Imagine for a second two organists sitting on one organ bench. In order for their hands not to be confused, a performer on the left side plays the lower part of the piece and the person on the right – the upper part.
Very often it is convenient for the organists to divide their music so that the left page is played by the organist performing the 2nd part and the right page - for the 1st part. Personally for me, such division of the music makes it really difficult to follow the music of the partner. There are more chances that one organist would lose the beat and consequently the duet will fall apart. For this very reason it is quite necessary sometimes to look at another organist's page and try to find the right place in the music. Because of this simple reason I find that the easiest division of the music on the page is when both parts are visible for both performers and placed one under another. This way the entire musical view can be seen. To make music together for 4 hands (and feet) is very fun thing to do. It is possible to play not only the original compositions for organ duet, but also arrange choral or orchestral music because when you have 2 performers, technically there are twice as many possibilities. It is also possible to improvise. Because 2 performers sit on the same organ bench, both can very often turn pages and change organ stops on each other's side of the instrument. Of course, you need to feel your partner well because otherwise both people could try to turn the pages or pull the same stops at the same time which would make a lot of chaos for the entire performance. Listnen now to the Sonata No. 1 in C major (published in 1781) for a duet by the classical style German composer Franz Seydelmann (1748-1806). In these videos, you can see the four hands very well. I performed this piece with my wife Ausra as a part of the organ demonstration of Pinkevicius Organ Duo on the famous organ by Adam Gottlob Casparini (1776) which stands at the Holy Ghost (Dominican) church in Vilnius, Lithuania. Part I - Allegro Part II - Andantino Part III - Allegro di molto By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide.
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When everything is going smoothly, it is easy to be patient in your organ practice. It is easy to reduce the tempo up to half speed and really focus on playing every note correctly. When things go as you planned, it is relatively easy to work in smaller fragments because you hear correct results right away.
But what to do if the episode you are working on is extremely difficult and you make too many mistakes, despite the fact that you hear the perfect performance in your head? Is it possible to keep you patience and faithfully practice as if nothing is bothering you? Is it possible to really let go that tension and stress rising inside of you and just to enjoy your practice? I think what you can do if you are feeling impatient is to focus on the basics. Here I mean correct notes, rhythms, fingering, pedaling, ornaments, articulation, tempo, and hand and feet position. Check if any of these elements need correction and simply repeat the excerpt 5-10 times with the aim to improve them. These repetitions could be your immediate goal. Having a clear goal in mind while practicing really does help to calm down and relax. Don't forget the power of slow and deep breathing through the nose which improves the focus of your mind. This in turn will help you to avoid mistakes, and consequently, unnecessary frustration. You have to understand where your frustration and impatience are comming from. A lot of times they come from unrealistic expectations of wanting to play perfectly the entire piece too soon. What you can do if you run in such problems is to focus on playing separate voices or parts for a while. This again will help you to calm down and be happy with your organ practice because the texture will be easy enough to manage and you will begin to see the results you like right away. When this becomes easy, slowly add one more voice. By doing so, little by little you can master even pieces which currently might seem out of reach for you. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide. Stage fright is a terrible feeling for many organists. You think you know your pieces well, even played perfectly 5 times in a row before the performance but when the time comes to play them in public, all you see and think about are the faces of the people in your audience.
Because of stage fright you can easily lose focus and control over your performance. Your breathing becomes shallow and not stable, your body starts to shake and your overall feeling is quite hopeless. All you want is just to get over and finish the piece. But even then you can make mistakes at places where normally things go pretty smoothly. You might even make a complete stop and start over or start crying and can't continue playing. After such performance you swear not to play in public ever again. Whatever the case might be stage fright or performance anxiety is a perfectly normal feeling. With time and experience you will learn to control it, you just need to play a lot of times in public. Playing the same program more than once is a great idea. By performing the same pieces over and over again in public you will start to feel that confidence. Also there is one thing which can save your day - it's breathing. If you feel a lot of stress and stage fright, try to become conscious of your slow and deep breathing through the nose. This technique will help your mind stay focused before and throughout the performance. In addition to breathing, try to focus on the current measure you are playing. Nothing else matters - just you and this measure. Then the next measure and the next. But you have to really force yourself to do it. Not to focus on any ideas or thoughts which come during the performance. Instead, let them go and steadily pay attention to the current measure and your breathing. Don't beat yourself up if you make a mistake or two. Again, let it go and keep up your focus. Make your breathing regular and rhythmical. Exhale and inhale within pre-determined number of beats in your piece. The mind is like a muscle. With time it can be trained. The feeling should be that your body is relaxed but your mind is on fire. Then you will not have any stage fright. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide. My last couple of articles (read them here and here) were about the rules for connecting the three most important chords - tonic (T), subdominant (S), and dominant (D). With knowing how to correctly play these chords will almost give you the power to harmonize a melody, a hymn tune or a scale.
In order to harmonize a scale you need to know a couple of new things: 1) How to harmonize an ascending progression of VII-I scale degrees (in C major - notes B-C). 2) How to harmonize a descending progression of I-VII scale degrees (in C major - C-B). The first ascending progression is best harmonized by the 1st inversion diminished chord D-F-B (ovii6) and tonic. The rule is to double the bass (D) and move it stepwise to the tonic note (C). The upper three voices move to the closest notes of the tonic chord upwards (contrary motion). In order to avoid the forbidden augmented interval in minor between VI and VII scale degrees, use major subdominant with a raised VI scale degree (just like in melodic minor). The second progression is best harmonized by the tonic and the root position third scale degree chord, in C major - E-G-B (iii). Again, double the bass part here. In minor, this chord will be major (III). Since these two chords are positioned a third apart, they have two common notes (in C major - E and G). So the rule to connect them is very simple - move the bass from the root of one chord to the root of another chord by the interval of the third. Keep the common notes constant and move the free voice downward in a stepwise manner. Since we know how to conncect ovii6-T and T-iii already, let's play a major scale: Major Ascending: I (T) - II (D) - III (T) - IV (S) - V (T) - VI (S) - VII (ovii6) - I (T). Major Descending: I (T) - VII (iii) - VI (S) - V (T) - IV (S) - III (T) - II (D) I (T). Minor Ascending: I (t) - II (D) - III (t) - IV (s) - V (t) - VI+ (S) - VII+ (ovii6) - I (t). Minor Descending: I (t) - VII (III) - VI (s) - V (t) - IV (s) - III (t) - II (D) - I (T). Practice these exercises in various major and minor keys (first writing on paper and later harmonizing on the instrument). Make sure you take a very slow but steady tempo. If you want to master these scale harmonizations, aim for at least 3 correct repetitions in a row. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide. Yesterday I have taught you how to properly connect tonic (T) and subdominant (S) (and vice versa) and dominant (D) with tonic chord (and vice versa). The roots of these chords are a perfect fourth or fith apart from one another.
Today let's discuss the principals behind connecting subdominant with the dominant chord. The opposite progression is generally not used in classical tonal music because there is a tendency to use chords with increasing intensity and tension. Because of the leading note (7th scale degree) the dominant chord has more tension than the subdominant chord. Therefore the progression D-S would be less natural. However, it sounds perfectly fine in pop music. So anyway, here are the rules for connecting subdominant with the dominant. Note that these chords are spaced a major second apart so unlike the progression we discussed yesterday (S-T, T-S, D-T, and T-D) S and D have no common tones. Therefore we can only connect S with D using melodic method (moving all voices). 1) The bass moves stepwise upward from the root of one chord (4th scale degree) to the root of another chord (5th scale degree). 2) The upper three voices move stepwise downward (contrary to the bass). Note that this type of voice leading (contrary motion with the bass) helps to avoid forbidden parallel octaves and fifths. Try this exercise on paper and later on the instrument in various keys (major and minor). When playing in minor keys remember that the dominant chord has to be major - use raised 7th scale degree (just like in harmonic minor scale). If you master T-D, D-T, S-T, T-S and S-D progressions from the lessons of yesterday and today in various keys, you will be equipped to harmonize many hymns just by using these chords (sometimes you will need to know a few more rules). Although T, S, and D chords don't provide the many colours, variety and options that are needed for the mastery of hymn harmonization, they may well be your most easiest solutions (shortcuts) when it comes to hymn playing - liturgical organ playing would sound so much better for many organists if only they new these simple rules. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide. When you want to harmonize a hymn or another melody, one of the inherent difficulties is rules of voice leading. Without knowing how to properly connect the chords, you are bound to make many mistakes which don't sound well on the keyboard or organ.
Today I will teach you how to connect tonic and subdominant (and vice versa) or tonic and the dominant (and vice versa) in four-part harmony. These chords are a perfect fourth or a fifth apart. At this point you may remember that the tonic chord (T) is build on the 1st degree of the scale, subdominant (S) - on the 4th degree and the dominant (D) - on the 5th degree. Also T and D or T and S have one common note - T-D - 5th scale degree, T-S - 1st scale degree. In four-part harmony, we double the bass (or the root of the three-note chord). So here are the two main methods of connecting such chords: 1) Harmonic 2) Melodic If you want to connect these chords by harmonic method, do the following: 1) The bass jumps by a fourth or a fifth from the root of one chord to the root of another chord. 2) Keep the common note unchanged. 3) The other two notes move in a stepwise manner to the closest chordal note of the next chord (in S-T progression, the notes move downward, in D-T progression, the notes move upward and vice versa). By connecting the chords with melodic method, here is what you have to do: 1) The bass moves by a perfect fourth from the root of one chord to the root of another chord. 2) The top three voices move to the closest notes of the next chord by the contrary motion with the bass - if the bass goes up, the other voices go down and vice versa. Note that two of these voices will move by an interval of the third and one by a stepwise motion. Try these exercises on paper and later on the organ or keyboard in various keys (major and minor) today. When playing with organ pedals, use the following disposition of voices: the right hand plays soprano and alto, the left hand takes the tenor, and the pedals - the bass. When playing without pedals - take the two upper voices in the right hand part and the two lower voices - in the left hand part. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide. We, as organists are often called to provide accompaniments to hymn singing. A lot of times the hymns are notated in four-part harmony in the hymnals so there is no difficulty in knowing what to play. But sometimes, the hymn might be notated as a single voice melody. So without knowing how to find the main chords from it, the organist might feel stuck.
When you want to harmonize a hymn in four parts (soprano, alto, tenor, and bass), one of the main things you have to discover is the 3 main chords of any given key or tonality: the tonic (notated T or I in the major key or i in the minor), the subdominant (S or IV in the major and iv in the minor), and the dominant (notated D or V - most of the times it will be a major chord). These are three-note chords which consist of two thirds built on top of another (like the C major chord C-E-G is built from two thirds, one major (C-E) and another minor (E-G). The distance between the two outer notes is a perfect fifth. So T, S, and D are the main chords that many other are derived from. Here we have to remember the basics of music theory for a moment. You probably know that any major or minor scale has 7 scale degrees. The tonic is built on the 1st scale degree: I-III-V (C-E-G in C major). The dominant - on the 5th scale degree: V-VII-II (G-B-D in C major). And the subdominant is built on the 4th scale degree: IV-VI-I (F-A-C in C major). If you keep these scale degrees in mind, you can easily find out these main chords in your hymn melody. The two remaining difficulties are: 1) Discovering the main key of the hymn. 2) Noticing any modulations (excursions to different keys) within the hymn. So open any familiar hymn from your hymnal and try to put these tips in practice and notate T, S, or D below each note of the melody with pencil. Remember, sometimes hymns have eighth notes from which only the first one is a chordal note. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide. If you ever wanted to create your own musical composition (either improvised or written down on paper), you surely had to face this problem: what to do with a musical theme? How to use it over the course of the piece? How to make this short 4 measure phrase into a composition or improvisation of considerable length (even up to 30 minutes long).
So what you need to understand is how to make use of thematic transformation techniques which is nothing more than thematic development. Here's how it works: You probably know that any musical theme has the 3 main elements: melody, rhythm, and harmony. In one theme melody would be more pronounced, in another rhythm and so on. Therefore, we can label certain themes as melodic themes or rhythmical themes or harmonic themes. So when you want to develop your theme over the course of the piece, you can change any of the 3 elements: 1) For melody of the theme, you can change intervals (smaller or larger), you can change the direction of the intervals (inversion), you can play the theme backwards (retrograde), or you can even use retrograde-inversion when the theme is played backwards with inverted intervals. 2) For rhythm of theme, you can change rhythmical figures and meters, make the rhythmical values smaller (diminution) or larger (augmentation). 3) For harmony of the theme, you can change modes and chords. By transforming melody, rhythm, and harmony of the theme, you can create a piece in various forms, including but not limited to variations, rondo, sonata, rondo-sonata, fantasia etc. Franz Liszt was very good at using thematic transformation so you can look at many of his works, including his Fantasia and Fugue on "Ad nos at salutarem undam" for models. Also Beethoven was able to weave the entire symphony No. 5 out of the famous opening 4 notes. Because we always look at the work of the masters from the past for inspiration, studying how they developed and transformed their themes will be a great education for you. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide. When organists want to become internationally famous and have a good performance career, the old ways of advertisement don't work very well anymore. This is because of increased competition and reduced attention span. People generally don't like advertisements.
Back in the old days, all you needed was to have a regular ad in one of the popular organ magazines and the concert arrangements would come to you (provided you were a good organist with proper education, of course). Now the times have changed and you need something more. You need to become remarkable. How to achieve this? I have 3 suggestions for you: 1. Be yourself. Don't try to become somebody else. Look deep into your likes and dislikes, into your character, and make use of what is unique about yourself. Remember the story how George Gershwin met Maurice Ravel and said he wanted to study with him. Ravel reportedly told him "Why do you want to become a second-rate Ravel when you are already a first-rate Gershwin?" 2. Specialize. Be the best in the world in as smaller niche as possible. Then you will become indispensible. This applies to organ playing as well. Organ playing is a broad niche and if you specialize and excell in some smaller sub-niche of organ playing, then you will become an expert in that field. So when people will want to find an expert in this small area, they will go to you instead of somebody else. 3. Help other people grow. Even though you might not be an expert in organ playing yet, you certainly have your own experiences to share and stories to tell which will be helpful to other people. A good way to help people is to regularly write a blog with a newsletter where you could share these things with your audience. This will help you to gather a certain amount of people who trust you and want to hear more from you. Think about these tips and apply them in your life. With time, they will help you to become remarkable and different from other organists and the word about you will spread far and wide. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide. We as organists sometimes are called to play a short interlude or a prelude during a church service. Not always we are prepared to play something from the classical organ repertoire. Besides, it is not always easy to find a piece which suits the theme or character of the service well. That's when improvisation and composition prove very handy.
A short prelude or interlude could have a form of a Binary Exposition which is about 16 measures long. It can be a piece which stands on its own or it can be a part of the larger structure. Such exposition has the two main elements - a theme and a commentary. A theme is a musical phrase which lends itself for development. A commentary is a different phrase which contrasts somewhat with a theme. So your Binary Exposition of 16-20 measures might look like this: 1) Theme of 4 measures. 2) Commentary ending on the dominant of 4 measures. 3) Repetition of the theme of 4 measures. 4) Commentary ending on the tonic note of 4 measures. 5) (Optional before 4) Commentary ending on a different note of 4 measures. Remember, the melody does not have to be in the right hand part - it can easily be placed in the tenor voice and played on a different manual with solo registration. The pedal part is optional. What to do with the accompaniment? Many things - you can do a simple four-part harmony, add a melodic and rhythmic figure etc. You are only limited by your imagination. If this is the case, look a the pieces of your favorite composers for models. You can improvise your Binary Exposition on the organ, compose it on the paper or both (preferably). Give it a try today. It's easier than it sounds from this description. Creating your own music is one of the greatest joys musician can have. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide. |
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Drs. Vidas Pinkevicius and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene Organists of Vilnius University , creators of Secrets of Organ Playing. Our Hauptwerk Setup:
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