Blog Archives - secrets of organ playing - when you practice, miracles happen

Generosity and diploma

5/11/2014

Can you share your passion and your talent for the organ, if you have no official proof about your skills and achievements? Here's a better question: do you need a diploma to be generous?

Earlier it used to be, that you first earned a degree and then you had the privilege to do what you wanted to do.

But now, when the ordinary person can have a network for free, when the gap between creativity and technology is narrower than ever, generosity is not a choice, it's a must.

You can't feel secure, if your only job is to follow the instructions of your boss (priest, pastor, elder, church council, or music director). You are either generous and sought after or you are average and replaceable.

It's because now they have a choice between traditional and contemporary service, between organ and piano, between organ and synthesizer, between pipe and electronic organ, between organ and band, between live music and recorded music, between organ and silence etc.

Of course, you can't be the cheapest choice, because they will find cheaper than you (even cheaper than free). You can only become the best in their world - the one they can't live without. Then and only then the price of your services will go up.

It's bad news for those who like to wait for the phone call, but for the rest of us - a perfect time to do art that matters and say "follow me".

Increasing value

5/10/2014

What do we, organists, do during church services? Of course, we play the organ, but going beyond the obvious, what is our mission? What is one of the most important reasons why we are there on the organ loft?

We create value. Not only to ourselves but also to the people we serve. When we do our best, we lead, elevate, educate, and inspire the people around us.

The irony, of course, is that sometimes our work is seen as valuable to us only. That's when the disconnect happens - we play some of the most beautiful music ever written by the human being but this music is perceived as boring and irrelevant to the people.

The challenge and the opportunity is to see the worldview of our best listeners and to find a common ground between them and what it is you are trying to share with them.

Then you can increase the value you are creating which in turn will help you earn more trust. Earning trust lets you to be successful at what you do.

The more value you add, the more success you will have.

Why organists get fired?

5/9/2014

When an organist loses his/her job, this happens for one or both of these reasons:

1. "I'm not doing a good enough job."
2. "I'm playing to the wrong audience."

Sometimes there is the 3rd reason - the church has run out of money.

Often "not good enough" has nothing to do with the number of mistakes we make or what kind of music we play but everything to do with what kind of connection we have with our audience (congregation and clergy).

Increase the connection and maybe you'll eliminate the second reason as well.

"Your services are no longer required"

5/8/2014

When you hear this phrase told to you at the church on Sunday morning, you realize you are being fired on the spot.

How do you find motivation to continue to practice playing the organ after that?

"I have no choice - that's what artists do."

"I want to make progress at the organ, even if they don't care".

"I want to inspire people around me."

If your only thought is "it's not fair," time to remember your mission.

What's the purpose of analyzing Bach's chorals?

5/7/2014

Not to intimidate yourself with the advanced harmonic and theoretic concepts.

Not to think "I will never be able to write something like that myself".

Instead, it will inspire you to try your hand at harmonizing various hymns and chorales in the style of Bach.

Analyzing them will also empower you to open your eyes and start seeing his harmonic ideas everywhere - in his toccatas, fantasias, preludes and fugues, in his choral preludes, inventions, sinfonias, and yes, even in his trio sonatas.

My new course on analyzing Bach choral harmonizations will help you do this.

The most difficult thing for many organists...

5/6/2014

is perfecting pieces during the practice and maintaining this level during the public performance.

The second most difficult thing for many organists is sitting down on the organ bench to practice in the first place.

Solving the problem of moving between the staves

5/5/2014

There is a common problem many organists face when playing from three-stave notation - that's moving with their eyes from the end of one stave to the beginning of the next stave. Usually the people who experience this problem have quite limited sight-reading abilities.

I have observed the same trait in the playing of some of my students. The people who get mixed-up usually don't have a lot of experience of playing fluently from the unfamiliar score and/or their music theory skills are very limited.

It's like when you read a book in a foreign language where don't know the meaning of the words, it's easy to skip a line or two all of a sudden. However, this usually doesn't happen when you read a book in your native language.

Please note that I'm not talking about the cases when people have special vision conditions - just usual situation when you can't find the right stave quickly and easily when playing organ music.

If you are experiencing similar problems when jumping from one stave to another, this video might be helpful for you to watch.

Making improvisations incredibly colorful

5/4/2014

Are you tired of improvising on the organ using simple T, S, D chords and creating the same predictable sounds? Of course, you know that you could use more advanced chords and more advanced polyphonic tools, such as imitations. However, learning all of this takes lots of time.

But what if I told you that there is another way of adding incredible spice into your playing without the advanced knowledge of music theory, harmony, polyphony, and counterpoint?

This is polytonality. You will be literally shocked at how different, strange and colorful your playing will sound because of this. In this video I will explain what polytonality is and also talk about special exercises you can do with it in your practice.

Here I will be referring to the exercises with scales, but imagine what could you do with hymns or any other kind of melodies, if you applied the same concept of polytonality?

Tonality vs Mode

5/3/2014

Tonality and mode are two different things. In some cases they might be related but they mean something entirely distinct. A lot of people don't understand this difference. I think it's important to feel quite at home with various tonalities and modes and be well versed in many of them.

An organist is not a complete musician without knowing how to use different tonalities and different modes. But before using them and creating them, you must first understand what they mean. So order to help you perceive the meaning of this concept once and for all, I decided to explain it today in this video.

Are you creative?

5/2/2014

Of course you are. I haven't met a person who is not creative, who can't innovate, who can't inspire others, who can't be generous.

Sometimes we get bogged down by the propaganda of mass culture that is all around us which says that creative can only be people with extraordinary talents, that only other people can have amazing insights, that to be generous is foolish, that you are too old to make progress etc.

All of this is of course not true. But what's happening is this: often when we get great creative ideas, either we don't take action or we simply forget them.

Watch this video in which I will teach you how to remember great ideas that come to you. I'm sure that after today you will start cherishing and fostering your creative habits.