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Although alternate toes technique was the most popular type of pedaling used in Renaissance and Baroque organ music, quite often we have to use the same foot technique as well. It is important for an organist to recognize the differences of alternate toes and same foot technique because it affects our pedaling choices. If you know in which type of passages playing with the same foot is the best choice, you will quickly learn to see the familiar patterns in your pedal lines. In this article, I will give you the most important instances of using the same foot technique in early organ music.
Same Foot before Changing Direction On passages in quarter, eighth, and sixteenth notes sometimes we use same foot instead of alternate toes technique. Here applies the general rule: use same foot before changing direction. This means that in a passage like C D E D we play with the same foot notes D and E because after ascending notes D and E the melody changes direction downwards. So the entire passage, such as C D E D E F G F G A B G would be played left, right, right, left, left, right, right, left, left, right, right, left, and left. Same Foot on Long Note Values in Extreme Edges of the Pedal Board In Baroque and Renaissance organ music, chorale-based compositions often employ cantus firmus technique – placement of the chorale melody in long note values (half and whole notes). Cantus firmus method can be used in any voice. Instances of cantus firmus in the bass were especially common because they could be played on a separate pedal division with a different sound color. Moreover, if cantus firmus was used in any other voice, it could still often be played with the pedals. The normal way of pedaling such melodies was alternate toes technique. However, in extreme edges of the pedal board one could play long notes with one foot because the traditional alternate toes technique is uncomfortable. I recommend that you write in pedaling in every piece you play on the organ, at least in the beginning. This will prevent you from making accidental pedaling choices which will not necessarily be correct and efficient. With experience, however, you will start to notice familiar patterns in pedal lines of your organ music and gradually your pedaling choices will become automatic and natural. In other words, if you practice writing in the correct pedaling regularly, with time your pedaling will become instinctive and you will not need to write in any of it. 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. Early organ music requires different kind of pedaling than Romantic and modern compositions. Like fingering, pedaling techniques used in the Renaissance and Baroque music depends not only on different stylistic trends and compositional style but also on major differences in organ building and construction. Just like fingering, choosing correct pedaling allows good articulation, phrasing, and touch, among other things. In other words, if you know the general ideas and concepts of the pedaling used in early organ music, pedaling itself will help you play the music in style and you will achieve the correct articulation naturally. Whether you play music of Schlick, Buxtehude, Sweelinck, Bach, or any other Renaissance or Baroque composer, you will benefit from the correct pedaling methods. Today I would like to reveal the most commonly used pedaling technique for 16th, 17th, and 18th century organ music.
Do Not Use Heels The rule in pedaling early organ music is to avoid using heels. In countries, like France, pedal keys were very narrow and it could be played using toes only. Moreover, very often organ bench on historical organs was in a position were playing with heels was simply impossible. In other words, the full foot of an organist could not fit between the organ bench and the sharp keys. Although in Italy pedal keys were not as narrow, they were quite short. So the only option on many organs was to play with toes. In addition, on the clavichord sound made by the heel would produce a squeaking effect. Since clavichord technique was the basis of organist technique as well, all toes pedaling is the best choice in early organ music. Alternate Toes Perhaps the most popular pedaling technique in early organ music is alternate toes. It basically means that some passages of pedal lines should be played using toes of left and right foot in alternation. For example, try to play the ascending C major scale in this way: left-right-left-right-left and so on. Start the descending scale with the right foot. Make sure that the notes would not be played legato. In other words, you should try to achieve small articulation between notes. Shorten every other note a little so that you will make small accents on strong beats. Note that you should not use feet crossing with this technique. In other words, do not put you foot behind or in front of the other. Instead, move both your feet together as a unit. If you perform the C major scale in this way, it will be easy to feel the pulse and alternation of strong and week beats. The typical use of alternate toes technique also is in the descending pairs of sixteenth notes, such CD BC AB GA FG EF DE etc. I recommend regular practice of major and minor scales in most common keys using alternate toes technique. In other words, play scales with up to two accidentals which were the most often used in the Renessaince and Baroque music. This practice will help you to master not only this technique but also the natural articulation. 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 early organ music requires much knowledge in registration, articulation, fingering, and other aspects of organ performance. Fingering, in particular, is an area where correct choices can facilitate the execution of articulation, phrasing, and ornamentation. The right way of fingering can even help to feel the pulse and the meter easier. If the organist plays a Baroque or Renaissance organ piece with the correct fingering, chances of performing it in style are much higher. Although there are many different national schools of early organ music, and each of them has its own tradition of fingering practices, it is possible to outline some general ideas about fingering. In this article, I would like to give you my advice on how to choose the best fingering in music composed before 1800 which will help you to achieve the correct articulation.
Paired Fingering. The most famous of all kinds of early fingerings, paired fingering is used primarily for one voice passages in one hand. It can help to emphasize the meter and the pulse if used correctly. Paired fingering is based on the idea that the notes on the stronger beats should be played with stronger fingers. Authors of treatises from different national schools had their own ideas about strong fingers. They even referred to them as good and bad fingers. It is best to play with early fingering scale based passages written in quarter, eighth, and sixteenth notes. Try this exercise: play the ascending C major scale with the right hand using 3-4-3-4-3-4-3-4 fingering. Try to achieve some articulation between each note which should not be played legato. This type of articulation is called the ordinary touch or the articulate legato. Notice how notes C, E, G, and B start with the strong finger 3 which emphasizes the pulse very well. Try to achieve the slight pulsation while shortening the notes which you play with finger 4. Try the same exercise in descending scale with 3-2-3-2-3-2-3-2. You can play with the left hand the same exercise using 3-2-3-2-3-2-3-2 (ascending) and 3-4-3-4-3-4-3-4 (descending). Do not cross the fingers but shift the position with the entire hand. In other words, move both fingers together as a unit. Position Fingering. This type of fingering means that we choose the fingers which would allow playing the most number of notes without changing position. Like paired fingering, position fingering is also used for solo passages. Try this exercise: Play a passage like C D E F G F E D E F G A B A G F G A B C D C B A in sixteenth notes with the right hand using a pattern of 12345432 12345432 12345432. Notice how it is possible to play 8 notes in one position. Putting the thumb under and switching to the new position is very efficient way to play such passages. Interval Fingering. While paired and position fingering are best suited for solo passages, interval fingering is used to play two notes in one hand. Thirds are best played with 2-4 or 1-3, fourths – with 2-5 or 1-4, fifths, sixths, sevenths, and octaves – with 1-5. The succession of the same kind of intervals is played with the same fingers. Therefore, such common passages of successive thirds, for example in music of Sweelinck, are best played with 2-4. The passages in sixths are played with 1-5. Chord Fingering. Because of narrower keys in the 16th and 17th century organs, the chords (and solo passages) in early music are often played without the thumb. For example, first inversion major chord E G C can be played with 2 3 5 in the right hand). The left hand chords are often wider, as in C G C and played with 1 2 5. The general rule for the Renaissance and early Baroque music is to avoid using thumb (especially in sharp keys). However, there are many instances where the thumb cannot be avoided, such as in music written in G minor, or F major. Quite often composers use excursions into the B flat major area where B flat is the primary note of the key. Therefore, the thumb is definitely used in such cases, though it is not exactly comfortable for the hand. Because of the chromatic nature of the music of J.S.Bach and complicated keys used in his works, playing with the thumb and using finger crossing is quite comfortable. However, try to avoid finger substitution and glissando which are best suited for the legato manner of playing used in organ music written about after 1800. 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 of the article which deals with the most efficient fingering for Romantic and modern organ music. Please read Part 1 here.
Arpeggio and Chord Fingerings. When you notice a place with an arpeggio in it, think in terms of a chord. In other words, the standard way to play arpeggios is by using the chord fingerings. For three note root position chords, such as C E G, use 1 3 5 in the right hand or 5 3 1 in the left hand. For first inversion chords, such as E G C, use 1 2 5 in the right hand or 5 3 1 in the left hand. Second inversion chords, such as G C E are best played with 1 3 5 in the right hand and 5 2 1 in the left hand. For chords, starting on the sharp or flat note (B flat D F) we have to use the same fingerings. Play chords with four notes, such as C E G C, with 1 2 3 5 (right hand) or 5 4 2 1 (left hand). Play the first inversion E G C E with 1 2 4 5 (right hand) or 5 4 2 1 (left hand). The second inversion G C E G is best played with 1 2 4 5 (right hand) or 5 3 2 1 (left hand). The main rule for using 3 or 4 in the middle of an arpeggio or a chord is an interval of the third. If the third is major (as in C E), play with 3. If the third is minor (as in E G), play with 4. Finger Substitution. This technique allows achieving a perfect legato when playing more than one voice in one hand. Finger substitution basically involves changing fingers on the same note. The most common instance for finger substitutions are passages in double thirds, sixths, and other intervals. Sometimes when playing more chromatic music we have to change fingers on three or four note chords as well. Finger Glissando. Finger glissando is a technique of sliding from one key to another with the same finger. We use it to achieve legato primarily when playing more than one voice in one hand. Passages of chromatic scales in double thirds and sixths are typical places for this technique. Finger substitutions and glissando in single voice passages are somewhat less orthodox. More often we play these passages using finger crossing, scale fingering, position fingering, or chord fingering instead. Moreover, very often when a person uses finger substitution or glissando in a single voice passage, it is evident that he or she did not give much thought about the fingering in advance. I suggest you write in fingerings in every piece that you play on the organ, at least in the beginning of your organist career. This will diminish chances of playing with accidental fingerings which will hinder your progress. Choosing fingering, of course, should be done before the actual practice of the piece. If there are several options available, try all of them and choose the one which is the most efficient and comfortable for your hand. By the way, you can write in fingerings for a shorter fragment and start practicing it right away without waiting to finish fingering the entire piece which might take a while. With experience you will start to feel the familiar patterns and you will instinctively choose the most efficient fingering automatically. Then it will be necessary to pencil in the fingering only in the most difficult places. If you are really serious about not only developing your keyboard and organ technique but also your sense for fingering, I highly recommend playing scales in octaves, thirds, sixths and tenths, and also in double thirds, and double sixths in all 24 major and minor keys regularly. Playing in double intervals is an invaluable exercise for finger substitution and glissando. In addition, practice chords, short and long arpeggios on the tonic, dominant, and diminished seventh chords. A great resource with fingering guide included is The Complete Book of Scales, Chords, Arpeggios and Cadences. It includes all the major, minor (natural, harmonic, melodic) & chromatic scales - plus additional instructions on music fundamentals. 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. Knowing how to choose the most efficient fingering is crucial to any organist. This skill is important because it makes a big difference both in practicing and performing. If you know how to play with good fingering, you will feel much more confident and your performance might sound effortless and efficient. In addition, the right fingering helps you to avoid mistakes and allows playing with precision and clarity. Today, I would like to discuss some ways how to choose the fingering for organ music composed after 1800 which will help you achieve such results.
Since the normal touch for Romantic and modern music is legato, every fingering technique is geared towards achieving the perfect legato. Differently from the piano where the legato can be achieved also by the means of the right pedal, the legato techniques that are used in organ playing are based on the fingering only. There are three most important ways to play legato on the organ - finger crossing, finger substitution, and finger glissando. Finger Crossing. This technique is primarily used for single voice passages. It helps to achieve legato where you play just a single voice in one hand. The most common manifestation of finger crossings is thumb-under technique. Here you put the thumb under other fingers in order to change positions and move upwards or downwards. You can also use finger crossing by putting the longer finger over the shorter one or the shorter finger under the longer one. Scale Fingerings. Probably the easiest way to play the single voice episodes in organ music is by choosing fingerings which are based on scales. This also involves chromatic scales. Here the most important rule is to avoid using the thumb on the sharp keys because it gives unnecessary strain to the hand. For example, in a passage in B flat major for the right hand, such as B flat C D E flat F D C D E flat F G A B flat it is best to use the B flat major scale fingering: 2 1 2 3 4 2 1 2 3 1 2 3 4. Notice that we start not with 1 but with 2 on the B flat. For the left hand the best fingering here would be 3 2 1 3 2 4 5 4 3 2 1 3 2. However, in real music we often have to play with the thumb on the sharp keys (especially in music with many accidentals). A very useful exercise not only for finger dexterity and independence but also for fingering patterns is practicing scales in all major and minor keys. This can be done either on the piano or the organ. If you practice scales regularly, with time these fingerings will become second nature to you and many places in your organ compositions which earlier appeared problematic because of the fingering will be straightforward enough. Position Fingerings. When you write in fingerings, think about the position. How to play the most number of notes without leaving your current position? Put a thumb under only when is necessary to change position. For example, consider the earlier passage in B flat major. Placing a thumb on C allows us to play 8 notes in one position using fingers 1-4 and only when we have to ascend higher we put a thumb again on F and start playing like in ascending F major scale. For more fingering suggestions, read Part 2 of this article. 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 understand the importance of playing pedal scales on the organ. Because they can help to develop flexibility of an ankle, pedal scales is one of the best ways to achieve the perfect pedal technique. However, very often organists hesitate to incorporate them in their daily practice because they do not know how to choose the most efficient pedaling for playing scales. In this article, I will show you the traditional way of playing pedal scales which will help you to move your organ playing to the next level.
Keep the knees and heels together. The traditional way of playing pedals is to keep the knees and heels together. In other words, both your feet should move as one unit. I understand that for some people it will be hard to do so. In this case, at least try to keep the heels together when playing pedal scales. This is necessary because we will choose the most efficient pedaling based on this technique. Play legato. The next important point is to play with legato touch. This means that there should be no breaks between the notes. This is actually not always easy to achieve in pedal playing. I remember how hard I had to try to be able to play the notes evenly and without breaks even at a slow tempo when I was a student. It took me at least a week to master one scale. However don’t be discouraged and don’t give up. Just stick to it. Toe-toe-heel-heel technique. The most efficient way of choosing the pedaling is to use toe-toe-heel-heel technique. This means that we play the first note with the left toe then with the right toe. The third note is played with the left heel and the fourth – with the right heel. After that just start playing with the left toe. For example, in C major scale over 2 octaves, C would be depressed with the left toe, D – with the right toe, E – with the left heel, F – with the right heel, G – with the left toe, A – with the right toe, B – with the left heel, C – with the right heel, D – with the left toe, E – with the right toe, F – with the left heel, G – with the right heel, A – with the left toe, B – with the right toe, and C – with the right heel. Reverse the pedaling for the downward scale. Another way to play this scale is to play B with the left heel (at the end of the first octave) and start the second octave with the left toe and proceed like from the beginning. This technique allows us to keep the heels and knees together and to play with the inside of the feet. By the way, the C major is not exactly the easiest scale to play with pedals because it lacks accidentals. Try E flat major or A major, for example and you will feel how efficient this technique is. Adjust the pedaling when necessary. Sometimes it will be necessary to adjust the pedaling according to the accidentals because we can’t play the sharp keys with our heels. For some keys you will have to start the scale with the heel etc. In these cases, I recommend you start choosing the pedaling from the middle of the scale and then work your way downwards. For keys which have 3 consecutive sharps or flats, such as D flat major or F sharp major, you will have to slide from one sharp to another with the same toe. Take a slow tempo, and master one major and one minor scale a week. Try to achieve a nice legato and see that all notes would sound evenly. Next week add another pair of scales (in the order of ascending number of accidentals) until in about 12 weeks you can play all of them. Then it will be sufficient to play them only once during your daily practice. If you do this regularly, your ankles will become much more flexible and you will start to notice tremendous changes in your pedal technique. By the way, if you want to perfect your pedal technique, check out my Pedal Virtuoso Master Course - a 12 week training program designed to help you develop an unbeatable pedal technique while working only 15 minutes a day practicing pedal scales and arpeggios in all keys. This is the second part of the article “How to read music without looking at the keyboard”. You can read Part 1 here.
Feel the sharp keys with your fingers. This particular trick might help you to facilitate reading music without looking down. As we all know, the sharp keys are arranged in groups of two and three. For example, by feeling the edges on the left side of the group of two, you can find C, or on the right side – E. Similarly, feel the edge of F sharp and find F, or touch B flat and find B. If you have to make a leap to some natural note, first try to locate the sharp note which is closest to it. All of this requires that you do not lift your fingers off the keyboard but keep them in contact with the keys at all times. In other words, our hand movements should not be vertical (like at the piano sometimes) but horizontal. Somehow feeling the keys with your fingertips helps you to achieve precision even in leaps. By the way, for managing leaps, I recommend to use the finger preparation technique. Take a slow tempo. When you practice, I always recommend taking such a tempo that you could avoid making mistakes. At a slow tempo, it is easier to control your movements and to think where each particular note is. If you see a skip in your score, make an appropriate mental note and your finger will respond correctly. At first, your leap might be a little off, but still it would be a leap. If you make such a mistake, it is best not to go ahead and play the piece all the way through. Instead, go back, try to correct this mistake, and play with precision at least three times in a row. Practice each voice separately. One of the reasons why reading music without looking at the keyboard can be difficult for organists is that they often play all parts (including the pedal line) together. If you struggle with it, obviously, it is too complicated to play the entire musical texture. How can you know if it is too hard to practice for you this way? Make an experiment – take an organ piece of your choice with or without pedals (it could be a hymn, too). Now try to play it through it once in a slow tempo. If you make more than 3 melodic or rhythmic mistakes in one page, then my guess is either the piece is too hard for you at the moment or you should practice it differently. Instead of playing all parts together right from the beginning, practice each voice separately first. This should be easy enough for most people. Just play the soprano line slowly and count your mistakes. I bet they will not be too many. If you still make more than 3 mistakes in one page playing this way, the piece might just be too complex for you at the moment. Should you change to an easier piece? It depends. You could try practicing in shorter fragments (perhaps 1-4 measures) at a time. Whether you choose an easier piece of organ music or stick with the current one is up to you. Just try to correct your mistake and play your fragment with precision and confidence at least 3 times in a row. Later combine them in 2, 3, and 4 voices. After playing each voice has become easy, now it is time to start practicing your work in combination of two voices. Remember not to look down at the keyboard. If the previous step was successful, this combination should not be unreasonably hard either. The next logical step would be to practice in three part combinations and finally, the entire four part texture. In conclusion, I believe you can be successful at reading your organ music without looking at your fingers. It just takes regular, slow, persistent, and wise practice. 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. Quite often my organ students ask me how they can learn to play organ without looking down at their fingers. This is a common problem people face in the beginning stages of their organist career. First of all, let me say that it is not always a bad idea to look at the keyboard. If you play pieces from memory this is, of course, only natural. Where else should you look if there is no musical score present? However, if you play from the score, then it is best to look at the music (at least most of the time).
Playing from the score develops your ability to sight-read music. However, playing from the score and looking down at your fingers will slow down your progress at least in one specific area: knowing your keyboard and feeling it. This is crucial if you want to be a truly good sight-reader. Without this ability the task to sight-read music in fast tempo will be too hard. In this article, I would like to share with you my personal recommendations how to learn to read music without looking at the keyboard. At this point, you have to understand why the beginners at the organ (or piano) always want to look down. You see, when we first start playing an instrument, we do not know where each note is located on the keyboard. In addition, usually we are slow on reading notes as well. All of this creates a situation, where we naturally want to see what exactly is we are pressing. Just think how you first learned to type on the computer. Unless you were trained professionally, at first, you probably used to type with just two fingers. You did not know (or remember) where each letter or character on the computer keyboard was located. Therefore, you looked at them and at the screen constantly. Now, if you have much more experience with typing, it is sufficient for you just to look at the monitor most of the time. Likewise, in reading music we first want to look down at our fingers. However, to facilitate your advancement, try to resist the temptation to look at your fingers. In other words, force yourself not to look down. Do not be discouraged if you hit the wrong notes; just remind yourself that developing this skill takes time. You see, the fingers have the ability to memorize the distances between the keys. Provided you are practicing regularly and resisting the temptation to look at the keyboard, after a few short months, you will already start feeling the difference in your progress. Developing this skill requires time. The great blind organists like Louis Vierne, Jean Langlais, Helmut Walcha and many others have been able to master such a complex art. If they could achieve that level being blind, we obviously have a chance, too. We just have to have patience and practice regularly. I hope you understand that there is no magical way to learn to sight-read music overnight. The amount of time needed to see the progress varies from person to person but I think that if you spend at least 30 minutes a day for 3 months practicing sight-reading wisely (more on that in Part 2), you will start to see some real changes. In 3 months that will be more than 44 hours of practice. Wouldn’t you think that you would be better at this skill if you had 44 hours of serious practice under your belt? Compare that to driving a car. After 44 hours of practical experience, we would still be at the basic level but certainly not freshmen anymore. I think that in my country they require 30 hours of driving with the instructor before you can take a driving exam. Anyway, you get the idea. Just keep practicing your organ music, stick to it for 3 months, and enter the next level after that. This article continues in Part 2. Here you will find more tips on how to get better at sight-reading without looking at your fingers. 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. |
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Drs. Vidas Pinkevicius and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene Organists of Vilnius University , creators of Secrets of Organ Playing. 
Our Hauptwerk Setup:
Don't have an organ at home? No problem - print out our paper organ manuals and pedals and start practicing today!
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June 2025
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