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In order to learn to play Bach organ works on a good level, you should do the following:
1. Develop correct organ practice habits by creating a good long-term plan and sticking with it, practicing very slowly in fragments and in voice combinations. 2. Develop your organ sight-reading skills by playing one unfamiliar piece of Bach's organ music per day in a slow tempo. 3. Develop your organ technique by practicing scales and other exercises on the manuals and on the pedals. 4. Learn to apply the articulate legato touch in Bach's pieces by leaving small rests between the notes. 5. Learn to register the works that you study according to the rules of historical performance practice. 6. Use toes-only pedaling and avoid finger substitutions and glissandos. 7. Add historically correct ornamentation (especially in cadences). 8. Choose correct tempo for performance so that your pulse and sense of meter would be obvious to your listeners. 9. Memorize the pieces you are playing so that you know them by heart - this way you will defeat performance anxiety and reduce the level of fear to play them in public. 10. Develop your music theory and harmony skills so that you would understand how the piece is put together. Start applying these tips today in your organ practice. With time they will allow you to master Bach's organ music on a level that you deserve. By the way, if you haven't seen my Bach Organ Mastery (Level 1) course, check it out today. In this training program you will learn to play in public basic level Bach's organ works with fluency and ease. Swell pedal is one of the three ways to make dynamics on the organ, the other two being stop changes and crescendo pedal. It is very useful in Romantic and modern organ music of all national styles. In this article, I will give you my advice on using the swell pedal on your organ.
1. Use the right foot most of the time. Although there are times when it is possible to keep the left foot on the swell pedal, it is the right foot which can be most conveniently used in manipulating it. In fact, some organs (especially from the 19th century) have the pedal placed in the far right side of the pedalboard. 2. Plan your pedaling. Right in your pedaling with the swell pedal in mind. If you see any signs of crescendo or diminuendo in the score, this indicates the places for the swell pedal. This means that you should leave the left foot for playing the pedal part in such episodes. However, it is possible to engage the swell pedal and to play with the right foot in the same fragment. You will only need to be very quick with your movements. 3. Make the foot movement very gradual. The best use of the swell pedal is when the listener doesn't perceive it as such. If you could make the movement of your foot very gradual, your dynamics will sound quite natural. Otherwise the listeners will hear a lot of sound waves which would make your piece sound exaggerated. 4. Practice repeatedly in small fragments. The best way to learn to use the swell pedal is to take a short fragment (preferably long enough for one crescendo or diminuendo) and play in a very slow tempo many times. Treat swell pedal mistakes seriously and correct them right away. 5. Sometimes you will need an assistant. There are places in some pieces where the organist is required to use the swell pedal but both feet are busy with the pedal part. For example, this can happen when you play double octaves or when the pedal part is truly virtuosic with too many leaps. These are the places for an extra help from an assistant. 6. Don't use it for early music. Since the swell pedal was invented in the 19th century, we don't normally use it in the Renaissance or Baroque music. However, feel free to adjust the dynamics before the piece starts. This might be quite necessary for a good balance between the parts. Apply the above tips when you practice and play pieces composed in 19th century and later. Be mindful of the preparation and adjustment time required so plan accordingly. Don't take the swell pedal for granted. You must practice repeatedly applying it in your organ music. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide. Yesterday I have written an article about using reed stops in the manuals. Today it is time to discuss the playing with the most commonly found pedal reeds.
1. Bombarde 32'. The use for this stop can be found in 19th-20th century French repertoire for Tutti places. Because it is such a low sounding stop, it takes a while for the pipes to be filled with air and to speak properly. Therefore, it is best not to use it in virtuoso pedal parts. Long notes and passages with double-pedal sound very well with Bombarde (such as in Widor Toccata). Of course, in order to use it, you have to have the reeds at 16', 8' (and 4') in place. If you want to use it in the Baroque music, again, look for slow motion in pedals (such as in Piece d'Orgue, BWV 572 by Bach). 2. Posaune 16'. In addition for loud places in 19th-20th century repertoire, this stop can be very useful in the German Baroque pieces for virtuoso pedal lines and overall pedal sound with the Organo Pleno registration. For the music of Bach, it is generally drawn before Trompette 8'. 3. Trompette 8'. This stop can be used as a chorus reed for loud registrations but it can also be a solo stop where there is a need to bring out the choral tune (cantus firmus). For example, in Plain Jeux registrations of French classical composers the pedal part often takes a choral tune (hint: here you might even want to use reeds 8' and 4' together). In German Baroque chorale preludes and fantasias you can find multiple instances for Trompette. In many cases, this stop works well together with the Octavbass 4'. Another use of Trompette 8' is when there is a need to play cantus firmus in the tenor with pedals. Matthias Weckmann from 17th-century Hamburg liked this combination: Trompette 8' in the pedal (the tenor part), Trompette 16' alone in the left hand (the bass part). The right hand takes alto and soprano parts with the Principal 8' (and 4' if needed). 4. Clairon 4'. If you want to use this reed for the tenor chorale tune, play one octave lower. For the tune in the alto part (yes, the chorale can be present in any part), play it in normal range. Additionally, Clairon can be very useful as supplement to the full 32', 16', and 8' reed chorus but you have to check the quality of this stop because on some organs it might not be nicely voiced. 5. Cornet 2. The most common use of this reed stop (not to be confused with the manual Cornet which is a compound 5-rank stop) is for playing the soprano cantus firmus with pedals. You can even play hymns this way: pedal takes the soprano tune with the 2' Cornet, alto and tenor is played on one manual by the right hand at 8' pitch level, and the bass - with the 16' and 8' flutes (or 16' reed) with the left hand. This disposition of voices when the pedals must take the top voice while playing from the hymnal is a perfect exercise for your brain. When registering your organ pieces with the above reed stops, always take into consideration the acoustics of the space, the balance between the parts, and the style of the instrument and music. On some organs, it is best not to double the reeds with the labial stops at the same pitch level because of clarity and winding issues. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide. Organ registration seems to be an area of interest to many organists. Especially the rules behind using reed stops might be so confusing that a lot of people refrain from playing with the reeds altogether. However the reeds can greatly enrich the sound of the organ but you have to know how to use them well. Here is my advice about most common situations when to use the most popular reeds in the manuals.
1. Trompette 8'. This stop is essential for playing with loud registrations in the Romantic music. It blends nicely with the overall sound of the organ. However, you can easily use it in chorale preludes or fantasias where the chorale tune is placed in the tenor or the soprano voices. The accompanying voices in another hand sound well on the 8' Principal (sometimes with the addition of 4' Octave). Some Trompettes fit very well for playing short fugues also (North German or French Classic style). Also Trompettes are included in French Classical Grand Jeux registration. 2. Trompette 16'. In addition to being a stop for Fortissimo places in the Romantic and modern music, this stop can be used for the bass part in some chorale settings where it is played by the left hand only. 3. Clairon 4'. This stop seems best to be used in French music with Grand Jeux registration or in French Symphonic music where Tutti registration is required. 4. Vox humana 8'. It could be used in chorale settings for the chorale part or in some chorale preludes with imitative polyphony for all 4 voices (perhaps with the addition of Octave 4'). 5. Voix humaine 8'. Not to be confused with its previous German counterpart. It is best used where Dialogues sur le Voix humaine registration is needed. 5. Oboe 8'. It works really well for both Baroque and Romantic music for solo melodies. On most modern organs you may need to add 8' flute to the sound. 6. Fagott 16'. This stop works well for the bass part in the continuo playing as well for playing duetts. In this case, the right hand part can be played with Vox humana or Cornet. 7. Krummhorn 8'. It works nicely for Renaissance dances and solo melodies in chorale preludes. Try to find suitable pieces for reed stops and experiment with them on your organ. The above tips will help to make your paying much more colorful. However, as with all things, always use your ear and sense of good taste in order to show off the most beautiful reed stops on your instrument. Finally, the use of reeds also depend greatly on the historical period and national style of organ composition you are playing so you also have to study the history of the organ, its construction and design and use the above points only as a starting point for your discoveries. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide. Every organist probably had a situation when the pages of organ music were flipping over during the performance. This can be quite frustrating because it may mess up the overall quality of the playing. Here is what you can do if the pages keep flipping over:
1. Photocopy the piece and tape the sheets together. Although the copyright laws require that you play copyrighted music from the original scores, no one will blame you if you photocopy the piece for your own convenience but have the originals with you. 2. Go to printing and photocopying service and ask them to cut and bind the collection (my favorite). They will cut the borders and use spiral coil binders. This way your pages will easily open 360 degrees. 3. Adjust the music rack so that it is more horizontal. The problem with flipping over pages might also be the position of the music rack on your organ. If it is too vertical, some books will not stay open. If you could adjust the music rack to the more horizontal position, then often it will be enough to keep the pages open. 4. Find a different edition of the piece in horizontal page layout. Books with horizontal page layouts will stay open more easily than the vertical ones. Because there is so much variety of organ music editions, often you can play from such a collection. However, many modern organ composers have their music published with only one publisher so your choices might be limited with modern music. 5. Play from tablet PC. As the technology is getting more advanced by the day, many performers nowadays are choosing to play not from the printed score but from tablets. You can either find copyright free music online or scan your originals to use with your tablet. You can even find a device (it looks like a pedal) with an app which help turning pages without the use of your hands. 6. Play the piece from memory. If you could memorize your piece, then you won't even need all the previous tips. Of course, memorizing takes time and you should follow a systematic approach, if you want to feel secure in your public performance without music. Apply some of these tips when you prepare to play your pieces in public. They will give you some piece of mind and you will feel much more confident and secure during the performance. After all, you have so much to think about besides keeping the pages from flipping over so it's better to take care of this problem ahead of time. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide. If you encounter an organ which is difficult to play, you need to learn to adjust to it. Otherwise, you will feel a lot of stress and your performance will be full of mistakes. Here are 11 things to keep in mind if you want to adjust to uncomfortable organ:
1. If the bench is too low, put wooden blocks or thick hymnals under each side of the bench. 2. If the bench is too high, sit on the edge of the bench (slide to the front a little). 3. If the music rack is too far from the player, you can put additional music holder on top of it. 4. If the music rack is too close, lean back, position the bench further from the keyboards, or play from memory. 5. If the key action is too light, play pianissimo and keep your fingers in contact with the keys at all times. 6. If the key action is too heavy, use a little more force, choose a slower tempo, and build up your technique over time. 7. If the pedals are too narrow, take your time in practicing the pedal part alone with pedal preparation repeatedly and very slowly. 8. If the pedals are too wide, look at No. 7. 9. If the reverberation is too dry, aim for more connected articulation. 10. If the reverberation is too wet, aim for more detached articulation, take your time in manual changes, and play slower in general. 11. If the stop action is too heavy, simplify the registration changes and choose the appropriate music. FINAL TIP: don't fight the instrument - let it play for you, listen to the echo, breath, and choose the appropriate repertoire according to the historical period and national style of the organ. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide. Have you ever played on a historical organ? If you have, you may have noticed some of the things which make playing such an instrument seemingly uncomfortable - height of the bench, heaviness of key and stop action, position of the pedals and manuals etc. - everything put together is quite a burden to adjust for an aspiring organist. Although not all historical organs are like that to be sure but the majority of them are different from modern concert instruments. Besides, there are many modern organs built in the Romantic, Baroque, or Renaissance style.
So what to do in a situation like that when you are invited to play a recital or church service on a historical organ, or maybe you are just visiting the church which houses such an instrument and are given an opportunity to try it out? Here you must remember this rule - organ playing is like driving a car. At first, when you have just taken the driving exam and got your driving license, you are used to driving just one car only (most of the time). Can you remember the feeling when you tried to drive the second car? It took a while to adjust to it - breaks work differently, gear shift and clutch (if your car has them) work differently as well. In other words, every little detail about the new car might be different. Perhaps not totally different but just a little. And sometimes the adjustment process takes up to a week or more. But later in your driving experience you begin to get exposed to different cars and little by little your driving experience increases. Consequently, the time required to adjust to a new car decreases. Most of the people, though don't drive many cars all the time, only the professionals do. So the true professionals can adjust to a new car in no time. Likewise, playing different organs is also similar to driving a car. The more organs you have visited and played, the faster and easier will be to adjust to uncomfortable instruments. I remember back in 2000 when I participated in Gothenburg International Organ Academy (Sweden) they had a few very significant instruments built in the 17th century North German style. One was in the famous Orgryte New church - a 4 manual organ in the Schnitger style. The second - a 2 manual organ by built by John Brombough in Haga church. They also had pedal clavichords available for practice. These organs had split keys - the so-called subsemitones. In other word, E flat and D sharp was not the same (as there were several others on each keyboard). As you can imagine playing such an organ is no easy thing for an organist with little experience on historical organs. So let me tell you this - I felt miserable, not only I had trouble figuring out which split key belonged to which note (the more common ones are in the front, but I didn't understand that at first), I also felt quite incapable of playing them without mistakes - especially the Haga church organ because the action was so light and the size of the keys was smaller, especially on the 2nd manual. Evidently you need to know early fingering in order to play such instruments. By the way, I played Buxtehude's Praeludium in E major on this organ. For a person with no experience with split keys it was a very foolish idea because of number of sharps. But later in life, when I got much wider exposure to historical organs through my studies, I returned to Haga church in 2011 to play a recital of Renaissance motet intabulations. Now the feeling was quite different - I felt at home with this beautiful organ. I prepared all the registrations in advance at home so when I was given 2 hours to practice, I felt I was ready after just 30 minutes. So the rest of the rehearsal I just improvised and enjoyed the instrument and its marvelous sounds. There was no feeling of stress or anxiety when one has to face an uncomfortable organ. What can you learn from this story? The main point is this: as with driving a car - the more organs you have played, the easier it will be for you to adjust to them. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide. The polyphonic masterpiece by Bach - the Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080 presents a certain riddle to the performers who want to master this magnificent work (or separate fugues, called Contrapuncti).
Although originally it is notated in an open score notation on four staves, musicologists believe it is a keyboard work. Bach apparently chose the vocal score model with 3 different types of C clefs because this way all the parts are clearly visible and understandable. The reasoning behind this theory is this: 1) It was a custom at that time to write polyphonically complex keyboard works in an open score notation (compare, for example, Frescobaldi's "Fiori Musicali" which Bach owned). Organists at that time, especially in Italy had to display a skill in reading open score, called Spartitura. 2) Most of the fugues and canons are playable by 2 hands only. In fact, in many cases, the texture falls quite comfortably within the hands. If one adds a pedals for the bass parts (not in all fugues, though), then the writing is very organistic, indeed very similar to that of other Bach's fugues for organ. 3) The range of the voices go far beyond the limits of any solo instrument. The traditional melodic instruments of the Baroque period, such as violin, flute, oboe, bassoon and others have their fixed range. If we assign a certain voice to a certain instrument throughout the cycle, then it is impossible to perform it without some compromises. 4) There are some additional voices at the end of some fugues which is quite customary for the keyboard practice. For example, ad the end of such fugue the texture might increase to as many, as 7 voices (1- in the pedals, and 3 in each hand). Such texture would not be possible to play on any single melodic instrument. I have prepared a practice score of Contrapunctus I from the Art of the Fugue, arranged for the organ with pedals with complete fingering and pedaling written in for easy practice and ideal articulation. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide. Let's celebrate the 328th birthday of our great master with this wonderful performance of his Contrapunctus I from the Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080 by George Ritchie.
I remember witnessing two complete splendid performances of this magnificent polyphonic masterpiece within the same week, when I was a doctoral student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Dr. Ritchie performed it on the famous landmark 17th century Dutch-style organ by Gene Bedient which stood at the time at Cornerstone chapel. Dr. Ritchie has since released a complete DVD and 2-CD set of the Art of Fugue with FugueStateFilms. You can read more about it and watch the introductory video of this work here. If you like Contrapunctus I, I have also prepared a practice score of this piece arranged for the organ with pedals with complete fingering and pedaling written in for easy practice and ideal articulation. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide. Yesterday I shared my advice for organists with small hands. Not always it is necessary to play legato but when it is, besides carefully selected finger substitutions and glissandos you can do one more trick which makes life easier for people with small hands.
I'm talking about leaving out some notes in a musical composition. The question is which notes can be ommited? Keep in mind that out of all the voices in a piece, the top note and the bottom note are the crucial ones, because the top note (soprano voice) often is the bearer of the most developed melody and the bass - foundation of harmony. Therefore occasionally we can leave out some of the middle notes. Of course, in organ music, there are many places where the melody is in the middle voice or where there is more than one melody present at the same time. In such case, you can ommit only the voice which doesn't have melodic interest. Therefore, this trick only works for thick chordal texture. If you see polyphony on the page, every single voice is very important. Each voice is like a character, a person. If you forcefully silence one person in a discussion between the 4 people, he or she will be quite disappointed. But if you take a large-scale piece by Max Reger, for example, a lot of times in fortissimo places you will find chords of 4-5 notes in each hand (and even the double pedal). This is a very difficult music to play for anybody, not only for a person with small hands. So you can easily reduce the texture somewhat by leaving out one note which is least important in each hand. This trick sometimes works for hymn playing as well. But you have to be careful by using it. Avoid the temptation to apply it in any situation where you seemingly have trouble reaching for wider intervals. Instead think hard about the possibilities of the most efficient fingering has to offer. By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide. |
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Drs. Vidas Pinkevicius and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene Organists of Vilnius University , creators of Secrets of Organ Playing. 
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