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Organists with small hands often have a hard time finding comfortable fingering in their organ pieces. If you have small hands, figuring out the most efficient fingering is especially important in order to learn to play the piece fluently and without mistakes. Today I will give you my advice on this matter.
First of all, we have to understand that the real problem people have is not reaching to play wide intervals because in organ music you will rarely find intervals of more than octave in one hand. Instead, trying to play legato can be quite tricky for organists with small hands. However, because the normal articulation for early music composed up to about 1800s is articulate legato, in most cases you don't need to play legato at all. In other words, your fingering for such music can be quite different than for Romantic and Modern organ music. One of the most useful thing to remember for the organists with small hands is the interval fingering for the early music. The concept of interval fingering means that we play the same intervals with the same fingers of one hand. By doing so there is no need to try to reach and apply finger substitutions and glissandos from the modern legato organ technique. Here is the list of most common intervals and fingering for them in early music: Thirds: 1-3, 2-4, 3-5. 2-4 fingering often is the most practical. Fourths: 1-4, 2-5. Fifths: 1-5, 2-5 (for Renaissance and Early Baroque music). Sixths, sevenths, and octaves: 1-5. So when you see paralel intervals, such as several thirds written in succession, play with 2-4. They will sound not legato but that's OK - you need articulated legato touch for this music. The same is with paralel sixths - use 1-5. I think a lot of people struggle to play paralel sixths legato in early music quite needlessly. But if you use 1-5, then articulation becomes natural. If you play music composed after 1800s, then you have to use finger substitutions and glissandos wherever necessary. However, substitutions and glissandos are only vital for playing intervals and chords legato. In music with single lines in one hand we use position, arpeggio and scale fingerings. If you have small hands, in some Romantic pieces with episodes for manuals only your bottom voice can be played by the pedal with the manual coupler (for example, the opening section in the Choral No. 1 by C.Franck). Be careful not to over-extend your hand by trying to reach for wider intervals. This way you can damage you hand in the long run (especially if you don't use warm ups and technical exercises before your practice). 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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If you have a historic organ and it is in a poor working condition, here is a list of 29 things to keep in mind if you want to organize a proper quality restoration of this instrument:
1) Start growing the fan base of this organ at least 3 years before the project starts. 2) Involve the clergy as much as possible. 3) Involve the congregation as much as possible. 4) Avoid the temptation to find the cheapest solution for restoration. 5) Before you start anything, check with the agency in your country which protects the cultural heritage about the proceedures in dealing and restoring with historic monuments. Sometimes you can find partial funding through them, too. 6) Gather a group of expert advisors who have necessary qualifications to do consulting on organ restoration. 7) If there are unfriendly people to organ music in your congregation, make them a part of the committee - it's better to solve the differences this way. Very likely if you give them proper attention they will convert to fans of the organ later on. 8) Look for donors for your project among congregation members. 9) Local businesses can become great supporters of your organ. 10) Look for businessmen among parents of the members of the youth choir. 11) Municipal funding is also fine when you have a partial support in place already. 12) Educate people of the congregation about the organ and its music by writing short articles published in church bulletin every Sunday. 13) At the end of every Sunday service go to the place where announcements are told and briefly talk about your project, how much funding is needed, how much you have so far, and how much you still need to raise. 14) Don't forget to thank regularly everyone who donated. 15) Take advantage of Kickstarter (only for projects in the US or UK currently). 16) Play yourself in fundraising recitals regularly. 17) Involve the members of your choir in fundraising events. 18) Have a thermometer (in the shape of the organ pipe) showing your financial situation in the visible area of the church. 19) Put posters about your project on every bulletin board of the church. 20) Initiate "Adopt a Pipe" program in your congregation. 21) Display an exhibition of high quality pictures of the organ and its parts with vivid descriptions in the area around pews. 22) Produce brochures and booklets about this organ and the project to pass around the congregation members. 23) Start a blog with a newsletter in which you regularly document the progress of the project (you will find donors this way, too). 24) Start a page on social media sites about your project in which you can share articles from your blog, pictures, videos etc. 25) Choose a respectful organbuilder who has necessary qualifications and previous experience in restoring the type of organ that is in your church. 26) Oversee the work of the organbuilder so that he or she is very careful in dealing with historical material. 27) Many organbuilders will want to replace the old parts and pipes with the new ones, re-paint the organ and so on. Resist this approach as much as possible. Make them treasure the original material with utmost care. 28) Include a documentation phase in the project in which the organ and its every part is carefully measured, photographed, drawings would be made so that it could be recreated in case of fire or some other calamity. 29) Ask the existing friends of your organ to help spread the word about it online and off-line. Figure out what and how you want them to spread the news and make them easy to do so (for example, with one click of the mouse). Although this list is incomplete and can be continued, I hope you will find more than enough ideas to start with. 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. In the period of apparent decline of public appreciation of quality classical organ music in many countries a lot of organists fall into despair. We deal with this situation in many different ways. Some of us start playing pop music on the organ, some stop playing the organ altogether because they don't see any hope for it in the future.
What can we do to help revive the organ culture in the world? Are there any productive ways a single person can help to change the course of the future of our profession? My answer is EDUCATION. Not preaching about the organ to strangers from the roofs, though, but persistently showing attention to people who have curiosity. And believe me, there are a lot more people with curiosity about organ and its art than it might seem at first. I believe that in our multi-media age we have more than enough tools to help the people grow and inspire. Many of them are free and cost only your energy and time. It might be as simple as starting a blog and sharing your experiences from recitals of organ music you attended or as advanced as creating multiple lectures about the history of the organ art. I know that recitals of classical organ music are not well attended in many countries. We face the same challenge in Lithuania. If I played jazz or pop music on the organ, then surely many more people would come. But what would happen if I consistently showed up and write a little post about some organ piece in my language, what would happen if I started a project which was genuine, unique, and worth talking about even though it might not work? Even though there was a thought in the back of my mind, saying "this is foolish. You are wasting your time. It will never work.", I gave it a try. Actually, I gave it a try BECAUSE of that voice to prove it was wrong. So a little more than a year ago I started playing series of organ recitals from the cycle of "Seven Centuries of Organ Music" at my church dedicated to a different composer or national school of organ composition. About once a month whenever possible. And yesterday I gave my 12th recital from this cycle at Vilnius University St. John's church. This time it was all Bach recital in which I tried to show the fans of organ music in Lithuania some of the nicest pieces from the wide range of compositions by organ's greatest composer. The timing was suited for this kind of program - it's getting close to Bach's birthday - March 21st. I wanted to include in my program as much as possible of fast/slow, soft/loud, and sad/joyful music contrast so that the listeners could keep their focus throughout the recital. Here is the program of this recital: Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 Trio sonata No. 1 in E flat major, BWV 525 Prelude and Fugue in C major, BWV 547 „O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig“, BWV 656 „Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele“, BWV 654 Piece d‘Orgue, BWV 572 I have to say that the recital was quite well attended - many more listeners than usual for organ concert came last night. Maybe it was partly due to the nice spring weather (though it was still cold with freezing temperatures), or to the fact that BWV 565 was on the program or perhaps my efforts to grow the fan base of organ music lovers are starting to pay off. By the way, today I would like to share a video excerpt from my last night's recital - "Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele", BWV 654 from the Great 18 Chorale Preludes, also known as the Leipzig Chorale Preludes. This is one of Felix Mendelssohn's most favorite Bach's organ compositions, in which ornamented Cantus Firmus in the soprano is accompanied by the three lower voices which move in the rhythm of the sarabande. Sarabande is a Baroque dance of the Spanish origin which has frequent harmonic accents on the 2nd beat in the triple meter. The alto and tenor parts were played from the original alto C clef (which was fun) on the Principal 8' stop from the 3rd manual. In the pedals I chose Principals 16' and 8'. In the beautiful ornamented soprano part - Cornet 8' stop from the 2nd manual with the swell box partly closed. This cycle of "Seven Centuries of Organ Music" is intended to introduce the widest possible range of organ music of various historical styles and national schools of organ composition - from the Estampie of 14th century to the compositions from 21st century to organ music fans of Lithuania. Together with this daily blog it is a part of my ongoing efforts to promote the art of the organ in Lithuania which may help to revive the organ culture in my country for future generations. Are you worried about the future of the organ in your country? How about starting something like that in the area where you live? Don't wait for someone to pick you. As Seth Godin says, "Pick yourself." 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. Not every aspiring organist has a courage or a desire to study organ on their own from books, manuals, videos, practice scores, courses, articles, and other self-study training materials which are available on-line or off-line. A lot of people prefer to learn from a teacher, an instructor, or a mentor they can meet in person.
So how do you find an organ teacher in your area which would suit your needs? Please note that I'm not talking about a formal organ education from a college, conservatory, university or some other school. This article is about a private organ studies. Some of the solutions might not be as obvious as they seem. If you live in an area were there is an association of organists, such as AGO, GDO, RCCO, RCO etc. the first thing you can do is to look up at their website and see if the chapter near you has a listing of available organ teachers. From there you can contact a person directly, tell your story and ask if he or she would be willing to teach you. If you have no organization of organists near you, you can go to various churches which have organs (preferably pipe organs) and sit in their liturgical services. If you find an organist who performs quality organ music and you like his or her playing, do a little background and musical education check on this person - perhaps online, perhaps at the church itself. If you like what you find out, go after another church service to the organ, congratulate the organist, tell how much you appreciate his or her work, tell your story, and ask for some lessons. With some organists it will be as simple as discussing the fee. Some people will refuse but then you could ask for recommendations of other organists in your area. Another similar thing you can do is to go to an organ recital of a local organist. If you like what you hear, read about his or her background and education in the program notes and go to talk to this person after the recital. Don't forget to congratulate him or her first. The key in these options is to find the first organist you can trust who can introduce you to his or her circle of friends if this person is not willing or able to teach you. Note that these recommendations might not be valid for every aspiring organist because of this simple reason - a person is living in an area far from churches with decent organists or organ recitals. Earlier in this situation it would have been very difficult for a person to find a suitable organ teacher. But now when we live in post-industrual, post-geography global connection society, all you need is the connection to the Internet. So if you can read this article, you are all set. Internet changes everything. It also begins to change the way we learn, study, and train as organists. 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. Organists rarely have patience. A lot of times we want to see the results of our practice now instead of later.
Therefore there is a temptation to play the music without stopping as if at the concert. Or attempting to play the thick polyphonic texture right away. Or getting too bored with the slow practice speed. Or practicing until our backs start to burn. This might work fine if you are a seasoned organist with solid education, training and experience. But if you are just getting started or getting back to the organ after being away from it for years, you won't see the results you are after. Here are my recommendations which will help you practice more effectively on the organ: 1) Don't play the piece from the beginning until the end at first. 2) Don't go to the next fragment until you master the previous one. 3) Don't play all parts together at first. 4) Don't take a fast tempo at first. 5) Don't jump from one piece to another without first mastering it. 6) Don't neglect short stretching breaks. Occasionally we can turn these points upside down if we are getting close to a public performance but it must be on purpose. You have to be able say "I do this, because right now it is my next step towards my goal. It is part of my plan". 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. Practice length is one of the main concerns of aspiring organists. In particularly, inability to practice for larger amount of time means less satisfactory results in the long run.
Here I don't mean the situation when a person can't practice for long enough because of the busy schedule at work or family responsibilities. Instead, I'm talking about an organist who wishes to spend more time on the organ bench but is either bored or otherwise can't commit to longer practice hours. Let's discuss a little bit what happens when we practice. This way you will see the situation in a different light, I hope. When we first sit on the organ bench and start working on some exercises, we notice right away how rigid and inflexible our hands and feet are. If we keep playing the instrument gently for 15 minutes, the feeling is that our hands and feet start to feel a little better - we are starting to warm up. In the next 15 minutes we can start to see the actual immediate results of today's practice. For example, we can learn a fragment of 4 measures which will be one step towards our long-term goal. Of course, we can stop here and start doing something else. If we do, then what we have accomplished today is only these 4 measures. What about the previously learned material that we mastered in the past practice sessions? Have we had time to play it at least once in a slow tempo and refresh our memory? No, we only mastered these new 4 measures. Of course, we can repeat the old material before learning something new but the situation is the same - we either haven't learned anything new today or learned some new fragment but forgot older fragments. Can you see the problem here? If we want to start learning something new and at the same time build on what we have already mastered, we need to put longer hours for practice. Let's say we spent 15 minutes for warm-ups and exercises, then another 15 minutes for repetition of older material. So after half an hour only we can start learning something new today. A lot of people stop practicing right here. The question is why? To answer it, we must ask ourselves, how do we feel after these 30 minutes? Well, if we play with pedals, our back starts to feel a little tired. What happens with our mind? If we honestly were focusing on the music for half an hour, then surely our mind starts to feel tired, too. If we want to continue to practice, we could either push through the feeling of being tired or we could take a short 5-10 minute break. In order to not overexert ourselves I recommend a break. Drink a glass of water, relax a little and stretch your upper and lower body for 5 minutes. That's it. All you need is some air, breathing, and you will start to feel refreshed. Then come back and practice for 30 more minutes. After that, take another short break and so on. This way, your practice will become more enjoyable and not become tiresome. If you have enough time, you can easily practice for 2 hours a day this way. Is it OK to push through and practice longer without resting? Yes, it is great to do it occasionally because your mind also needs to have the ability focus for longer periods of time. In fact, you may want to learn to focus for at least one hour - that's an average time of the organ recital. If you practice this way, don't forget to rest more after this hour. However, your normal everyday practice should be fun and easy - your goal is to practice for years to come and not to burn yourself out. 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. I think every organist understands the necessity of studying music theory at some point or another. This gives us the ability to understand how the music is put together and see the meaningful patterns on the page instead of a bunch of unconnected notes which for some unknown reason happen to sound beautifully.
Of course, the field of music theory is quite broad ranging from scales to rhythms, intervals, chords, modulations, formal procedures, ornamentation etc. To learn everything takes quite a bit of time, usually at least up to 36 weeks of intense studying. But are there any minimum skills in music theory which would be absolutely necessary to learn but would not take as much time? In other words, what would happen if we learned only the most practically needed concepts in a few weeks first and leave the more advanced stuff for later study as we move forward? I think this approach is quite valid and practical for many of today's aspiring organists. Here are the few key things they would need to learn first in music theory: 1) Half-step and whole-step 2) Tetrachords 3) Major and minor scale 4) Stable and unstable steps of the scale 5) Diatonic intervals of the natural major and minor scale (up to an octave) 6) Circle of fifths 7) Triads 8) Tonic, Dominant, and Subdominant chords and their inversions I'm including all these elements of music theory in Weeks 1 and 2 of my Harmony for Organists Level 1 course. They will serve as an introduction and preparation for training in four-part harmony and voice-leading. 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. Because some people asked me for it, I decided that my new Harmony for Organists Level 1 will be a video course. I think that the visual aspect will help my students to understand the material better. However, the nature of the topic of harmony is such that it would also be good to actually see the musical examples and exercises, so I will also include PDF files along with the video.
These last few days were especially intense for me with less sleep than normal. On Sunday I recorded the videos of Weeks 1 and 2 so that people could begin studying immediately. And yesterday I created the accompanying PDF file with musical examples and exercises for practice. Some people asked me that the pricing options would include a monthly subscription WITHOUT an increase in price in comparison to the one time payment which is exactly what I did. I'm keeping the price as much affordable as possible for everybody. So if you want to master the basics of harmony and be able to harmonize simple melodies and hymn-tunes in 4 parts on the organ and on paper, check this course out here. I've got some exciting news today! After some sleepless nights and intense days, my new Harmony for Organists Level 1 course is finally live. I would like to thank everyone (about 30 people) who sent me their messages, wishes and questions about this course.
I appreciate their support and for recommending this course to some of their friends (even before it was live). Thanks for trusting me and my teaching. This tells me that such a course is indeed needed. Yesterday I described the system of modes in Gregorian chant. Hopefully you have practised writing and played them on your organ from any of the 12 chromatic notes in the octave. This is essential if you want to master them and apply in the process of learning to improvise on the organ.
So how can we use this system of 8 or 12 modes in our organ improvisations? The most obvious application of such modes is in Renaissance style pieces. Since chant-based organ music in the Renaissance period was primarily part of Alternatim practice (when verses of the chant were sung in alternation with the choral polyphony or organ music or both), we too can improvise short versets composed in these modes which would be based on the Gregorian chant melodies. For example, imagine a hymn, such as well known Veni Creator Spiritus. If the starting note would be G, then its mode is Mixolydian (No. 7). You can improvise a number of verses this way (presented in the increasing number of voices): 1) A Bicinium for 2 voices with the chant in the soprano 2) A Bicinium for 2 voices with the chant in the bass 3) A trio for 3 voices with the chant in the soprano 4) A trio for 3 voices with the chant in the middle voice 5) A trio for 3 voices with the chant in the bass 6) A quartet for 4 voices with the chant in the soprano 7) A quartet for 4 voices with the chant in the alto 8) A quartet for 4 voices with the chant in the tenor 9) A quartet for 4 voices with the chant in the bass Also you can improvise canons for two voices with one or more additional voices. Canons can be based on any interval but the most common are an octave, a fifth, and a fourth. Most commonly a canonic voice can enter after the distance of 1 note, 2 notes, or 4 notes. Remember to stay within the same mode throughout the piece. Also your improvisation does not have to be based on the given chant melody at all. We know of versets which are freely composed. If you are improvising in the polyphonic style, you can have a polyphony of two types - contrasting and imitative. In contrasting polyphony, the rhythm and the melody of the chant is contrasted with the quicker (usually) rhythmical values of other voices. In imitating polyphony every voice imitates the theme or the fragment of the theme in alternation from the same or different pitch level. Your improvisation can become quite modern and colorful if you include modulations of the same mode and extend your piece with additional episodes. I've done this in my Veni Creator Spiritus (2011). 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. Our Hauptwerk Setup:
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