|
My friend James Flores and I are challenging each other to learn new repertory before November 14. So today I'm starting to work on Crown Imperial by William Walton while literally sight reading it because I haven't played it before.
Visit James Flores channel on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/JamesFlores... I'm using Sint Laurenskerk Marcussen the main organ sample set from Rotterdam by Sonus Paradisi and Hauptwerk VPO software. Score: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/...
Comments
I'm excited to present to you my next live organ recital. I'm playing it on Cavaille-Coll organ sample set from St Etienne Abbey in Caen by Sonus Paradisi of Hauptwerk VPO. Hope you will enjoy it!
Program: 1. St. Bede's Voluntary from Journey to Wholeness (Angela Kraft Cross) Score: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/... 2. Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele, Op. 122 No. 5 (Johannes Brahms) Score: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/... 3. Improvisation on Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele 4. Organ Symphony No. 1, Op. 14 (Louis Vierne) Score: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/... I. Prelude II. Fugue III. Pastorale IV. Allegro vivace V. Andante VI. Final Score with fingering and pedaling: https://secrets-of-organ-playing.mysh... If you like my music making, you can support me on Patreon and get free organ CD's at https://patreon.com/secretsoforganpla... Buy me coffee: https://www.paypal.me/VPinkevicius My Hauptwerk setup: https://www.organduo.lt/tools.html Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online: https://www.organduo.lt/total-organist Secrets of Organ Playing - When You Practice, Miracles Happen! https://organduo.lt
Vidas: Hello and welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast!
Ausra: This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better organist. V: We’re your hosts Vidas Pinkevicius... A: ...and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene. V: We have over 25 years of experience of playing the organ A: ...and we’ve been teaching thousands of organists online from 89 countries since 2011. V: So now let’s jump in and get started with the podcast for today. A: We hope you’ll enjoy it! V: Hi guys! This is Vidas. A: And Ausra. Vidas: Let’s start episode 620 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by James, and he writes about my piece called “Nassat, from the Organ ABC”: “The speed of this piece and transparency of registration made me appreciate how generous the acoustic is at your church. I’m still stuck on Krummhorn and Larigot” Vidas: James apparently watched the video of me improvising this piece which later was transcribed by Diana, and now it is available as a complete score with fingering and registration. So if you guys are interested, you can take a look. But I was thinking we could talk, Ausra, about the acoustics in our church. What do you think? Is it generous? Ausra: Well, yes. Especially as comparing to many churches in America, I think in Lithuania, we have quite generous acoustics in general. Vidas: Yeah, because we have many old churches, and in general, old churches have very good acoustics—sometime too big acoustics for the organ! Don’t you think? Ausra: Well, I think the acoustics at St. Johns’s is very good. Vidas: Adequate. Ausra: Yes, adequate. Vidas. But you still need to know how to play the organ in these acoustics. Right? Ausra: Of course, because you know it often struck me while playing in the United States in some of the churches that had no acoustic at all, and even worse that when I played organ where I felt like I am being naked. Vidas: What do you mean? Ausra: Because, sort of when you have acoustics, it sort of covers you up, and you may hide some things in your playing. Vidas: Yeah, I know what you mean. When you said “no acoustics at all or worse” what do you mean by “worse?” Ausra: Because sometimes it’s not like you hold the last chord then omit it, but it seems like the sound disappears even before you lift your hands from the keyboard! Vidas: Oh, you’re like in a closet! Ausra: Yes. And because, I think, all these soft carpets and soft big cushions to make people feel comfortable… but it’s not good for acoustics. Vidas: Well yes. Unfortunately, a lot has been done for the comfort of the people, right? But that interferes with the quality of the sound, and sometimes acoustics are disregarded in favor of how well people of a congregation is feeling in the pews. Ausra: I don’t think that all the architects even consider this issue while they are making new churches. Vidas: That’s true. Luckily, we have sometimes artificial acoustics. Right? You can enhance the acoustics of the building by adding some acoustic enhanced materials, but it’s not my expertise, so I don’t want to talk about it too long. Ausra: And I don’t think it’s the same results. It’s still maybe not quite as good as if the acoustics is natural. Vidas: Talking about acoustics and environment, what’s your most memorable church that you played in the past? Ausra: Well, probably Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London! Vidas: Yes, I wish we could go back there and record a proper recital, because they didn’t allow us to record and make a video. I secretly recorded for myself just the audio, and a short improvisation when I tested some of the sounds, but somehow this Cathedral doesn’t allow one to make recital recordings… official recordings… maybe they are afraid of people admiring the organ and the church and the cathedral too much. Ausra: But I guess this is not only the case with Saint Paul’s. I think that’s true when talking about many other famous cathedrals. Vidas: Yeah, I remember you were invited to perform at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, and one of the sentences in the contract stated that you cannot also make a recording of your recital. Ausra: Yes. Too bad, but such is life. Vidas: Right. Imagine if this weren’t the case, and people could come from all over the world and record their videos, YouTube would have been full of recitals from Notre Dame Cathedral, and now this organ is no longer functional because of the fire, so we don’t know how long it will take to restore it, and people all over the world are still… missing this instrument, and if they would have allowed to make recordings, people and fans from all over the world could enjoy this instrument even more. Ausra: Well, I think there’s nothing that we could do to change church policies, so… Vidas: Right. So hopefully, people can listen to the video, to the Nassat video that I performed, and check out the score that Diana has transcribed. If you’re interested in easy basic-level organ music, modern sounding improvisations, on every letter of the alphabet, but based on some of the terms from the organ world, so this could be helpful as well. I intend to finish all the collection maybe by the end of this year, if the situations are favorable and we’ll have the entire “ABC” ready for you to listen to and to play. Ausra: Wonderful! Looking forward to hearing the entire collection. Vidas: James promised to make a recording of it when it’s ready. So, I’m looking to it as well. James Flores, you could check out his YouTube channel and Website: https://jamesfloresorganist.com Vidas: Okay guys, please send us more of your questions; we love helping you grow. And remember, when you practice, Ausra: Miracles happen. V: This podcast is supported by Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online. A: It has hundreds of courses, coaching and practice materials for every area of organ playing, thousands of instructional videos and PDF's. You will NOT find more value anywhere else online... V: Total Organist helps you to master any piece, perfect your technique, develop your sight-reading skills, and improvise or compose your own music and much much more… A: Sign up and begin your training today at organduo.lt and click on Total Organist. And of course, you will get the 1st month free too. You can cancel anytime. V: If you like our organ music, you can also support us on Patreon and get free CD’s. A: Find out more at patreon.com/secretsoforganplaying  I hope you will enjoy practicing this beautiful chorale prelude Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen by Johannes Brahms. I have prepared a practice score with complete fingering written in which will help you save many hours, practice efficiently and achieve a perfect legato touch. PDF score. Basic level. 2 pages. Thanks to Diana Danilova for transcribing the fingering and from the video. This piece is free for Total Organist students. Check it out here  Thank you everyone for participating! You all made us very happy with your entries. We have all selected the following winners. You can watch their entries and congratulate them here. And if you want to participate, here are the rules for next week's contest.
In this video I'm playing Prelude in C Major, BuxWV 137 by Dieterich Buxtehude. Hope you will enjoy this performance from Vilnius University St John's church.
Score: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/... In this video, I'm slowly practicing Herzlich tut mich verlangen, Op. 122 No. 10 by Johannes Brahms at Vilnius University St John's church.
Vidas: Hello and welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast!
Ausra: This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better organist. V: We’re your hosts Vidas Pinkevicius... A: ...and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene. V: We have over 25 years of experience of playing the organ A: ...and we’ve been teaching thousands of organists online from 89 countries since 2011. V: So now let’s jump in and get started with the podcast for today. A: We hope you’ll enjoy it! V: Hi guys! This is Vidas. A: And Ausra. V: Let’s start episode 623 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Robert, and he writes, Dear Vidas, I completed your Pedal Virtuoso Master Course in late August and upon your request, below you will find my feedback. Without a doubt, I am very happy to have taken your course! I discovered it online at the beginning of June after searching for ways to improve my pedal technique which was holding my organ playing back. My goals consisted of learning how to sit comfortably on the organ bench so that I could play the pedals and maintain my balance, discover for myself how to develop more flexibility in my ankles, and learn how to use my feet more efficiently in order to play more advanced passages as well as reduce strains put on my foot muscles and joints (i.e., prevent future injuries). After spending twelve weeks working on the given assignment for the day, to my surprise, each goal saw improvement and not just a slight improvement! Although I often needed more than fifteen minutes to work on a given assignment, my feet now know where to go and my hips and body now support my balance and the ability to play a passage legato while avoiding foot strain. One thing I did that helped solidify what I had learned in previous weeks, was to review previous assignments in addition to the daily assignment. Currently I am reviewing the course by playing every scale and arpeggio from a given tonality three times a day for one week (this is my fourth week, so I am reviewing scales and arpeggios in E minor which is Day 1, No. 4 from each of the twelve weeks). Transferring this success into repertoire, I can now play Moto Ostinato from Nedělní Hudba (now known as Musica Dominicalis) by Petr Eben with far more control and accuracy than ever before; by working on my pedaling, the hands are able to play the manuals without distractions due to poor balance. As far as looking at a piece I have wanted to play that seemed like an impossibility before this course, I am now able to play the last three studies of Ten Studies for Pedal Playing by Flor Peeters at a slow tempo; I now have techniques that will enable me to play these studies successfully in the near future. As far as possible improvements to your Pedal Virtuoso Master Course, if you could make a few more videos demonstrating some of the exercises in various weeks of the course, this would be very helpful. I am truly grateful for the two arpeggios you made for me last month on YouTube because I got to see the roles that your hips and body play in enabling you to play the pedals at the extremes of the pedal board (especially in octaves). The saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words” is very true when it comes to pedal playing but in my experience, a video is worth a million words (my wife suggested that I spare you a long list of questions by asking you to make a video)! I also think that a few more videos on YouTube might give you more students; after all, that is how I found your course. In the future if you should offer another course pertaining to pedal mastery (such as Part II dealing with trills or historical pedaling), I would definitely be interested in taking it. Also, if it is okay with you, I would like to email you any additional pedal questions that I may have, should they arise. In closing I cannot thank you enough for designing a course that has helped me to improve my pedal and organ playing exponentially. I am also very grateful for the two videos you made upon my request as well as the pedal gifts (Bach’s Pedal-Exercitium and Alkan’s Etude No. 1) that I practice every day, in addition to reviewing your course. All the best to you, your wife, and all that you do. Sincerely yours, Robert PS: If anyone is looking for organ shoes with heels that are 2 or 3 centimeters in height, I strongly recommend Tic-Tac-Toes (a dance shoe company that makes organ shoes as well) from Gloversville, New York, USA. They are more expensive than other organ shoe companies that I am aware of, but I am very happy with my 1 ¼ inch heel (3.175 centimeters) organ shoes. Hope this information is of help to you. V: This is a very long feedback that Robert wrote, and I’m very grateful for it. A: Yes, it’s very nice, and I think on the top of it, there is not much that we could add to it. V: Other than to promise to make more videos, right? A: Sure, because it seems that it really helps people to learn, and to improve pedaling skills. V: Yeah. He’s so dedicated. I don’t require students to refresh the materials on a regular basis from this course. After you learn everything, you could play other pieces. But no - he comes back to the course and plays for a week, three times a day, those exercises. A: Well it’s true, this letter shows that Robert is a really hard working student. And he’s also an excellent writer. I really much enjoyed, very much, how he put together all his words and all his feedback about your course. So well organized. So clearly structured. V: Yeah, exactly. Wonderful feedback as I said before. And obviously improvement with more videos demonstrating some of the exercises would be really helpful. I just got busy creating other videos for other courses, and probably will come back to creating more videos. Maybe eventually to be a video course, right? A: Sure. I think people would appreciate it. V: Okay guys, so if you haven’t checked out Pedal Virtuoso Master Course, Robert obviously thinks you should. And Ausra and I agree. If you would like to get the same or even more improvement that Robert has with his pedal technique, there is no doubt that this course on one level or another will be helpful to you, even if you don’t work as diligently as Robert, you will still notice much improvement. A: Yes, I believe so. V: Yeah. All right, guys. Please send us more of your questions. We really appreciate it. And remember, when you practice, A: Miracles happen. V: This podcast is supported by Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online. A: It has hundreds of courses, coaching and practice materials for every area of organ playing, thousands of instructional videos and PDF's. You will NOT find more value anywhere else online... V: Total Organist helps you to master any piece, perfect your technique, develop your sight-reading skills, and improvise or compose your own music and much much more… A: Sign up and begin your training today at organduo.lt and click on Total Organist. And of course, you will get the 1st month free too. You can cancel anytime. V: If you like our organ music, you can also support us on Patreon and get free CD’s. A: Find out more at patreon.com/secretsoforganplaying SOPP621: My sight reading of notes and rhythms both improved significantly from 9 months ago10/23/2020
Vidas: Hello and welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast!
Ausra: This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better organist. V: We’re your hosts Vidas Pinkevicius... A: ...and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene. V: We have over 25 years of experience of playing the organ A: ...and we’ve been teaching thousands of organists online from 89 countries since 2011. V: So now let’s jump in and get started with the podcast for today. A: We hope you’ll enjoy it! V: Hi guys! This is Vidas. A: And Ausra. V: Let’s start episode 621 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by William, and he writes, Vidas, Thank you for putting together this course. My sight reading of notes and rhythms both improved significantly from 9 months ago. It also improved my sight reading of dense passages of music. The areas that gave me a little trouble (that I need to continue working on) are the counting of 32nd notes and irregular rhythms (triplets against 2 eighth notes / 4 sixteenth notes / dotted eighth note and a sixteenth note). Regards, Bill V: So William talks about my Organ Sight Reading Master Course, which is quite popular among Total Organist Community, and I’m very happy that people are enjoying the progress that they are making over the course of this training program. It takes basically 40 weeks, 47 weeks with bonus materials, so that’s almost a full year, right, Ausra? A: Yes, it takes awhile. V: For a long time, for many weeks, people start sight reading one single melodic line. And a lot of people quit after even noticing improvement, even before starting two part exercises. Because it takes such a long time to go through entire Art of Fugue voice by voice. Ausra, do you have such patience? A: Well, I would have patience if I would have enough time. V: And you mean that you couldn’t practice for many weeks one single voice? A: Yes. Definitely not. And I don’t need it, because I have quite a good skills of sight reading music. V: Hm, makes me think, maybe I should devise special course for you, just for you, where I would test your sight reading skills and give you more challenges. A: You know I have enough challenges in my life on a daily basis. V: And you could devise a course for me, as well. Would you like that? A: Not really. V: Why not? You could be my teacher. A: Well, I teach for 25 hours a week. So I guess I have enough teaching already without teaching you. V: Could I sit in your classes instead? A: No, because now it’s pandemic. V: Maybe under the table then! A: Well, you could sneak in, or at least try to sneak in. V: I could sit under the table like your pet. I would be quiet, promise. A: But then I would have to put you on a leash. V: Yeah. On a leash, or a choke collar? A: Well, it would depend on your behavior. V: (laughs) If I would be polite, maybe leash would be enough. A: Yes, I guess so. V: So, William is enjoying the course, sight reading every week, seven days a week I think, those exercises run. Would you, Ausra, imagine yourself sight reading every day of the week, if you had time? A: Well yes, because I think this is a crucial skill to have for any musician. V: Yeah, I think for people who don’t have enough time to sight read, they are simply sacrificing their goals and dreams, putting aside their future in favor of their present tasks, or maybe urgent assignments. But I think it’s important to work towards your future, make the future possible, right? Because at the end of the day, you have fulfilled maybe your tasks, but haven’t advanced towards your goals. A: True, and often people wonder why they cannot learn music very fast, or as fast as they would wish to, and why they still keep struggling. And I think one of the reasons is that we don’t sight read enough. V: Or don’t listen to music enough as well. That also is very important. Basically, music is like language. You have to immerse yourself in this language. It’s a musical language, and we have to imagine we’re learning like a foreign language. Obviously, learning foreign language is easiest from an early age, right, Ausra? A: That’s right. I think any skill is easier to learn at the early age, but I think it’s possible to learn later too. But it takes more time, and it requires more effort. V: Will you be fluent in that language if you start late in life? A: Well I guess it’s sort of very individual to a person, from person to person. V: Let’s say a person starts later in life and spends hours every day sight reading and practicing, and listening to musical pieces. At first, it’s a very difficult struggle, right? Because this new language is completely foreign to them. And it takes weeks, even months, before they start to feel any kind of enjoyment, right? And even when people are listening to such training exercises, they’re not interesting at all to listen to. Like one voice, right? A: That’s right. V: Especially if played in a slow tempo. I can imagine that if played in a right tempo, if you can play The Art of Fugue soprano voice for example, in a concert tempo, that's a wonderful piece of music by itself. It’s like one single instrument, solo instrument, a flute or a violin playing. But you have to be fluent. A: That’s right. V: Otherwise it’s just for you, not for other people to enjoy. But definitely there will come a time in your course where you will feel that something is tipping. You will feel this tipping point where yesterday you didn’t notice improvement, and this morning you started to notice something differently. Something more frequent, more fluently. There was for me also. It’s in any activity. When I was busy doing exercises of pull-ups in my, in our garden last year, for example, at first I couldn’t do a lot of them. Just a few. Or maybe just to hang myself, hang and - not hang myself! A: I hope not! V: Simply, I would just hold onto the rings and hang in there, you know, for 30 seconds let’s say. But then after weeks passed, I could do one, then two, then four pull-ups. And then after I reached five pull-ups, I suddenly noticed I could do all those five pull-ups fast. Like not one by one, but in a combination of two or even three - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 - in one breath, basically. So obviously this faster pull-up routine makes it easier to do all five of them, right? But I couldn’t do that before. It took me, I don’t know, maybe four months to reach that goal. So obviously, people who practice sight reading from my course need to realize that they have to really keep going for a longer time in order to start feeling the results, like William has. He started about 9 months ago, right? But he didn’t quit after a few weeks, even if it was hard when 32nd notes appeared, or triplets against two eighth notes, those complicated rhythms, you see. A: Wonderful! I guess William has the kind of character that each of us needs to develop - to be patient and to be consistent about what you are doing. V: Wonderful. So guys, those of you who are practicing from this course, or sight reading on your own, please don’t quit just after a few days or weeks. Just keep going. And those of you who haven’t seen my course, check it out! I will leave the link in the description of this conversation. Thank you guys. Please send us more of your questions. We love helping you grow.. And remember, when you practice, A: Miracles happen. V: This podcast is supported by Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online. A: It has hundreds of courses, coaching and practice materials for every area of organ playing, thousands of instructional videos and PDF's. You will NOT find more value anywhere else online... V: Total Organist helps you to master any piece, perfect your technique, develop your sight-reading skills, and improvise or compose your own music and much much more… A: Sign up and begin your training today at organduo.lt and click on Total Organist. And of course, you will get the 1st month free too. You can cancel anytime. V: If you like our organ music, you can also support us on Patreon and get free CD’s. A: Find out more at patreon.com/secretsoforganplaying
A playlist which goes with my Secrets of Organ Playing Newsletter:
https://secrets-of-organ-playing.ck.page/f94ba948db |
 DON'T MISS A THING! FREE UPDATES BY EMAIL.
 Photo by Edgaras Kurauskas
Authors
Drs. Vidas Pinkevicius and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene Organists of Vilnius University , creators of Secrets of Organ Playing. Our Hauptwerk Setup:
Categories
All
Archives
December 2024
|
RSS Feed