Thank you everyone for participating! You all made us very happy with your entries. We have all selected the following winners. You can congratulate them here.

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

Before breakfast I filled my logbook and wrote in my diary while listening to my daily mix on Spotify. Then I went to the church to tune reeds but found pedal tenor Bb stuck after Pierre Zevort’s rehearsal yesterday which needed fixing. Had a hard time of finding out where the problem is because the 2nd manual tenor Bb key was also jammed. I regulated some screws under the wind chest but this only complicated things. Finally looked at the pedal coupler mechanics and found one metal rod mixed with coupler element. It needed just a touch of a finger to fix. It happened several times before, usually when organists play music too dramatically for too long. Recorded a video fixing this coupler.

Then was the time to tune some reeds. Luckily Diana came to press the keys and stayed as long as I needed despite that she wanted to go to the book fair. I tuned Trompete 8’ on the 1st manual, Krummhorn 8’ on the 3rd manual, pedal Posaune 16’ and Trompete 8’. In comparison to fixing that pedal Bb, tuning went rather smoothly. Then improvised a little with reeds to check the tuning.

At home watched Pacific Rim while Ausra was gone to her parents. Soon I joined her too because they had some guests and we ate dinner. But I didn’t stay there for long because I had to go to church to practice with Pierre registration changes. It wasn’t very difficult for me because most of his pieces were registered loudly. He used most of the couplers which not only made his playing very difficult but also complicated things mechanically. He did it despite me advising him not to use them too much.

Then came the time for his recital. Even though the weather was really awful, with wind and heavy rain, I was pleased to see a good crowd of listeners in attendance. The program was promising it to be very long (90 minutes) but luckily Pierre agreed to cut Messiaen’s Transport de Joye from the program which shortened the recital to 1 hour and 20 minutes. Out of all the pieces, only 1 was relatively soft - Meditation by Louis Verne and Veni Creator by Maurice Durufle had a few soft variations.

He opened with Te Deum and Victime Pascali Laudes by Charles Tournemire which of course both are very loud pieces, transcribed from his improvisations into organ scores. Then came Prelude and Fugue on the name of Alain and variations on Veni Creator (without a prelude or Adagio) by Maurice Durufle. They both ended loudly but at least had some dynamic contrasts along the way. Luckily I was announcing the program and talking before each piece so that the audience could rest their ears a bit. Before Placare Christe Servulis by Marcel Dupre I announced that now will come a softer piece but I was wrong. Loud again. Only afterward was a quieter Vierne’s meditation which was followed by Vierne’s transcription of Prelude in C# Minor by Rachmaninoff which for the most part also was registered rather loudly. To end his recital Pierre chose 2 improvisations by Pierre Cochereau - Venez Divin Messie and Adeste Fideles. Both were Sortie type pieces with Tutti registrations. Luckily, I saw only a couple of people leave before the end.

I was praying to the spirits of pedals couplers that they would hold. They didn’t. I had to disengage pedal couplers a couple of times to fix the ciphers and add Posaune 16’ instead. I actually didn’t understand why he almost didn’t use native pedal reeds throughout the recital and gave preference to couplers. Luckily I was there to adjust the registration however I saw fit. For the sake of truth I have to admit all of these pieces either sound very rarely in Lithuania or aren’t played at all and I had a pleasure of paying attention to how these composers end their pieces so that I could steal some of their ideas in my improvisations.

After the recital Pierre expressed a wish to return here to play again to which I replied that with the change of university’s cultural preferences and insistence on paper bureaucracy more than on common sense I have my doubts that guest recitals can be sustainably continued in the future. For example, earlier my guests would stay at the university guest house and the cultural center would pay for their stay but now I had to pay for Pierre out of my pocket... Emotionally Pierre’s visit costed me a lot.
​
To finish the day Ausra and I watched The Truman Show which gave me many things to think about our reality we live in.

As promised, here comes this new piece which I composed around lunchtime today. "Flutes" is dedicated to Auke Jongbloed for participating in our Secrets of Organ Playing contest week after week. It can be played using Flute of 8' or 4' pitch levels. It consists entirely of one voice passage starting in D minor and moving through the different accidentals. Thanks to Diana Danilova for transcribing the fingering from the video!

In the first video I play very slowly and my hands are clearly visible. I use 8' flute registration. In the 2nd video, I play at the concert tempo with 4' flute registration. It took me 7 tries to record today and I chose the 3rd try from the end as it turned out to be the best.

Let me know what you think.

What will you get?

PDF score. 2 pages. Beginner level.

This score is free for Total Organist students.

Good luck in your practice and let me know how it goes.

Check it out here

Would you like to learn Sortie in G Major from L'Organiste by Cesar Franck?

I hope you'll enjoy playing this piece yourself from my PDF score which will save you many hours of work and help you practice efficiently.

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

What will you get?

PDF score with complete fingering written in. Basic Level. 6 pages.

Let me know how your practice goes.

This score is free for Total Organist students.

Check it out here

Vidas: Hi guys!  This is Vidas.
 
Ausra:  And Ausra.
 
V: Let’s start episode 568 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Paulius.  And he writes,
 
Hello!  Vidas, do you have the pedaling of D major scale in the Baroque style?
 
Paulius
 
Vidas:
 
L  L R   L R L  R   R
D E F#  G A B C# D
 
R R    L R L R   L  L
D C# B A G F# E D
 
V:  Do you know what he’s talking about, Ausra?
 
A:  Who doesn’t know the famous prelude by J.S. Bach?
 
V:  Do you think that he…
 
A:  With passage of D Major scale in the pedal.
 
V:  Do you think that Paulius is playing this piece himself?
 
A:  I don’t think, I think he is asking how to pedalize the scale for his colleague and friend.
 
V:  Uh huh. Could be.
 
A:  It’s sort of very interesting sounding when you are asking people for other people. 
 
V:  Yes.  I would suspect that, too.  You know, Lithuanians sometimes, they never ask us questions directly, or never truly engage with our content online.  Have you noticed that?
 
A:  Yes.
 
V:  I’m sure they can read English, or understand English, or hear our voices.  We don’t talk complicated English, they could understand most of it, right?  Plus, it’s organ-related stuff, so it’s not that difficult.  But for some reason, Lithuanians, I would say, ignore us, right?
 
A:  Well….
 
V:  Or not?
 
A:  That’s, you know, envy.
 
V:  Envy?
 
A:  That’s always, that’s the main feature of Lithuanian folks, we are just very envious.
 
V:  Mm hm.  For people who are more successful than them?
 
A:  Well, yes, I guess maybe even for people who are different.
 
V:  Mm hm.
 
A:  Who think outside of the box.  And see outside of the box.
 
V:  Sure.  And we are not talking about Paulius now.
 
A:  Yes. Definitely not.
 
V:  Paulius is our friend. So, playing D Major scale.  I suspect it’s for D Major Prelude and Fugue, BWV 532, and the principle that I usually apply here, I hold this principle for every baroque piece, every baroque, up to, let’s say, 19th century.  So, I don’t play everything with one foot, or with another foot, or with heels.  The system is that you use alternate toes whenever possible, left-right, left-right, left-right, or right-left, right-left if in descending motion.  But there are exceptions.  Sometimes you play with the same foot.  And the system was described in very easy terms by Harald Vogel in his preface, I think, to Tabulatura Nova by Samuel Scheidt.  And I read it, and it made sense.  Then later, of course, Richard Stauffer Organ Method book applied this extensively, and that’s where we had learned our early technique from.
 
A:  So basically, it’s common knowledge for people who are thinking about historical performance, or accuracy of historical performance.
 
V:  Mm hm.  So, you play with the alternate toes, right-left, right-left, most of the time.  But play with the same toe, same foot twice, let’s say, when there is change of direction, if the melody moves upward and then downward, you play with the same foot.  Or, when there are longer note values, you can play with the same foot if there are half notes, let’s say.  It’s nothing to worry about, you don’t have to play in alternate toes unless you want.  And you play with the same toe when there is an upbeat before the stronger beat.  It doesn’t have to be beat 1 of the measure;  it can be beat 3 in 4/4 meter.  Or in faster notes, like sixteenth note passages,  like in D Major scale, it could mean every, it could be, the first note could be played with the same toe.  D, E, those 2 notes of the scale, I would play them with left-left.  And then alternate toes.  It would be left-left-right-left-right-left-right-right.  Because the last note is the strongest beat.  Does this make sense, Ausra?
 
A:  Yes, and because the last 2 notes are already very high up…
 
V:  Mm hm.
 
A: On the pedalboard.
 
V:  Of course, in this piece, there is no descending scale, but I wrote to Paulius anyway, I would start the same way, but from the right toe.  Right-right-left-right-left-right-left-left.
 
A:  It makes sense. 
 
V:  So, ascending will be D E F# G A B C# D, Or left-left-right-left-right-left-right-right.  And descending will be D C# B A G F# E D, or right-right-left-right-left-right-left-left.  Would you do this the same way, or a little bit different?
 
A:  Yes, I would do it the same way.  I think it’s very adequate.
 
V:  This is not the same if you want to play D Major scale legato, in a modern style.
 
A:  Of course.  It would be completely different.  You will use heels as well.
 
V:  I would play, I would start with the heel, D, then the toe of the same foot, left foot, E, then F# would be right toe, then G would be left heel, A would be right heel, and then B would be left toe, C# would be right toe, and then heel on D.  It’s like a heel, toe, toe, heel, heel technique mostly.  You keep your heels together.  That’s very easy then.  Does it, is it something you would apply yourself, Ausra?  I see your hidden smile. 
 
A:  Well, you know, if you would have such short legs as I do, I don’t think you would be able to keep all time your knees together.  So that’s, you know, we have different physiology.  And for example, if I would have to play in romantic style, the D Major scale, the three upper notes I would play with my right foot.  I would do the heel on the B, then the toe on the C#, and then finish with the heel.
 
V:  I see.  You need longer legs.
 
A:  Yes.  Could you buy them for me? 
 
V:  Um (laughs) good question!  I’m just looking at YouTube videos that I did, and it looks like my video on how to play the C Major scale with pedals on the organ has 75,000 views.  It’s my most viewed video.  But, D Major scale, D Major pedal scale has, guess how many views?
 
A:  Less than C Major of course.
 
V:  How much less?
 
A:  A lot. 
 
V:  Only 4,737 views.
 
A:  Very few people care for D Major scale.
 
V:  Yes.  It pays to play with zero accidentals.  So, you can look it up, by the way, if you are interested in looking at my feet and seeing how I play D Major scale.  But this is in legato style.
 
A:  Yes, definitely.  So you would not apply it for playing…
 
V:  Mm hm.
 
A:  Bach’s D Major Prelude and Fugue.
 
V:  And by the way, if you need guidance and you need to perfect your organ playing pedal technique, I really recommend Pedal Virtuoso Master Course.  We have exercises in playing arpeggios and scales over one and two octaves, and what it gives is, provides you, helps you create, develop your ankle flexibility.  And this is the secret sauce of having perfect pedal technique in any style, of course.  It’s based on legato style, so it doesn’t work for toes only technique.  But just think, just something to keep in mind if you want to perfect your pedal technique.  It’s really worth it.  Okay, guys. This was Vidas.
 
A:  And Ausra.
 
V:  Please send us more of your questions.  We love helping you grow. And remember, when you practice,
 
A:  Miracles happen. 

Would you like to learn Andantino in Ab Major from L'Organiste by Cesar Franck?

I hope you'll enjoy playing this piece yourself from my PDF score which will save you many hours of work and help you practice efficiently.

Thanks to Diana Danilova for her meticulous transcription from the slow motion video.

What will you get?

PDF score with complete fingering written in. Basic Level. 1.5 pages.

Let me know how your practice goes.
​
This score is free for Total Organist students.

Check it out here

This piece is dedicated to Maureen Woodhead. It is based on the famous Passion chorale and could be performed at Lent. Maureen was looking for some organ music suitable to be performed for Holy Week which would be based on this tune so I hope she and other people will find this chorale prelude useful.

Here I wanted to create a canon between the soprano and the bass. Middle parts imitate each other and are based on melodic fragments of chorale tune. To spice things up I present each chorale line with a different number of accidentals:

0 accidentals, 4 sharps, 4 flats and 0 accidentals.

PDF score. 2 pages. For organ solo. 2 minutes. Basic level.

When you create, miracles happen!

​This piece is free for Total Organist students.

​Check it out here

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

And here are the winners for Week 59.

Would you like to learn Poco Maestoso in Ab Major from L'Organiste by Cesar Franck?

I hope you'll enjoy playing this piece yourself from my PDF score which will save you many hours of work and help you practice efficiently.

Thanks to Diana Danilova for her meticulous transcription from the slow motion video.

What will you get?

PDF score with complete fingering written in. Basic Level. 1 page.

Let me know how your practice goes.

​This score is free for Total Organist students.

Check it out here