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
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 9! If you would like to participate but don't have Steem account, let me know your desired username by contacting me on my blog https://www.organduo.lt/contact.html and I will create an account for you very quickly. We hope to see even more entries next week! And remember, when you practice, miracles happen! DON'T MISS A THING! FREE UPDATES BY EMAIL.
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Would you enjoy listening to Ausra's and my organ duet recital from French Alps?
We shared many photos of course and a few sample videos but today is the chance to hear the music in its entirety. Here it is:
Vidas Pinkevicius and Ausra Motuzaite Pinkeviciene perform works of Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Pinkevicius, Praetorius and Hassler on the Kleuker organ in Alpe d'Huez (France) on 2019-03-28. Here's the specification of the organ.
PROGRAM:
Dr. Vidas Pinkevicius and Dr. Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene are the creators of Secrets of Organ Playing, a blog, podcast, and training site for more than 3000 organists from 89 countries. They create daily blog posts with organ playing advice and inspiration. Also they are Vilnius University organists and lead the university organ studio "Unda Maris". When not playing the organ, they like to draw comics about the adventures of Pinky the piglet and Spiky the hedgehog and their imaginary friends. DON'T MISS A THING! FREE UPDATES BY EMAIL.
Vidas: Hi guys, this is Vidas!
Ausra: And Ausra! V: Let’s start episode 422 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by May, and she writes: Thank you Vidas for sending me this video. I didn't have a chance to watch it yet. The harmony course is challenging enough for me. It's like a brain exercise. With the S-D transposing sequences, I have to first figure out what key it lands on at a major 3rd interval. Then which key is its subdominant and which key is its dominant. I took a long time before I could run through each of the 6 sequences from C major, a minor, Bb major and g minor three times without making mistakes. Today, I just finished watching the week 7 video. I think I have to postpone the sight reading course until after I finished with the harmony course (hopefully in 6 weeks). Otherwise I would not have time to prepare or the music in lent. Actually, how much time we should be spending each day to work on these exercises in order to accomplish the improvement you expect? I guess I can use the pedals with the week 7 exercises. Perhaps I should say I have to use pedals for the bass because it's impossible to reach all 4 notes by hands only in many cases. Thanks again for your advice. May V: So Ausra, how much time should people spend with harmony? A: I don’t know how much time they have and what their final goal is. V: It depends. A: Yes, it depends. V: Well, if you look at your students at school, for example, how much time do they spend, and how much time would you like them to spend? A: Well, it depends on the person. For some, for example, who have good working tempo, they don’t need to do any extra work at home. They can manage to do everything in class. So, we have classes twice every week, so about two hours per week. V: Right, two hours per week, that’s about 20 minutes per day. 15-20 minutes per day. A: Something like that… but of course, people are different. For some, it takes a lot of time. V: I would say the minimum time would be 15 minutes. That would make sense, right? A: Yes. And don’t feel that you have to polish each exercise. It’s not a piece of music that you are going to perform for a recital or a Mass or in a church service, so basically, it develops your musical thinking, and builds up an understanding of how the music is constructed. V: And each exercise that you master will lead to new horizons; it helps to discover something new in later exercises. A: That’s right. So don’t try to perfect them. V: It’s like in sightreading, I don’t think people should spend too much time on one particular piece if their goal is to sightread, or with pedal exercises, too. Playing arpeggios or scales with pedals... it’s enough to do this 15 minutes per day and just move on with the next thing you need to do, because time is limited for everyone. It’s better to perfect something that is useful, practical, than apedal scale, for example, because you can come back to it tomorrow, to the same scale. A: That’s right. V: So, it’s the same with harmony exercises, I would say, too. Ausra says it right. What about improvisation, if people are spending time with improvisation? Do you think they should repeatedly polish the same thing over and over? A: Well, then it probably won’t be improvisation if you would polish the same thing over and over again, it will be more like memorization. And it’s good in some sense, because then you internalize it and can use it easily on the spot. But again, I don’t think you need to play it like a hundred times over and over again. What do you think about it, because you are a master of improvisation? V: Probably not a master, but I do improvise—try to improvise every day. Even before we sat down record this conversation, we played with Ausra our organ duets, which we are preparing for our upcoming trip to the French Alps, but afterwards, I improvised on a Genevan Psalm, Psalm 42, which in German chorale setting would be “Schmücke Dich”--the same melody. I like this collection, Genevan Psalms, they’re very suitable for improvising, and in my case, when I do this at home, I can use it as a basic exercise, like note against note counterpoint, and I played it twice. One was for the right hand when a tune was placed in the soprano, and another time was in the left hand, when the tune was placed in the bass. And then the other voice had to supply the counterpoint. And that’s it. I didn’t work on improving, polishing and otherwise perfecting this setting, so it took me maybe 4 minutes, the entire exercise, because maybe I could later do another exercise—another tune. So, the same is with May, for example, or other people who are doing harmony, and even improvisation. It’s better to move on to the next exercise, once you have the basic foundation of understanding of it rather than memorizing it, I would say. A: True, I think you are very right. V: There is so much to learn in music. You will discover something new everyday, and simply, we will not have enough time to do everything. So just enjoy whatever time you have on the organ, and try to spend no less than 15 minutes a day to see some kind of results. The results might vary, right? “Your mileage might very,” as the car dealers would say to you. It depends how you drive, where you drive, things like that. So the same is with organ playing. It depends on what your starting point was. Right? Did you have anything prior to organ study? Did you play keyboard before or not? Is it your first instrument or not? How early or late in life or not? Whatever musical challenges you have overcome, maybe talent also plays a role here too, right? A: Yes, I think everything is…. V: Connected… A: ...connected, that’s right. V: But probably we should tell people that they shouldn’t get discouraged. That if something goes really slowly for them, and if they, for example, see me doing the same exercise without mistakes in one try, they shouldn’t be discouraged and say, “Oh, I will never play like Vidas.” Right? It’s not the goal to play like Vidas. It’s the goal to play like… A: ...like you! V: ...like you. A: A better version of you. V: Yeah. Today better than yesterday. A: That’s right. V: And sometimes, this progress doesn’t feel with everyday. Right? We need to take a step back every few weeks, maybe to see the bigger picture. Only then, we can see how much we are improving, probably. Right Ausra? A: Yes. V: Thank you guys for listening, this was Vidas, A: And Ausra, V: And remember, when you practice, A: Miracles happen.
Would you like to master Es ist das Heil uns kommen her, BWV 638 by J.S. Bach?
I've created this practice score (left hand in alto clef) with complete fingering and pedaling so that our students could master this chorale prelude from the Orgelbuchlein efficiently, saving many hours of frustration and achieving ideal articulation - articulate legato. Thanks to Jeremy Owens for his meticulous transcription from slow motion video. Basic level. PDF score. 1 page. 50 % discount is valid until April 12. Check it out here This score is free for Total Organist students. DON'T MISS A THING! FREE UPDATES BY EMAIL.SOPP417: I’m arthritic and find it difficult to move joints easily, especially the ankles and hips4/4/2019
Vidas: Hi guys, this is Vidas.
Ausra: And Ausra. V: Let’s start episode 417, of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Colin. And he writes: Dear Vidas, Firstly, I’m sorry if you have already received the following message. My computer is playing up and I’m having difficulty in sending and receiving some emails. Thank you for your Pedal Virtuoso Master Course. For some strange reason, I have been unable to download the material of the final lesson. A bit of background about me: I’m retired and I have played the organ for very many years. However, the demands of my job and family have meant that I have not been able to practice regularly, with the inevitable result that my skills have deteriorated. I’m arthritic and find it difficult to move joints easily, especially the ankles and hips. I try to practice your course regularly though I have not been able to progress from week to week as rapidly as I should like. I see no virtue in going on to the next lesson until I feel like I have mastered the current one. I’ve found the sessions on arpeggios etc. particularly helpful, and I feel that I’m beginning to recover some of my earlier flexibility. I still find shifting position difficult though, I continue to work on it. As you suggested, I have played a couple of pieces which I have not played for a long time, in order to see how my pedal technique has improved. I was really amazed at the confident way I was able to play the final part of the Mendelssohn organ Sonata n°1. Likewise, I managed the g minor fugue, BWV 542 confidently, even the long pedal passage in the middle, where you have to shift position felt very comfortable. So my practice is clearly paying off. Thank you very much indeed, every good wish, Colin V: Wow, this is like a nice testimonial from Colin I would say. Don’t you think? A: Yes, it’s very nice, thank you Colin, we appreciate it very much. V: I think he did a good job taking a piece that he was practicing earlier with difficulty, maybe like g minor fugue, or Mendelssohn’s Sonata, and then, after a while of working with the Pedal Virtuoso Master Course, then playing through these pieces, like a test you know. To just see if it’s easier or not. And apparently, I was right, people do improve. A: Sure, because when you practice only exercises, you might not notice that, but when you will pick up real repertoire, you will notice that you’ve really improved. Because all your hard work always pays off, maybe not as fast as you wish you know, but still, you will improve, in time. V: I would compare it to looking at yourself in the mirror every morning. What happens is, you look almost the same right? Maybe not exactly the same: your haircut will be different, your mood is different, maybe your skin looks different a little bit from the night before, maybe sometimes you’re less refreshed than you wanted to be, but generally the changes with age are very difficult to spot if you look at the mirror every day. But what happens if you meet your friend who haven’t seen you for six months or maybe a couple of years, then surely they will notice the difference and you will notice the difference on them. A: True, that is true. V: Is this a good analogy Ausra? A: Yes, it’s a good analogy.Maybe in organ playing you don't have to wait for 2 years to see the progress. But definitely you won’t be seeing progress each single day. V: What does it mean to “see progress”, for you personally Ausra? What is progress? When you sit down on the organ bench and play those pieces that you’re getting ready to play at Notre-Dame for example in Paris. A: Well, I’m not thinking so much about it right now, because it’s still so far ahead, but definitely you know, the more you put in, the more you get out of it. That’s always the case. V: Are you so concerned about seeing progress actually, when you practice? A: Well, not so much. V: Not so much, yeah. You’re focusing on the process not on the result. Results probably will come by themselves. A: That’s true. I don’t like to force things ahead of time. V: You don’t want to force it? A: No. V: Hmm. To me also I hold a similar position, that my goal is to sit down at the organ bench no matter what, no matter if I have a busy day or easy day, I try to sit down, if only for fifteen minutes, to play, you know, an improvisation. If I do that, I know that my fingers don’t atrophy, the muscles don’t atrophy. My imagination also improves a little bit. And maybe tomorrow I will have a better day to practice more, right? And usually I practice much more than fifteen minutes but that’s just the minimum I try to do. And somehow the progress comes by itself. You know, I have some goals for the future, pieces that I need to learn, but judging from my own experience, I plan well ahead those pieces and I know that with every practice, my playing gets a little bit stronger, even if the progress seems to be slow, but I know that I have plenty of time. Would you agree? A: Sure, and I like to prepare things in advance in order to have some flexibility with everything you know, and not be rushed into things. V: If you need to rush it means you’re planning poorly, right? If a recital is coming up next week and I’m still sight-reading this piece, something is wrong with my planning. A: Yes but some people are like that and I don’t like it. I used to be like that myself too, in terms of memorization for example. I used to memorize at the last moment, I remember still things that I would have to play exam next morning and in the evening I was still working to memorize some of the parts, and I wouldn’t be any good at it. And then you experience extra stress and it’s not good. V: And you don’t feel any joy in doing that, during exam? A: Of course, you know if you’re a musician, sometimes you need to be put on the spot, but all the time, it’s not good. V: Hmm. That’s true. I think Colin is on the right track with this course, Pedal Virtuoso Master Course, and of course since he’s retired and a senior person and he has arthritis, then to move in a flexible manner in those arpeggios and scales is quite strenuous movement. A: True. Although I think that to keep moving is beneficial for people with arthritis. V: Even though you can’t play perfectly those scales and arpeggios, do something with them. Play the best you can, and then, your joints and ankles will improve anyway. A: But of course, do everything with care. Don’t hurt yourself too much. V: Hmm, avoid pain basically. A: True. V: Stop playing before you get tired, that’s a golden rule of mine. If I stop before I get tired, I never get tired! A: Good for you! V: Wonderful, thank you guys for listening, I hope this was helpful to you, and please keep sending your wonderful questions, we love helping you grow. And remember, when you practice… A: Miracles happen! DON'T MISS A THING! FREE UPDATES BY EMAIL.
Would you like to master Erschienen ist der herrliche Tag, BWV 629 by J.S. Bach?
I've created this practice score (left hand in alto clef) with complete fingering and pedaling so that our students could master this chorale prelude from the Orgelbuchlein efficiently, saving many hours of frustration and achieving ideal articulation - articulate legato. Thanks to Jan Pennel for her meticulous transcription from slow motion video. Basic level. PDF score. 1 page. 50 % discount is valid until April 10. Check it out here This score is free for Total Organist students. DON'T MISS A THING! FREE UPDATES BY EMAIL.
Vidas: Hi guys! This is Vidas.
Ausra: And Ausra. V: Let’s start episode 420 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. And this question was sent by Dieter. He writes: In Bach’s Two Part Inventions, if I were to move some of the left hand parts to the pedal, how would I set about that? A: Interesting question. V: Uh-huh. I mean, Dieter wants to create left hand, or right hand and pedal exercises out of Inventions, right? A: How did you understand that he wants to create exercises? Because I haven’t comprehended. V: That would be like an exercise, if you play left hand part in the pedals. It would be a great pedal exercise. A: But he wants just to play some of the notes with the pedals. V: Oh. A: What I understood, was he was asking how to arrange it. V: Mm-hm. A: And is it appropriate to take some notes from the left hand to pedal part, to move some notes. That’s how I understood it. V: Some of the Inventions don’t fit nicely in the pedals, I think. A: Yes, and actually, I wouldn’t do that. I think we are very well suited for manuals performance. Because, honestly, I don’t see the reason why you need to do it. Unless you know, we are talking about, like, ending cadence. And that cadence, of course, you could, you know, play a few notes with the pedal, just to make more emphasis on the bass. V: The only point I imagine is that it might make an interesting exercise for the pedals and for the hand, whatever hand he uses. I did that in Trio Sonatas, when I created Left Hand Training. I transposed all those pieces, and made an arrangement so that an organist would play any part with the left hand only. And in turn, the technique of left hand would become stronger. And the second level of this is two-part training, where actually two parts are arranged from Trio Sonatas, and you could play just two hands, or right hand and pedals, left hand and pedals, from that setting, also transposed in many keys. So I was thinking more along these lines, as an exercise. But still, it would be difficult for pedals, I think. A: Definitely, because, you know, if you are talking about these Two Part Inventions, both voices are equally important and equally complicated. Complex. So, anyway, I think it would be hard to play them with the pedal, the left hand. And if you would do that occasionally, I didn’t think it would sound appropriate, or nice. V: You see, the main problem is obviously the range. Sometimes, left hand goes beyond what it’s possible to do in the pedals. So probably, in these cases, it would be wise not only to move, you know, one note downward, because it would sound strange, but maybe entire fragment, entire maybe motive or phrase downward, I would say, from the left hand part to the pedals, but down one octave if it doesn’t fit the range. A: How would it sound if you would try to add an extra voice with the pedal? Let’s say, to emphasize the harmony? Is it possible? V: Huh. Good question. I guess we need to try and find out… A: Maybe just a part of some… V: Obviously, in each measure there are at least a couple of harmony changes, right? And in cadences, even more. Which means that your feet could play the bass note of the harmony. But it would sound sort of sometimes cheesy, I would say. A: I think so, too. I don’t think Bach would be happy if he would hear what we are talking about. Arranging his inventions. V: If you added a third voice in the, somewhere in the middle, or in the descant range, like a second soprano, then it would be a trio texture, and it wouldn’t be that far from what Bach himself would have done when he sat down on the harpsichord and accompanied a singer or a soloist as a continuo player. Definitely, he would add an extra voice. A: Sure. So but actually, my final advice would be that, better play them as they are written. Because Bach left so many compositions. If you want to play something for the pedal, I’m sure you will find some music that you can develop your pedal technique. V: For example, Three Part Sinfonias. A: That’s right. V: Yes. You could play them as trios. A: Sure. V: Easily. Take the lowest voice in the pedals, the middle voice in the left hand, and the top voice in the right hand. A: Yes, because Bach was a wonderful pedagogue himself. And each of his pieces also served pedagogical purposes, especially when we are talking about Two Part Inventions, and then Sinfonias and Trio Sonatas. So. V: Interesting questions. I’m very happy people are experimenting with those ideas. And sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. But in all cases, people learn something from the experiment itself. A: Of course. V: Great. Thank you guys for listening and applying our tips in your practice. We hope this helps you grow. And please send us more of your questions, and we will discuss them in future episodes of the podcast conversation. This was Vidas A: And Ausra. V: And remember, when you practice... A: Miracles happen. DON'T MISS A THING! FREE UPDATES BY EMAIL.
Thank you everyone for participating! You all made us very happy with your entries.
@laputis and I selected the following winners: https://steemit.com/secretsoforganplaying/@organduo/winners-of-secrets-of-organ-playing-contest-week-13 DON'T MISS A THING! FREE UPDATES BY EMAIL.
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
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 9! If you would like to participate but don't have Steem account, let me know your desired username by contacting me on my blog https://www.organduo.lt/contact.html and I will create an account for you very quickly. We hope to see even more entries next week! And remember, when you practice, miracles happen! DON'T MISS A THING! FREE UPDATES BY EMAIL. |
DON'T MISS A THING! FREE UPDATES BY EMAIL.Thank you!You have successfully joined our subscriber list. Authors
Drs. Vidas Pinkevicius and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene Organists of Vilnius University , creators of Secrets of Organ Playing. Our Hauptwerk Setup:
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