especially common among men. This is because men are normally larger than women and they have different sitting habits. Usually when men sit, they do not keep their knees together.
If you sit this way on the organ bench, this simply means, you will depress the pedals with the outside of the feet. However, the precision in pedal playing can be attained if you play with the inside of your feet. So this means, that even men have to try to keep the knees together or at least point their knees inward. Therefore, try to depress the pedals with the inside portion of your feet or with the big toes. If you play this way, gradually your technique will become much more precise, you will get used to the pedal board faster and will not need to look at your feet.
Do not use force. It is not uncommon for organists with previous piano experience to use excess power in their playing. They transfer their background from piano to the organ and press the keys in the same manner. On the piano, dynamics can be achieved by using more or less power but on the organ this method is useless because the keyboard does not react to the applied force.
We can see the same situation in pedal playing when organists depress the pedals with so much energy that there are unnecessary sounds. Such playing can even damage the pedal action. Is you use too much force when playing with your feet, you might feel some strain and tension in your legs and ankles which might lead to mistakes. So, if you want your pedal technique to become very precise, play the pedals mezzo piano. In other words, use only the amount of energy which is needed to depress the pedals and not more.
If you want to achieve the level when you will feel and know your pedal board very well, focus on the organ score, point your knees inward, play with the inside portion of your feet, and do not use unnecessary power.If you are interested in perfecting your pedal technique, an invaluable resource is Organ Technique: Modern and Early by George Ritchie and George Stauffer.
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.
This is Part 2 (steps 5 and 6) of the article about how to use hymns which help you to achieve hand independence in your organ playing. You can read Part 1 here (steps 1 through 4).
5. Take the tune in the left hand and use the thirds and the sixths in the right hand and repeat the steps 1 through 4. By now probably you are starting to realize that we are developing your left hand technique while the right hand plays the hymn tune only. This step will teach you how to play faster notes in the right hand as well. Now play the hymn tune in the left hand as written but add an extra voice in the right hand, first note against note as in step 1. You may sometimes use the notes from the bass line in your right hand, but it will not always sound nice.
By the way, the technique when you invert the voices and play the top voice in the bass and vice versa is called invertible counterpoint. Invertible counterpoint is indispensable polyphonic trick to use if you want to create any imitative polyphonic piece, as invention, fughette, or a fugue. As I mentioned before, this technique will not always work with your hymns, because there will be instances when you will find the interval of the fifth between the original bass and the soprano voice which in inversion will become a forbidden fourth (it is not actually forbidden, but its use is greatly limited and specialized).
At any rate, the best way to construct your new soprano line in this step is to use the thirds and the sixths against the bass which always sound nice and sweet. After note against note exercise becomes easy, play two against one, three against one, and finally, four against one as you did in the steps 2 through 4.
6. Alternate motion between the hands. Steps 1 through 5 will develop your hand independence and teach you about a special kind of polyphony – contrasting polyphony - where voices are independent but very different both melodically and rhythmically. However, if you want to move your hand independence and polyphony to the next level, step 6 will do exactly that. It is called imitative polyphony when voices are independent but at the same time they have much in common – they imitate each other either melodically or rhythmically or both.
In order to achieve that, try to alternate movements between the hands. For example, in measure 1 let the soprano move in faster notes, in measure 2, this will be done by the bass part etc. You see, one voice is stationary while the other moves; then they switch roles. After practicing this way for a while, you can alternate the motion every 2 beats and later even every beat. By the way, one hand can play step 2 and the other step 4 as well!
By practicing this way you can create nice choral partitas or variations which will also enhance your service playing. You can use these variations for hymn introductions or preludes. As promised, these steps will help you to develop your hand independence using two voice texture or bicinium, of course, but without knowing, actually, you will be improvising as well. In order to achieve the greatest results, I recommend you choose at least 10 different hymns and work your way through each of the above steps at a slow tempo. Do not proceed to the next step unless you can play slowly (but fluently) the previous step at least three times in a row correctly.
By the way, would you like to know more about any aspect of hymn playing on the organ? Please share them in your comments below and I will do my best to answer your questions.
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 struggle to be able to play challenging polyphonic organ compositions. Music by such great composers, like Bach, Buxtehude and others has many independent voices and very often more than one in one hand. To be able to perform such pieces with precision and confidence requires good hand independence. An organist has to have the skill to play rhythmically and melodically independent parts in different hands. Many people choose to play special exercises from various method books which obviously is a good way to achieve hand independence. However, what they might not realize is that the solution to advance in building this skill is waiting for them in the hymns they play every Sunday. Today I am going to share with you my easy 6 step approach on how to use hymns to develop hand independence.
1. Play soprano and bass parts from the hymnal. Do you have trouble playing the entire four part texture of your hymns? If so, just play the outer parts one in each hand. That should be easy enough for most people. If not, practice one hand at a time until you can play each of the two voices correctly at least three times in a row. When this becomes easy, try playing both voices together. Notice how well the hymn sounds this way. It is because the soprano and the bass are precisely the most important voices in such music. The soprano is the most melodically developed voice and the bass is the foundation of harmony.
2. Play soprano and bass parts 2 against 1. When the step 1 becomes easy, try adding an extra note in the bass line using eighth notes. If you see the repeated notes in the bass, play the lower or upper neighbor tone. If there are notes in stepwise motion, you can play thirds upwards if the melody is ascending or downwards if the line is descending. If the bass has leaps of a third, the easiest way is to play passing tones. As you might already notice, the main rule here is to arrive at the next bass note by step, either from above or from below.
3. Play soprano and bass parts 3 against 1. It this step, you will use eighth note triplets in your bass line. The melodic figures can be quite different, but again, try to arrive at the next bass note by stepwise motion. The nicest melodic lines can be constructed when the bass moves by an interval of a fourth.
4. Play soprano and bass parts 4 against 1. After the previous exercise has become easy, the next step is to add sixteenth notes in the bass against one soprano note. Again, the options for melodic figuration here are many, but try to calculate how many notes you have to play in stepwise motion before the next bass note. Consequently, sometimes the first interval will have to be a leap but the next three will be adjacent notes.
This article continues in Part 2 (steps 5 and 6).
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.
One of the main difficulties an organist can encounter is a weak left hand technique. An underdeveloped left hand can lead you into a number of problems when playing organ music. Very often organists have trouble playing more than one voice in the left hand. Additionally, when they encounter fast passages in an organ piece, their playing might lack precision and clarity. Consequently, majority of organ repertoire is inaccessible to them due to the underdeveloped left hand. If this sounds familiar to you, read on to find out how the left hand technique can be improved.
Obviously you can improve your left hand technique by playing special exercises on the piano or the organ. A great resource for the left hand technique is Piano Music for One Hand: A Collection of Studies, Exercises and Pieces
It is important to understand that both hands should be developed at a similar level. My favorite collection of daily exercises which develops both hands equally is Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist. This collection contains 60 exercises in three parts. The entire set takes about one hour to play in a concert tempo.
In the beginning, it may be enough for you to play just the first part – the basic 20 exercises which last about 20 minutes. Take one new exercise every week and master it. Practice it daily several times. With the following week practice 2 exercises without stopping, later 3, 4, and so on until after about 20 weeks you will know all 20 exercises. After that it will be sufficient to play the entire set of 20 exercises just once.
After they become easy, start adding more advanced exercises from the Part 2. I think you get the idea. When you reach the end of Part 2, your left hand technique will already be at the decent level. If you go even further and play the Part 3 (60 exercises total), you will achieve exactly what the title of this collection promises – the level of the virtuoso.
I have to admit that these exercises are a bit mechanical and it takes some willpower even to play through the Part 1, but the results are really great. It is a great way to develop your technique by only playing one hour a day. I can testify personally that whenever I have not enough time to practice my organ music, if only I continue to play through the set of Hanon exercises daily, my manual technique is in good shape.
I have to add that most of the time I practice them on my organ and not on the piano. Because organ mechanics might be lighter than the piano (at least on a small instrument), it is possible to add a coupler for more resistance. A great thing about practicing Hanon exercises on the organ is that you can turn the power off and play on the silent keyboard. That way you won’t annoy your family but the results will be the same.
A word of caution – always pay attention to how you are feeling. Some fatigue is OK but if you start to feel tension in your hands, you should stop at once and take some time to relax your hands and shake off the tension. This is really important if you want to reap the best results and not to hurt yourself.
Take a slow tempo at first (60, 50, even 40 beats per minute). Later you naturally start to play a little faster and faster until you reach 120 beats per minute.
If you continue practicing the exercises from Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist regularly, I can guarantee that you will see the definite changes in your left hand technique already after a few weeks. Real pianists spend playing etudes and other piano music several hours a day just to maintaining their keyboard technique. With the Hanon exercises you will only need about one hour a day because of the diversity of the exercises. Every imaginable classic piano technique and figure is included in the set, including tremolos, octaves, and scales in double thirds and sixths.
You may be thinking that theses exercises are good only for pianists. However, just think how much the legato Romantic organ technique was influenced by the piano technique in the French symphonic organ school (Widor and Vierne, for instance) and you will have no doubt about the benefits of the Hanon exercises for the organists.
The good thing about this collection is that at the end of the second part there is a set of exercises devoted to scales and arpeggios. So people who are fond of scales and arpeggios will find benefit from this collection as well. By the way, I play scales and arpeggios on two manuals because compass of the organ manuals is a little too short for some exercises. I recommend playing the exercises from Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist before your regular organ practice because it also serves as a fantastic warm-up.
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.
This is the second part of the article How to Achieve Accuracy in Manual Changes When Playing Organ. Make sure you read the first part because will find more useful suggestions.
Practice opposite changes. Because it is likely that you will encounter an organ where the Great is either the first or the second manual, it is also important to practice switching manuals the opposite way. This can be useful also because you will not always know which manual will serve you best in each specific situation. So you have to be prepared to jump upwards or downwards. I personally can testify how tricky it may be, especially if the organ is unfamiliar and you are mentally unprepared to make such adjustments.
I remember playing Bach’s D Minor Toccata and Fugue in one concert where the great was the second manual and the positive was the first. I thought I was mentally prepared for it but did not practice the actual manual changes the opposite way. In this concert, I had to jump downwards for echo effects in toccata. The first manual change was like a cold shower to me – I almost missed the manual. Luckily, at the last moment I remembered that this organ had positive in the lower manual and everything went well. Knowing that, I was on my guard for echo effects in the fugue. However, the feeling of having to jump the wrong way was quite strange. Lesson learned – always practice manual changes both ways, unless there is no other way to do that (like in thumbing down technique).
If only one manual is available, imitate manual changes. My organ students often ask me if it is really necessary to have a two manual organ at your disposal to practice manual changes. My answer is the definite NO. You can practice majority of organ repertoire on a one manual instrument, even on the piano. When the time comes to make a manual change, just imitate the movement you would do with you hands if you had several manuals. In other words, make a mental note of the change, physically move your hand upward or downward but continue playing on the same manual. This type of practice greatly saves time because it involves a powerful strategy – visualization. Using this technique, we visualize the manual switch and make appropriate movements with the hand but use only one keyboard.
Imitate the movements on the table. I explained how manual changes can be practiced on one keyboard but you may be surprised to find out that it could be done on the table as well. Just do all the movements of the hand and pretend you are playing the real organ and jump upwards or downwards for manual changes. This technique is a real time saver. You can practice on the table even during TV commercials. Imagine how much of your precious time that will save. Usually there are at least three commercials during a show or a movie each lasting at least 5 minutes. Practicing your manual changes this way will give you at least 15 minutes (most likely even more). This amount of time is surely more than enough to master at least one difficult manual change in the piece.
If you follow my suggestions, your accuracy will improve over time. Try to plan this in advance, practice slowly and repeatedly. When you hit the wrong note when changing manuals, always go back, correct the mistake and practice not until you play it correctly but until you can’t make the same mistake again. In other words, make your manual changes automatic. Take advantage of the piano or the table and the difficult jumps will become easy to you.
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.
Much of organ music is written for more than one manual. Quite often manual changes are required within composition which might be challenging to perform accurately. Organist may hit the wrong note accidentally, especially at the beginning stages of organ playing. This is especially dangerous when jumping over two or more manuals. Just like any other skill in organ art, careful planning and practice are needed to achieve accuracy in manual changes. Today I would like to give you some tips which will help you to avoid hitting the wrong notes when changing manuals.
Mark manual changes in the score. Although it might be tempting to have a clean score, it is always best to write in manual changes in your music, however obvious they might be. Mark not only the graphical representation but also write in which manual you will use. For example, if the right hand has to jump from the first manual to the second, write in the exact manual separation by drawing a line. In addition, at the exact place when manual change has to occur, write “II” in your score. This is indeed necessary to avoid confusion when performing the piece in public, at least until you will have more experience in organ playing.
Stay close to keyboards when changing manuals. Once you know the place where the switch has to be made, make sure that you only lift your hand or hands as little as possible from the keyboards. The distance between the manuals is about 5 cm (sometimes more) so your hand has to make a rather noticeable movement in order to reach a different manual. This is even more obvious when jumping from the first manual to the third manual or vice versa. For example, the distance between the manuals on my organ is 6.7 cm (when a note on the lower manual is depressed). It is even greater when I have to reach the second manual diagonally – around 10 cm. I remember having a great trouble when practicing the last page of the notorious Motto Ostinato from Sunday Music by Petr Eben (the most important 20th century Czech composer). This particular episode has frequent jumps over three manuals which make an astounding echo effect on the organ. I managed to learn it with accuracy only when staying close to the keyboard.
Practice slowly. If there is one single most important point about accuracy in manual changes, it is slow practice. Practicing slowly can make a big difference in a challenging spot. Try to overcome the temptation playing technically difficult pieces in a concert tempo frequently. By applying slow motion in your practice you will be able to control your movements much better. You see, at the beginning stages of organ playing, your hand movements are still not precise and fast or medium tempo does not help here at all. In fact, you should take such practicing tempo that will not allow any or almost any mistakes and you will feel comfortable. It is precisely slow practice which helped me master the abovementioned page of Motto Ostinato.
Practice repeatedly. If you managed to play the difficult spot with manual change correctly, do not be satisfied with only one correct attempt. Instead, practice this episode repeatedly 10 or more times until it becomes automatic. Try to achieve the level when you can play correctly with precision and accuracy at least three times in a row. This means that if you play correctly twice and make a mistake on a third attempt, you have to start over and begin counting from one. I know from my personal experience just how frustrating this can be sometimes. Do not get discouraged by your mistakes. They simply mean that you need to take a slower tempo. If you insist upon making manual changes automatic, when the time comes, you will be ready to perform the piece with confidence.
This article continues in Part 2. If you found the first part useful, I suggest you read the second part also because you will find even more helpful tips there.
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.
The vast majority of organ music is polyphonic. This means that it consists of two or more independent melodies which comprise the composition. For an organist, playing such music can be a real challenge. Not only one has to play the correct notes and rhythms but also to achieve the precision of articulation in each part. This requires developing advanced hand and foot independence.
The ultimate level of this skill is demonstrated in the notorious 6 Trio Sonatas by Johann Sebastian Bach which he wrote for his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann to complete his education in organ playing. In this article, I will give you my personal tips and advice on how to develop hand and foot independence in organ playing.
- Keep it simple in the beginning. Because so much of organ literature is too difficult for a beginner, you can easily create your own exercises. Start with note-against-note exercises for two voices in quarter notes. For example, just play a C major scale in each hand at the interval of the third. By the way, thirds are very sweet sounding intervals and they are used in most of tonal music. This means that one part starts on C and the other – on E. In each exercise, play an ascending and descending scale. After several repetitions, when one version becomes easy, switch hands. Note that the third becomes the sixth which is an inversion of the third. In this and the following exercises, use these three dispositions:
1) Left hand and right hand
2) Right hand and pedals
3) Left hand and pedals
- Second, play two-against-one exercise. As in the previous exercise, both parts will play the C major scale at the interval of the third but this time the top voice will add an extra note in between moving in eight notes. For example, it will sound best if you play a third up and a second down in this voice (E G, F A, G B, A C etc.). Note that every other note is the note of C major scale. Please refer to the practicing instructions of the previous exercise.
- Third, practice three-against-one exercise. In this exercise, both parts will play the C major scale at the interval of the third but this time the top voice will play in triplets. For example, add two stepwise ascending notes in the top voice (E F G, F G A, G A B, A B C etc.). Note that while descending, triplets will become descending as well. You can create this exercise in another way as well while adding an extra lower neighbor tone (E D E, F E F, G F G, A G A etc.). Please refer to the practicing instructions for note-against-note exercise.
- Finally, play four-against-one exercise. In this exercise, both parts will play the C major scale at the interval of the third but this time the top voice will play in sixteenth notes. Add a leap by a third down and play three notes up (E C D E, F D E F, G E F G, A F G A etc.). Note that while descending, you will need to add a third up and three notes down for the sixteenth notes. Please refer to the practicing instructions for note-against-note exercise.
Can you see, how easy is to create and play your own exercises? Incidentally, because of the thirds and the sixths, it all sounds very nice. If you want, you can practice similar exercises with some tricky rhythms as well (dotted rhythms, reverse dotted rhythms, syncopations etc.).
If you want some real challenge, play them in the key of A minor, too and start transposing them into different keys with ascending number of accidentals (G major and E minor – 1 sharp, F major and D minor – 1 flat, D major and B minor – 2 sharps, B flat major and G minor – 2 flats etc.). Need help with your music theory skills in building these scales? Just let me know and I will explain it to you.
If you follow my suggestions, in time you will be able to play technically advanced and polyphonically challenging compositions very well. You will be surprised how fast you will advance. Hand and foot independence will skyrocket your organ playing to the next level in no time.
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.
When beginners first decide to start playing the organ, they inevitably have a question: where to begin? Having an answer to this question is crucial to the advancement of an organist.
Without a clear understanding of what are the strengths and weaknesses of any particular approach, it will be very difficult to succeed in developing one’s technique. In this article, I will give you my thoughts on this topic.
First of all, let me say this: if you have a teacher or a mentor whom you can trust, do as they tell you. It is important that you accept and follow your teacher’s suggestions. Otherwise, he or she can’t take full responsibility for your development.
When I first started to play the organ, my teacher asked me to choose a choral prelude from the Orgelbuchlein by J.S.Bach. Imagine that – playing from Orgelbuchlein right from the beginning...
I have to admit, although I had a fairly well developed piano technique (I played the piano for 10 years before starting taking organ lessons), I had much trouble with this chorale.
I did not know the reason why it was so difficult then, but now I can confidently say it was so because it had 4 independent voice parts (one in the pedal).
Talking about Orgelbuchlein, it would have been better to start with the trio texture with 3 independent voices (chorale prelude “Ich ruf zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ”), because it does not require to play two voices in one hand, which makes too difficult for a beginner to control the articulation.
So going back to this topic you can see, that if the organist chooses a piece from the repertoire, it should be a wise choice.
On the other hand, having a good organ method book , proceeding from the beginning and diligently following the instructions might save a lot of precious time.
You see, the author who writes a particular method book gives you not only very specific exercises to develop your organ technique, but usually a good method book is structured in a very graded manner – from easy to difficult exercises and compositions.
A traditional method book might start just with a single line and large note values and proceed a little bit further and involved with each set of exercises. This way the beginner might not feel overwhelmed by the subtleties of texture and technique.
I understand that in many cases method books have long sections with dry unmusical exercises which are focused just on one particular element of organ technique, like pedal playing and the organist is supposed to complete them all. Organ pieces sometimes are only at the end of such method. For some people, this approach might be too boring.
Isn’t the most beautiful organ music that they first heard was the most important reason for them to start playing this instrument in the first place? And here they are forced to play these exercises for many pages.
Perhaps they could feel better about them if they had their goal , vision, or a dream in mind. For example, imagine that the organist wanted to play some piece that he or she always dreamed of, like the D Minor Toccata and Fugue by Bach or Toccata by Widor .
But this organist would understand that they are too complicated for a beginner and start studying organ from the method book first with this goal in mind. In fact, it is possible to use a mixed approach.
With this approach you would study exercises from the method book but integrate compositions from the repertoire of your level, too. Incidentally, the best method books available today integrate pieces within the exercises or construct the exercises out of the excerpts of the pieces.
In addition, such a book also has extensive details on early organ technique, registration, ornamentation, service playing, organ construction, and even on the new late 20th century techniques.
Another option would be to start playing the organ with very easy pieces from organ repertoire, such as the chorale prelude “In dulci jubilo” by Johann Michael Bach .
However, be aware that you will need to figure out many details by yourself which otherwise would be included in the method book. These details include choice of fingering, pedaling, articulation, registration, ornamentation etc.
So you still probably would need to consult your teacher or a method book. Otherwise, your solutions might not be the best and the road to mastering these pieces would be too long.
Following the directions from your method book in a way is like studying with an experienced teacher but without the benefits of feedback, motivation, encouragement, and support. By the way, most of the teachers I know use method books in one way or another in their teaching.
In the end, I would say that it is possible to start playing the organ with any approach described here. Of course, the choice is yours but my recommendation would be to choose and practice wisely. Treat the pieces like the exercises, find and isolate the difficulties, practice them diligently and you will have no trouble in mastering any organ piece .
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.
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.
Playing organ pedals can be a challenging task. All these fast moving passages with our feet can give the organist much trouble and it can be frustrating to learn difficult pedal lines. However, there is one secret to overcome challenging pedal parts and develop a superb pedal technique.
Perhaps the most famous organist of the 20th century, the Frenchman Marcel Dupre once wrote that the secret to the perfect pedal technique is the flexibility of an ankle. Here I would like to tell you a little story about Dupre when he was a teenager. This story is of course related to pedal technique, as you will see.
In his youth, Dupre used to practice a lot on the piano. If fact, the very first piano pieces that he learned was a collection called "Musical ABC". It consisted of as many little pieces as there are letters in the alphabet. So Dupre learned them all during one summer.
When he started to play the organ, one time he cut one of his wrists on the broken glass. The cut was quite dangerous - only millimeters away from the main nerves of the hand. So for some months he could not play the organ with his hands. Did he gave it up? No, he started practicing the pedal playing. In fact, he was so furious that he could not play with his hands and as he wrote later, he started playing the pedals with vengeance.
By the way, all these months he practiced pedal scales and arpeggios. He became so good at them that he could play any musical passage with his feet on the pedals. Later in his life, he even published a collection of all major and minor scales and arpeggios as a help for organists to perfect their pedal technique.
Of course, we all know about how good are scales and arpeggios for our finger technique. Some people practice them regularly. However, pedal scales are underused, and not too many organists know their real value: they help to achieve the flexibility of an ankle.
No wonder why organists of the French school develop an unbeatable pedal technique. We all have heard of French women organists playing with incredible high heels unbelievably hard pedal line with ease and elegance. This is how they achieve that level of mastery: they practice pedal scales.
So this is the secret how to achieve a perfect pedal technique: practice pedal scales and arpeggios regularly and you will have no difficulty with your challenging pedal parts.
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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