Last weekend Ausra and I had some friends over and I couldn't make myself keep silent about Hauptwerk and my portable keyboards. So I played for them this beautiful ornamented chorale prelude Jesus, meine Zuversicht, BWV 728 by J.S. Bach on two manuals - the solo part was played on the folding keyboard and the accompaniment - on the roll-up piano using Giubiasco sample set. It was the first time I used this setup to play two-manual music. Let me know what you think.

Score: www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/oxford-bach-books-for-organ-manuals-only-book-1-sheet-music/19748168?aff_id=454957

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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.

Vidas: Let’s start episode 638 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Graham, and he comments on my recording of the practice session of his Idyll. So he writes,: 

“Wonderful, Vidas! It was written in the summer of 2020 during the first lockdown of the Covid pandemic. I saw a competition advertised for a meditative piece for organ and this composition appeared nearly instantly! I do love Erik Satie's 'Gymnopedies' (I have heard you play No 2 on the organ!) and there is a strong French impressionist influence in this piece. It came together remarkably quickly from an initial improvisation to the finished composition as I was very near the deadline for submitting for the competition. As you know, I am not 'original' in my writing as I recognize everything I create is derivative - a fusion of everything I have ever heard or played. I love the music of Cole Porter and George Gershwin and Irving Berlin . . . so there is a trace of those songsters deep inside the piece as well. It sounds gorgeous on the Salisbury Willis - a sound I never expected to hear. THANK YOU!”

Vidas: So Ausra, do you remember me playing this piece?

Ausra: Yes, I remember it. Sweet little slow meditative piece.

Vidas: Idyll. It’s like a pastoral  scene from an antiquity time with lots of nature and maybe some animals.

Ausra: I think it really fits the Salisbury organ very well.

Vidas: Yeah, I enjoyed playing it. So what Graham writes in response to the style, did you hear Erik Satie’s influence here?

Ausra: Yes, a little bit, yes!

Vidas: The triple meter is kind of similar to Satie’s Gymnopedies (here is the score of organ arrangement of Gymnopedie No. 1). I don’t know how to pronounce it either. So yeah. I wonder if it’s difficult to create or improvise a piece like this, Ausra!

Ausra: I think it depends on everybody’s skills!

Vidas: So as a harmony teacher, what do you hear when you listen to this piece?

Ausra: Well, as far as I have heard Erik Satie’s Gymnopedies, and I used to play them on piano, at least a few of them, they are strongly influenced by Jewish music, or at least that’s what I thought when I was working on them and when I heard them played. You played them on the organ. And of course in this Grahams piece, Idyll, I don’t hear that Jewish influence. At least not that remarkable. What do you think about that?

Vidas: By Jewish you mean special modes, right? Special intervals in the scale… augmented intervals. Right? 

Ausra: Yes, and of course the minor keys.

Vidas: No, probably most similar this with Satie’s work stem from the triple meter in my mind. But other than that, it’s like a major key, idyllic character, slow moving tempo, and in general a very gentle rocking sort of feeling. It’s like a little bit… remember we played this piece by Ad Wammes about the boat.

Ausra: Yes, I remember it very well.

Vidas: Something about the lake, summertime, breeze…

Ausra: Yes there was sort of a like a suite out of like four movements.

Vidas: And one of them was probably in triple meter, too. So I imagine lying on the bottom of a small boat in the middle of the lake on a hot summer day, and this boat gently rocks back and forth. I can hear water splashing on it, on the sides of the boat, and maybe some sounds from nature, you know, gentle breeze blowing, also. Sort of idyllic vacation feeling. Do you like this feeling?

Ausra: Yes, especially now when it’s really cold outside. I would wish it would be summer and I could be on the lake!

Vidas: Do you usually spend your vacations like that on the bottom of the boat?

Ausra: Well, actually no, I don’t own the boat, so…

Vidas: Yeah, it’s new to me, but I can just imagine how it would look. Looking, obviously, up to the sky, right, when you lie on the bottom of the boat. It’s a good feeling. Could this piece work as a liturgical music, too?

Ausra: Of course. You could play it for communion. It wouldn’t hurt, definitely.

Vidas: Even though it’s not based on any preexisting chorale melody or hymn tune. But the gentle character fits the liturgy well; especially for communion, maybe offertory, maybe at the beginning, too, for gathering, as a prelude. Right?

Ausra: Maybe it’s too soft for a prelude.

Vidas: Why too soft?

Ausra: You would want something louder in order to quiet people who are walking downstairs.

Vidas: Oh, you mean like Brenda?

Ausra: Yes.

Vidas: Tell us about it!

Ausra: I think I already told about it a few times, about that comic strip that I saw when we were back as students at UNL, and there was an old lady in that drawing who actually had a hunting rifle, and she was sort of silencing the crowd for her prelude with a gun!

Vidas: Right. That’s probably very symptomatic of the situation before the service in any church. Right? People gather and they talk, they haven’t seen each other for a week, probably, or longer, so any music that is played before the service is not on their radar just yet. Just like, obviously, the postlude after the service.

Ausra: Yes, you finish the postlude and there is nobody left in the church. Everybody is having coffee.

Vidas: And if you are playing a fugue as a postlude, then voices are enter one by one, and people leave one by one, which is not true. Right?

Ausra: I think it’s nice that at least some people stay to listen the postlude and they applaud after that.

Vidas: I was just going to say that people do not actually leave one by one, but they tend to leave in droves. Excellent. Shall we wish Graham to keep creating?

Ausra: Sure! I think it’s a real gift if you can compose music, so just keep doing that.

Vidas: And to make your pieces available, because it’s really hard to get! You have to write an email to the composer and the composer has to write you back with the score. It’s obviously complicated to both the would-be-performer and to the composer. It should be frictionless. I suggested that he could upload it to Sheet Music Plus and he could sell those scores, but Graham wanted for people to have them for free, so why not upload them to IMSLP like Petrucci Music Library?

Ausra: Yes, I think that’s a great idea.

Vidas: And it would be free, available instantly for anyone.

Ausra: That way maybe more organists would get access to it and would perform it more often.

Vidas: Yes, for this, we really hope this will happen in 2021. And please send us more of your questions if you have about the composition process, about performance issues that you encounter in the works you play for perhaps, we would like to help you out. And remember, when you practice,

Ausra: Miracles happen.

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Vidas: Hi guys!  This is Vidas.
 
Ausra:  And Ausra.
 
V: Let’s start episode 459 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast.  This question was sent by Blackstone, and Blackstone writes answers to my question about the dream in organ playing and three things that holding back from the progress.
 
1. My dream for my organ playing is to spice my music creativity with some great organ sonic vocabulary.
2.  The 3 things hindering my progress are: (i) Inadequate practice, (ii) lack of instructional resources, (iii) Don't have my own instrument.
 
V: So this is rather unspecific to me, this dream. What about you, Ausra?  Can you decipher for me this:   “To spice my music creativity with some great organ sonic vocabulary…”   It’s like a riddle for me.
 
A: It is, it’s very sophisticated.
 
V: It might be that he is… I don’t know if Blackstone is here or not, but let’s call…. I dunno. “Creativity” means maybe, like, composition or improvisation?
 
A: Could be both.
 
V: Could be both.  Something like… creating, not performing?
 
A: And “sonic vocabulary…”   Does he mean to add some sound effects?
 
V: Some sound effects.  Maybe some organ stop combinations?   Or…
 
A: Well, anyway guys, we are not so sophisticated to be able to solve riddles.
 
V: …read your mind.  You need to clarify things. But let’s presume that organ composition and improvisation is what Blackstone is after. So, we could talk a little about that, right?
 
A: Well, I’m not so sure.
 
V: But then, let’s keep reading.
 
A: The second half of the question is much more clear to me.
 
V: “Inadequate practice, lack of instructional resources, and don’t have my own instrument.” It doesn’t say like, it doesn’t imply composition or improvisation at all.
 
A: True, but in other words, practice is related with that, I think, he doesn’t have his own instrument.
 
V: Mm hm.  And we have talked many times about that before so, if you’re serious about organ playing, you can do two things: 1) invest in your own instrument, electronic probably, and 2) get in touch with the local church organist and, by offering something in return to that church, get access to the organ.
 
A: Yes, because if you will not practice, you will not improve. That’s obvious.
 
V: And once you have that instrument available, then you can practice adequately, meaning that you have to practice regularly, going to that instrument on the organ bench multiple times during the week. Probably slow practice is important, repeated practice is important, maybe practice in fragment is important. Think like that, for starters.
 
A: True, and that point, the lack of instructional resources, do you think it’s easy to overcome this obstacle?
 
V: With our seven years of online experience, or even more years (we started in late 2011),  just look at our site, search what’s available for free, what’s available for purchasing, and you can find more than enough for many recitals by now. And hymn playing as well.  Whatever’s interesting to you. I think he doesn’t mean probably, composition, because his three things listed aren’t related to composition at all.
 
A: True, but it’s hard to say. I don’t know what we’re talking about here.
 
V: Yeah. Let’s talk about air. Isn’t it hot today, Ausra?
 
A: Horrible.
 
V: We’re recording this in the morning. 7:00, and it says, what the temperature says outside… 30 degrees?
 
A: Yes.
 
V: Celsius. It’s approaching 100 in Fahrenheit, I think.
 
A: I know we are sort of like northern Europe, geographically, but it feels like we are in the southern part. I think it’s not so hot in Spain right now.
 
V: Exactly. Alright, guys, thanks so much for your questions. Please be more specific, though, if you want more specific help.
 
A: Otherwise, we will be able to talk only about air.
 
V: Yeah, but if you’re too specific like “How to play note C in measure 5 in this particular piece,” then it’s not interesting to others, right, it’s just for you.
 
A: But we still can answer questions like this.
 
V: Yes.  But be specific and also general enough so our group of organists from around the world could relate to. Thank you, guys.  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.

 Vidas: Hi guys, this is Vidas!
 
Ausra: And Ausra!
 
V: Let’s start episode 384 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Pauline. She writes:
 
Good morning!
​
I’m more or less a self learned pianist & organist. I play in church & function. Congregation says my playing is inspiring because my style is different from the standard pianist which is conventional type. Is it important to use correct figuring to play piano or organ when already get used  to our own figuring? Is it compulsory to follow every notes or beats from the music sheet? Can we just be more creative?
 
V: I think, Ausra, this question is about how you play your accompaniment from the hymnal, right? Or not?
 
A: I guess this question is broader.
 
V: Broader?
 
A: Yes, you know, the similar problem I encountered last semester when I was teaching at that organists school, and I had two organ students, and one of them, she graduated from the music school, her studies were seven years long when she was in a high school. She was a violinist, so she could play piano, too, since it’s a required instrument in Lithuania for everybody who enters a music school, or almost everybody. But, she didn’t like to sight read music and to play it from the musical score. She would rather do everything by pitch, and we had quite an argument with her, because I tried to convince her that this is not the best way to learn music. Of course, you could do that, but I think that if you don’t want to study music professionally, I would say then you are sort of going to reach a dead end—that’s my opinion—at some point or another. You know, to be an amateur is very good for home musicians, because their music is created in a completely different setting and it serves a different purpose. But if you are a church organist or pianist, or in any way a church musician or choir conductor, it means that you are working with people, with a congregation, and as I told my students that maybe some day you want to have an ensemble or a choir or group of people who would love to help you, to create music together for church, and then, if you are an amateur yourself, and you don’t want to follow the score, and do things in a professional way, how will you teach others to do it? So, I think it’s probably good that some people are more creative than others and they want to add their own stuff, and create their own stuff… that’s ok. And if you’re accompanying hymns, then it’s not bad if you know you will add something to  your accompaniment. It’s fine, unless you won’t keep your tempo steady, and the congregation will not be able to sing, leading your accompaniment. But, otherwise, of course you can be creative and add things, but if you are playing living or dead composers’ compositions, then I think you pretty much need to follow a score, because if you would do otherwise, it would be highly unprofessional.
 
V: You cannot improve on Bach, for example.
 
A: Well, what could you do when playing Bach? What I would allow myself to do, sometimes, if  the chorale has a repetition, repeated section, which is often the case with German chorales, because it’s written in Bach form, which has A, A, and B sections, so A repeats A, on that repetition, you might add different ornaments. That’s the most of what I can do with Bach.
 
V: What about adding figuration on the repeats? A little more than ornaments. Stylistically appropriate.
 
A: Well, that would still be just an ornament.
 
V: Embellishment.
 
A: Yes, that’s perfectly normal. But, other than that, let’s say you are playing music by Franck…
 
V: Right…
 
A: Would you try to alter something?
 
V: No!
 
A: So, I guess that is my answer to Pauline.
 
V: I guess the melody could be altered, right? But the accompaniment has to stay the same. If you are embellishing a baroque melody, there might be some other options, but they are more technically advanced, which is beyond the scope of this conversation. So, what you are saying is that to add stuff is ok as long as you are still adding value and not playing musically without meaning. It should be meaningful.
 
A: That’s right, because look, if you want to do something different than what is written in a hymnal, you really need to be knowledgeable as to why you are doing this. Is it appropriate to that style? To that hymn? Because otherwise, it would be like, I know in America these beauty competitions used to be popular, which is in itself, I think, a very silly thing. For a grown up woman, yes, it’s ok. But when they do it for little girls, I think it’s ridiculous! I think they look just horrible. That’s my feeling and my opinion about it.
 
V: Like dolls!
 
A: I know! What kind of mother would you need to be to do to your daughter like that? I don’t know what’s the problem with those mothers, but I think they really need to see a shrink!
 
V: Maybe there is a problem with their fathers, too!
 
A: Well, definitely! So, I think it’s in some sort, those little girls that are dressed up like grown-up women with all that makeup and all that stuff, I think they look ridiculous, and it makes me feel so sad! And it’s the same when I listen to music performed with whatever added.
 
V: Without meaning.
 
A: Yes, without meaning.
 
V: So, advice for Pauline and others who may want to add their own creativity to the accompaniment is to do this from the sense of understand what you are doing. Right? Mentally understanding. That would be more appropriate than just rather playing from your ear, whatever sounds good to you at the moment, right?
 
A: Yes, that’s what I would suggest. And you know, you always need to study things, so…
 
V: And you always try to improve yourself.
 
A: Sure, because there are so many opportunities in America to get hymnal accompaniment.
 
V: We don’t know if Pauline is in America.
 
A: Yes, true. But for example, if you could get at least one example of how things are made up, maybe it would give you an idea of how it should be done or could be done.
 
V: But I guess there are many hymnals in other countries, too, and accompaniments. Yes, so, study, improve yourself, and don’t just trust your taste and musical ear. It just is not necessarily developed enough. Right? You have to compare your own work with other written down compositions, and take what’s best from their style, and make it your own. Adapt it. That’s advanced art, I think, we are teaching. But in the end, it’s worth the effort to improve.
 
A: Sure, maybe this road, this way that we suggest is a longer way, and it seems harder at the beginning, but it pays off at the end of it.
 
V: Thank you guys, we hope this was useful to you. Please keep sending us your wonderful questions, we love helping you grown. And remember, when you practice,
 
A: Miracles happen!

Vidas: Hi guys, this is Vidas.
 
Ausra: And Ausra.
 
V: Let’s start episode 345 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. And this question was sent sent by Pauline. She writes:
 
Hi, I have a question to ask here. I am a self learned electronic organist in church.
I play hymns every Sunday together with another pianist.
In order to create a more inspirational music for God & the congregation, who should be playing melody and who should be the accompanist?

Thanks!
 
V: Ausra, don’t you think that the organist and pianist both should be playing something more substantial, not only melody or accompaniment? What’s your opinion?
 
A: Well, it depends on what kind of hymn it is, because some hymns actually work quite nicely on the piano, and some don’t work on the piano at all. So, you obviously need to look at the real of the hymn, and then decide what to do.
 
V: But, I don’t think that, for example, a pianist could play the melody and the organist could only play the accompaniment in chords, or, for example, vice versa, that the organist could play the melody with the right hand, and the pianist would provide the accompaniment. This wouldn’t be...
 
A: Of course I couldn’t agree more! I think in general, electronic organ and piano is a bad duet. I wouldn’t mix them both together.
 
V: But, if you treat it like a Taizé music… remember, so, in Taizé, they have a basic chordal structure for a keyboard instrument, but then anything else that plays together, they play melodies and duets and trios and dialogues, and it sounds rather nice this way—polyphonic.
 
A: Well, true, but I think if you would want to do something like Taizé, you would still have to have only one keyboard. And if you want to have some elaborations, you would need to add other instruments, such as flute, maybe...I think flute would work very nicely… and a violin, or any other solo instrument.
 
V: Do you think that Pauline’s pianist could play two melodies—two separate and contrasting melodies in each hand as maybe two melodic instruments, a violinist and flutist, would do?
 
A: Well, it’s possible. I’m not sure about how the final result would be.
 
V: Or in the left hand, maybe he could imitate, maybe, cello, and in the right hand some kind of solo treble instrument, and create a nice dialogue.
 
A: That’s a possibility although I don’t know how advanced they both are, and how well they could do that. Because, this kind of musicianship would take some improvisation skills.
 
V: Right! This would be nice. I believe they could train themselves. What would be the first step? What would you do if, for example, you and I had to do this, or even in our house situation, I would play on the organ and you would play on the piano, and vice versa? That wouldn’t work, because our piano is not in tune with the organ.
 
A: As is our organ, yes.
 
V: But, in theory, maybe, I’m thinking…. Thinking in chords, this accompaniment, so to say, but melodic accompaniment could also think in chords that the organist is playing, or choir singing, and then play a lot of arpeggios and things like that. But not only arpeggios, make them melodic, make them meaningful.
 
A: Somehow now, I’m thinking about that Geistliches Lied from Austria. Remember way back in the year of 2000, when we were in the church music courses in Salzburg.
 
V: Yes, this is like a Christian popular music, but quality popular music, I think, because each instrument has its own part, and a very developed part. So, Pauline, maybe you could actually do something like this with your pianist. Maybe you could even write out the melody, or two melodies for your pianist, and maybe you could write out chords and things like that for yourself, right? Because to do this on your own on the spot would be too stressful. You need to either rehearse or write it out.
 
A: Sure. And really, if you want to make everything very nice ask from the congregation. Maybe there is somebody who plays another instrument other than a keyboard instrument. That would really make things much nicer.
 
V: And then, you could actually arrange any time of hymn for them, to add descants and treble solos, and maybe bass lines—alternate bass lines.
 
A: Sure. Although, I don’t know how many and which stops this electronic organ has. But, if it has enough reeds, and other colorful stops, maybe the organ could then act as a solo instrument, and piano would provide accompaniment.
 
V: Right. Then the organist needs to play maybe the treble part, and maybe the left hand could play the cello part. Right?
 
A: Yes. That way, maybe the organ could be a solo instrument, and piano would accompany.
 
V: Interesting.
 
A: Although you need to check it on the spot, and I cannot guarantee that it will sound nice.
 
V: And also, it depends on where the organ is located. In the back or in the front?
 
A: How far is it from the piano?
 
V: Mhm. How difficult it is to communicate and play together. So, it’s a lot of things to take in and to take into consideration in this situation. Do you think that organists usually have enough time to do such creative things in church?
 
A: Well, I’m not sure. It depends on the situation. Usually, I think we all don’t have enough time for things.
 
V: But usually, people are very appreciative, congregations are usually appreciative if you do a little more than is required from you.
 
A: That’s true.
 
V: Right? Her pianist could easily play the chords, and she could play on the organ what’s written in the hymnal, and that would be it. And nobody could complain, and actually nobody would have the right to complain, right? Because it’s quite enough if you play it nicely  on both instruments. But if both of you do something extra, then people will notice, I hope.
 
A: True. Do you think people always notice and appreciate new things?
 
V: No, not always, but imagine if Pauline or her pianist, before the service, would come up and say, “My dear congregation, today, we have prepared for you something very special,” and the both of them would describe what they will be doing in, for example, the following hymn—the opening hymn. People would, I think, appreciate that.
 
A: Well, yes, but it’s of course also a danger of elaborating too much, and adding too many things that the hymn might be unrecognizable, and people might not be able to sing it.
 
V: And there’s always the danger of playing like in a concert setting. Right? Sometimes the clergy doesn’t like that.
 
A: True, because, for example, for my case and my understanding of good hymn accompaniment, the most important thing for hymn accompaniment is to play in a right and steady tempo. This is actually what is the most required from the organists who are accompanists. Congregational singing.
 
V: But, I mean, if it’s, let’s say, a special occasion, maybe a hymn festival, and they would like to do something more and more creative on a number of hymns during that festival, for example, then a few verse, not necessarily every hymn every verse should be done this way, but every once in a while to make it more colorful and more creative, that wouldn’t hurt.
 
A: True, and I think it’s always easier if you have a choir at a church. It is a big help for singing congregational hymns, because they lead the congregation.
 
V: Interesting. I would probably do such experiments. It’s all experiment… you don’t know what the result will be, but you don’t know until you try. And if you don’t try, you will always regret it afterwards, because you don’t know. Maybe it would have been worth it. Thank you guys, 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.

 Vidas: Hi guys, this is Vidas.
 
Ausra: And Ausra.
 
V: Let’s start episode 334 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. And this question was sent by Jan. She is on the team who transcribes our fingering and pedaling scores. And she asked:
 
I attended a djembe African drumming workshop at my local library.  I had a great time. It was so much fun to play music as part of a group.  

I have a question...to remember the rhythms, would a classically trained musician automatically  translate these rhythms into notation? (Sort of like visualizing a word that you are trying to spell.)  I was able to play the rhythms by copying them, but I was not able to translate into notation. I hope that I will be able to teach myself to do so.  The whole reason for me attempting to play the djembe is because I am so totally over not being able to keep a consistent tempo in my pipe organ playing and I thought that djembe drumming would provide a more whole body experience.
 
V: Ausra, have you had any African drumming experiences in the past?
 
A: No, not much of a chance to get that kind of experience living in Lithuania.
 
V: What about in Nebraska? Didn’t you attend a workshop with me? One guest drummer from West Africa came and... maybe it was only me, who attended.
 
A: I totally don’t remember it, so probably you were the only one who attended it.
 
V: I remember I was also totally amazed by the rhythms, syncopations, what they do with their bodies and hands, and yes, they taught us to use that on our body using hands and feet, but we didn’t have to notate it in rhythms—in musical notation. So...
 
A: Do you think it’s worthwhile doing?
 
V: I don’t suppose it would hurt, of course, it wouldn’t hurt, but obviously this music isn’t created to write it down. It’s created to improvise and perform it in the practice.
 
A: So it’s like a living tradition that is given from man to man.
 
V: But if you want to transmit this tradition to other countries or cultures, and through the sheet of paper, that’s one of the primary ways to do that, unless somebody sees the video nowadays. Right?
 
A: Yes, because don’t you think that if you would write down on the paper what they are doing  it would rule some sort of magic.
 
V: Obviously, it’s like taking a picture of somebody. Some African tribes believe that if you take a picture of somebody you will take his soul.
 
A: Twice.
 
V: So, some musicians even believe that, and don’t allow others to take their pictures, too. I know one.
 
A: So now, I guess, lots of folk just take souls out of themselves by doing all of those selfies everyday!
 
V: Right! That’s their belief at least. So, going back to Djembe African drumming as it relates to organ tempo-keeping, playing organ pieces and keeping a consistent tempo, that really helps I think.
 
A: I think so, yes, and I think at least that was how I was taught when I was a child in my early age. My piano teacher would always tell me, “Oh, you know, we Norman people, we don’t have a good sense of rhythm. You need to go south in order to learn how to use the rhythm correctly, and tempo.” So I don’t know if it’s much of that or not, but when I studied in the United States, I simply was taught that you need to count, and that you need to subdivide everything that you are playing, and you need to listen to what you are doing and you will be fine.
 
V: Could be part of the reason, and if Jan wants to not take it, she says that she can’t copy it herself, right? I suggest, for example, either record herself, do a video, or even an audio of those beats, or go online and look for a video that other people that are using drums are making, and slow it down by about 50%. You could adjust the speed, you know? And then if this tempo is slow enough, you could actually start to notate it. It’s like Jan is transcribing our fingering and pedaling from slow motion videos. I’m playing those pieces in a slow practice tempo, but I hope people who transcribe on our team, they slow it down even more—like 50% more, so it’s like 4 times slower than normal concert tempo, so note-by-note, basically, much easier this way.
 
A: Well, and I think if you would transcribe it, do you think it would look something similar to what we are using in our Western music?
 
V: Sure. It’s not modal music, it’s not those ancient exotic traditions that have more than 12 notes per octave, it’s just rhythms, syncopations, that are difficult to Jan. But, if it’s slow enough, and if she could notate it, it would look like crazy rhythms, but we could understand it, right? Especially in slow tempo.
 
A: Yes, that’s why I think that learning rhythm right from the early age is so important. That’s why, for example, in our school, the young kids they have in the Solfège to write down also rhythm dictations not only the musical dictations.
 
V: Did you like it?
 
A: Well, no! I didn’t like it, because it was hard for me.
 
V: I preferred melodic dictations.
 
A: Me, too!
 
V: I even melodic dictations to harmony exercises.
 
A: Well, that’s because you have perfect pitch!
 
V: I remember that day, the choir director of the second graders in our school tested my pitch, my ear, and she played a few notes in the middle, a few notes really high, a few notes really low, and said, “You have perfect pitch.”
 
A: Did you know what perfect is at that time?
 
V: No. But, I felt like...upgraded into the next level.
 
A: That’s funny.
 
V: Yeah, very proud. Looked down on everybody for a few weeks, and wouldn’t say, “hello” to anybody for a few months.
 
A: Really?
 
V: Yes. Even now, I am like this.
 
A: No! He’s just joking. He’s very friendly.
 
V: Thank you guys, this is an interesting question. I wish we had more experience with African drumming. We have one percussionist, who obviously knows a lot about it. Thomas, right? He can play all kinds of percussion instruments, and he was our colleague in the Academy of Music in Vilnius, and sometimes we are playing with him with organ and percussion.
 
A: Yes, we played some duets. I, for example did some sonatas by J. S. Bach. Actually, I played it on the organ, and he played it on marimba, and it sounded wonderful! And also we did that big piece of Petr Eben, Landscape of Patmos, for many different percussion instruments and organ.
 
V: Mhm, it had an entire set, and you performed in the Philharmonic Hall in Vilnius!
 
A: Yes.
 
V: With the big organ.
 
A: It was hard for me. I don’t think it was so hard for him, because he’s an excellent musician.
 
V: Did you enjoy this piece? Eben’s Landscapes of Patmos?
 
A: Yes, I enjoyed it very much.
 
V: It’s very colorful when you play it with marimba and other percussion instruments and organ.
 
A: True.
 
V: Okay guys, this was Vidas.
 
A: And Ausra!
 
V: Please keep sending us your questions, we love helping you grow. And remember, when you practice,
 
A: Miracles happen.

Vidas: Hi guys, this is Vidas.
 
Ausra: And Ausra.
 
V: Let’s start episode 321 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast.  This question was sent by Heidi and she writes:
 
“Wow! Vidas Pinkevicius, what an Artist you are! Runs in the family, except your media is painting with music, rather than oils.
 
The music you’ve created and performed here is deeply profound and moving to me.  At times, I also noticed that it is so far 'above my comprehension' that I feel a bit confused.  In no time, however, the music is telling its story again.
 
The birds singing brought so much joy! I actually wondered for a moment if they were live birds.  And then there is the Giant.  How I loved hearing the giant come tumbling down.  Very deliberately, filled with tension and suspense, slow, getting slower as he descended!!  Wow, it was so much fun listening to this.  Everything about this piece is wonderful, including the Artist - thank you.  Oh, and by the way, the fact that the organ is mechanical totally added to the music’s drama. Beautiful performance by the artist, Vidas.  Articulation beyond compare. You deserved a vacation after that.. Whew!  I love it.
 
Heidi”
 
V: It seems that Heidi is talking about my performance in Liepaja, Latvia when I recently broke down that organ.
 
A: Yes, nobody will invite you now to perform.
 
V: (laughs.)  This was storytelling improvisation about David and Goliath which I recently shared with our listeners too.  So what can you say about this feedback because obviously you could tell more things than I.
 
A: Well you know I wasn’t up there together with you so what can I say.  Was it rough for you to register during performance?
 
V: I made two recordings.  One was rehearsal and another was live performance in front of the audience.  This rehearsal which lasted exactly one hour was all the time I had to adjust to the organ so I deliberately limited my practice time on this instrument and wanted to find out how would it feel to give it really live and spontaneous performance on such a big organ with 131 stops.  And to my surprise, rehearsal was even more spontaneous I think, maybe because the organ didn’t break somehow.
 
A: Well, do not scare our listeners.  You actually didn’t break that organ.  The electrical company who was fixing that organ a week maybe before your performance, forgot to add one extra fuse, and since the organ is totally mechanical it needs a lot of power and it didn’t have enough power so that’s why at the end of the recital simply all the power was off.
 
V: Or maybe the organ gave up and said “Oh no, I cannot stand Vidas improvisations, let’s finish this concert earlier.”
 
A: Well I don’t think so.  It’s just coincidence.
 
V: You never know what goes inside of this beast.  Monster organ really, even without additional side panels it’s already very big but in 1885 I think, Barnim Gruneberg added, enlarged this instrument, made it into a larger instrument than the Riga's Cathedral actually.  The famous Walcker organ there and it’s completely mechanical, it only has I think barker machine for the first manual, but no combination action, everything has to be done by hand.  So to answer your question, actually, it’s easier to register on that organ than on St. Johns’ organ because the stop handles are shorter.  You could move a few of them quickly.
 
A: Well, yes.  At St. Johns’ sometimes you get the feeling when you are trying to pull of the organ stop that actually the organ stop might take you into the organ with it.
 
V: Umm-hmm.  And I had another improvisation experience when Pope Francis was visiting Vilnius and Lithuania too, so I played in Lukiskes square in conjunction of his prayer at the monument for the victims of genocide.  There I had a digital organ, Johannus organ, and that time I didn’t use the stop knobs, I used dynamic buttons, pianissimo, piano, mezzo-piano, mezzo-forte, forte, fortissimo,  those kinds of things. 
 
A: And I think it worked quite well.
 
V: Yes it was sort of easier for me to just push the button and to see the desired dynamic level but I kind of didn’t feel in control because by pushing the button you give up control.  You don’t know exactly what will sound.
 
A: But I think on an occasion like this when you don’t have rehearsals basically, and you are improvising in open space let’s face it, you don’t know how the result will be in a way.
 
V: Yes, you might hear one thing when large speakers are next to you and you don’t know what the audience is hearing 300 meters further.
A: And I was listening to it on TV, of course it was broadcast, so I think it sounded fairly well.
 
V: So to go back to Heidi’s comment she started her comment that it runs in the family except my media is painting with music rather than oil.  My dad was a painter.
 
A: So do you think it’s largely because of him you are so creative.
 
V: No, I don’t think so.  I think we are all creative in one way or another, maybe in different fields maybe, not necessarily in organ playing everybody equally creative.  But what I mean, I took from my dad maybe motivation to create because I saw the example but not necessarily the genes.  He didn’t transmit his organ playing genes to me because he wasn’t an organist.
 
A: But don’t you think that your parents could understand you better what you are doing because they were artists themselves?
 
V: I hope so, yes.  People who create themselves tend to understand other creators better but I could also feel certain limitations when talking to my parents about organ playing.  Their knowledge about organ artists was very limited.  My dad for example, he could not really differentiate between certain periods of musical composition I believe, so I don’t really know what or how he comprehended organ music.
 
A: Interesting.
 
V: Maybe a little bit differently than a person from the street would but certainly not like an organist.
 
A: Well but still you were lucky you could talk about art in general because what I could talk with my parents was with my mother about  blood formula and with my dad about all that building engineering things.
 
V: Which is also creative too.
 
A: Still it’s very far from music and organ playing.
 
V: In order to talk about engineering creatively you would need to know a lot about engineering before you even start this conversation.
 
A: But actually yes, my dad helped me a little bit to understand how the things in the engineering drawings looks like and it helped me in an organ building class that Gene Bedient taught us in Lincoln.
 
V: Listen Ausra, of course your background with your family is different from mine but tell me this, would you say that your creativity over the years diminished or is growing.
 
A: I think it’s growing.
 
V: Why?
 
A: Because I’m living with you. (laughs.)
 
V: No.  Because you let it grow I think.  That’s all it takes.
 
A: I think simply you stop fearing things, to try things, so it helps.  Actually to stop thinking what others will think about you.
 
V: Stop comparing yourself to masters or your peers, your colleagues.  Just ignore everybody.  Ignore your husband, Ausra.  (laughs.)
 
A: I don’t think you would like that.
 
V: Actually I would love it and then I could ignore you.
 
A: Really?
 
V: Yes.
 
A: OK, let’s try it.
 
V: Let’s start ignoring each other.
 
A: How we will do this Podcast then?
 
V: I think our ignorance of each other would last only last until lunch.
 
A: Yes, you always know where the food is coming from.
 
V: Unfortunately.  Thank you guys for listening to our silliness.  We hope this makes you smile a little, and remember when you practice…
 
A: Miracles happen.

You and me, if you consider yourself an artist, ​must have a feeling sometimes that nobody can understand what's going on in your head. Nobody but you.

Not your friends or your family or your boss. Oh yes, I forgot… artists don't have bosses. And even if they do, they don't wait for orders what to do next.

Yes, once in a while you meet another artist. Then you recognize each other instantly, greet each other and move your own ways. Like passing ships at sea.

Some artists form communities, tribes of like-minded people who support each other. But at the end of the day artists are still left with their own thoughts.

And this situation makes them feel lonely at times.

But that's OK. Because art can't be born in a chaos. You need silence to organize your thoughts or to hear what Muse is whispering into your ear.

Sometimes you feel sad that nobody in the whole world can tell you it's gonna be OK. Sometimes you feel proud precisely because of this. Whatever the case may be today remember this:

Your mission is yours and yours alone. Everybody else has their own mission. Even if they don't know what it is yet.

Have you ever observed kids play? You surely have noticed the amount of focus and immersion required in these fun activities. And the same amount of focus for them goes into drawing, reading a comic book, or building something.

What would happen if we didn’t allow kids to play? That’s right, no more running, hiding, fighting, building, exploring, having adventures until they are 18!

That would be insane… In fact, cartoonist Lynda Barry argues that without play, children would go crazy. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why there are dysfunctional families, psychopaths, entire generations and countries where people live in war zones who have seemingly lost their humanity.

Play is a basic human act, primary to our psychological and physical survival. Creativity is primary to our survival too because brain activity when someone writes or draws or plays an instrument is similar to when kids play with each other.

Play inevitably produces laughter which has all kinds of healing benefits. Kids laugh 300 times on average and adults - only 5 times on average. Who is happier on average?

We as adults don’t play that much anymore. If we had to give an answer, the most obvious would be - we don’t have the time. We have to make a living.

I haven’t played for fun a few months now. The last time I remember was with Ausra’s brother’s dog. We ran around our garden like crazy. It was so much fun. Exhausting but really fun. The kind of fun you wish it could continue indefinitely.

Instead of playing, I had to find other ways to have fun and laugh. We watch movies a lot. Especially comedies. After a couple of hours of a good stand up or a comedy, I feel whole again.

I feel the same when I draw Pinky and Spiky comic strips. I like to laugh at those silly characters and their actions. When I start drawing them, at first I don’t know what they will say. But as soon as they appear on the paper, they start interact with each other. Actually, I have to make them stop because they won’t shut up.

I also try to live my days while looking for those moments around me which could go into Pinky and Spiky comic strips. Doing this, also helps me resolve conflicts and dramas with kind of self-irony and don’t overreact, sometimes even don’t engage with toxic people (although I still have plenty to learn in this area).

When I see myself or others do or say something annoying, I make a mental note, sometimes a real note in my notebook and wait for the moment to turn it into a comic strip. It is fun.

I’ll tell what else is fun for me - improvising on the organ. While I do this, I can be myself, completely relaxed, detached from the outside world and forget everything.

Nowadays drawing and improvisation are my favorite forms of play. What is yours?