So you decided to stick to your practice plan today. Good for you. The invisible forces of nature will be on your side as soon as you sit down on the bench to play.
Since the hardest part is sitting down, it should feel like it's downhill from there. Except it isn't. You sit down on the bench, you say your prayer, you open your music and you begin to play. About 90 seconds into the practice your mind registers a simple thought: It's not worth it It's too boring It's too complicated The thing is you don't won't to stop practicing. No, you like playing the organ, don't you? But you feel the urge to stop practicing the right way (whatever it means to you right now). How you choose at this moment, will decide the success of your entire practice session. Will you give in? Will you let yourself play without a goal? Or will you stay the course, keep calm and keep moving? You're a wise person. You know better what it means to give in so you make a choice - keep up your focus and continue to practice the right way. Pages turn and minutes fly and you feel like it wasn't very difficult after all. It's downhill from there once you get going. But the hard part was around those first 90 seconds. The trick is not to fight it. The trick is to acknowledge it. To be aware of this thought, feel the fear or pain that arises from this thought, face it and do the opposite of what it says on purpose. It was worth it, wasn't it? Sight-reading: Ricercare by Floriano Arresti (1667-1717), an Italian organist and composer.
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Imagine that you wanted to learn one of Bach's polyphonic little Preludes for keyboard and you have a deadline approaching. You know that slow tempo, shorter fragments, and work in separate parts is the best way to learn and yet, so many people are stuck here.
They seem to forget this rule and still play the piece too fast with lots of mistakes which is very frustrating. The reason that they play such pieces too fast and with many mistakes is not because they don't understand what is the best way to learn a polyphonic piece. The reason is that they get sucked into this state of panic when you know you don't have much time to prepare for something important, so you try to do as many things as you can as fast as you can. They should do quite the opposite (which is counter-intuitive) - to relax and slowdown at half speed, play the separate hand parts at least 3 times in a row all in slow tempo and most of all deep down BELIEVE that in the end they will be OK. It's not fear that keeps them playing the wrong way. It's the fear of facing the fear, the fear of having to admit to themselves that they are on the wrong path that makes them play this way. If you struggle with any sort of deadline, please know that you are not alone. Every living organism suffers from fear. Some flee in panic, some freeze, while some (and I hope you are one of them) stay and fight. Here's to your strong mind! [HT to John for inspiration] Sight-reading: Processional March (p. 2) by Edouard Batiste (1820-1876) from his 50 Pieces for Organ or Harmonium, Op. 24, a French organist and composer. Pedal part is optional. 1. The texture is too thick. If you can't play SATB together, play STB. If you can't play STB, play TB. If you can't play TB, play the bass alone etc.
2. The tempo is too fast. If you can't play at the concert speed, play at the half speed. 3. Insufficient number of repetitions in each step. If you can't play each combination and fragment at least 3 times in a row correctly (5, if you're aiming for the moon; 10, if you're reaching for the stars), you are not ready to go on to the next step. No excuses. Period. Look at your playing. If you are stuck, aren't these the reasons why you may be spinning your wheels? You can change this. Sight-reading: Adagio (p. 7) from the Trio Sonata No. 1 by J.S. Bach. On Monday we had our organ studio "Unda Maris" rehearsal at Vilnius University where I teach members of the University to play organ. At one point one student (who studies chemistry) played the Canon by Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis to us and I've noticed that his left hand technique was not as developed as the right hand. This was especially noticeable when I asked him to play the left hand and pedal combination for us. While he was playing it, he placed his free right hand on the bench which in a way served as a crutch.
Then I asked this student play this combination again with his right hand raised and observe his feeling. Afterwards he told us that it was a strange feeling, he felt his attention shift to the raised hand, his tempo was slower, and yet he succeeded with this exercise. I asked him how he managed to do this and we came to the conclusion that the key here was to really focus on the left hand. It was more difficult of course when he was holding his right hand high in the air but it wasn't impossible. After him another student (who studies physics) played his own organ arrangements of music from computer games he likes to play. He voluntarily raised one of his hands from time to time as he tried to play his arrangement with just one hand and pedals. Sometimes the right hand and sometimes the left hand was up in the air. Finally, I told them the story when I was a student at the Lithuanian Academy of Music long time ago and during one of the first lessons, Prof. Leopoldas Digrys, a legendary Lithuanian organist and teacher, asked me to play very independent pedal part of one composition by Bach with both of my hands raised. This way, he explained, no bench and no crutch can help you and you will have no choice but to figure out the way to play the pedals independently. You too, can try raising one or both hands in the air while you play the rest of the parts and see how you feel. Sight-reading for today: Allegretto Grazioso by Alfred Hollins (1865-1942), an English organist, composer and teacher. In my yesterday's post How to play marches on manuals only I proposed the following way to play marches on manuals - in places with pedals, assign three voices for the right hand and one for the left hand. This disposition will be similar to basic basso continuo (thorough bass) performance practice where you play three upper parts with the right hand.
In doing so these chords sound in closed position as opposed to the version when you place two voices in each hand (often this means open position). Therefore, this technique will help you preserve the original harmony while making your marches playable on the organs and keyboards of all sorts without pedals. In response to this post, Oswin Grollmuss asks if in this way there might be an artistically responsible interpretation of the March in C major of Léfébure-Wely as well? Could this be a technique to transfer other pedal pieces to manuals only? In other words, can you take any organ piece with pedals and in the event you don't have pedals at your disposal, could the result of this piece played on manual only would still be meaningful? I don't think this March can easily be played without the pedals. More than that, it needs two manuals - because right from the beginning there is a melody in the tenor range which sounds on the solo reed stop. The problem with other pedal pieces played in this way on manuals only is that often their are quite polyphonic and this technique works only in homophonic chordal texture. In polyphonic style, several voices form a coherent musical image. You can't really exclude any voice and you can't successfully transfer tenor one octave higher. In general, the technique of playing one voice in the left hand and three in the right hand works for organ arrangements of orchestral or piano music. And it has to have a strong melody in the top voice. Having said that, you could experiment with this March by playing the beginning melody in the soprano with the right hand one octave higher, the bass and chords in the left hand. Play the chords one octave lower. But if you really want to play original pedal pieces without pedals, find a partner and play them with four hands. This is both fun and easy - you can play the entire Bach's Orgelbuchlein this way - two parts (one in each hand) for each of you. I have done this together with my wife Ausra when we play organ duets in some remote village church on the small organ without pedals and we still want the listeners to appreciate the beauty of Bach's Aria in D major, for example. Sight reading for today: Grand Plein Jeu Continu (p. 1) by Jacques Boyvin (1649-1706), a French Classical organist at Rouen Cathedral and composer from his Premier Livre d'Orgue (1689). Grand Plein Jeu registration in French tradition basically means a 16' based principal chorus with mixtures as opposed to Grand Jeux which is meant to play with Cornets, Trompettes, and Flutes without the 16' stops. The indication of pedals at the beginning here comes from the editor Alexander Guilmant. Yesterday one of my subscribers, Dr. Steven Monrotus wrote me a following message:
"Thank you for sending the valuable suggestions and public domain scores for performance, they're helping a great deal. Could you please suggest marches for manuals only. At times I perform on an instrument without pedals where marches and processionals are needed with full sound, sometimes for long stretches without a pause. Any suggestions or scores you could send would be very much appreciated. Thank you very much." It's great that people like Steven are finding at least some usefulness to these ideas and scores for sight-reading. Many of them are church organists who may or may not have an organ with pedals in their churches. That's a bit of a problem when it comes to wedding services. You see, for regular church service on Sunday you can easily find quality and playable repertoire (much of which is for manuals only). But for weddings when you play an instrument without pedals, you need to take a more careful look at what's available. One idea which I often find useful when I have to play a pedal piece on one manual is to experiment with outer voices only - soprano in the right hand and the bass (pedal part) in the left hand. Because these two voices often are the most important ones in the piece, there are instances where it works beautifully (Bach's Largo and Aria in D major for example). I played this march this way (the original is for the orchestra: Jean-Baptiste Lully - Marche pour la cérémonie des Turcs (Le bourgeois gentilhomme), especially from 1:52 in this video). If you're looking for marches without pedals, then Guilmant's "Practical Organist" first comes to mind. Besides marches, there you will find fine short compositions suitable for liturgical organ playing, such as communions, versets, offertories, postludes etc. Every piece is skillfully composed and could also be used for recitals. It's perfect as a preparation for more advanced organ sonatas by Guilmant. Also The Oxford Book of Wedding Music for Manuals is an authoritative collection which might be worth considering, too. For those of you who already have the famous marches in their collections but they need pedals to be performed on the organ: Can you still play them from the original organ scores? The answer is yes, if you could do the following trick. In places with pedals, assign three voices for the right hand and one for the left hand. This disposition will be similar to basic basso continuo (thorough bass) performance practice where you play three upper parts with the right hand. In doing so these chords sound in closed position as opposed to the version when you place two voices in each hand (often this means open position). What does this theoretical rule mean in practice? When you have to play Mendelssohn's Wedding March (p. 47) for a wedding, play the bass line with the left and the top voice with the right hand. Then for the same right hand add the missing two middle voices in closed position. Basically this will allow you to avoid unnecessary doublings of voices which are common for thick chords played by both hands. Therefore, this technique will help you preserve the original harmony while making it playable on the organs and keyboards of all sorts without pedals. Sight-reading for today: Das ferne Land, Op.26 (Distand Land) by Adolf von Henselt (1814-1889), a German composer and pianist. This piece is a romance for voice and piano but here you can practice an organ arrangement by W.J.D. Leavitt. What can you do with a descending C major scale in the pedals?
You can harmonize it in many interesting ways, using a tonal harmony and adding various non-chordal notes, such as passing tones and neighbor tones. Always be conscious of creating a good melody in the soprano because it has to bear all musical interest when the bass is being constantly repeated. Sight-reading for today: The Bell Symphony by Henry Purcell (1659-1695), the great English Baroque master, arranged from the anthem "Rejoice in the Lord" arranged for the organ by William Crane Carl (1865-1936). The anthem originally is intended for ATB soloists, SATB choir, strings, and organ. According to the notes of this piece, Purcell, when Master of Choristers of Westminster Abbey wrote this Symphony using the descending scale in the pedal part to imitate the Abbey Chimes. In order to better understand how the piece is put together, when you play this Symphony, perhaps first try to play the soprano and the bass parts together (if you can do it. If not, separate parts will do). Looking at the bass you will discover that this composition is divided into fragments of about 2.5 measures (with a couple extensions for cadences in 2-2-2 and at the end). In a sense it's a piece based on the ground bass, a classical English tradition to create variations on the same theme which is being played constantly in the bass (sometimes in other voices, too). The scale lends perfectly to the canon between the bass and soprano, as seen in 2-1-3. Although there are not strict repeat signs here, the music seems to be a repeat from 2-3-2. This Symphony is indeed a very beautiful piece. I hope you will enjoy playing it today. Submit a Photo: Although our summer experiment with submitting a photo is over, people keep sending me great pictures of pictures related to their organ practice, so if you have an interesting photo to share with our community, you can do it here. Featured Conversations: Re: Marches for wedding service Karl: "Thanx very much Vidas. Very valuable collection." That's great! Go and prepare a couple of marches so that you will be ready when you get a call. Re: Marches for wedding service 'Seun: "Dear Vidas, thanks for all the tips. After your post on funeral marches I was just about to ask about weddings when u posted this. A friend asked me to play at his wedding in November and he requested specifically for the Mendelssohn's March. For preludes, would it be ok to play some of Bach's preludes like the prelude and fugue in C major. What others would u advise? Thanks in advance." Good for you, 'Seun. Now you will know what to practice for weddings. In general, for weddings, it's best to choose two types of compositions - a solemn march-like or fanfare-like pieces for Processional and Recessional, and sweet-sounding, gentle, and meditative music for other parts of the service. Major keys work best here but for Marches there are some great choices in minor mode as well. RE: Mistakes we make Sonja: "Wow, great mental attitude you have! Indeed every heart which we can reach by our play makes it worthy, even when this is one! We will do our very best for this. An encouraging to prepare my following concert soon. Thank you." Exactly. I'm sure you had such an experience before where your art resonated with at least one person in the room. You looked at her eyes and at that very moment you knew, you've achieved something remarkable to change this person's life. Mateusz Marcinowski: Enjoyed your organ home article. Here is a project that I did to have piano and pedals. I found an ago pedal board, built a stand, put the keyboard on top and pedals on bottom. No sound from the pedals, though. Very simple project. Feel free to share this email or picture to your readers who may be having a hard time finding an organ to play on (Easthampton Massachusetts, USA) If you are asked to play for a wedding service at church, you might get to prepare several pieces:
1. Prelude (at least 5 minutes prior the ceremony) 2. Processional 3. Hymn, Worship Song or Solo (after Giving Away of the Bride) 4. Recessional Some denominations may add the Latin hymn Veni Creator after the Processional as well as some quiet music before the Exchange of Rings and even music for Communion. The most popular choices are for Processional and Recessional. Here's a March Album. I hope you will find it useful. I'm sure a lot of my readers would play Mendelssohn's March for the Recessional during wedding service. I do too whenever I get the chance. However, if you can't play it properly, it's better not to take it because every single person in attendance will know it. I've heard very poorly executed versions with sloppy technique and unconvincing harmonization. As much as I love improvisation, in this case it's way better to play from the score (elaboration, extension, and improvisation on the theme of this March sounds nice, of course, if you know how to do it). I recommend you prepare a set of pieces suitable for weddings in advance and have them in your long-term repertoire because when you get asked to play, you will be ready. Sight-reading for today: Morning Mood (p. 3) from Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 by Edvard Grieg arranged for organ by Harvey B. Gaul. It's not easy but very familiar quality music is well worth the try. Featured conversations: Re: 5 questions worth answering NPeter: What a wonderful, concise self analysis. Thank you so much for this and all that you do. Thanks, Peter. To be an organist today takes more than practicing and performing great music. Re: 4 qualities of funeral music James: Thanks for the tips. As one who has played more than 2000 weddings & 1000 funerals in the last several decades (mostly Lutheran, but some Episcopal & Presbyterian, as well), I've often played triumphant Easter music as the Recessional, if there isn't a Hymn being sung, such as "Christ lag in Todesbanden" from Bach's Orgelbuechlein, a favorite @ my large & famous Chicago parish. You're right! It's amazing on how many occasions Bach's music can be used. Re: When you don't feel like playing today Heidi: I really needed this today... thank you, dear Vidas. For me, I've been really busy and am lately always thinking I don't have enough time to practice. Thanks Heidi. The benefits of even 15 minutes a day build up over time. Can you find 15 minutes in your day? Re: Sheet music of the Canon by Ciurlionis Leon: Thank you very much! Started on the Bondt Canon today. It is not easy! Thanks Leon. Enjoy this piece. It's best learned in combinations of separate parts, then two-part combinations, three-part combinations and finally all four parts together. Work in fragments of 4-5 measures. David Milller: I purchased a Johannus Opus 7 practice organ for my house in Hagerstown MD. I play a 15 rank Mollar at Zion Episcopal church in Charles Town, West Virginia. I enjoy practicing along with you using your YouTube videos and my home instrument tuned to your demonstration organ's pitch and temperament. My goal is to master the Articulate-Legato touch. Thank you for all the encouraging work you do and on the frequent updates to your web site. There are two sides of the issue when organists make mistakes during service playing or recitals - the way they impact us and the way they impact the listeners.
Some people don't seem to be too disturbed by mistakes they make - they continue playing as usual. Other organists feel so awkward and off-balance that the very act of being aware of their mistakes produces even more mistakes. This attitude requires tremendous focus of mind on the current measure with the exclusion of everything else. This isn't easy at first but it can be exercised and learned like anything we do. Focus is a skill. We are not born with it but we acquire it through conscious effort over time. Forgive yourself, forget the mistake by fixing your gaze on the next spot, and move on. You'll do better next time. Our listeners can also have different feelings about our mistakes, too. Some might not even notice them because they came to enjoy the music and the event, to participate actively at church service. Others can be quite critical and even cynical about the mistakes we make. They might scold you, they might even record you and post the video online just to share their frustration or make fun of you. In a way it belongs to the culture of bullying. It's so sad that people behave this way. What can you do about it? Haters gonna hate, non believers will not believe. And that's OK. Maybe your music and your playing is not for them. Maybe it's for this woman sitting on the edge of her seat and crying afterwards... [Thanks to John for inspiration] PS Some of my readers seem to miss the sight-reading selections I've been including with these posts so here is the piece to play for today: Arrogamer (p. 24) from Buxheimer Orgelbuch (ca. 1460), a landmark early German source of organ music. Although it's written for 3 staves, it's best played without the pedals with the left hand taking the two lower staves. Everybody knows that organ pipes usually are made out of wood or metal but did you know that sometimes masters experimented with glass, porcelain, plastic, paper, even stone. World-famous bamboo organ in Las Piñas, the Philippines even has an international festival. The pipes of this instrument (except those of Trumpet) are made out of bamboo because wood in this area was hard to find. Listen to the sounds of the bamboo organ.
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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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