J.S.Bach’s four-part harmonizations of the chorales from his cantatas serve like a textbook on harmony. Every music student analyzes their tonal language in theory classes. For the organists, however, these little gems are also perfect exercises in developing hand and feet coordination. Because most of Bach’s chorale preludes for the organ are too complicated for the beginner, these four-part harmonizations of the chorale tunes might serve like introduction into Bach’s organ style. Therefore, they might be accessible to most aspiring organists with modest technical skills. In this video, I will provide the steps on playing the four-part harmonization of the chorale „Ach bleib bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ“ by J.S.Bach on the organ.
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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Sinfonia in D minor from the 15 three-part Sinfonias by J.S.Bach was written for the musical instruction of his eldest son Wilhelm Friedemann. Like all the pieces in this collection, it is perfectly playable on any keyboard instrument. Technically and musically it is quite challenging because it has three entirely independent voices. From the performer this piece requires certain level of finger independence and hand coordination since one hand has two manage two parts most of the time. In this video, I will give you the exact steps in practicing and mastering the Sinfonia in D minor by J.S.Bach.
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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Bach’s Invention in C major from 15 two-part inventions is one of the best known pieces in this collection. Although technically much more challenging than the easier minuets from the Notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach, this invention is still quite accessible to keyboard players of modest ability. The composer wrote this and other pieces from this collection for the instruction of his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann. Just like many of his keyboard works, the invention in C major sounds beautiful on the organ because of its imitative polyphonic style. In this video, I will teach you how to play, practice, and master this exceptional composition.

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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Similarly to its sister Menuet in G Major from the Notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach, the Menuet in G minor, BWV Anh. 115 always fascinates the keyboard players of all levels of ability. Equally accessible to beginners and the seasoned performers, this wonderful little gem is full of enormous artistic power, formal balance, and classical tonal plan. In this video, I would like to share with you the steps necessary to play, practice, and master the Menuet in G Minor on the organ.
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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Every beginning piano player enjoys practicing the Menuet in G Major, BWV Anh. 114. Although it might appear deceptively simple, it has a classical binary form, high quality tonal plan and all the features of a good composition. While most of the time this menuet is performed on the piano, it works equally well on any keyboard instrument, including the organ. In this video, I will teach you how to play and master Menuet in G Major from the Notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach on the Organ.
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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Just like the correct articulation helps to achieve clarity and precision in the performance, the right phrasing can help emphasize structurally important points in the piece. It is precisely phrasing which can give much desired natural flow and life to the organ composition. Moreover, phrasing will help the listener to understand the form of the piece. In this article, I will give you the advice on how to choose the best phrasing in organ playing.

Phrasing involves certain rhythmic fluctuation which takes place at structurally important elements of the piece. This fluctuation helps to emphasize the places which make up the form of the composition. While the usual playing and articulation help to achieve the hierarchy of the strong and weak beats in the measure, the phrasing is used to make subtle rhythmic inequalities. In other words, with the help of the phrasing the organist is able to achieve gentle riterdandos and accelerandos which are governed by certain compositional elements. Sometimes phrasing has much to do with articulation and taking a breath in a musical line.

Cadences

Cadence is a certain harmonic or melodic curve which helps to complete the musical idea. Whenever you see a cadence, you can gently slow down to make it more prominent. Gradually resume the normal speed afterwards.

Rests

Rests are important for the phrasing as well. Quite often the composer will put a rest in a place where one particular voice or part has to take a breath. This is the sign for the subtle phrasing technique.

Caesuras

Very often caesuras are placed at the end of the phrase in order to show the necessity of taking a breath. Although the organ can play without breathing, if you emphasize those musically important places and articulate them, your musical lines will become much clearer.

Long Notes

After the long note there is a tendency to take a breath in a vocal composition. The same applies in organ music as well. Make a short rest after long notes to show the contour of the melody.

Repetition of Rhythmical Figures

If you see some repeated rhythmical figures in your organ piece, feel free to make more pronounced articulation at the end of each figure. This will be a natural way to make phrasing.

Beginnings and Endings of Melodic Line

Very often it is appropriate to make gentle rhythmical inequalities at the beginning and the end of the melodic line. Start slowly, speed up a little and finish slower. This is especially useful in Romantic organ music. It is helpful to imagine analogy with driving a car here. Similarly to the shape and performance of the melodic line, the car will start to move slowly, speed up and slow down at the stop.

If you apply subtle rhythmical phrasing and make articulation at structurally important points of the piece, your performance will become very natural. However, do not over do it, especially in the Baroque music. Although the Romantic compositions often require these rhythmical alterations, the early music must be played much more rhythmically and should emphasize meter, pulse, and alternation of strong and weak beats.

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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Although the legato articulation is the traditional touch for the romantic and modern organ music, there are several exceptions. It is important for the organist to know when the legato touch is not to be used because performed with the legato articulation in entirety such music might lack precision, clarity, and vitality. In addition, these several exceptions have the very precise manner of execution which contributes greatly to the performance level in general. In this article, I would like give you the advice on when the legato articulation should not be used and how such cases should be performed in romantic and modern organ pieces.

Repeated Notes

The first exception to the rule of legato articulation concerns the repeated notes in organ composition. Whenever you see the repeated notes in the same voice they have to be performed in a very exact and precise manner. The repeated notes should be shortened by half of their value if the note could be divided in half (duple meter). For example, shorten the quarter notes by playing eight notes and have eight note rests. If the meter is triple, look at the music and decide what the shortest value is that you see most frequently in this composition. We will call this shortest value unit value. Shorten the repeated notes by unit value. For example, if the meter of the piece is 3/8 and the sixteenth notes are most commonly used, shorten the repeated notes by the sixteenth note.

Staccato Sign

The second important exception of the legato articulation is the staccato sign. The staccato literally means “short” and is indicated by the dots under the notes. The most precise way of performing the staccato notes in romantic and modern organ music is to shorten them by unit value. For example, if the staccato sign is given under the eighth notes, and the unit value of the piece is the sixteenth note, make these notes shorter by a sixteenth note rest. If the unit value is an eight note in such a piece, shorten the note by half.
 
Notes Before Unison

The third exception of the legato articulation is instance when one of the two voices is stationary and later these two voices form an interval of the unison. In other words, if there is a spot in your organ piece when one voice comes into unison with a stationary note, it is not possible to play the voice which was stationary legato. You should shorten this note by unit value. For example, imagine that the most frequent notes in the piece are the eighth notes. That is unit value. The top voice has two quarter notes D and D and a half note G. The lower voice has a two half notes G and G and the second G is in unison with the top voice. So the rule says that you should shorten the first G of the lower voice by unit value (an eighth note rest).

Try to locate above exceptions in your organ music and practice shortening notes exactly by unit value. This will give your performance the necessary precision, clarity, and vitality.

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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Although there are many technical elements in organ playing, one of the most important and noticeable is articulation. It is precisely articulation which might be the decisive factor about the overall level of the organist. It is such a vital aspect of organ playing because it can help to achieve precision and clarity in your performance. Therefore knowing what kind of articulation to use in any specific organ piece is indispensable skill any organist must strive to achieve. One particular type of articulation, the Ordinary Touch, is commonly used in certain organ music. Today I would like to explain what it is and when you should use it.

Articulate Legato in Early Music

If you play music which was composed before 1800s, the general traditional touch is articulated legato. Writers of the Baroque period used a term “Ordinary Touch” to describe such an articulation. As a general rule of thumb you might think of articulated legato as having small distances between the notes. It is not non legato because the spaces between the notes are very delicate which does not make the music sound choppy. Actually, this playing manner is quite vocal and Bach refers to it as “Cantabile”.

The authors of the Baroque period called this touch “Ordinary” because it was widely accepted and there was no need to indicate it in the music score. For this very reason you will rarely see any articulation markings in early music. But you should not assume that although the score is clean, you should play everything legato, which some organist still do even nowadays. The habit of playing legato comes from our background of piano playing. Actually, people who have experience with articulated legato touch use it for playing early music even on the piano.

This touch has many similarities to the tonguing of wind instruments and bowing of the strings. For example, when a violinist uses up and down strokes of the bow we barely hear the articulation. Nevertheless, we can clearly hear that the notes are not slurred. The same is with articulate legato on the organ. Although there are small distances between the notes, we may not even be aware of them unless we pay attention. The ordinary touch can easily be tested by playing a scale with only one finger but as connected as possible. Then try to copy the same sound with the usual fingering.

Emphasize the Meter

Although the ordinary touch is very important for early music, you need something more to make the music come alive. You need to emphasize the meter and the strong and week beats of the measure. Because the organ pipes cannot sound louder or softer depending on the level of strength that you are using with your hands, there are three primary ways to make accents in organ playing. First, you can make the strong beat longer which will have the impression of accent on the listener. Second, you can make the weak beat shorter which will have the opposite effect. Finally, you can come in a little late on the strong beat which will make it even more accented.

As you can see, not all the notes have the same length in early music. Some notes are longer or shorter than the others depending on the beat of the measure. In syncopation, the weak beat becomes accented. Therefore, make the weak beat longer and the downbeat shorter.

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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I have written earlier about the need for a slow practice and the work in fragments, and attention to detail which are all technical things. Although attention to detail is crucial in practicing your organ music, it is not enough to be able to play without mistakes. You need to have a special kind of mentality. Here I am referring to the focused mind which can help you to reach that optimum performance state which in turn will empower you not only to play without the mistakes. Moreover, your performance will have the special power over listeners and you will have their attention fixed on your playing without interruption. In this article, I will explain this mental technique and how to achieve it.

The mentality or the mindset of a world class organist is similar to the state of mind of an athlete or a martial artist. Athletes refer to it as “Being in the Zone”. Martial artists say that “their body should be relaxed but the mind should be on fire”. In other words, they have to have an alert but clear mind. They have to throw all of their thoughts, insecurities, and mental blocks away and simply be in the moment.

Various traditions have different techniques which can help you to achieve that state of mind. Some of the most popular are breathing, meditation, or prayer. In organ playing, I find that deep, regular, and slow conscious breathing from the lower abdomen actually helps me to improve my mental focus. When playing a piece of music, I often try to find the natural breathing rhythm. Usually it coincides with the cycle of measures. For example, I may inhale over two or more measures and exhale over the same number of measures and repeat this process over the course of the piece. The breathing should be done through the nose.

You can do the same in your piece and you will start to notice some really interesting things over time. If you stay focused on your breathing then your mind gradually calms down, your body relaxes, and you will be able to control your movements much better. In turn, the risk of hitting the wrong note by accident is much lower.

If you do play an incorrect note or two during your performance, let it go and force yourself to stay focused and not keep your thoughts on this mistake. Very often if we make a mistake, we think about it for a while when we are playing, we loose focus, and consequently make more mistakes. So no matter what went wrong you have to try to stay focused until the very end.

It is interesting how we can make mistakes even in a slow tempo in an easy spot. This is how it may happen. As we are playing, we might be aware how well we play or how easy is this particular episode and again, we may loose our focus. The solution is to keep your focus until the very end.

The legendary American organist Marilyn Mason used to say that the recital is not over until you are in the parking lot. Actually, it is so true because if for a moment we relax our focus, we can make a mistake and loose control over the piece.

The master French organist Marcel Dupre suggested that we keep our attention fixed on the current measure that we are playing in order to avoid mistakes. This thought is similar to the idea stated earlier of being in the moment.

I understand that for most people it will be hard to achieve this level of focus on the organ. However, if you consistently practice slowly, work in fragments, give a great attention to details, and keep your attention on your breathing, eliminating mistakes actually is not too difficult. Simply change your focus from how not to make mistakes to fulfilling the musical needs of the piece, be in the current measure, and your performance level will improve dramatically.

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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Many of my organ students ask me how they can play their organ pieces without mistakes. They ask for an advice about being able to achieve the level of fluency when they could sit down on the organ bench and play flawlessly for a long time any organ composition they want, slow or fast, easy, medium, or difficult. They know it is possible because they have heard top level organists play organ music with such an impeccable technique that it could be taken directly from a CD recording. However, they also know that very few people ever advance this far in organ playing. Performing on this level takes more than mastering a piece of music. It also requires a special attitude and mindset. In this article I would like to give some insight into the techniques which might help you eliminate mistakes in organ playing.

Somebody told me some years ago about the difference between the good performance and a superb performance. When you are listening to a good organist playing some nice organ music, everything seems to sound well. There might be some tiny insignificant errors but in general, you like this performance. However, if you happen to listen to a real world class performer, there is something more in such a playing. It is hard to express this feeling in words but you feel that absolute clarity and sense of precision and perfection in such a performance.

If you ever had an opportunity to listen to such playing, you probably know what I mean. I am not talking about many wonderful CD recordings which we all love to listen to, because most of the time they are edited, mastered, and sometimes they may not necessarily reflect the real skill of the organist. I am talking about the live organ concerts, these unforgettable events when you simply marvel at the artistry of the performer.

At any rate, the real difference between a good performance and a superb performance is attention to detail. A truly world class organist will know exactly why he or she made some particular decision about some episode in the organ piece. These people never leave anything to chance. At any given moment in a piece they know the exact reasoning about the fingering and pedaling choices, about the rhythmic and melodic accuracy, about the phrasing and articulation, about the registration, or about the formal and harmonic structure of the piece. They simply give such a meticulous attention to any detail that many of us take for granted.

So if you seriously want to be able to play without mistakes, I recommend you give some thought about the above mentioned aspects of organ playing. Moreover, once you are sure about your choices in your practice, you should attempt to achieve those things through practice. In other words, it is not enough to know why you are playing this particular spot with this fingering and pedaling, articulation, ornamentation, or registration. You should reconcile all these things through dedicated and relentless practice. Always ask yourself questions like “Does it sound the way I want it?” or “Why am I playing this spot in this particular manner?”

Answering to these questions and in turn practicing with attention to detail will enable to progress to such level of organ playing when the task of playing without mistakes will seem insignificant. Instead, you will want to express the composer’s intentions to the best of your ability. And you will have the means to do that. Remember, that professionalism is not necessarily a financial status of a person. You can also think of it as an attitude. You can play like a real professional with absolute precision and clarity a simple 2-part invention or a majestic 5 voice fugue. The complexity level does not matter. What matters is the attention to detail.

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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