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!
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V: Let’s start episode 591 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Justina.  And she writes,

Hello, my name is Justina Pupeikytė and my dream is to get into the Royal Academy of Music and after that become a professional organist. But there are few things that are keeping me down. I have very poor sight reading skills and weak transposition. I also learn musical pieces slowly. I am not talking about slow tempo while playing that concerns me, but the time that it takes for me to learn the piece and it's long. Can you help me?
Thank you.

V:  So Ausra, I think Justina’s question is kind of similar to the previous podcast conversation that we have recorded just a moment ago that Hervey has submitted, right?

A:  Yes, that’s right.

V:  Except Justina also is interested in transposition skills.

A:  Yes.  So basically, I think all these three things are connected in between: the poor sight reading skills, and weak transposition, and also that the learning process is very long for her.  I think  these are all connected in between them.  Well, the Royal Academy of Music is some of my students are studying there.  Not organ, but other instruments, and well, we were really good, at least at the music theory.  So I don’t know what Justina’s musical background is, but of course to be accepted to the Royal Academy of Music is quite an ambitious goal.

V:  Mm hm.  Your students who are studying at the Royal Academy of Music…

A:  Actually, some of them have graduated.

V:  Graduated.  They of course have graduated from the National Čiurlionis School of Art in Lithuania.  So basically, they have professional level 12 year training beforehand.

A:  Yes.

V:  Twelve year.  It’s like our gymnasium - twelve years of curriculum, very intense, starting from 6 or 7 years of old.  So, imagine how much work has Justina to do in order to catch up.

A:  I don’t know where she is.

V:  Yes.

A:  Where she is studying right now.  And what is her musical background.

V:  But comparing for example, your students who were admitted to Royal Academy of Music, can you have one example in your mind.  Not out loud, but just in your mind.  How were sight reading skills of these people?  Better?

A:  I think yes.

V:  They didn’t complain.

A:  Well, that’s right.  But of course, most of them were not majoring in piano performance or organ performance.  They were string players…

V:  Harp?

A:  Harp, yes.  Violin.

V:  Mm hm.  Yeah.  So basically, you have to be good at sight reading at your instrument first of all.

A:  Yes.

V:  In order to get admitted.  Hm.  What can we suggest?  Oh of course.  If Hervey’s (in the previous podcast conversation) goal is to have above average results, I think Justina’s goal must be very professional level.

A:  Sure.

V:  Not above average, but the best she can, basically.  The better, the more advanced level, the better.

A:  Because the thing is, if she thinks that after graduating from Royal Academy of Music she will be a professional organist she will become, I would say that if you really want to be really good at your instrument,  you need to be already professional before entering there.
V:  Mm hm.

A:  A school like this.  Because look, well, all of these abilities to play instrument really well, we need to be start forming at a very young age.

V:  Mm hm.

A:  And I don’t, I’m not telling that you need to start to play organ in the elementary school - this is physically most often impossible, but maybe you need to have a very good piano background.

V:  Mm hm.  You’re right, Ausra.  I think what, the other thing that could be said is that Justina needs to take it very very seriously, and practice it like, not one hour a day, not two hours a day probably.  Because your students, obviously they spend hours, several hours per day at least with their instruments, right?  They win competitions, international competitions, before…

A:  Yes, that’s true.

V:  ...they even apply.

A:  And since Justina is talking about weak transposition skills, it means that she might not be ready, you know, not have enough qualification of music theory, too.  Because this is all connected at the end.

V:  Yes.  You have to understand.  Schools like Royal Academy of Music or any type of conservatory or very high level college or university, they, all they do actually is expand your repertoire, right?  But you don’t start from scratch there.  You are already at a very high level before entering that school.  So you learn to play even virtuoso pieces at the earlier level, in the high school level, right?  And then you apply and get admitted, and then you broaden your musical horizons: music theory, and probably harmony, even advanced harmony and music history as well, organology, all those things, and obviously you learn tons of new repertoire in your field.  You become kind of very prolific performer, I would say.  You can have maybe several hours of recital program at your fingertips and your feet, right?  On moment’s notice.  That’s what these schools do.  That’s the end result.  But before you get admitted, you have to have very high level also before that.  You have to be able to play virtuoso repertoire basically.

A:  And does she that you actually need to practice every day a lot, very diligently, and for many hours.

V:  Yes, and for many years, too.  I don’t know, maybe this could be sped up, not 12 years study, maybe could be 6 years study, could be, for people who are highly motivated.

A:  But still, you cannot achieve in half a year what you might have achieved in 10 years.

V:  No, it’s too difficult.  Life is short.

A:  Well, maybe if we are talking about music theory for example, then maybe yes, something might be done really fast if you have big motivation and you spend a bit of time and you have the mind of a grown up...

V:  Mm hm.

A:  Human.  Then you might do the progress faster.  But if we are talking about all this technical matters, meaning playing technique, you cannot push it forward too much.

V:  Yes.

A:  Because…

V:  It takes time.

A:  It takes time.  Because if you will force yourself, you might injure your hands.

V:  Yes, yes, people do that sometimes.

A:  Yes, people do that, and we do that quite often actually, in the musician field.

V:  They overextend themselves, they practice for let’s say 6 or 8 hours per day without resting.  Their body is tense.  They forget to breathe, stretch, take a walk, rest, and they break down.

A:  So I would say, if for example I would be in Justina’s shoes, first of all what I would have to have is to know admission requirements of Royal Academy of Music.

V:  Yeah, what kind of repertoire do you need…

A:  Yes, what kind of repertoire you need to play.

V:  How much repertoire also.

A:  What kind of examinations you have to take in, and then to, some of the schools, they might send you all that information and even some tests to see how far are you from those requirements.

V:  Mm hm.

A:  And then you have to set up a goal and a plan, how fast you might achieve.

V:  Very good, Ausra!  Do you think that recording your results, your incremental results and publishing them, let’s say on YouTube channel, would be helpful for her to track her progress?

A:  Well, yes, but it might take too much time, and in this case she might not have it.  What I would do, another thing I would do, I would try to make some connections to the people, to the faculty members of Royal Academy of Music, if she is going, she wants to study organ performance, she might contact the faculty members.

V:  Mm.  You mean she could go there once she has connections and play informally to professors and see what they can say about what level…

A:  Yes, or you know, to send her recording of her performance.  I think that’s the easiest way to do it.

V:  Oh yeah, now you cannot travel.

A:  I think that’s the easiest way to do it.

V:  Virtually.

A:  If somebody would be willing to hear her.

V:  Yes.  And critique her video or audio.

A:  Sure.

V:  Better video, of course.

A:  Yes, I think for these things the video is better.

V:  So yeah.  Track her progress, and find out your requirements.

A:  Yes, because if you are interested in certain school, it’s always good that you will have a faculty member that would be interested in having you coming to study into that school.

V:  Remember, it’s a prestigious school, right?  Top 20, top 10 school in the world probably, for organs.  And they have applicants from all over the globe coming every year.  So they don’t have too much interest in a relatively unknown person, right?  We have to have personal connection.

A:  Yes.

V:  Or be extremely good.

A:  Or have a lot of money.

V:  Oh. (laughs)  I hadn’t thought about it, but yes, that would work, too.  All right, guys.  This was Vidas.

A:  And Ausra.

V:  We hope this has been helpful to you.  I think Justina’s goal, just for ending this conversation, I might add that it’s a little too ambitious for her right now.  She needs to divide it, subdivide it into manageable units, right?  What is the first step, second step, and then third step.  If she takes those steps, she will progress in a timely manner.  Not too overwhelming.  What do you say, Ausra?

A:  Yes, I think that’s a good suggestion.

V:  Yeah.  Step by step.  And remember, when you practice,

A:  Miracles happen.
​
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Let's pretend you have decided to learn a couple of contrasting pieces by a certain date (say, in 30 days). You have long thought about having a nice goal, almost like a small mission for yourself and since living with the feeling of regret, laziness, excuses, boredom, and aimlessness became too depressing, you have looked at the mirror and said to yourself: "Now or never".

So you are all pumped up with excitement and ready for change. These two pieces would add a nice excitement into your day - you will watch your skills grow every day and by a certain date you will be ready to play them in public.

Here are a few mistakes to avoid when you are planning and goal-setting your organ practice:

1. Starting with too much excitement. When we are jumping from joy about the prospect of succeeding in some exciting goal, it's very easy to lose ground. Temptations come every day, every hour, every minute. Our inner dragons are waiting for us around the corner. Actually it's nothing special. Start silently. Practice just today. If tomorrow comes, you will have another chance.

2. Having too much to learn every day. Have you planned to learn one page a day? Maybe you can do it once or twice, but believe me, in three days your mission will become unbearable (unless you are professional at this) because you will have to repeat previously mastered material. Bite only what you can eat. If you learn one line a day, then you have a chance to do it long-term.

3. Giving in to the idea "it's not the first time I decided to achieve something and failed." Of course, we all have had our failed New Year's resolutions and other epic failures, some public, some private. But it's not a failure, if you learn from it. F = Feedback. Although you are not some Super Man, but you are not a loser either. This time it's worth your effort.

4. Thinking about the end result all the time. Looking too far ahead without doing the work for today is pointless. All that matters is today. Remember, you are like this train going from place A to place B. If you are on the right track, you will reach your destination. But you have to keep moving.

5. Scolding yourself for not being able to keep up with your plan. There will be some days when you miss a practice session or two. This happens and it's OK. Not that you must chicken out of your mission. You see, your inner dragons want you to stop. So every slip you make along the way will be held against you (in your mind). You can adjust your plan as long as you keep going.

Make sure you pay attention to these common mistakes. You don't want to be disappointed and go back to where you started without actually achieving anything. But find your inner strength, believe the power of today, and you will successfully master these pieces and will be ready for another challenge.

Result is not the goal. Process is the goal.

When people pick wild blueberries in the forest during the first 30 minutes is really fun – a beautiful nature, singing birds, we put the berries into the basket one after another. It’s even better when the berries are fairly large – then you can have the full basket fairly fast.

But later, the further you are into the forest, the more effort is needed. If you try picking with a bent back – your back begins to hurt; if you are picking on your knees – they begin to hurt also.

After about 2 hours of this process, it becomes a real suffering for most people. Your body hurts in any position. However a lot of people don’t stop picking the blueberries here. They try to ignore the physical pain and continue picking them until they have full baskets.

Why? The answer is simple. These people have a goal – they don’t want to come back home with empty baskets.

Practicing organ music is similar to picking blueberries. At first practicing gives much pleasure, the sounds of the organ are relaxing and you are in a good temper.

But if you try to really focus and continue playing after about 30 minutes, practicing begins to be not so easy. Often you would want to switch to another activity.

But if you have a goal such as learn and master a certain organ composition or prepare for a public performance, then you are able to overcome your struggles and practice with pleasure much longer (with frequent breaks for stretching and relaxation, of course).

Do you have a goal?

In my previous post I wrote about devising a plan which is needed to achieve your goal in 2013. This plan will be your road map for the upcoming year. It won't let you to get lost among many other tasks that you do in your daily life.

However, having a plan alone is not going to help you much. It's too big, too broad, too general for your every day tasks. You need something more manageable, something that you could do every day. In other words, you need to create series of steps for your plan.

So now, when you face the last day in this old year, it's the most crucial time you think about those steps. Because if tomorrow comes and all you have is a plan, you won't know what exactly you have to do that day and in which order.

The best way to go about creating these steps is to take your plan and think what kind of results you should get every month in order to reach your goal on time? If your goal takes 12 months to accomplish, divide your big goal into 12 parts.

Then take each month and think what you would have to achieve each week so that you reach your monthly goals. So you would need to divide each of the 12 monthly goals into groups of 4 smaller weekly goals.

The last step would be to take these weekly goals and divide them into 7 parts, each one for every day of the week. Or if you only want to work for 5 days a week towards your goal, divide them into 5 parts.

Note that it's important to leave yourself some time to relax, to recover and have some flexibility. If anything unexpected comes up that day, you can still make it up during the week.

Take some time to think about these steps today and write them down. This process will give you a strong start for the New Year. Then all you need to do is to implement each of the daily steps and at the end of the year you will reach your goal.

It's like going from town A to town B on the train. Because the train follows a certain predetermined track, you can be sure that you will reach your destination.

By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide.

Yesterday I wrote about the need to have a clear goal in mind for the upcoming year. The days at the end of the year are critical, you see, because if you enter the new year without a predetermined goal in mind, you will likely have the same results as you had this year.

So my question is do you like those results? And because you are reading this, my guess is that you want some kind of positive change. So that's where this goal comes in.

Remember, it doesn't have to be a single goal. In fact, it's better to have 3 most important measurable and achievable goals written down.

Hopefully now that you have your goals on paper, think about the exact plan to getting to that goal. Be as specific as possible.

For example, if your goal is to prepare for an organ recital in 6 months, think about what kind of pieces do you want to play. Calculate how many pages are total in your program. Divide the number of pages by the number of days you have left until your planned recital (minus one month). Then you will know exactly how much music you will have to learn each day in order to reach your goal on time.

(And by the way, you don't have to be an experienced professional organist to play an organ recital at your level of competence - you only have to have professional attitude with a sense of responsibility. The wise practice plan will prepare you for it).

Do you see the process here? It's just an example, of course. Write your own plan which suits you and your goal.

By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide.

The New Year of 2013 is almost upon us. As you review what you have accomplished in 2012, it is not too late to think of what will be your goal in 2013.

If you do what you did in 2012, you will have the same results. So the question is do you like what you have achieved in 2012? Or perhaps you are dreaming for something to change?

By the way, I like this definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results (Albert Einstein).

So if you practice in the old way in 2013 over and over but expect different results, that wouldn't be very good strategy, would it?

Instead what if you think about what kind of results you want to have in 2013, and then adjust your practice accordingly.

Write your goal down. It will hold you accountable.

By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide.