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. Rules 1. It's sort of open mic contest for organ music - no limitation to length, level of difficulty, genre etc. 2. It can be any organ piece, any hymn, any improvisation or any organ exercise. 3. It has to be performed by you without editing. 4. Be sure to clearly state Secrets of Organ Playing Contest, the contest week number, your Steem name, and the random contest entry word of the week. This week's word is "Book Club". 5. Upload your entry to YouTube. 6. Make a post about your entry on Steem. 7. Performance on pipe and electronic organs are valid. 8. Use #secretsoforganplaying as your first tag. 9. Upvote and Resteem this post on Steem. 10. Comment this post on Steem with link to your entry so people can see and listen to it. 11. The contest is open until Monday, January 14, 2019 12:00 PM UTC. Rewards Every participating entry will receive our upvotes. Additionally, 3 winners will be rewarded some STEEM in the following manner: 1st Place: 10 STEEM 2nd Place: 6 STEEM 3rd Place: 4 STEEM Judging @laputis and I will serve as judges. We will pick winners based on what sounded the most interesting and best performed to us. Our goal here is to support the community while motivating you to practice, inspiring to create some amazing music and adding more smiles to everyone's day. Questions, comments, ideas? Please let us know your feedback about this contest. Support our fellow contestants - upvote, resteem and comment their entry to let them know specifically what did you appreciate about their music. Also stay tuned for the post about winners from Week 1! We hope to see even more entries next week! And remember, when you practice, miracles happen!
Comments
First of all, I want to remind everyone who is planning to enter our Secrets of Organ Playing Contest Week 1 that less than 24 hours are left to submit your entry. We already have the first contest entry. Congratulations @savagirl4! The future belongs to the brave and curious.
And now let's go to the podcast for today. Vidas: Hi guys, this is Vidas. Ausra: And Ausra. V: Let’s start episode 367, of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Leon. And, he writes: Galsworthy encouraged Streatfeild to know three times more than she needed to about whatever she chose to write. Does it take three times the knowledge of music to be able to compose? V: So this question Ausra, is taken from our correspondence with Leon, and he sent me a link to the biography of an English author, Mary Noel Streatfeild, who is best known for her children’s book, including the ‘Shoes’ Book. And this citation which John Galsworthy, English novelist and playwright, that wrote the Forsyte Saga, basically suggests that Galsworthy recommended for Streatfeild to read three times as much as she writes as a writer, right? To read more than you would write. It makes sense, actually, right? You cannot really write anything of value if you are not knowledgeable about your field. You have to get expertise by reading many books. A: True and you have to increase your vocabulary. V: I just wrote to him that for example, Voltaire recommended reading 100 books in order to be able to write one. So it was maybe different area, different, maybe background. He was maybe talking about encyclopedic knowledge, not necessarily life experiences. But Leon is wondering about how it relates or translates to musical composition. A: Well, it’s obviously that since very early times, composers studied each others music. Think about young Bach, what he did when he copied the scores from his brothers library, at night in secret. It means that it meant a lot to him and he learned a lot from those scores. Because can you imagine just writing by your hand, copying all those scores? It’s a long process. V: And by this process, that was one of the main exercises to learn copying… A: Sure. V: Other composers music. A: And I think now we are missing this much because we are not copying by hand and sometimes it’s probably would be a nice thing to copy something by hand. V: I actually did… A: Just really internalize it. V: I copied C major invention by Bach. Taken not from modern edition but from his handwriting. A: Mmm-hmm. V: Just for fun, you know, like, Pamela is also very, Pamela Ruiter–Feentra, our former professor, is very enthusiastic about copying by hand so, she knows the value because she did the research about Bach and improvisation. So then, I thought maybe I could also try copying just one to see. I didn’t notice any miracles happening right away, but maybe that’s because it was just a single piece. A: You need to write down, to rewrite and copy all of his inventions. Anyway... V: Yes. A: Now I think we have all this modern technique that allows us to copy easily things. V: Too easily. A: Yes. Too easily. V: Mmm-hmm. Things get too fast for us. A: Yes. But now I think that it would be very beneficial if many young composers would try to study other composers as well not just create their own music. Because what is happening right now in Lithuania, maybe in other countries too, that there are so much more people who are creating music and composing music, that it’s sort of like a new fashion. V: Really? A: Really. Because, like in our school, earlier, we would have very little students who will study composition. But now it’s almost like a, I don’t know, infectious disease. V: You mean like a fashion? A: Yes, like a fashion. Let’s say if you are incapable of playing instrument well, or you are incapable of doing something in the music well, ‘oh, okay, I’ll be a composer’. That’s a new fashion and it’s just bad and it makes me really sick and upset and I think it’s a very, very, very bad thing—very bad tendency. V: You know what they say, Ausra, ‘those who cannot play, create. Those who cannot create, teach. Those who cannot teach, criticize’. (Laughs) A: Well, I guess there might be some part of truth of each of the saying, maybe not entirely true but there is certain true about it. And I cannot force myself to perform a music, by let’s say by a contemporary so-called composer that I cannot respect—that I know that let’s say he or she or whatever, cannot do something for themselves with the music. Because I know instances for example, people who have no, or I would say, a man who has no musical pitch… V: Mmm-hmm. A: Composes. And believe me, I have heard these stories both in the United States and in Lithuania as well. V: Mmm-mmm. A: Because now we have all wonderful technology, all this music systems, Sibelius and so on and so forth, that any of us can compose. V: It’s a double edge sword, or knife. A: But do I really need to spend my time, to waste my time of learning a composition that is written by somebody that… V: Cannot perform. A: True. V: Cannot play. A: And cannot hear what he or she writes. V: Uh-huh. By hearing you mean that they need to play back the music to them in order to hear it. They don’t hear it inside their head. A: Not only that, I’m not talking only about inner pitch, I’m talking about musical pitch at all. V: Really? A: Yes. In general. V: So serious then. A: It’s very serious. It’s really serious, so now when talking about contemporary composers you really need to select carefully that you wouldn’t waste time for worthless music. I’m sorry to say it but so it is—at least that’s my point of view. V: Wouldn’t you think that people somehow should—your not talking about people, your not suggesting for people to stop creating, no? You are advocating for people to start developing other skills in their vocabulary, that they could actually understand the music they’re creating, and even sometimes perform. If it’s their instrument of course. A: Well because if you would look at the back at the musical history, all the great composers, their performances, well, and they started by performing other composers music and studying other composers music. V: Mmm-hmm. A: And now some of these young composers, that they cannot play, that they haven’t studied enough other compositions, they start to create music of their own. V: You mean like reinvent the wheel? A: Yes. V: They don’t know what came before them, and they think ‘oh, I have a clever idea. Nobody else had it before, and maybe I will be unique.’ A: Well, be honest. By now, I think all those possibilities are almost exhausted… V: Mmm-hmm. A: And if you do something a little more creative than another, it doesn’t mean anything, at least for me. Because trying to compose without having this good musical education or this understanding about musical history, about other composers, not having any skills of yourself, it’s like building a house from roof. V: Maybe what hasn’t been done enough, is to create music out of combinations of various different elements. For example, let’s say you like this genre of the fugue, but fugues have been written thousands and thousands of times before. It’s nothing new. But you could take another genre and combine it with the fugue. And maybe it has been done also, so maybe you need three things to mix in this pot to be at least partly original. What do you think, Ausra? A: Yes, I think it’s a good thing. V: But for this to happen, just like Leon says, or Galsworthy, you need to be knowledge about other works that came before you and read a lot and basically sight-read a lot, study other works, so that you could take those elements with your, within reason. A: Yes. And you know what I’m talking and criticizing in this podcast, I don’t think it applies let’s say for church musicians. Let’s say you are an organist, and you really need to have a new hymn composed or any kind of composition for your liturgical works, you can easily do that, because you know what you really need. And it’s I think very fine and I encourage people doing that. V: Mmm-hmm. A: Because sometimes we really need to know good liturgical works right away and you know what, let’s say what our choir is capable of singing, or what we are able to play or what our congregation likes, but I’m talking about that sort of very high professional composers who pretend to very high professionals. V: Academic. A: Yes, academic, and who creates sort of non-sensical piece and want to push it to international festival to be performed, let’s say by a great orchestra. V: Mmm-hmm. A: I’m talking about these kind of things. V: Right. A: I’m talking that nowadays, maybe ambition of some young composers are way too high, for let’s say the beginners. V: But you know, what I can relate a little, at least a little bit, partially—I can understand a little bit why they are ignoring other composers, other works of previous generations—because they want to be original, right? And that’s the thing that matters—novelty, originality, uniqueness. And they feel that everything was created and so it’s better even not to bother with old stuff and start from scratch, in their mind. That’s how they think maybe. A: I’m not telling that you have to copy all composers, that’s not what I’m meaning, and that’s not what I’m telling. I’m just telling that before composing your own you need to know that history. It will enrich your understanding about things. V: Definitely. Yeah. A: Because I think it’s very fascinating that if you think about music that it’s only twelve different notes, and all that music was made and created out of only twelve notes. It’s truly amazing. V: Mmm-hmm. And if you know the history of music, you can better be equipped of creating the future of music. A: True. Because I really think that music needs to have substance. It needs to have it’s form. V: But again, this is within reason. I know one professor in musical academy in Lithuania who is probably world-class expert in musical history and musical theory in general, analysis. And he knows everything that there is to know. And he’s already in his 70’s I believe. And only a few years ago he started to compose, because he said to one of his students, ‘now I know everything, and now I’m ready to create.’ Which is kind of craze to me. A: Well I that preparation time for composing for every person is different. V: But waiting until you are seventy… A: I think it’s okay. V: Why? A: Well, sometimes it’s enough to write one genial composition for people to remember you. V: But don’t you think that this professor knew enough to start with, like twenty, thirty years ago? A: Well you just can do whatever you want with your life. You cannot do something others lives. You cannot enforce people to do what you want. V: Silence! Let’s listen to the snow. A: Vidas is, to wake up my words, because I don’t think he likes them so much. V: I’m just saying that, no, you cannot influence others, of course. You’re right. And... A: You can do influence. You can try to do influence, but you cannot force them to do what you want. V: Mmm-hmm. A: And sometimes I think when you want to make influence for somebody, you need to find subtle ways to do it, rather than push forward. V: Let me then clarify a little bit my thought: I think that particular professor didn’t create music, not because he wasn’t knowledgeable enough to begin with, maybe decades ago, but maybe he had another reason. He was telling official reason, and he had another true reason. What do you think? A: Probably yes. V: That’s more plausible explanation. A: Sure! V: Right? Because why did he start now? Maybe... A: Maybe now he has more free time. V: Oh! That’s right. That’s right. A: Because some people cannot create when they are under pressure under all kind of activities—working, raising family, doing all kind of stuff. And maybe now it’s time in his life when he can do it and enjoy it. V: Okay guys, we hope this was useful to you. Please send us your questions. We love helping you grow. And remember, when you practice... A: Miracles happen! SOPP364: It's really worth trying to play a dress rehearsal at least two months before the recital1/5/2019
Vidas: Hi guys, this is Vidas.
Ausra: And Ausra. V: Let’s start episode 364, of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. Today we would like to talk a little bit about the recital that we witnessed before Christmas. Our friend Paulius played short, half-an hour recital at Vilnius Cathedral. A: Actually, it lasted 25 minutes. V: 25 minutes. A: Mmm-hmm. V: Okay. And it was a big deal for him because it was Vilnius Cathedral—a big place, and many people came, and it was organized as a Christmas organ series by National Association of Organists in Lithuania, and Paulius played one of the recitals, last Saturday. First of all Ausra, what do you think about this? Did Paulius make a good progress, considering your last experience of him playing the organ? A: Do you want me to be honest or do you want me to tell that he did the progress? V: Do you think that these two things are mutually exclusive? A: I don’t know. Well, anyway, let’s start our talk with what you told me a night before his recital because Vidas was just turning pages for him. V: Mmm-hmm. A: And night before recital, what Vidas told to me, I thought that I will hear a very sloppy performance, but it didn’t happen. So I guess he made overnight progress. V: He played much better during the recital than in the last rehearsal. I only heard him once, right? I didn’t go to the cathedral a few times before when he was playing. I couldn’t come. So yes, I was stressed out and he was stressed out too, rather scared, I guess, for the upcoming performance, which was sort of very natural because we all are scared when something big is approaching and we’re not really feeling secure. A: But you know, he has this wonderful quality that he did such a good job comparing to what he could do, and what he did a night before, and that’s a very good sign. Very few of us I think have this quality. Because usually under the pressure, people do much sloppier job than they could do. V: Are you one of those people? A: Mmm. V: Cause I am, usually. A: Well, I don’t think so, but it’s very hard to judge yourself and to be sort of objective when talking about oneself. V: And actually, there are different instances, different experiences in our own life. Sometimes we play better during the public performance and sometimes a little bit worse. A: You know, I just draw a very useful lesson after this recital, and it was a nice recital, I mean I enjoyed much of it. But also I thought how it could be if things would be different, and I like that you need to prepare in advance and it does matter what because before this recital he could not practice enough. And he know probably about it in advance I believe because he knew that this is the time before Christmas which is very busy for church organists, and gives all kind of additional work. V: Mmm-hmm. A: And therefore you need to prepare in advance. For your sake, for listeners sake, for everybody’s sake. V: I didn’t ask him but it would have been really worth trying to play a dress rehearsal at least two months before. A: And I think that how George Ritchie and Quentin Faulkner advised everybody to play. V: For professionals, I think one month before is acceptable. A: And that’s what we did—we had to play entire program one month before in public. V: But for people who are still learning, I think two months before the public performance, you have to play the run through. A: Because you always have to take in mind that things might happen. You might get sick for a week or two or something might happen, accident, whatever. And expect it work, jobs and all kinds of complication. So in that way if you will be ready in advance, you will not be so much stressed out. V: What to you mean by run-through? Is you have to play your entire program? A: Without stopping, from beginning to the end. V: In concert tempo? A: Yes. V: With as many mistakes as you like—it doesn’t matter. A: Well, but if you will make mistakes in every measure that means that you are not ready to play through. V: But, well, within reason... A: I don’t agree with you... V: Without reason. A: By mistakes. V: But do you even imagine that the person would make mistake in every measure, and still would play in a concert tempo? I couldn’t imagine it. A: Well, you know, miracles happen, as we daily say on our podcast. V: If you could play your program in a concert tempo, then feel free to make mistakes. A: I have seen people who are very self-conscious and that are very sort self-confidence. V: Mmm-hmm. A: And you never know who you are talking to. And sometimes people are very having very good, very high opinion about themselves and sometimes another way, so… V: Oh! You mean that things that we are talking right now, would be perceived differently by other people. A: That’s right. V: By different people... A: That’s right. V: Differently. A: Yes. V: When I say, ‘please do as many mistakes as you like’, then that person would really play absolutely horribly but still think ‘oh, Vidas let me play with mistakes.’ A: So don’t tell that because you need to do as little mistakes as you can. That’s the purpose. V: For me, the purpose is to play in concert tempo, and within reason to make mistakes. I mean not to focus on the mistakes, but focus on the tempo, and then you will have two months to reduce those mistakes. A: Well, but anyway, what I’m talking about and what I’m keeping in mind and what is very important for me that, if I play a recital and I’m really ready for it, I know that I did what I could… V: Mmm-hmm. A: And then let’s say something will happen to me during recital—some unexpected mistakes, or I don’t know, the organ would break or something else—then I would just know that I did what I could and know what happens, just happened. And I would be sort, well… V: Pleased. A: Pleased, yes. But if I wouldn’t be ready for recital for some reasons and I would do a sloppy job then I would feel really guilty. V: By this time probably our listeners are wondering, ‘what did Paulius play?’, right? We’re talking about recital and they don’t know what he performed. So, the first piece on the program was Nun komm, BWV 599 from the Orgelbuchlein by Johann Sebastian Bach. A: And I think the next two pieces also were from the same collection. V: Right. Then the second was BWV 600. If the first was BWV 599 then the next one in the program was in order—600, and then BWV 601. All three of them together. And then Paulius played Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland... A: ... From the Leipzig collection. V: Exactly! From eighteen great chorales, BWV 659, I believe, where the choral melody is in the right hand, ornamented, the famous advent choral. And then, what came next? A: Demessieux V: Jeanne Demessieux. Also ornamented choral on Rorate Coeli. A: That’s right. And then he did his own improvisation, which I think was the best on the program. V: Uh-huh. And the themes for this improvisation was also advent hymns. A: Then then he finished with a toccata, French style toccata by... V: Eh, Carter. A: Carter. V: Mmm-hmm. A: It came from the Oxford Collection of Christmas music. V: Yes. So it took about 25 minutes… A: Yes. V: To perform. It... A: Well actually, he had to take less than 25 minutes because I believe that that last toccata by Carter was performed probably, I would not say maybe double as slow as it should be, but maybe one-third slower than it should be. V: Was it that obvious? A: Well, in some parts, yes. V: Cause he started normally… A: Because tempo wasn’t steady... V: Slowed down. A: That’s what I noticed in that toccata so… V: Uh-huh. A: You just felt that organ is controlling him, not he is controlling things. V: But Orgelbuchlein chorales were performed, I think, well, A: Yes. That’s true. V: All three of them. A: That’s true. Not the last one from the last Liepzig collection. V: Herr Christ, der einge Gottes-Sohn, BWV, 601 Paulius played it many years ago, and it repeated it just for this performance, and was feeling very shaky the night before about it. So I was kind of really surprised that he managed to play it very well. A: It’s not an easy choral. V: Especially if you don’t play it with care and precision. A: It’s the first Orgelbuchlein choral that I have learned in my life. V: Maybe it was one of his firsts, too, when he was studying with me. But that was like at the beginning of our friendship so right when we returned from the United States. A: That’s right. V: In 2007. A: But in general I think that he has a great potential and he showed it on this recital. V: Mmm-hmm. A: I’m just sorry that he doesn’t feel very well himself… V: I think… A: And he knows why, but… V: I think that Nun komm, BWV 659 from Leipzig collection, could have been played even better because he messed up a little bit in ornamented places. He didn’t sometimes know how to perform correctly ornaments. And the easiest way to do this is just to listen to my… A: To listen to recordings. V: To my recording for example. I’m not being very… A: ‘To my recording’... There are wonderful recordings by other organists. V: Wait a second… I’m not being very, what is this word I’m looking for—modest, right, Ausra? A: That’s right? V: But that’s because he’s playing… A: Everybody noticed. V: But that’s because he’s playing from my fingered and pedaled score. He is using my score so he could listen to my performance on Youtube and that would take him five minutes. A: That’s right. V: Unless he doesn’t like my recording. Then he would need to listen to your recording. A: Have I recorded this choral? I don’t think so. V: Then he could ask you to record it. A: But in general if we are talking about Leipzig collection, this is probably the easiest choral from the Great Eighteen Chorals to play. V: Mmm-hmm. A: And it’s a very good piece if you want something not too complicated and beautiful to play. V: Do you think that Paulius could benefit from harmony studies a little bit more? A: Of course, I think…. V: But was it obvious from listening? A: Well, yes, sometimes yes, because I think he needs, and everybody needs, to play more attention to chord structures, to harmonic structures. Then it will help you to show your audience what is more important and what is less important. V: Well to put it another way, the piece will start to speak to you… A: That’s right. V: In a musical way. A: Because it will help you to internalize it’s structure. V: Maybe it now speaks on emotional level, like it’s beautiful, you feel the flow, you feel mood, but you don’t know what’s happening inside. You don’t know how the composer created it, this piece. I’m not even talking about Bach or Carter—any type of music that you play, if you don’t know what’s going on inside, then you’re missing something, right? So Paulius could really benefit from harmony studies. But in general, to summarize, I was really pleased. I thought that he has great potential, considering the circumstances that he was in. So Paulius, if you listening to this, don’t stop. Continue practice. And remember, when you practice... A: Miracles happen! Most of our followers probably know that Ausra and I are organists who draw. Specifically we draw comics about the adventures and screw-ups of Pinky the piglet, Spiky the hedgehog and their imaginary friends. What would happen if we combined these comics with the organ music that we play? This is the idea behind a video we made recently. We first created a series of comics about Pinky and Spiky building a pipe organ. Then we took the music from our organ duet performance in Paslek, Poland where we played Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F Major, BWV 1046, among other pieces on the 1719 organ built by Andreas Hildebrandt. What came out is this 5 minute video we have made over the holidays. We hope you will enjoy it. A Steemian @tarazkp in one of his first posts in 2019 asked to write New Year's resolutions in the comments and I wrote about our project of Pinky and Spiky building an organ. Here's what he replied: It reminds me of childhood. My older brother played the organ and the pipe organ well. It looks like your project is going to be a lot of fun to create :) Here is what other people are saying: @sophiajames: I watched this video i liked the drawing and colors in this video its remember me in childhood thank you for sharing @deemarshall: I wish every success with this project. As you know, I am not musically educated so I don't feel the full benefit of your organ. I enjoyed the cartoons and the fairground sound of the accompaniment. I hope it all goes well! @lildebbiecakes: Awesome video, wonderful pictures, great idea! I think that the organ music that you picked out is perfect for the whole overall effect of Pinky and Spiky building a pipe organ, and what an instrument like this can sound like after it is properly built. What a fantastic gift to receive the knowledge on how to build an instrument like this one. Its fascinating to understand a little bit about it. I love music, it’s been a very big part of my life. I’ve gotten through some very tuff times, with the help of God, an a old acoustic Gibson guitar at hand, it made me very happy to play it and sing. I pray you will have great success with all you and your lovely wife do, many blessings❣️ Glenn: Magnum Opus from Vidas the well-tempered Organist/ Comic Artist from Lithuania! Bravo, Maestro! Here's the video I made the drawings and Ausra colored them with our oil pastel. Mostly I made the drawings when she was teaching harmony and organ to the group of church organists in Vilnius. She colored them very diligently one by one at home, sometimes when I wasn't around. You can see she is much more precise than I am with coloring. When I would come home a surprise would be waiting for me in the form of several colored comics. Some of you might remember how about a month ago I went to Rokiskis to dismantle an organ with my friend Paulius who is the organist of St Joseph parish in Vilnius. His parish has bought this organ from the Rokiskis college which was being shut down. During the dismantling process which lasted all day, I took lots of photos which became the basis for these comics. Our goal this year is to expand it to 45 minutes so that we could use it in our organ demonstrations for children. Since these comics don't involve any text, there is no limitation to certain language and the project could be performed in organ festivals in various countries. We know that currently the organ world faces a challenge of attracting young audiences to the organ and we hope to be able to contribute towards a brighter future of our beloved instrument. Let us know what you think.
Vidas: Hi guys, this is Vidas.
Ausra: And Ausra. V: Let’s start episode 366 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Lukasz and he will be visiting us in February so we’re looking forward to it. He is going to try out our St. John’s organ with the very hard key action and he writes now: “Hi, You're touching my favorite problem again ;-). I want to share with you my biggest problem with fingerwork. 1. I cannot use someone else's fingerings - it always is uncomfortable for me. I tried and instead of thinking about music - I'm beginning to think about fingers - and this does not lead me anywhere. I know that I make by this my life more difficult in many situations. But I can not. I think this is more psychological barrier than physical, because from the youngest I was taught to seek more my own solutions and ways in music than to copy someone else's. Well, sometimes it means, that I'm breaking already open doors... 2. I am often not able to use my own fingerings from the start of work with the music. At the beginning of it my fingering is often completely different than when I learn more about structure, accents etc of the music. Therefore I never write fingering, except the places that absolutely require it - and I still write at most one or two fingers. Why? Because even after learning of the music and playing it in up-tempo, sometimes - to my great irritation - my hands prefers other fingers! I discovered that playing slow I use other fingers than playing fast. Sometimes I have the impression, that my hands have too much - autonomy ... I have written use third finger - my hand says - No! You will be playing it with the second finger! In this situation, I start to wonder why. Sometimes - very rarely - it turns out that in the next measure, moving from another finger gives a more interesting musical clue. But most often it's a forcing of my hand to make a movement that it does not want at all ... and this is the most annoying part of the practice! Merry Christmas and All the best... and of course see you in February. Lukasz” V: So Ausra what are your experiences with fingering? Do you write it at the beginning of studying your music or later. Do you write it at all or not? Do you write it sparingly? What’s your take on this? A: Well now I don’t write fingering. Only in very, very few spots because I don’t need it because I have a pretty good notion of it. But I think that is really bad thing if you have one fingering written in and you use another fingering. That’s inappropriate. V: Umm-hmm. It’s better to not have fingering written in than to use a different fingering every time I guess. A: Because if you a using different fingering every time that you play as Lukasz mentions it means that something is not good with it. V: With the fingering. A: Yes. V: Umm-hmm. Maybe I also can share a few things. Like you I also have much experience with playing the organ and don’t need to write in fingering most of the time. Just in a few maybe troublesome places like Ad Patres Sonata by Kutavicius. To facilitate learning process I wrote fingering in one episode, maybe 10 measures, and since this episode is repeated 13 times I copied this fingering 13 times in the score just because it makes the work easier and the time is limited. A: Interesting then I learned that piece I would just, if you are talking about that episode that repeats itself, I would just clip all those pages together and I would know how many times I have to repeat that thing and then I would just turn all those pages all at once and you would just have to write your fingering once. V: That’s clever. You are the smarter one in the family. A: Thank you, I don’t think so but still thank you, it’s a nice thing to say. V: And you know I sight-read music in a very slow tempo and produce correct fingering right away. I’m thinking about what’s the best way to put my fingers and pedaling too and I record it with my phone, put it on YouTube and then our team of transcribers make transcribed scores with fingering and pedaling from this so I have to be good right away. It’s not easy, it requires lots of work and lots of practice and constant development but they say the first twenty years is difficult, afterwards it’s easier. A: Sure. V: You have to constantly sight-read new music then it gets easier and fingers somehow become second nature to you. I have to say that early fingering is much easier for me than modern fingering somehow. What about you? A: Well, actually it really doesn’t matter because I think both are easy for me because before playing organ I played piano for many years so I don’t feel uncomfortable fingering romantic or later music. V: But there are many more options with modern music. A: Sure. So you just see what works for you and in general when you are fingering romantic and later music don’t try to write fingers down right away before even playing the piece. That’s what people often do and I think it’s a mistake. You need to play it through at least a few times and to see what works and what not because if you finger your score without playing through then these problems might happen that you write in one fingering and you are using another one. V: That’s how we were taught actually, our professors in Lithuania at least said practice the piece a few times and get to know it and then write in fingering. A: Sure. In general I think that you need to be able to play both ways, without fingers and with fingers. V: And I guess why. A: Because if you, well… Remember when we studied with Leopoldas Digrys he always forced us to write every single finger. V: That’s because he did it himself. A: Yes, for entire life and after playing with him for some time I realized that I cannot play music without fingering written in. V: Yes, so most of the time for example people sight-read and it doesn’t have fingers written in. What can you do then? You have to guess, you have to… A: I felt sort of like having a disability. That I am incapable of doing something and then I just dropped writing down every single finger. V: What about when you improvise? A: Sure. But of course there is advantage if you have fingered score because it means that you save time and you save trouble fingering yourself and if you go back to the same piece after many years it will be easier for you to recollect it and to play it. V: I guess it depends on the goals of each individual person, right? If we want to learn the piece inside out and come back to it after a decade or so and still be able to play it more or less in a slow tempo of course then writing in fingering is a good idea but then the amount of music that you are going to learn in your life is greatly diminished, is greatly limited actually, because it’s a slow process, you have to write in every finger or most of the fingers in every score. Obviously it slows down your practice so then you will not be able to sight-read as much music, right? So it depends what you want from life for your organ playing activities. A: But definitely if you are in the learning process and you are a beginner or intermediate level still the fingering is very important. V: Umm-hmm. Having great foundation is crucial. Afterwards you have to choose for yourself what suits best your needs. A: And I think especially this is true with baroque music because very often baroque music didn’t have so much right choice, less than later music and I think that it’s very important to get good advice and play from well-edited scores. V: Yes, guys, we hope this was helpful to you. Please send us more of your questions. We love helping you grow as an organist and remember when you practice… A: Miracles happen. Would you like to master Two Part Invention No. 8 in F Major, BWV 779 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 Jan Pennell for her meticulous transcription of fingering from the slow motion video. Basic level. PDF score. 1 page. 50% discount is valid until January 9. Check it out here This score is free for Total Organist students. Dear friends of Secrets of Organ Playing! Happy New Year! Ausra and I wish you to double what was best about the old year! Let 2019 be healthy, happy and creative to you and your loved ones! Congratulations to Ariane, Isabella, May, Marsan, Oleksii, Martin, Sally and Amanda who recently joined the ranks of Total Organist through 50% Christmas discount. We're sure they will learn a lot and advance faster in organ playing than on their own! If any of our subscribers haven't had a chance to do it, today is the last day. Also congratulations to Lorelei who decided to participate in our Secret of Organ Playing Contest. Yesterday I have created Steem account for her. Let me know if you want to participate too. Let's say goodbye to the old year while listening to the immortal chorale prelude by J.S. Bach "Das alte Jahr vergangen ist, BWV 614: |
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Drs. Vidas Pinkevicius and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene Organists of Vilnius University , creators of Secrets of Organ Playing. Our Hauptwerk Setup:
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