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

How Slow Should You Practice Your Organ Pieces?

12/21/2012

I've heard people saying that you should start practice your organ piece at it's half speed. For example, if the concert tempo is around 100 beats per minute, then you should practice starting from 50 and gradually increase the metronome until you reach 100.

This system might work with many people but not with all. Some people just don't have patience to do this kind of practice.

And they may never succeed because of that. If the concert tempo is 100 or more, it is possible to start practicing even slower - at 40 or even 30, I think.

Actually the best way to go about the practice tempo is this: pick such a tempo in which you can avoid making mistakes. Simply resist the temptation to go to the next note unless you are absolutely certain that it will be correct.

The real trick is NOT to play all the voices or parts at the beginning. Then your progress will be much faster and you will feel much better about practice. Very gradualy you may speed up the tempo but only after you can play at the current speed correctly at least 3 times in a row.

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.

Is Dupre's Ornamentation System Valid for Every Baroque Organ Composition?

12/20/2012

Marcel Dupre, the master French organist had ornamentation rules which he applied for Baroque organ music (especially for the music of Bach). He had rules, when to play upper note trills and main note trills, when to stop the trills, how to accelerate etc.

His rules are very good but there are many instances when they are not valid, even in Bach.

Trills in the Baroque music are much more varied than he understood in his day. The is so much variety in various national styles, so if you play Italian, Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Dutch, North German, South German, Central German etc. - every national school had its own rules which obviously Dupre was not referring to when he wrote his set of rules.

Bottom line: we need to be very flexible these days and do lots of research in terms of fingering, ornaments, registration, and other elements of performance 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.

Try This in Your Hymn Playing on the Organ

12/19/2012

If you think that hymn playing means the traditional way of playing hymns on the organ, I have a challenge for you today. It comes from the teachings of Samuel Scheidt, the famous North German student of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck and the author of "Tabulatura Nova".

You know that the traditional disposition in playing hymns on the organ is this: the three upper parts on one manual and the bass on the pedals (the right hand takes soprano and alto, while the left hand plays the tenor only without the bass).

But what if you could play ANY part (soprano, alto, tenor, or bass) of your hymn on the pedals? Wouldn't it help to improve your hand and feet coordination?

Here is what I mean:

Right hand: soprano (8')
Left hand: alto and tenor (8')
Pedals: bass (16' and 8')

Right hand: soprano and alto (8')
Left hand: bass (16' and 8' or 8' only)
Pedals: tenor (8' or 4' one octave lower)

Right hand: soprano (8')
Left hand: bass and tenor (8')
Pedals: alto (4' one octave lower)

Right hand: alto (8')
Left hand: bass and tenor (8')
Pedals: soprano (4' one octave lower or 2' two octaves lower)

NOTE: If your organ doesn't have 4' or 2' pedal stops, try using the manual coupler and playing the manual parts on a different manual.

Samuel Scheidt recommends these dispositions when playing chorale based works. We can certainly incorporate them in our hymn playing as well (playing from the regular setting on two staves in the hymnal).

What a challenge for our brain (no worse than Sudoku puzzles)!

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.

What Kind of Piano Technique Is Not Transferable to the Organ?

12/18/2012

We all have heard that piano technique is the basis of the modern legato organ technique. Having strong piano skills might be a great advantage. But did you know that not all of the things you do on the piano are equally transferable to the organ?

In particular, when you play piano, one of the key elements is making dynamics with your touch. If you want the piano to sound louder, you play with more force. If you want to play softer, you use less force. It’s as simple as that.

But on the organ, the dynamics are not achieved through the same techniques that pianists use. On the organ, in order to increase or decrease the volume, you can change the registration or manipulate the swell box.

Sure, you can make subtle accents with some clever use of articulation and touch (on the mechanical action organs) but what I want to stress here, is that you should not use that excess force.

There is simply no need to pound on the keys harder if you are playing a loud piece. On the contrary, the softer you depress the keys, the better you will be able to control the releases which are equally or more important than the depression of the keys.

So you have to be relaxed enough and play mezzo piano on the organ. Use only as much power as is needed to depress the keys.

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.

What Is a Fughetta And How to Compose It for the Organ?

12/17/2012

A fughetta is nothing more than an exposition of the fugue. Usually it is written in three parts or voices and normally is a manualiter work.

A fughetta opens with a theme or a subject in any voice after which enters an answer (a theme in the key of the dominant) in another voice.

While the second voice plays the subject, the first one has a counter-subject - a contrasting melody with different rhythms than the subject. Counter-subject usually plays intervals of the thirds, sixths and suspensions with the subject.

The same happens during the last subject entrance. Here all three voices are sounding. The second voice has a counter-subject (the same or a new one). The trick with the third voice is to make it as stationary as possible.

The subjects of the fughettas can be taken from the chorale tunes (usually the first line), or they can be freely composed. The usual order of the subject entries is one of these four: 1-2-3, 2-1-3, 2-3-1, and 3-2-1.

After the last subject entry there is a closing cadence which wraps up the piece. Except of this cadence, there is a continuous flow without any full stop in all voices at the same time.

If you want to get more information about the fughettas and see how they are constructed, one of the best sources is the Weimarer Tabulatur by Johann Pachelbel, a master of fughettas.

There you will find many beautiful examples of this charming genre which you can imitate in your own improvisations or compositions.

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.

Organ Practice and Old Age

12/16/2012

I hear this question a lot: can you learn to play the organ if you are 79 years old?

I don't know. I'm not 79.
But keeping in mind people who have reached this age and still continue to practice, I think, yes you can.

You see, when people are young, they are always rushing - trying to achieve their goals. But when you are 79, you don't have to rush anymore.

You just have this tremendous life experience behind you. So you can enjoy organ practice - every minute of it, every single moment, every breath you take.

Don't try too hard - just make this activity as pleasant as possible. Don't think about those 10000 hours needed to excel in organ playing.

Just do one hour today. That's it. If tomorrow comes, practice one more hour.

If you think about it, we don't know if we will be here tomorrow.
Regardless of our age.

So the best we can do is to treasure the day that we still have - today.
If you do this every day for one year - you will move a mountain.

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.

Organ Practice Is a Privilege

12/15/2012

Practice is a privilege, as my professor Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra always said to me.

Privilege which we have to be grateful for. So many people would wish to practice organ but they can't.

If you can touch this King of Instruments and some of the most beautiful music ever created by a human being - that's something to be really grateful for.

Practice is not a burden. It's not something you have to do. It's something to enjoy.
Because every single minute spent on the organ bench wisely moves you closer to your goal one step at a time.

Baby Steps - it's a privilege to be able to take them every day.

Practice Is a Privilege - write this down and post it where you can see it every day.

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.

Fast Progress in Organ Playing

12/14/2012

Slow/Fast is a relative thing.

For some people fast progress is when someone can learn how to play the organ in 2 hours. To me fast progress is if someone can learn to play the organ in 10 years.

I don't believe in shortcuts in organ playing. Of course, we have to practice smarter and not harder. More efficiently, but still it takes years to develop your technique. And technique is only the beginning in the art of organ playing.

Just think of organ practice as basketball. Just imagine how many times does a basketball player from NBA has to make those throws into the basket?
At least 10000. That's from every different angle and position.

Did you know that Thomas Edison made 10000 failed attempts before he succeeded inventing the light-bulb? He believed in himself and never gave up.

It is said that if you want to excel at something, you have to put in at least 10000 hours of practice in order to become an expert.

If we practice 2 hours a day, that 13.6 years.
For 4 hours a day of practice, that's about 7 years.

You would think it is frustrating to wait so many years until you reach your goal?
Yes, it is. Don't wait - enjoy the process.

I think you just have to enjoy every single minute on the organ bench.

Result is not a goal.
Process is a goal.
Never ever give up.

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.

Organist and Counterpoint

12/13/2012

Because most of the organ music is contrapuntal in nature (at least the pieces composed before the second half of the 18th century), being familiar with the counterpoint and its rules is a very handy thing for every organist.

How else one can hope to understand better the music of Bach, Buxtehude, Sweelinck, or Scheidemann (just to mention only a few masters from the past)?

Of course there is always harmony and the science of relationships between chords involved but I would say both are always present in a good contrapuntal work, such as a chorale prelude, fugue or ricerar.

Even in the great works of later organ composers, such as Mendelssohn, Franck, Widor, Vierne or Reger we can see plenty of instances of pure horizontal contrapuntal writing.

Counterpoint is indispensible for any person who wants to learn to improvise on the organ. The same could be said about the efforts to compose organ music. Since improvisation is composition at the moment of performance, naturally we can improve our compositional skills just by studying rules of counterpoint.

If you are unsatisfied of your current skills, you would do well to attempt to study counterpoint for two voices (at first). Then you can open up an organ score and see so much more than the bare notes written on the page.

Little by little you would learn to think like a composer, who created such music.

How would it feel for you to have such a skill? How your life would be different, if you could immediately discover the contrapuntal techniques used in the piece you love to play?

Do you think this special knowledge and skill would also impact your performance level? Deep down inside you already know this answer.

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.

Announcing My Brand New BWV 659 Home Study Course - Special Offer Inside

12/12/2012

How would it feel to be able to play the chorale prelude "Nun komm', der Heiden Heiland?", BWV 659 by Bach from the collection of 18 Great Chorale Preludes with correct fingering? Never guessing which fingers are best to use in every specific place, never playing with accidental fingerings, which leads to mistakes.

How would it feel to be able to choose the best and the most efficient pedaling? The one which is the most appropriate for the Bach style of writing? This pedaling alone will create an ideal articulation for the pedal line.

How would it feel to be able to use the right articulation? Using the precise articulation is incredibly important for playing Baroque pieces. It helps your playing to sound in style.

How would it feel to be able to play this piece with correct ornaments? When it comes to ornaments, Bach has left specific instructions and tables how he wanted his ornaments to be played.

Most importantly, how would it feel to know the exact steps in mastering this fantastic piece? Not knowing how to practice the composition is the single biggest obstacle for many people to achieve success in organ playing.

Would it feel good to be able to play like this? Would you feel like you make an important step in advancing your organ technique to the next level?

If so, check out my brand new BWV 659 Home Study Course in which I will teach you everything that you need to know to be able to play it in public. The score with the complete fingering and pedaling using treble and bass clefs is included with this course for easy practicing.

For a limited time only I'm offering a special price for this course, so if you want to learn this piece, get this course now before the price goes up:

Get the BWV 659 Home Study Course

To your success in Bach organ playing,
Vidas Pinkevicius