Have you ever wanted to start to practice on the organ but found yourself sidetracked after a few days? Apparently your inner motivation wasn't enough.

I know how you feel. I also was stuck many times. What helped me was to find some external motivation as well.

In order for you to advance your organ playing skills and help you motivate to practice, my wife Ausra - @laputis and I invite you to join in a contest to submit your organ music and win some Steem.

Are you an experienced organist? You can participate easily. Are you a beginner? No problem. This contest is open to every organ music loving Steemian.

Here are the rules

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Dear friends!

We would like to wish all our dear friends happy Easter and beautiful spring!

This morning Ausra dyed Easter eggs. She used blueberry for blue eggs, onion peel and some greens for brown eggs and turmeric for yellow ones. So they are all natural.
​
​On a musical note I'd like to share with you this improvisation which I have recorded this morning at our church. It's called "Crucifixion" and it's my entry for Steemit Open Mic Contest Week 133. Let me know what you think.

It's an exciting time of the year! I will be travelling to play in the Pro Baltica festival in Torun, Poland and for a group of cruise tourists in Malta at the co-cathedral of St John in Valletta at the beginning of May. Pro Baltica festival is dedicated to the music of Stanislaw Moniuszko whose 200 year anniversary we celebrate this year. Moniuszko (with me in the picture above) was a famous Polish composer, creator of the opera "Halka" and also the most famous organist at our church, Vilnius University St. John's church. We have a common history...

I'm sure I'll bring back interesting pictures and videos to share with you so stay tuned for further updates.

Also until April 28 all our scores and organ training materials in our Secrets of Organ Playing store are with 50 % discount. Just enter code EASTER2019 at the checkout.

​Total Organist is 50 % off until April 28 as well.

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Vidas: Hi, guys, this is Vidas.

Ausra: And Ausra.
 
V: Let’s start episode 426, of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by John, and he writes:
 
I have struggled to get much quality organ practice in the last 2 weeks, but family has to come first. Prior to that I have been diligently practicing the first 10 Hanon exercises with a metronome, starting at 60 bpm and working my way up to 80. I started noticing a few small issues where I was drifting off beat. I have also tried practicing pieces to a metronome as I am subconsciously changing the tempo without realizing.

I have learnt the first 2 pages of Wachet Auf from Schubler chorales, and playing it ok, it took quite a while to get the chorale tune, it certainly tests my coordination and independence of RH, LH and pedals. Page 3 with the modulation to minor mode is taking even more work, but slow practice is working.

I am playing for our church service on Sunday, I am really excited as I haven't played at church for since January due to Isaac arriving. One of the hymns is a new one, and when I practiced it, I had a special moment of realizing how much my skills have improved. After 3 days of very slow practice, I was able to play all four parts together with hardly a mistake! I reckon even 2 years ago it would have taken 7-10 days to achieve this. In fact 2 years ago I remember emailing you saying I was struggling with playing all four parts of hymns when I had only 1 weeks notice. I think I have finally reached a point where I am committed to trusting the learning process, whereas sometimes I would skip some combinations, or try and play at performance tempo.  Now I really focus on slowing the tempo right down, and sometimes practice each fragment 10 times instead of 3 times.

I wanted to thank you and Ausra for being the reason for my first DVD sale in the USA from one of your subscribers Paul Anderson!

I had a go at organizing the payment and shipping through PayPal, and so far so good.

Also could you and Ausra give your advice on a podcast on some practical strategies to improve my phrasing, this could apply to hymns but particularly Bach pieces and music in general. How do you incorporate pauses/breaths while still keeping a steady tempo.

It is getting close to 1 year since my Vilnius trip, the memories are still fresh, and I would love to come and visit you guys again one day! I hope the weather will soon warm up and bring you more energy!

Take care,
God bless,
John...

V: So, Ausra, it’s very nice to receive a letter like that from John from Australia, who exactly one year ago played a concert in our church.
 
A: Yes, I think I saw it on Facebook today that it’s exactly one year...
 
V: Mmm-hmm.
 
A: since he performed at St. Johns, in Vilnius.
 
V: By the time our listeners will hear this conversation it might be more than one year. But still, the memories are fresh, and we were really amazed at the, John’s improvement over seven years of training. And, now, he writes that he was able to master a hymn in four parts with hardly a mistake, after three days. And this is achievement in itself, because two years ago, he remembers that he had to do this in maybe, seven to ten days.
 
A: Anyway, hard work always gives its results, at the end.
 
V: Mmm-hmm. I, you know, it’s so nice that he made his first sale of his DVD to one of our subscribers—Paul Anderson. And I guess it’s not easy to sell something online, right! And I’m very happy that from our discussion when we mentioned John’s DVD, people picked up. If anyone wants to get a copy, the best way would be to contact John by email: john.eliza.higgins@gmail.com.
 
A: True. And I think it might be interesting for somebody to see what the organs look [like] in Australia. Because for many of us, it’s still such an exotic and far away country.
 
V: Right. So, John is wondering about advice on improving phrasing, maybe incorporating pauses and breaths. In Bach’s pieces, not only in Bach’s but also in other stylistic influences. Do you think that phrasing is important, Ausra, first of all?
 
A: Yes, of course! It’s very important.
 
V: What would happen if we didn’t include phrasing in our playing?
 
A: Well, all the pieces of music would sound very dry and mechanical, and lifeless.
 
V: Have you ever listened to that 18th Century mechanical organ? Remember, I think in Nebraska, somebody gave us a recording of Handel’s Concerto, as recorded on that particular mechanical organ.
 
A: I don’t recall it right now, but you do.
 
V: Yes, I do.
 
A: Evidently you do, so maybe you could explain what you mean.
 
V: And it was very virtuosic. Absolutely stunning passages, and ornaments. But I found it quite unmusical, actually. Because to program a piece on a mechanical device like that, in 18th Century, would have been really difficult. Now you can play back, play something on a media equipped organ or keyboard, and it would playback exactly as you were performing.
 
A: You know, in some sense, it seems that it’s harder to learn all the technical stuff, to develop your technique, in order to be able to play in the right tempo and without mistakes, with the right articulation. But, on the other hand, I think phrasing and playing musically things, is probably the hardest thing to do, especially if you don’t have it from your birth. And by telling this I can tell one example. I had recently, have had a student, with whom we were working on several pieces, and basically I was arranging each measure for her—what to do and how to play it and where to slow down and which chord to listen to more carefully than another one, and explain that all. Basically, I arranged it sort of like a, I don’t know…
 
V: Show?
 
A: Like a, well, not exactly like a show, like a theater…
 
V: Mmm-mmm.
 
A: production.
 
V: Right.
 
A: And still at the end, it all sounded just like chopping the wood sticks with an ax. She couldn’t pick it up.
 
V: Hmm-hmm. She needs musical intuition. But that comes I think, with experience also.
 
A: So, what would help in case like this? I think you need to listen to a lot of music in general.
 
V: Mmm-hmm.
 
A: All kind of music. Not only organ music, but organ too—by various performers.
 
V: Mmm-hmm.
 
A: And you will find out that after comparing, let’s say, some of different people playing, let’s say the same piece, you would feel that you like one recording more than another.
 
V: Exactly.
 
A: And you will develop a musical taste and musical intuition. And later on it will be easier for you to adapt it in your pieces that you are playing.
 
V: I would say the more you notice something happening in the music, the more you can show it to your listeners. And that includes phrasing, breaths and pauses, all those things, in certain places. Not in all episodes, but where something important is happening in music. So you have to dig deeper into the composition itself, analyze it, and notice it.
 
A: Yes. I think that this musical logical background is also very important—in knowing structure, in knowing style.
 
V: One last think I want to say, is, that I remember when I was a student, my professors would tell me sometimes that I’m playing statically. Especially if it’s a slow tempo piece, that, the music doesn’t flow. Did you ever have this experience?
 
A: Yes. I have had it.
 
V: Mmm-mmm. Earlier.
 
A: Yes, it was a way back.
 
V: Mmm-hmm.
 
A: Now, it’s hard for me even to remember it, already.
 
V: And exactly. And I was thinking about your performances, my own performances, but probably I’m a little bit, less objective about myself. But you could tell me about me. I never once noticed static performance from you. What about you?
 
A: I also haven’t noticed a static performance of you. I think you have just changed a lot...
 
V: Uh-huh.
 
A: over past what, 25 years.
 
V: We never think about it—playing statically or not statically, right? We make music.
 
A: Yes. It comes naturally.
 
V: We make music. It’s like telling musical story. If you don’t know where the story ends, then you might tell your story statically, right?
 
A: True. I think it’s very important to sing your pieces.
 
V: Mmm-hmm.
 
A: Because very often we might play unmusically, and dull, and statically, but people rarely sing unmusically—unless we don’t have musical pitch.
 
V: Mmm-hmm.
 
A: Sort of it’s hard to put an accent, let’s say, at the end of the face if you’re singing it. It comes naturally because it’s all related with the breathing, and somehow, I think, it’s in everybody’s insight.
 
V: Mmm-hmm.
 
A: This gives you that right feeling of right phrasing. So just sing what you are playing.
 
V: Good advice. Thank you guys. This was Vidas.
 
A: And Ausra.
 
V: We hope this was useful to you. Please send us more of your questions. We love helping you grow. And remember; when you practice...
 
A: Miracles happen!

Dear friends,

Some of you have let me know that you are started receiving materials for courses you didn't sign up for, for instance Two Part Training. But others have written that they have not received some weekly training from this course either.

I'm in the process of migrating all my emails from Mailchimp to ConvertKit and I suspect this is the reason why Mailchimp is acting strange these days.

Just let me know if you are getting too much of some course or not enough. We will sort it out.

I have to manually create literally hundreds of emails on ConvertKit and it takes some time. But when finished this system will be more reliable, simpler and more convenient for all.

I appreciate your patience.

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Would you like to master Three Part Sinfonia No. 5 in Eb Major, BWV 791 by J.S. Bach?

I have created this score with the hope that it will help my students who love early music to recreate articulate legato style automatically, almost without thinking.

Thanks to Jeremy Owens for his meticulous transcription of fingering from the slow motion video.

Basic level. PDF score. 1.5 pages. 50 % discount is valid until April 26.

Check it out here

This score is free for Total Organist students.

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​Vidas: Hi guys, this is Vidas!
 
Ausra: And Ausra!
 
V: Let’s start episode 406 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Jay, and he writes:
 
Hymns for church service on Sunday.  Trying to get to the point where I know the music well enough, to recover quickly if (or when) I mess up.
 
V: Jay is on the team who transcribe our podcast conversations, and I asked him what he was working on today, or struggling with today. So, Jay is probably struggling with knowing the music well enough not to mess up, or recover quickly, too. Is this important, Ausra?
 
A: Of course it is if you are playing at church and accompanying a congregation, then yes, it’s very important.
 
V: So, if the person is playing a hymn at church, how well should they know this hymn, in your opinion? Imagine yourself, for example, being on the organ bench. How well should you know it or how well should you sight read it, too?
 
A: Well, I wouldn’t suggest for anybody that is not advanced enough to sightread during the actual service. You need to prepare in advance. And then, I would suggest that a beginner organists would get prepared for each service and learn all the hymns in advance.
 
V: If you are a really beginner, sometimes it’s not enough time to play all of the hymns.
 
A: True, but then you need to do something. Maybe skip the pedals. I did that way back in my life. And another thing you could do if you want to have pedals, you could omit the alto and tenor voices, and just play melody and pedal. That’s also an option. Another option, and I think this would be the easiest way, just take up the melody, and play it only with your hands in octaves. That’s also a possibility. But anyway, any of these ways that I mention now are better compared to if you would play all the written notes and do many many mistakes or stop somewhere.
 
V: Or play…..
 
A: ...in an unsteady tempo.
 
V: Exactly. Because, you’re leading the congregation, and the congregation doesn’t care if you know the music or not. They just keep singing, and you have to be maybe one millisecond ahead of them, too.
 
A: That’s right. True.
 
V: Have you been in the situation, Ausra, when an organist drags, and for example, the tempo slows down?
 
A: Yes, I have had an experience like this.
 
V: Why does this happen sometimes?
 
A: There might be various reasons. Well, one of the ways might be that maybe the organist is very, very old, and wants to play in a slow tempi. That sometimes happens with people with age, that you slow things down. But, there might be various reasons, actually. He or she might not listen to what the congregation is doing downstairs, or maybe her or his technique is not advanced enough to play up to tempo.
 
V: Or maybe they are listening to the congregation too much!
 
A: Yes, and then, because the congregation wants to slow things down, and if the organist listens too much to the congregation and cannot keep his or her steady tempo, then the tempo might slow down, too.
 
V: It’s like playing with an orchestra, too. And if you are a soloist, you have to lead the orchestra, too, especially in episodes when you are playing solo, and then after you and orchestra comes in. You have to keep the tempo steady, and try not to slow down at the end.
 
A: True. And this also might happen when you have so many people singing that the organ cannot be heard, too. I had that experience once in my lifetime, when I was playing at Grace Lutheran Church in Lincoln on the Christmas Eve service. There were so many people downstairs, and everybody was singing so loud that even though I played Organo Pleno, I could not hear a single note from the organ.
 
V: Right. So, I hope Jay and others will have plenty of time to prepare for Sunday services, and to know the music well enough to recover quickly from the mistakes.
 
A: And luckily, after some time, hymns start to repeat themselves. So, I guess you will get used to your hymnal, and I think with time, you will know some of the hymns by heart, so it will be much easier then.
 
V: Thanks guys, this was Vidas,
 
A: And Ausra!
 
V: Please keep sending your wonderful questions; we love helping you grow. And remember, when you practice,
 
A: Miracles happen!

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It seems like the great organ of Notre Dame has been saved. Not clear how much damage has been done at this point. The choir organ is soaked with water but remains unburned.

It's a miracle...

The most pressing thing for the short term is to secure the vault and structure from collapsing. The idea of removing the organs to a safe place is being discussed.

We'll wait for further news...

Ausra and I luckily visited this instrument back in 2014. Some of you may know that I was scheduled to play there on the 31st of August this year and Ausra - in July, 2020...

​Oh well...

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Dear friends,

I don't know if this is possible but the great organ of Notre Dame in Paris might be saved from the cathedral fire. Don't have any further details. Only saw a message on Facebook saying that the Archbishop of Paris announced it is possible that the great organ is saved.

​Would be a miracle...

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Vidas: Hi guys, this is Vidas.

Ausra: And Ausra.
 
V: Let’s start episode 425, of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. And this time, Colin writes:
 
Thank you for the bonus materials for the Pedal Virtuoso Master Course, I shall look forward to working on them.
 
V: Ausra, would you like to take a look at what kind of bonus material I’m sending?
 
A: Sure, of course, I would be very interested.
 
V: Okay. I’m sending three things. Right away when they sign up, or the first day after they sign up, they’re receiving a bonus video training, which is “How to play the C Major Scale on the Pedals”. This is my most popular video on YouTube. 
 
A: Ah, interesting. People are interested in fun things. Although it’s not that easy to play, the C Major Scale, on the pedals. I think some other scales are more comfortable.
 
V: Uh-uh. Let me take a look at how many views it has. People are eager to learn C Major Scale but not so much C minor. (Vidas is looking for the video.) It was published back in 2012 and it has 70’223 views right now.
 
A: Wow! If you would live, I don’t know, 500 hundreds more years, you might reach the numbers of Lady Gaga!
 
V: Haha yeah, and Lady Gaga would reach like gazillions numbers! So this is the video sent on day 1, after signing up for this course. Then I’m sending people two more things: 12 weeks and 13 weeks after they sign up, they receive Bonus practice material number 1 and number 2.
 
A: Which is?
 
V: Number 1 is “Pedal Exercitium”, BWV 598, by J-S. Bach and some scientists believe it might have been written by C-P-E. Bach, Bach’s most prominent son. Nevertheless, this piece is a classic exercise for pedal playing. And I have prepared the complete pedaling for this piece, and people have to make sure they use detached articulate style, articulate legato touch which is used for early music. 
 
A: I remember I had to play this piece, during my first year of organ studies at the academy of music in Lithuania. And my teacher required that I would play this during my exam actually. I was quite embarrassed actually, because I was the only one that was required to play some solo piece for the exam. But I think I did quite well. And what I like about this piece, beside teaching you to play baroque music, how to articulate, actually it’s quite beautiful in itself. It’s really not a boring exercise. If you listen and study carefully this particular piece, you can find that there’s actually two distinctive melodies in the same piece, even though it’s written in one voice.
 
V: Right. With Bach and other baroque composers, the case is that the less voices you have, the more fluid the melody becomes. And if you have a solo voice, like in the pedals, somehow the composer needs to make sure that the harmony is there, and he makes use of arpeggios, things like that, and sometimes pretends that there’s a second voice in the top and at the bottom. So at the pedals it’s very prominent because you have two legs.
 
A: Well, not so much.
 
V: Not so much, yeah. You’re focusing on the process not on the result. Results probably will come by themselves.
 
A: That’s true. And now that you have started to talk about that, I remember that beautiful cello piece by Bach (the Prelude from the Cello Suite No. 1), that Yo Yo Ma played so beautifully and other famous celloists.
 
V: Do you think that people could play it on the pedals?        
 
A: Well yeah I believe so. You could do it on the pedals. But sometimes my students start arguing: “why do I need to learn harmony? What good is it to me?” And usually choir conductors or piano majors understand why we need to understand harmony, because we deal with more than one voice, but flutists or violonists, they don’t think about that. But we really need to know harmony because let’s say you play Bach and have one voice, you still don’t think about it as having just one line, because in itself it contains all the harmony.
 
V: This is true. It would be fun actually to play all the unaccompanied cello suites by Bach on the pedals. It’s a good exercise. It would be interesting to transcribe.
 
A: It’s wonderful how in one voice you can hear so many things and do so many things. That’s the genius of Bach I guess.
 
V: But the pedaling has to be adjusted somehow. I believe that toes-only technique wouldn’t be easy to do.
 
A: True, true.
 
V: Because sometimes you need to play with big leaps and almost legato so then heel and toe technique needs to be adjusted because it’s rather advanced.
 
A: But I guess it would be OK because it’s not originally intended for organ pedals so we could give us more freedom.
 
V: Right. So guys, if you need something for the pedals, extra-exercises, go take a look at 6 unaccompanied Bach’s cello suites, and if you need some help from us, like extra pedaling let us know. Maybe I could create some videos and send them to our team to transcribe, and prepare the score this way for you. That would be a good exercise for early music Pedal Virtuoso Master Course.
 
A: And what is your last bonus?
 
V: Bonus number 2 is a piece by Charles-Valentin Alkan, who was a 19th century French composer and virtuoso pianist, and he created many etudes for piano but also for the organ pedals solo, I think 20 pedals solos. And I prepared a score with pedaling of the first one. It’s again a very advanced piece but now we are dealing with the legato technique and you can play with heels and toes. And if you don’t feel right about some markings, you can adjust, because some people have smaller feet so they have some problems.
 
A: But it's nice because it teaches different technique compared to Pedal Exercitium by J-S. Bach.
 
V: Yes. Again, if you would like to learn all 20 of them, let me know and I could prepare those videos for our team and this way you would get transcribed scores with pedal markings as well. Alright, so take a look at our Pedal Virtuoso Master Course, it has 12 weeks of material + bonus exercises, as we were discussing a moment ago. At the end of the course you’ll really start to feel that you gained greater flexibility of the ankle, which is the secret of the perfect pedal technique. At the end of the course you might be not be able to play anything that is written for the pedals, just yet, but I can guarantee that if you go back to some of the pieces that you could not play three to six months ago, you would definitely see some genuine improvement. Right Ausra?
 
A: Yes, I’m pretty sure about that.
 
V: People have written multiple times about that, about seeking improvement, and not one person said “No, after 3 months of practicing pedals I didn’t see any improvement!”. People who didn’t finished this course, it was for different reasons: perhaps it was too difficult for them, or they were not into exercises at all: they might prefer genuine organ music. And that’s OK, there are several types of people. But for those who like it, scales arpeggios etc, it is a perfect opportunity to get flexibility of the ankle. OK guys, this was Vidas.
 
A: And Ausra.
 
V: Please send us more of your questions, we love to help you grow. And remember, when you practice…
 
A: Miracles happen!

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Thank you everyone for participating! You all made us very happy with your entries.@laputis and I selected the following winners. You can congratulate them here:

https://steemit.com/@organduo/winners-of-secrets-of-organ-playing-contest-week-15