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 677 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Miguel, and he is in our Total Organist community plus he takes private lessons with me, and one time he wrote this message: “My back was quite painful, but now I'm fully recovered and practicing again. Part of the problem was sitting for too long, apart from the 8 hours a day I sit for my computer work at the bank. I sit an hour or two on a bench with no back support. The physio also told me that the movements of the legs on the pedals have a toll on the spine. So, I've been reintroducing walking that I haven't done for quite a while and also using my height adjustable desk for standing as well as sitting, at least during working hours. Did you have problems with your back due to organ playing, or do you know other people that had the same problem?” Vidas: Ausra, do you know some people? Ausra: Yes, it’s myself, actually. Vidas: I see. Tell us about it? Ausra: Well, in general, I think, the organ is a very unfortunate instrument for our backs, because sitting without support in our feet since we have to play pedals, it’s not healthy for your back. But in general, I think that sitting work, as for example Miguel works at the bank and sits at the computer all day long is bad for your back. So what we can do, actually, is to exercise and strengthen our back. Vidas: Walking is, of course, one useful exercise. Ausra: Yes, but also you need to do some other extra… Vidas: Specific Exercises. Ausra: Specific exercises, yes. Well, actually, the easiest is to lie down on your stomach and you need to stretch both your arms and both your legs, and then simultaneously you need to lift up the right arm and left foot at the same time, and then to do just the opposite, and just repeat it slowly a few times. Vidas: Lift right arm, left foot, and then left arm, right foot. Ausra: Yes, this is sort of one of the classical Pilates exercises that really strengthens the back. Vidas: Is it difficult? Ausra: Well, at the beginning it might be a little bit difficult but later on, no, it’s not. Vidas: Can you hurt your back while doing so? Ausra: I don’t think so. Vidas: Unless you do it very quickly. Ausra: Yes. Vidas: It has to be done slowly. Ausra: Yes. The slower, the better, actually, because it’s not so easy to do it slowly. You have to work with the muscles more. Well, what else could help? Actually swimming is quite good, too, and other exercises with a big Pilates ball is also good. Vidas: Nice. We have that ball. Ausra: Yes, but we don’t exercise. Yes? Vidas: We need to do it. Ausra: Yes. Of course, if you have enough funds, the massages are very helpful for back to strengthen the back muscles. What else could help, too, for example, I have sort of like a rag, Vidas: A rug? Ausra: Yes, like a rug with needles. I know it sounds painful, and it is painful, but actually now I spend half an hour every day lying down on those needles. Vidas: And it helps blood circulation, probably? Ausra: Yes, and it helps my spine in general. It’s very painful for the first five to ten minutes, but then it gets easier and actually quite comfortable. And it really improves the condition of my back and my arms. Vidas: You get this warm feeling in your spine. Ausra: Yes, because it releases all the muscle tension, so it’s really good. Vidas: It’s like a natural massage. Ausra: True. Vidas: Without any extra help. Ausra: Yes, but you know, you have to endure some pain at the beginning. Maybe not everybody could do that, but you know, if your back really hurts, then it’s a good thing for you. Vidas: Yeah, I’m sure Miguel and others can find the product that you are using online, probably. Ausra: Probably, yes. Vidas: There are probably various versions of it. Ausra: Yes. Mine came from Ukraine, so… Vidas: Ukraine? Ausra: Yes. But it was maybe ten years back, so now I think they have more modern things to sell. Vidas: Excellent. So yeah, in today’s lifestyle when a lot of people sit at the desk, especially in front of the computer for eight hours a day, it’s getting very, very important to move extra and do some extra exercises to take care of our bodies. Right? Ausra: Yes. Some people do Yoga, for example. Yoga doesn’t work for me, but it might work for Miguel. I don’t know. Vidas: You say Pilates would work. Right? Ausra: Yes. Vidas: It’s different. Ausra: Yes, it’s different, because what Pilates does, it strengthens the inner muscles, and what Yoga does is actually more makes your body flexible. Vidas: But in those two exercise systems, breathing is also important. Right? Ausra: Sure! It’s important in any physical activities. And so the breathing is important in playing, as well. Vidas: Oh, what do you mean? You need to remind yourself to breath? Ausra: Sure! Vidas: While playing the organ? Ausra: Yes. Many people don’t breath enough while playing. Vidas: Meaning that they breath less often than they should, or their breathing is too shallow? Ausra: Both, actually. Vidas: Interesting. I find sometimes that having regular places to breath in a pieces is nice if you find, like, at the beginning of every four bar phrase, if that pulse and meter allows, it could be quite regular then. Ausra: Sure, but if the tempo is Grave, then you might get in trouble breathing only after each four measures. Vidas: No, no! You calculate for yourself, of course, what’s comfortable for you, and it has to be piece-specific. Right? Ausra: Yes. Vidas: Alright guys, various things to think about. We hope this was useful to you. This was Vidas, Ausra: And Ausra! Vidas: 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 Buy Me a Coffee platform and get early access: A: Find out more at https://buymeacoffee.com/organduo
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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 678 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Hubertus, and he writes, Hello Ausra, Heard your demo of the Alessandria organ with interest. Thank you for hearing you play on that. However, I am 75 and do not yet have enough experience to distinguish what those sounds for registrations entail, because I only started playing about 13 years ago, the total overview is missing. I also bought that organ this year, but I don't know what registrations you played the music with. Is it possible to use the "Simple" screen for a next demonstration instead of the Console, so that it is possible to follow your choice of registrations, in order to be able to try them out by myself, because it sounded very nice, but my knowledge falls short. Hope you can/will comply with my request. Thanks for listening to me. Best regards. Hubertus
V: So, very nice that Hubertus enjoyed your presentation of Alessandria sample set, and as I understand, he wants to see the stops on the screen.
A: Yes, that’s what I understood too. V: After that I think we changed the layout of the stops, and now… A: Yes, and now all the demonstrations that I do have the simple view of organ stops, and definitely you can see them much better. V: Visually it’s not that pleasing to the eye, right? Because the console view was colorful and similar to the original organ. But now, simple view is just stop names, right? Very very simple layout so that your eyes would understand and see what happens on the screen. But maybe it’s for the better. A: Yes, sure. And now I have a question. Is it possible to go back to my old recording and to do a switch between the consoles, or not? V: Oh, let’s see. Let’s see. In your old recording, you used, what do they see? They see your hands, right? A: Yes, my hands. V: They see your hands from above. A: What else? V: Keyboard view from above. They hear the sound, right? But they don’t necessarily see on the screen what’s in front of them, so…. Right? A: We can check that recording and see how it works. V: But Hubertus means that he cannot see the stop names, yes? No? A: Well I understood that he would like to see the simple view of the stops. V: So that has to be a new recording, not the finished one. Because it’s done already and you cannot manipulate the old one. A: Okay. V: How can you go to YouTube video…? A: I don’t know. V: It’s…no, no. A: But definitely I cannot redo that old recording, and I don’t remember already what I have played. V: That’s exactly right. Maybe next time, for example, next round when you do a demonstration of Alessandria, will be different material, different music, right? You might remember to do Alessandria sample set or any other sample set. A: But actually I have recorded already more music on Alessandria. Maybe he can check those registrations. V: Yes, and sometimes we write in the description, too. A: Yes, what we use. V: Mm hm. And he could look at my recordings as well, although I don’t do demonstrations of these sample sets, but sometimes I show on the screen, switch camera angles basically, what stops I am using. And even if I’m not using the stop layout on the big screen, right, entire screen, having this sample set at home, you can actually look at the stops that I’m using from the distance and kind of guess what they are in terms of where they are positioned. A: Yes, that’s what I do sometimes, too. V: Yeah. If you see that camera layout where the organist is from the side, and our computer screen is visible, and we see the stops. They are bigger to us because we are closer to the screen, but camera also captures the screen as well. For regular people who don’t have this, so it’s probably difficult, right, to guess what stops we’re using. But if he has a sample set to compare… A: Sure. It shouldn’t be so hard. V: Visually it’s possible, definitely. And as Ausra said, of course in the future, we are using simple layout all the time for future demonstrations. A: That’s right. V: Can you tell us a little bit about, what did you enjoy the most in Alessandria? A: Tuba, of course! V: Tuba. A: Yes. V: Did you use tuba in demonstration? A: Well, you are asking now - I recorded this demonstration last year. But I’m sure I did. Or if I didn’t in the demonstration, I definitely recorded with the tuba. V: Someplace else. A: Some pieces. And I even have done of my improvisations, you know… V: Yes. A: …on tuba of Alessandria. So you can definitely find that in my playlist on my channel. V: Fun fact: people who join our little community on YouTube, become fans or friends of SOP, like channel members, can have a special emoji in their comments or live chat, whenever I do a live stream or a premiere. And for example, one of them is tuba. A special designed sticker called “tuba.” Whenever I use tuba, I see my members write or place that emoji, tuba. It’s very beautifully designed and makes a great impact - their comments stand out. A: Sure. And in general, it’s nice to have a sample set with a tuba. It’s a very rare case. V: Yeah, it’s an English stop, but the organ is not English, it’s Italian Mascioni Company, but the style is more French of course. So it’s nice to have English feature in it, too, but with beautiful French sounds. A: Yes. And beautiful tremulants that Vidas loves so much. V: Yes, and do you know why? A: I don’t know the older you get, the more you get the more tremulants you love. V: Maybe because my voice trembles, too. A: Could be. V: When I sing. A: It doesn’t tremble as much as my voice when I talk before my demonstrations. V: Maybe you are being too serious. A: Maybe. V: Okay guys. What else can we say about Alessandria organ? Definitely worth having if you’re into Hauptwerk stuff. Piotr Grabowski releases this, his sample sets with great care, and they are amazing sample sets. Most of them are very, very realistic, and especially the newest ones. Maybe he has improved his equipment over the years, or maybe recording strategy of every pipe, but they’re definitely sample sets that we enjoy. Besides Alessandria, what else? Nitra? A: Yes, and many many others. But when talking about making registrations on Alessandria, just don’t be afraid to experiment and listen to what works for you and what you like. Because of the wonderful acoustics of this sample set and beautiful stops, you can hardly make something really really wrong. So just trust yourself, trust your intuition. V: Right. Registration is actually one of the weaker points for organists, right? When we discover or get questions from people, they often ask what kind of stops we are using, or what are the principles of using registration, and this is such a broad topic. A: It is. It’s very broad. Well, my advice would be never use mixtures alone. V: Unless…you’re playing a specific piece designed for mixtures. A: Yes, but in general you are not using mixtures alone. V: Maybe, I think people could check out Piotr Grabowski’s site and get familiar with many many sample sets that they have, that he has on the website. The newest one, for example, is Nitra, but before that was Święta Lipka, and we recently received a present from Piotr Grabowski, and Ausra is going to do a demonstration on it very soon. A: Yes, I’m going to. V: I already tried it out during one of the “On the Bench with Vidas” live streams, and it sounds very very nice for German Romantic music, late 19th century music. A: Yes, it works well for that. V: Okay. This was Vidas. A: And Ausra. V: 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 Buy Me a Coffee platform and get early access: A: Find out more at https://buymeacoffee.com/organduo 
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 675 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Stephen, and he writes: “I love the Zipoli Pastorale...!!! Thank you... Zipoli is one of my favorite early Baroque composers!” Vidas: I wrote to him, “Thanks Stephen! What other composers do you like?” And Stephen writes: “In a more contemporary "vein" I am fond of Dale Wood's music. There are passages in his work that require a legato technique especially with chords...Sometimes I am at a loss as to how best to play them...finger substitution..but which is best..that sort of challenge. In answer to your question, what composers do I like ....Of course BACH, esp some of the Chorale Preludes. and I intensely care for the Eight Short Preludes and Fugues attributed to Bach but maybe not ?? I think his pupil Krebs may have had a hand in composing these??? I cannot prove that of course. but I love these pieces and I have always played them from the Wayne Leupold Edition...Sandra Soderland, editor. I prefer to follow her revelations as to style and registrations etc...all toes pedal!!!! I love them and find they never bore me....I studied them formally with Dr. Laura Ellis. Always from the Soderland Ed.! I never learned them any other way. so I was lucky :) Thank you and your wife/life partner for all you do to extend education to all who seek ....” Vidas: And I wrote to him again, “Thanks Stephen! Yes, Wayne Leupold publishes great educational material. Current scholarship thinks these short preludes and fugues might have indeed been written by Krebs but there is no proof. So it's safe to say they were written by the Bach Circle. You mentioned finger substitution being a challenge. It's just a matter of time spent and experience. Just continue to play easier pieces and little by little you can master more difficult ones as well. Fingers have muscle memory. And something more. They start to sense the best patterns after a while. The first 20 years are difficult and then it's easy.” Vidas: Stephen wrote back to me: “I just found a piece I had enjoyed and practiced several years ago...would like to share it with you ...I enjoy and care a lot for Marcel Dupre's work....This is one of the Seventy Nine Chorales Op. 28, he wrote for teaching purposes...I am guessing that you know them: XXVIII The Son of God is Come....very short and beautiful... And I wanted to share my a guiding principle in my organ study which I think is in agreement with yours: "It is only through playing a lot of easier pieces and being able to consolidate our progress at a manageable standard that we can go on to greater things" I want to play easier pieces well ..rather than difficult pieces badly! I find the ZIpoli can present some challenges… having the fingering at hand thanks to you...makes the task of learning it so much easier. Dupre marked all the fingering and pedaling in the Chorales. Happy Holidays: All of them!!!” Vidas: So Ausra, this was a long message from Stephen, and primarily he loves Zipoli, “Pastorale.” Ausra: Yes! And so what else can I add to this? Vidas: What is your take about learning difficult things badly or easier things to the best of your ability? Ausra: I think I would take a middle ground. I wouldn’t practice just easy and short things. Maybe you could work on a few of those and also at the same time learn something harder and longer. Vidas: And why is that you feel this way? Ausra: That way I think you would be well balanced, because if you will only learn small things, you might never go to that longer pieces. Vidas: The next level. Ausra: Yes. Vidas: I might agree with you here, because you have to constantly challenge yourself, not too much, but also not too little. And this middle ground playing a variety of repertoire adds a little bit more possibility for your muscles and brain to work together. Ausra: Yes, because you know, I don’t think that the length of the piece always determines its difficulty level. You might have quite a long piece but not as hard as maybe a short and really difficult miniature. But you always need to have short pieces and long pieces, because they develop different skills that you need, because when you are playing the long piece, it develops your concentration, which is very important for organ and any musician. Vidas: I find that, just yesterday for example, I had this thought in my head that I can sight-read easier things than I can improvise. I can improvise more difficult things like Partitas and even Fugues. But I could not sight-read during a recital Partitas and Fugues. Why is that? Ausra: Because they are more difficult, probably. More challenging! Vidas: Yes, but why can I play spontaneously, not written on the page, but spontaneously in my mind—difficult things—while reading the score, I am slower. Not really slow, I can still play sight-reading pretty well mostly, probably better than most people, but comparing to what I can do without sheet, it’s less advanced. Ausra: Well, because when you are improvising, you are composing your own music. You are the master of your mind! But if you’re sight-reading somebody else’s Partitas or Fugues, let’s say, then you are reading another person’s mind, which is always a harder thing. Vidas: Yeah. It’s a little bit… seems unconnected to Stephen’s idea, it’s what Dupré wrote. Right? That only thought playing a lot of easier pieces and being able to consolidate our progress at a manageable standard that we can go on to greater things. So I guess in my case, sight-reading easier pieces and then gradually including more difficult stuff, probably, I will be able to improve my sight-reading as well! Ausra: I think so, too! Vidas: Over time. Ausra: Yes, and what also think is really important is that you wouldn’t stay at each stage for too long, for example. That you wouldn’t become just an organist who plays short easy pieces forever. You really need to find that spot or that time when you need to jump to another level. Vidas: And that might be how soon? Ausra: Well, you know, when you feel comfortable at doing something, it means you need to jump up to the next level. Vidas: I would agree here with you. I see some other organists on YouTube, for example, playing only easy pieces—really well, or relatively well, right, but never advancing to the next level. For months, or even years! Ausra: Well, and that’s understandable, because when you love to push me, yes, to record something every day, then what do you think, I can like record a substantial piece every day, then I would sleep eat and do other things. Vidas: Oh, I know! I’m not talking about you. Why are you talking about yourself? Ausra: But maybe somebody who records only short pieces has also such a supportive… Vidas: You just created this…. Ausra: ...wife or husband that pushes all the time, and in order to survive somebody, you know, picks up the standard collection and records it every day! Vidas: Do you know many organists who have partners who are organists and who pushes them to record? Ausra: I don’t know, but there are some. I know at least one! Vidas: I highly doubt it. Yeah.. I think, you just recorded your demonstration of Groningen Martinikerk, and that was a rather advanced piece, Chaconne and Prelude. Right? Quite virtuosic piece. Ausra: Well, Chaconne is pretty easy actually. Of course, you have to understand the style of it. But Prelude, yes. You have to have good finger technique to play it. Vidas: Are you saying that you are challenging yourself enough these days? Ausra: Yes, because I have just simply too many things to do, to play, too many ideas and sometimes it’s hard to know what to do now and what to leave for the next week, and how to organize the work, because there are simply too many things that I need to play and to do. Vidas: Me too! I also started live streaming, “On the Bench with Vidas” series, and I have really so many ideas to play constantly. New music and old music and hymns and improvisations and even theater organ repertoire. So yeah, I’m constantly challenging myself. Probably more than most people. So, I guess for Stephen also, it could be good to have this middle ground. I’m still trying to find my rhythm of what’s working for me, not to over extend myself, and not to be too relaxed. When I’m too relaxed, I’m bored with organ playing. Ausra: And then you start to push me! Yes? To get more excitement. Vidas: No, and then I plan the next thing, and next thing, and next thing, and then it’s too much and I quit! Ausra: Yes, that’s what you often do. I realized when I told you to play some more difficult repertoire, like for example that beautiful A-Major trio by J. S. Bach, “Allein Gott,” suddenly you jumped to Wurlitzer and started to play Jazz! Vidas: Or when James Flores and I decided to master, “Carillon de Westminster” by Louis Vierne together by Valentine’s Day, at first I was so energetic and enthusiastic about it, but now I’m not so sure that… Ausra: Yes, you will never be able to do it, because you don’t practice, because you did so many other pieces in that time instead of practicing Vierne, so I knew right away that you would not finish it. Vidas: Really. But I will finish by this Summer for sure. Ausra: Yes, that you might do. Vidas: Can you believe it? Ausra: Yes! Vidas: Okay. So guys, lets practice intelligently. Maybe smarter, not harder. That would be a good solution. Right? Ausra: Yes. Don’t repeat our mistakes. Vidas: Or repeat them and then laugh at yourself also, like we are laughing at ourselves. Alright, thank you guys for sending these 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 Buy Me a Coffee platform and get early access: A: Find out more at https://buymeacoffee.com/organduo 
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 676 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Nick, and he answers my question, “What is your dream in organ playing in the next 3-6 months, and what are some challenges along the way?” So he writes, 1. To be able to play a wide selection of easy to moderate standard organ pieces suitable for service use. V: and challenges would be 2. Sight reading, sight reading and sight reading! V: Why do you think he writes “sight reading” three times? A: Because it’s his main challenge. V: Oh. A: But you know, I think that this sight reading is very important for him to achieve, that his first goal to have a wide selection of easy to moderate standard organ repertoire suitable for service use. I remember when I played at church in the United States. Well of course, because I was always working on the big repertoire for my degree recitals, I was looking for easy church music to play, basically the pieces I could maybe sight read once or twice and then play for the services. So basically it was really important to find suitable music. And then after doing that for awhile, the sight reading just became so easy. V: Mm hm. Did you prefer to play, sight read for service purposes, music of composers who lived in previous periods or contemporary music? A: Actually, mainly Baroque music, some Romantic music. A little bit of Dupre, but not so much of living composers. V: Mm hm. Nowadays there are some publishing houses, especially in the United States which specializes for service music for organists, accessible music basically. Accessible may be quality music too. A: Yes, but it costs, and at that time I didn’t have any money, any extra money, additional money to get new scores, so I just had to pick up something that is accessible to me. V: Mm hm. A: So I really loved Dover’s publications because they were cheap and they had a large collection of music. I remember buying like Pachelbel, and I played it - almost entire collection - sight read for services. V: If you had good improvisation skills at that time, would you rather have improvised than sight read? A: Yes, probably because it’s so convenient when working at church. V: Let’s say your pastor would select hymns, right, or some other music director select hymns for you. And then you could improvise preludes and postludes and interludes, right? A: True, true, that would be very useful skill. V: That’s exactly what contemporary composers do. Maybe they’re not improvising newly written repertoire, but they’re creating music based on those seasonal hymns, right? Mostly. So that an organist could go to their catalog and order something suitable for that Sunday, particular Sunday. And there are publishing houses like Lorenz or Wayne Leupold Editions. I suspect there are many others too, but those two came to my attention just recently. For example, Wayne Leupold Editions have periodical. You can subscribe to, how it’s called… The Organist…Organ Companion I think. Yes, Organ Companion. We have two archival issues of this periodical, about 30 pages long, so maybe like nine or ten pieces in each issue. Issued bi-monthly, every two months, and for any particular season in that period. And one third of that consists of pieces of Baroque, 17th and 18th century music, one third of Romantic and early 20th century music, and one third of contemporary composers, specifically created for that purpose. What do you think about that? A: You know, there was a time when I really thought, I had a very high opinion about Wayne Leupold’s Editions, in general on the music, because they were really good collections in terms of historical approach and performance practices. They had extensive articles about what they are publishing. V: Yes, I will interrupt you, because in that Organist’s Companion, there are commentaries about each piece and extensive historical documentation too. A: But if we would look at the prices, what he offers, I think they are just enormously high. V: To add to this, maybe nowadays he offers alternative publications also, like PDFs. Much much cheaper you can subscribe to PDFs every two months, and they are quite affordable. You get constant flow of new repertoire. A: And in general, I remember listening to his presentation, live presentation back in the United States, I realized that he is more like businessman, not as musician, because he really knows how to sell his product very well. He reminded me actually of that turtle from the Ice Age movie, remember? V: Yes. A: Who could sell anything! Right before the flood coming. So that reminded me a little of Wayne Leupold. I hope he will not be offended of my comparison. V: But on the other hand, musicians also should be able to sell their art, don’t you think? A: Yes, that’s true. V: Otherwise you will end up in the drawer. A: Yes. Except that you know the auditorium of musicians are never rich basically, and your products cannot be… V: Expensive? A: Expensive, yeah. V: But… A: …or so expensive, because our income is really low. V: …if you work at a large church, for example, sometimes your employer buys things for you. A: That’s maybe only in United States and a few places in United States. But I don’t think that’s true in Europe. Not in Lithuania, anyway. V: These purchases could be tax deductible, you know. A: Yeah. V: It’s still not free, but it’s a good support I think. A: Yeah. V: For professional material. A: But anyway, if you love to read and you like a historical approach, then yes, Wayne Leupold is a good place for new scores. V: Another place I found is Lorenz Publications from United States. Carson Cooman, our colleague on YouTube, organist and composer, he is an editor there in Lorenz, and he manages those subscriptions also. They have this subscription, monthly subscription, you pay a fee for a certain number of download credits. And let’s say five or ten credits, you can select your own choices, or you can trust what the editor suggests for each season. They send you like a subscription-based newsletter every month. A: That’s very good if you lack your own ideas, then you can be advised what to do and what to select. It’s very handy. V: And it’s very affordable. And if you’re not satisfied with what the editor suggests, you can go online to their catalog online and pick your own things from their publishing house of course. And they specialize on affordable - accessible maybe - accessible contemporary organ repertoire for church use. A: Yes. V: So that’s two things to think about if you are not willing to improvise during services, right? And if you need…of course, you still need sight reading skills for that, if you are constantly playing… A: But I think if you are having the church position, like regular church position, I think that sight reading skills will come to you. V: Sooner or later. A: Sooner or later, yes. Because you will be forced to sight read every day. Maybe you will have no time to prepare for each service, then what else can you do? Just sight read. V: Yes, excellent. So I hope this was useful to our listeners. These ideas. And 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 Buy Me a Coffee platform and get early access: A: Find out more at https://buymeacoffee.com/organduo 
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 674 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Maureen, and she writes, I have been working on Christmas carols. There is a Catholic church 26 miles from my hometown needing an organist. I haven't played in public for a long time. Seeing this advert has given me renewed vigour to play with a definite purpose. There is a huge part of me who would love to play again in public and there is the other part of me trying to be sensible, logical, and practical. I would need daily access to the organ and the energy to meet the challenge. I don't drive; I haven't played in years; I don't know whether to let the priest know I can play a church organ with time to familiarise myself with it. What would you do? V: So Maureen is a member of our Total Organist Community and basically she’s wondering whether to pursue this dream of playing organ in public, right, Ausra? A: Yes, and I would say, just take this chance. Because another opportunity may never come to you. And I think you need to see as many years in life as you can, because you can always, if after trying something will not work for you. But if you will not try, then you will never know if that would have worked for you. And you might even regret that you haven’t tried it. V: Yes, I agree with you. And this is because we often think that our limits are low, you know, when we are practicing at home. That we can do certain things and not more. But surprisingly, when the situation has more risk like playing in public, at church or in concert, if you’re able, and then somehow you get more ability to play for other people, right? You discover you have some kind of inner power you didn’t think you had. A: That’s right. And you know, maybe Maureen can practice in her hometown. But to go to perform in public in that Catholic church which is 26 miles away from her hometown. Because she’s not driving, maybe somebody can give her a lift. Maybe somebody from that congregation lives close to her hometown. V: Absolutely true. Usually, in Catholic liturgy, people are required to play hymns, some acclamations, what else…maybe… A: Parts of the Mass of course. V: Parts from Ordinary Mass, yeah. And sing some psalms, I don’t know if in her town this is the case, but in Lithuania, Poland, for example, organist also has to sing. A: But I think this is unique for Lithuania and Poland. I don’t think in other countries Catholic organists also sing psalms. V: You might be true. You might be right. A: Actually, in Lithuania it’s more important to have a good strong voice than to be able to play well. V: Right. So probably Maureen should be thinking about playing hymns. A: Most likely, yes. V: Playing hymns in time well, with good leading, sense of rhythm. It could be actually beneficial practice for her to record her own singing - for herself, you know - starting from a certain pitch. Then later she could play that recording to herself and accompany her voice with the organ. Meaning that you, an organist, cannot drag or change the rhythm because the melody is sung by people already. What do you think, Ausra? No? A: I don’t know. Never thought about it. V: You know, you pretend that you are your own congregation in that recording. I can test on you. A: (laughs) V: You can sing for me, and I could accompany you. A: I know when I played at church, did many hymns, I would sing myself. But not loud. V: Mm hm. A: But inside of me I always was singing because that way I can pick up the right tempo of a hymn. V: That’s a good idea, too. Sing inside. A: Yes. V: With your inner voice. And I guess the test that I was suggesting wouldn’t work for us, because you know me and I know you, and you would adapt to my playing, and I would easily adapt to your singing. It has to be like a stranger person, who would not bend to your playing that much. So that’s why I suggested doing recording first of your own singing, and then playing it back together with your accompaniment. A: Well you just need to accompany really loud, and don’t listen to what congregation is singing. That way you will be a leader and they will have to listen to you. V: Well, exactly. It’s a good idea. Interesting question for discussion, maybe for another time: An organist…is an organist a leader or a follower? Accompanist or somebody who leads? A: Well definitely I think the organist should be leader in hymn accompanying. And you can follow somebody who sings, if it’s a soloist, then yes you need to follow with accompaniment. But if you’re leading the congregation singing then you need to be a leader. V: How is it different from soloist - following a soloist - accompanying a soloist? A: Well, it’s much different, a lot different, because it’s only one person, the soloist. And then you can adapt and follow him or her. But if it’s entire congregation, no. If you will start to listen to congregation too much, it won’t be good. V: It’s like in classroom? A: Yes. There needs to be one leader. V: Like you. Teacher. You are teacher for 15.5 years, right? A: Well no - in general to count all the years that I have taught, it would be 22 years. V: 22? A: Yes. V: Wow. A: So I’m done with teaching for now. V: For classroom setting. A: Yes. V: Mm hm. Yeah. If you have a lot of students in the classroom, you have to lead. But if you have just one-on-one lesson, you can listen. A: You still need to lead. V: But you can listen more. A: If you are a teacher, you always need to lead. V: But there is more room for listening, I think, one-on-one. A: Well yes, but I don’t think this is related with the hymn accompaniment. V: Oh it is related. Much related. Same principle, human psychology. What do you think? A: You know what I think. V: (laughs) Okay, okay! So we have different ideas with Ausra, but maybe that’s good because people who are listening also have different ideas, not always agreeable one of us. And they can choose whom to agree with. Tell us sometimes - we need feedback, right? Whom do you agree with more? A: (laughs) Well I think the truth is probably somewhere in the middle between us two. But I remember once - remember when you played hymns too fast in one of the churches and you lost your position. V: And…so I was a leader. A: Yes. V: And I lost the position. A: Yes. V: (laughs) A: But maybe that’s a good thing because I don’t think that congregation was worth your time. V: Bingo! Yeah, if they don’t want you as a leader, maybe they are better with somebody else. So thank you so much, Maureen, for this very thoughtful question. And we hope this was useful to you and maybe a few other people who are thinking of playing in public, in church liturgical setting. So 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 Buy Me a Coffee platform and get early access: A: Find out more at https://buymeacoffee.com/organduo 
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 672 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Gerrit, or, I don’t know how to pronounce it. If he’s Dutch, maybe “Herrit.” I would appreciate people maybe giving us feedback how to pronounce their names, right? Would be nice. So Gerrit writes: I’ve watched and listened to your performance of Duetto, Op. 156 No. 6 of Joseph Rheinberger. Thank you for that. It sounds beautiful. I have a question, maybe somewhat off topic, but I’ve noticed that playing from a tablet, the pages seem to turn by themselves. For example at 1:04. How did you do that? I am working with MobileSheets with the auto-scroll function, but your method is better. Did you turn the pages by yourself or was it another person? Hope that you can clarify this mystery for me. A; (laughs) That’s so funny. Yes, it will be a miracle - you know the pages was turned just by themselves. I’m afraid nobody has yet developed such an advanced technology. V: But they will. I think I heard people are developing neuro- something with brain - you think that, once you think of an idea of turning pages, it will turn the pages. A: But that’s kind of scary because you can think about it in the wrong place and then it will flip your page in the wrong spot. V: Yes. Yes. Or somebody else will think for you? A: Yes. So I guess we need to explain what kind of program we use for turning our pages while playing from the iPad. V: And what do we use, Ausra? A: Well, we have special program. V: Called…ForScore. F-o-rScore. One word. It’s only available for iOS. Basically for iPads, for iPhones. Obviously iPads are easier for eyes, because they’re larger. And the modern, the newer iPads have this camera function of facial recognition, you know, where you unlock not with typing passwords or your fingerprint, but with facial recognition. You look at the camera and they recognize that it is you, right? That’s the newer kind, newer models of iPads. And this camera can work with ForScore, and you set up this facial gestures feature. It only works I think with ForScore Pro. You have to pay a small subscription fee every year, I think. We also do, but for that, in return you get additional features not available in basic edition. And one of them is of course facial gestures, and you can set up page turning either by blinking or by moving your lips. A: Which one do you prefer with this? V: Right now, obviously blinking is nice, but I’ve worked with both. When you blink, you actually kind of move your lips too a little bit, don’t you think? A: Not so much, actually. V: I’ve seen people move their lips during livestreams. A: It doesn’t look nice. It seems like a man or a woman has some kind of neurological problems, so I prefer blinking myself. It’s easier. And if you want to flip the page forward, you blink your right eye, and if you want to go back, you blink with your left eye. V: For me, blinking is easier too, because with lips, I get confused when to move my lips to the left or to the right. It’s quite confusing at times. And as Ausra says, it looks not very elegant. A: Sure. Then when watching people turning pages with their lips, I’m thinking of treatise by Francois Couperin who wrote that while practicing you need to put the mirror in front of you and to look to your face, what kind of mimics do you make, because he wrote that it’s inappropriate to make too much out, with your face during performance. V: That was 300 years ago. A: I know, but I think it still works today, too. V: Do you think Couperin would not use ForScore facial gestures feature? A: Maybe he would use it, but he would definitely blink, not move his lips. V: Hm. I wonder. Yeah, probably. I mean, it’s elegant. Just blink to the right, with the right eye, and page is flipped to the right side, right, forward. And with the left, backwards. There is additional thing you could do, right, because when you’re playing from paper sheets, you could put like a score, open score with two pages open, and you only have to turn pages every two pages once, right, not every page. And that is easier, right, in performance. A lot of pieces are just two pages long. And more, less effort is required in turning pages this way. But with one iPad it’s not really possible, right? Unless you put it horizontally, and then there are two page view. But then your pages are twice as small. Correct, Ausra? A: Yes. V: And what did we find, how did we find another solution? A: We tried to put two iPads on the, on music rack, one the bigger one and then the small one. V: Exactly. A: Especially when we were playing duets. V: Right. Ausra sits on the right. She needs pages on the right side, and I sit on the left, and I need another device for that. And this way you only blink once, but turn two pages at once. A: Yes, but it’s costly. Not everybody can afford to have two iPads. V: Assuming they have more than one device, then there is this score, this app, ForScore. And in addition to this app, the same company that makes ForScore, they have an app called Cue - C-u-e. And you download this Cue app on another device, and you basically connect two devices… A: …together… V: …via this app, right? And blink once and turn two pages at once. A: Yes. Also, I never think that we have to say about this blinking, that you have to write the sort of correct spot on the organ bench, and always try to blink from the same position. V: Correct, and especially it’s true if the iPad is positioned horizontally, right? In landscape mode, not in portrait. A: Yes, landscape mode. V: Therefore, your camera is not right in the middle, but a little bit to the left, even I think,.lower right corner of an iPad, and if you just move just a little bit to the left, the movement can be predictable. You blink, and can turn the page or not; sometimes it turns the page automatically without you even blinking. I find it problematic when iPad is positioned in landscape mode. So I prefer portrait mode of course, if it’s possible. And another thing, especially on different instruments if you are traveling, for example. Music racks are angled at a different angle sometimes. Wider angle or narrower angle. And that means your eyes are looking at the camera from a different angle, and face as well. And not always basically straight into the camera. So sometimes, I find it easier to put something on the music rack, on top of the music rack, so that iPad is moved a little bit forward, to adjust for the distance between the eyes and the camera. I did that in Germany while on tour, and it worked. Like a hymnal basically, but on top of the music rack. That worked. A: (laughs) Everything sounds so problematic. V: Yes, because I was alone. There was nobody to help me, so I had to really make sure it will work. Any other suggestions, Ausra? A: Well, if you can play from the paper score, better play from the paper score. You will have less problems with that. V: What about trees, saving trees? A: I know. Do you think the musical scores will diminish the number of trees in the world? Do you think musicians have the main problem of global warming? V: Mmm… A: I highly doubt it. V: Agreed. Agreed, yeah. And of course, all iPads require electricity… A: That’s right. V: …to charge. And you’re not always charging your devices with renewable sources. A: That’s right. V: But that’s another topic for another day. And for now, thank you so much guys, for sending us 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 Buy Me a Coffee platform and get early access: A: Find out more at https://buymeacoffee.com/organduo
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! Vidas: Hi guys, this is Vidas, Ausra: And Ausra, Vidas: Let’s start episode 671 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Hubertus, and he writes: “Hello Vidas and Ausra, As for getting informed with your very-very good advice etc. I admire your setup, and do respond to your questions as a moral obligation. As you probably remember from the last mail exchange, I’m 75, and do know for myself, the Very high difficulty of remembering my daily study already the next day. 13 years ago I started from scratch in music and organ play. I generally get only 1 to maybe max. Sometimes 2 hrs time to practice a day, some days even less, for all kinds of reasons, concentration is a hot issue in this all. So, on the moment I’m studied in this past holiday season the BWV 721, and after 2 months now I’m able to play the piece as tempi gives, and still make usual remembrance mistakes, and in between I TRY to replay several pieces I studied recently before, with lots of difficulties in reading. Again, I still like to play and do, especially this Bach piece. So to answer your nr 1; My dream WAS, 12 years ago, to play beautiful easy pieces of baroque music etc., Nevertheless, to my feelings and due to my former remarks, this goal is not really to achieve anymore, most probably due to organ play starting age around 62, and present bad possibility to remember the study even of the day before properly, and maybe I have to study twice as much, but I cannot bring that up, sorry. Answer Nr 2, as mentioned = 1 – Concentration special in reading, 2 - Maybe not enough daily practice time, with coming wintertime I expect/hope to find more time, 3 – Impatience in having results. Very much Thanks again for your lessons in practicing setup. Hope this helps in your request. All Best regards to both of you, Hubertus” Vidas: That’s a long message from Hubertus, right Ausra? Ausra: Yes, it is, but very useful. Thank you Hubertus. Vidas: Yes, thanks so much for answering these two questions. The first one was, “What was your goal in organ playing?” and the second, “the challenges that he has to overcome to achieve this goal.” So to recap, probably his goal no longer is to find beautiful music that he wants to play. Right? Baroque music. Ausra: Yes. Vidas: But maybe now, right now, to have a more modest call. Right? Like this BWV 721 piece that he likes to play, maybe a few more pieces. Right? Ausra: Sure. Vidas: And the challenges of course, he faces several, concentration, especially in reading, and he’s not able to give daily practice time, and of course, he is impatient because he wants results quicker, but it doesn’t work that way. Right? Ausra: Yes, true. I guess these problems could apply even for younger or even very young people—being impatient, wanting to have results as soon as possible, and not finding time to practice, and actually, staying concentrated. It all could be very challenging. Vidas: And some people reach their goals and some people don’t. Why is that? Ausra: I think because some of them work very persistently and some don’t. Vidas: And why is that again? Why do some people work and others don’t? Ausra: I think because we all are very different. Different personalities! Vidas: Yes. Can I add something else to this? Ausra: Sure you can! Vidas: What if we are having goals, differing goals, right? But these goals mean different things to us, like importance, priority wise. For some people organ playing is really important, and for some it’s just a hobby that they do at the end of the day. If they have time, okay, if not they skip a day or two or five. Ausra: But I think that for Hubertus it’s really important because he started to learn to play the organ when he was 62 years old! Not everybody would challenge himself or herself to achieve his goal, and that is very exciting and I really admire him for doing that. Vidas: I would probably recommend setting up like an intermediate goal—a short term goal—like three months from now what he wants to achieve. Learn this piece, right, but why? Why does he want to learn BWV 721? Because it’s beautiful, yes, of course! Is this enough to force himself on an organ bench? For some people yes… Ausra: Yes! Yes, of course. You know, being at the age of 75, I think, and to practice maybe not everyday but every other day is already a big achievement, actually, because despite all these musical goals, the practice of the organ gives you another result that might slow down whatever kind of dementia you might develop with age. It might help for your joints and for your coordination… Vidas: But you need to take rests frequently. Ausra: Of course. Definitely, yes! But I think because the organists use both our hands and both of our feet, we have to coordinate between them, and I think this is a very important skill to have for anybody. Vidas: I would probably add to this… I don’t know… one thing, maybe. I’m not sure what Hubertus’s family situation is, if he lives alone or not, if he has relatives visiting him, for example. What might help, let’s presume he has some kind of still friends visiting, most people do even though they might live alone. But sometimes people come over to the house, and what would be nice is if he could play this piece for them. For friends or for family. Ausra: That’s a possibility, but now you know, during the pandemic not everybody wants to have visitors. Vidas: True. I would suggest video, but that’s probably not for everyone. Ausra: Well, I think the most important thing is enjoy the process of daily practicing, and if you do enjoy your practice, I think it’s good enough. Vidas: With this kind advice from Ausra let’s finish our conversation for today. Let’s thank our listeners for sending their questions to us, and let’s hope to meet again in the next episode. This was Vidas, Ausra: And Ausra! Vidas: 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 Buy Me a Coffee platform: A: Find out more at https://buymeacoffee.com/organduo
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 669 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Chad, and he writes, Hi Vidas, A few years ago, I bought a roll-up piano hoping that it would provide a means for me to practice on my airline trips. I desperately wanted to like it. But I HATED it! There was no tactile feel… No way to tell one key from the other. And the contacts didn’t work very well, so it was difficult to play the notes without tapping them pretty hard. But maybe there has been progress in their construction? Which one did you buy? You must be somewhat pleased with it if you can get it to work well enough to make videos! V: What do you think, Ausra? A: Yes, I remember our summer adventure. Actually, they work better now because we didn’t have the contact problems, yes? When we press key it really sounded quite on time and everything worked quite well. V: Except when you want to play two voices in one hand. A: Yes, that makes things of course harder. But you could practice inventions, two-part inventions, for example, it would work pretty well. V: Yeah. A: And you know of course it cannot replace the real instrument. It cannot replace the real thing, but it was nice, because we played with it during our summer break when we were resting on the beach in Palanga and it was sort of fun to take it to the various locations and to play something. V: On the beach, on the castle, on the bench, anywhere actually. And then on the bridge, right? On the fountain... A: Yes, but it was sort of more like a fun time for us, yes? V: Right, musical adventure. But for practice purposes you have to actually hear everything you play. It could be a silent keyboard. If you have a table, you roll up this piano and you play, without even actually connecting it to some computer to produce a sound. A: Yes, and I think this kind of roll-up keyboard could be really great for the kids to sort of, to start the interest in music in general. V: Yeah, because it’s a fun gadget. A: Yes, it’s like a toy. V: Mm hm. It’s a toy. Except now when we travel, after this trip, I was also frustrated that I had to bang those keys pretty hard, and actually some of my fingers started to hurt. So I decided to look around online and see what other options for portable MIDI keyboards are there. And I found this folding MIDI keyboard, folding piano basically. It comes in two sizes, 88 keys (like a real piano, 88 keys), or 49 keys - 4 octaves, suitable for most organ music. So I decided to go out and buy. And you can take a look at the website I have available, organduo.lt/tools. Our Hauptwerk setup is listed there with all the links, pictures, videos. You can find the stationary home organ setup that we use for normal use, and you’ll find all other repercussions that we decided to try out: folding keyboard, roll-up piano, everything. So you will see a little bit more information about that. A: But I think this folding keyboard works much better than the roll-up keyboard… V: Yes. A: ...because actually we did early some videos for fun with roll-up keyboard during our summer break, summer vacation, but I wouldn’t use, for example, roll-up keyboard in real performance environment. V: No. A: Yes, because it’s too risky and you know.... V: It’s risky in the sense that some notes could actually get lost, right? A: Yes. But with the folding keyboard, Vidas already has performed live, and it worked pretty well. V: Let’s see, I performed on… A: You performed.. V: ...in a funeral. A: Yes, and you performed a memorial recital. V: Yes. A: For my mom’s aunt. And you also played Gaudeamus igitur on the solemn occasion for the School of Law. V: Yes. A: At Vilnius University. And it worked well (I played it recently at the President's Palace too). V: Yes, they didn’t have any instruments so I decided to bring my folding keyboard as well as special speaker, bluetooth speaker. And it worked well for that hall. I had a soloist with me, I gave a special microphone connected to that speaker, and it was actually very, very simple setup which really worked for this occasion. It’s maybe not as sophisticated and for bigger halls it wouldn’t be enough, but for that purpose it was almost perfect. What else can I say about this folding keyboard? Yes, it fits in a backpack. You can really take it anywhere. We once climbed the, what’s that word, TV tower in Vilnius. A: Actually, we did not climb it. We took an elevator. V: Elevator. A: I don’t think we would be able to climb up (laughs). V: You should keep a secret and tell us that we climbed. A: Oh, okay. V: With rope. A: Sorry, sorry! V: Yes. And that was really fun. Another occasion, I actually climbed, yes with all those stairs to Vilnius University St. John’s Church bell tower. With hundreds of stairs. This is the tallest building in Vilnius old town. It was quite windy and I played quite a few Inventions by Bach. A: Yes actually I was quite worried because it was a really windy day. I thought you might not survive. (laughs) V: My camera was actually shaking. A: Yes. V: But it was really okay. I was surprised. I was surprised that it worked. So… A: And actually on this kind of keyboard you can take it on vacation if you won’t lose your good shape, because you can already do some work on it, some manual work on it. V: Yes, so imagine if the total length when unfolded is four octaves, so when you fold it in half, it’s two octaves. So that’s how big is this - only two octaves size. Whereas actually 88-keyboard, folding keyboard is actually also two octaves long, but it folds twice, you see? A: Yes. V: When you have a long version, you have to have a very long table to fit all those octaves. So I don’t think it would work for organ music. A: Sure not. More just like a toy. V: Yeah, so 49 keys is quite enough, especially for keyboard-oriented music without pedals, I mean. One thing that I wish is that people would come up with some kind of roll-up pedalboard, silicone pedalboard, like we had roll-up piano, right, 61 notes. Which wasn’t very comfortable to play because you had to press very hard sometimes. But I could imagine if we had a roll-up pedalboard, your feet actually could handle that strength needed, right? Easily. A: Of course, because feet are stronger than hands. V: Yes, and it would fit actually in your backpack, entire organ setup, both manuals, if you use folding keyboard, and pedals - that would be amazing. A: And since so many people complain that they cannot afford to play the real pedalboard at home and they still want to have some pedalboard at home, I think that would be a great solution, too. V: Yes, because I’ve seen there is this folding pedalboard which folds in half. Two octaves, right? They fold in half. It’s like, it fits in a large suitcase. But still… A: But still it’s a lot. V: Clunky and a big chunk if you want to travel. But if it could roll out like a silicone thing on the floor, that would be amazing. So thank you so much guys, for these questions. We love helping you grow. Please send us more of them. It’s fun to answer them during our podcast. 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 buy us some coffee. Find out more at: A: Find out more at https://buymeacoffee.com/organduo SOPP668: I would like to master a variety of organ music to be able to give a performance11/10/2021
Vidas: Hello and welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast!
Ausra: This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better organist. Vidas: We’re your hosts Vidas Pinkevicius... Ausra: ...and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene. Vidas: We have over 25 years of experience of playing the organ Ausra: ...and we’ve been teaching thousands of organists online from 89 countries since 2011. Vidas: So now let’s jump in and get started with the podcast for today. Ausra: We hope you’ll enjoy it! Vidas: Hi guys, this is Vidas, Ausra: And Ausra, Vidas: Let’s start episode 668 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Mike, and he writes: “I would like to master a variety of organ music to be able to give a performance. The most important hurdles to overcome are:
Many of your podcasts and notes are extremely helpful. Thank you for providing them.” Vidas: So let’s unpack this; okay? The first hurdle that Mike is having is being able to work on a consistent fingering to make passages flow smoothly. Ausra: Well, in order to be consistent with your fingering, you have to write fingering down, and then to practice them in the exact order, because if you won’t do that and you will play the same passages every time with a different fingering, it will slow down your improvement. What do you think, Vidas? Vidas: Is it even possible to discover the right fingering on your own? Ausra: Well, if you have experience, then yes. If you are just a beginner, then probably not. Vidas: Mhmm, then we could probably recommend our practice scores with fingering and pedaling written in. Ausra: Yes, sure, because we have already quite a large amount of organ pieces with fingering and pedaling. Vidas: Yeah, in many styles. In articulate legato style for early music, and in legato style for Romantic music. Right? Ausra: Yes, that’s right. Vidas: Okay, the second challenge that Mike needs to overcome is interpretation of music, registration. Ausra: Well, in order to be able to do the right interpretation and registration, of course, you need to know about the style that you are playing, the composer that you are playing, and of course, about organ in general, and you need to be able to choose the right repertoire for the right instrument. Because even if you will play the… let’s say the Baroque piece with good articulation but you will play it on the, let’s say, Romantic instrument, it might not work, so, everything has its own rules. What do you say about it, Vidas? Vidas: It’s kind of difficult to give advice generally without knowing what he is specifically playing. Right, Ausra? Ausra: Yes! Yes! Vidas: What piece he is struggling with right now, what piece needs a registration, for example. But in general, yes, you are right, because not every instrument can accommodate every type of music. I mean, you could play anything on a keyboard with pedals which has enough pedals and keys. Right? Ausra: Yes. Vidas: You could! Ausra: And if you have an eclectic instrument you could probably play most of the repertoire, but not everything still would work for it. Vidas: That’s why a lot of organ music sounds dull and boring on eclectic instruments—a lot of early music. Nowadays, of course, this can be adjusted, because a lot of people have virtual organs at their home like Hauptwerk or GrandOrgue, so they can really choose samples that are carefully fitted for a specific piece or type of music. And then, even pieces which would sound uninteresting on a generic instrument are quite colorful suddenly on the specific kind of instrument that it was designed for. Ausra: Yes, but you know, not everybody has the Hauptwerk or GrandOrgue or whatever, this kind or type of instrument at home, and we are mostly talking about real instruments in a real environment. But basically, an eclectic instrument is good because you can play a lot of things on it, but in some way, it sounds sort of boring because it’s like an equal temperament, you know, you can play in all the keys, but they all sound the same. Vidas: Exactly. If a person doesn’t feel the difference when I’m playing C or C# major chord, so then I could simply play the same piece up a half step and nobody would tell the difference. Right? Except maybe for some perfect pitch people. But that’s not the big difference. The difference is in character if each note is a little bit from each other sometimes in those unequal tunings. Ausra: And the same with the repertoire. Vidas: Right? Ausra: Yes. Vidas: So the third challenge that Mike has to overcome is developing and knowing how to make a piece “artistically my own instead of just playing notes.” What he means by this is maybe…. We could talk a little bit about our own practice process. How do you transition from sight-reading to real performance—complete performance for a recording, let’s say. What’s happening in your mind, Ausra? Ausra: Well actually you need to be really well familiar with your piece that you’re working on, because you cannot feel the right music and be artistically sufficient or to make this music yourself if you are not good technically at it and if you are still struggling, let’s say, with some spots on the piece. It means that you really need to be advanced with the particular piece that you are working on. Another thing, you really need to listen to other people play, and not only to organ music, in general you need to listen to other people performing, because, you know, when you are really deep into music in general, probably such questions wouldn’t even arise, because let’s say I play a piece and I see it’s structure, I know where I have to slow down, where I have to, let’s say, mark something, or you know, to do an accelerando, or to change registration or to do whatever. It just becomes natural. Vidas: That’s because you know the structure. Ausra: Yes. Vidas: Or because you listen to other people. Ausra: Well, it helps. Or do you think these two things are contradictory? Vidas: No, I think the more you listen to performances of other people on other instruments, perhaps, or even your own instrument, like organ, the broader you have those experiences and musical horizon. Right? And the deeper connections you can make between separate things on the sheet of music is notes start to speak to you, how they are presented. If you don’t have any experience, like a beginner, then you are like a blank sheet of paper. Right, Ausra? Ausra: Because yes, I once had a student and we were working on the “Little Prelude in F Major” by J. S. Bach, which is actually probably not a Bach, as we know now, but probably Krebs, but anyway, we were working on this piece and she would just keep playing like the metronome all the time and do the same things all the time, and I wanted her to show how the structure is made, and I actually marked everything in her score: where she has to slow down, which chord she has to hold longer, and all that kind of stuff. Basically I worked as a movie director or something. But still it didn’t ring a bell at all, and she still played like dull, measure by measure, note by note, and did nothing of what I was saying. Maybe if she would listen to herself, to her recording, maybe then she would realize how dull she is playing! Maybe that would have changed her attitude and her playing style, but I think that comes from general unmusicality, and that’s why I think the more you listen to the music in general, the better you will become with it, because the deeper your understanding about music in general will become. Vidas: That’s why it’s so beneficial to go to concerts, not only to listen to recordings and videos, but to go to a real recital or a concert in a concert hall or a church, because when you go someplace, you are more inclined, actually, to focus than at home, because you made an effort to go there, and you want to take out as much as possible from that experience. Right, Ausra? Ausra: Yes! And actually another helpful thing would be to sing your music—actually to sing each line—because it’s often the case that we can play unmusically, but we cannot sing unmusically. Somehow if you are playing you can just drop the end of a phrase not listening to it. But if you are singing, that usually don’t happen. Vidas: And that’s why when I see a person play unmusically and ask to sing it, they never can sing. Never ever in my teaching experience, you know, that never happens. Ausra: Because singing is so closely related to to breathing and breathing is so important because that leads to the right phrasing, so I think it’s really, really important to sing what you are playing. Vidas: Then you can think about the right meter and pulse, and keep the steady rhythms. Right? But that’s because you hear yourself. Ausra: Yes, that’s right. And another thing, often the instrument can teach you, also, how to play, and it can show you if you are taking a right tempo, if you are playing with the right fingering, because I’m talking especially about historical instruments, because again, they can teach you a lot about phrasing, about articulation. Vidas: Right. Another last, probably, recommendation would be, for example, if you like some musician, some organist, and you find his recordings or her recordings, I think it’s wise to study them all from the beginning until the end, and then not only his recordings or her recordings, but find out who it was—that person, that organist, lets say—and start listening to other people’s music as well, and that’s how you broaden your horizons and general musicianship as well. Ausra: That’s very true. Vidas: Right? You are not alone in this musical universe. You have to go out and make connections. Ausra: Sure. Vidas: Thank you guys for listening to this conversation. We hope this was useful to you. 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 Buy Me a Coffee platform and get early access: A: Find out more at https://buymeacoffee.com/organduo
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. Ausra: We hope you’ll enjoy it! Vidas: A lot of times, the instrument will teach you everything you need to know. Ausra: Sure, you just really need to learn to listen to yourself, what you are doing. Vidas: Now we have to take this saying with a grain of salt, because a lot of people today play at home with some kind of electronic instruments or virtual instruments, and in virtual instruments, the sound might be quite realistic, but the touch might be plastic. You see? And it’s quite different from tracker touch in a real pipe organ situation. People might not necessarily discover on their own when they play their home organs. Don’t you think? Ausra: As well, they can record themselves and listen to how it sounds, and of course you need to get opportunities to try different instruments. Vidas: Yes, go to locations, various locations, that’s more difficult than playing and practicing at home and enjoying the beautiful sounds from your living room. And this is a very comfortable setting. No one is bothering you, there are no external sounds or disturbances, but at the same time, you also lose something, right? With the extended effort that you need to put in when you go to church to practice and play the organ you gain something from that experience as well, after live concerts in the church as well, Ausra. Do you agree? Ausra: Sure! But you know, I think this fear of new environments and new instruments might come because you know so much, and you have tried so many different instruments. But for example, you know, for kids, they don’t have such a fear. If you remember, I once had the lecture demonstration / concert / public lessons for kids from the musical school at the museum of… church museum on that tiny Italian style instrument. Vidas: Yes, yes I rememer that. Ausra: And you know, before that I was so worried how all these little kids that have never tried to play the organ (they were all studying piano) and you know, how will they do on that instrument, and they will have to play something for me at the end of it. And actually, they did just fine, because they didn’t bother to be afraid of trying and of playing another unfamiliar instrument, and they did just great. Vidas: They didn’t overthink it. Ausra: Sure. Sure! Vidas: It reminds me of the experience that I had when playing this roll-up piano we recently got. Right Ausra? Ausra: Yes, we got it yesterday. Vidas: It looks scary, right? You can fold it up, fold it in a roll and take it with you when you’re traveling, but it looks scary when you play. There are no white and black key differences too much—a little bit of difference, the sharp keys are a little bit higher than the white keys, just a little bit, and the touch is different, of course, than either plastic keyboard or tracker touch, but as I discovered myself yesterday, if you just do it, sooner or later you get used to that touch also. Of course it’s not that comfortable, and maybe not even pleasant to play like that, but in emergency situations when you don’t want to miss practicing when you travel, I think it’s a good tool to have. So this comment I made like that reminds me of new instruments which we discover when we travel. And they’re not necessarily really scary, either. Right? Ausra: Yes. As I said, the most important thing is to practice. Vidas: What about audiation? You didn’t mention too much your position on the value of sight-singing. Does it help people develop this mental thinking and mental hearing that Daniel is talking about? Ausra: Well, you know, what I strongly believe why I think that all the audiation things must be done, must be developed, until you are a teenager. Because when you are a child these are the things you can develop very easily and you are still very flexible. You know, if you only start to do audiation when you are a complete adult, I think it will be really hard. It will, of course, give you some benefit, but I would not think it would do magic. Vidas: So, for people who are, let’s say, competitive in nature, they want to participate in competitions, then this type of learning, it’s probably too late for them. Right? Because they start too late in their life. But if they’re only doing it like Daniel, for themselves just to improve, why not? Ausra: Yes! In general singing is very very good for any musicians. Vidas: I usually emphasize singing music that you play. Your own organ pieces, excerpts of melodies, chorale melodies, even the hymn tunes. Right? What about opening any hymnal and just singing the hymns. Ausra: Yes, but it will not do you much good if you only sing the melody or soprano line. I think if you really need to do the audiation and you want to benefit from it, you need to sing inner voices. Let’s say if you have four voices, then sing alto or tenor. It will benefit you much more than singing the soprano line all the time. Vidas: Or start with just two voices at a time. One voice you play, one voice you sing, and you switch. Ausra: Yes, that’s very beneficial! But I really don’t know how much time you have to do it for such things, because it takes time. It really takes time. Vidas: Yes. Ausra: Especially if you don’t have well developed skills to do it, it might be really difficult. Vidas: And might not be worth it, you see. Ausra: Well, yes. In some cases, yes. Vidas: Yeah. Usually people don’t have full time devoted just for organ playing and improving organ practice, improving their audiation and improving their organ technique. So they need to do something very concise in that area—to learn something in 30 minutes or 1 hour, or at the most, 2 hours with some breaks in between. Right? Ausra: Sure. Vidas: Every day, ideally. But some people don’t even practice every day. That’s the key. Ausra: Yes, and you know, if you will have all day long to do things every day of what Daniel talked about, all of them are actually excellent things, you know. But it takes really many many hours to achieve it. Vidas: Yes. So maybe, this is a long conversation. Right? Maybe we will split it in two halves to discuss it in two different podcast episodes. Almost 20 minutes. Time flies quickly! Ausra: Sure, when the question is good. Vidas: And very thoroughly detailed. 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 Buy Me a Coffee platform and get early access: A: Find out more at https://buymeacoffee.com/organduo |
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