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#AskVidasAndAusra 31 - How to develop hand and feet independence?

7/21/2017

I woke up trying
While someone was watching
To play the first bar.

Today's question was sent by Albert. Here's what he writes:

I'm a newbie. I play piano and I started organ practice / classes a few months ago. At the moment working in BWV 553 to 560 and trying to absorb everything I can about this universe. Now I'm going to listen to all your podcasts :-) Thanks for you great job..

As former pianist I find them pretty easy. :-) But, the most frustrating thing is the little independence of the feet that I have with respect the hands. Specifically when the feet and the left hand decide to go together, independently of what is written in the score :-D. Typical beginners problem, isn't' it?

Listen to our full answer at #AskVidasAndAusra

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TRANSCRIPT:

Vidas:   Today we're starting Episode 31 of #AskVidasAndAusra Podcast. This question was sent by Albert. He writes, "I'm a newbie. I play piano, and I started organ practice and classes a few months ago, at the moment working in BWV 553 to 560, and trying to absorb everything I can about this universe. Now I'm going to listen to all of your podcasts. Thanks for your great job. As a former pianist, I find them pretty easy, but the most frustrating thing is the little independence of the feet that I have with respect to the hands, specifically when the feet and the left hand decide to go together independently of what is written in the score. Difficult beginner's problem, isn't it?"

Ausra, Albert is practicing eight little preludes and fugues, right?

Ausra:   Yes.

Vidas:   He's having a problem with hands and feet independence.

Ausra:   Sure.

Vidas:   Do you remember the time when you had the same problem?

Ausra:   Yes, I remember that, during my freshman year at the Lithuanian Academy of Music.

Vidas:   What was the first piece you played? Do you remember?

Ausra:   It was G-minor prelude and fugue. The little one.

Vidas:   First the prelude, and then fugue right away or not?

Ausra:   Yes, and then C major prelude and fugue.

Vidas:   So the fugues are, in this collection, usually much more difficult.

Ausra:   Yes. But the during a spring exam, I played the prelude and fugue by Bach, in G major. Actually, it's very rarely played. I don't think I've ever heard it played after that.

Vidas:   I just sight-read it last week.

Ausra:   Yes. The last line of the fugue is very demanding for a beginner, because the hands are playing up and pedals are going down. I remember that spot just killed my brain during that time. It was very hard to do it.

Vidas:   Right.

Ausra:   Especially, as Albert said, playing feet playing downwards and left hand - upwards.

Vidas:   There is this place at the end of G-major of fugue. How did you overcome this problem?

Ausra:   By practicing voices separately, just pedal and then pedal and right hand, and then pedal and left hand, working in combinations, and playing slowly at the beginning.

Vidas:   Small fragments or entire fugue?

Ausra:   Only that last line.

Vidas:   Last line. So, Albert, if you are having a problem like Ausra had many years ago, probably it's best to slow down significantly, like 50% of the concert tempo, at least, and then repeatedly, many, many times, play a problematic spot, starting on the down beat and ending on the down beat, too. Because it will help you connect two fragments. And play in combinations, as Ausra says.

Ausra:   That's the most helpful way to help yourself.

Vidas:   Ausra, when a person cannot really play two voices together, left hand and pedals, does it mean that they should go back to solo part playing, left hand alone or pedal alone?

Ausra:   Yes, I think so. Do single voice, first of all, and then add the second one.

Vidas:   Exactly, because step adds significantly greater burdens. It actually doesn't have to be this way. The process has to be very gradual. So only progress with the next step when you can do previous step at least three times in a row without mistakes.

Ausra:   But don't give up. This type of problem is one of the most common for most beginners. Because for most of us, if you write with your right hand, that means your left side is less developed, and it gets in trouble while playing left hand and foot pedal.

Vidas:   Yeah. I remember that you pick up things with your right hand most of the time, not with the left, if you're right handed, of course.

Ausra:   Yes.

Vidas:   So then left hand needs to do more work grabbing some keyboard exercises and keyboard episode. You know what you could do? You could sight-read more pieces, not only from eight preludes and fugues, but pick any other collection that you love, and sight-read one piece a day, and not all the voices, because you will be struggling significantly, but maybe one line at a time. Maybe the left hand, maybe the pedals, maybe all parts separately, and take one piece a day.

Ausra, would you think this help in the long run?

Ausra:   Yes, definitely it would.

Vidas:   When you were studying at the Academy of Music during the freshman year, did you sight-read new music regularly?

Ausra:   Not so much, because overall, I had so much music to learn that all my music was like sight-reading. I remember looking, at that big stack of music on my piano and I was just overwhelmed. We had to do organ playing, We had to do piano playing. We had to do choir conducting. A whole bunch of pieces. Then, of course, chamber music and so on.

Vidas:   Organ music was like 45 minutes per semester, right?

Ausra:   Well, at least. I think it was almost an hour.

Vidas:   Yes. Two recitals per year you had to prepare? Piano music, at least 20 minutes per semester, right?

Ausra:   Yes.

Vidas:   Choir music also about the same amount.

Ausra:   We had like six pieces of choir music to prepare for semester.

Vidas:   And chamber music also maybe 15 minutes.

Ausra:   Yes. A whole sonata for one semester.

Vidas:   Imagine every week you are playing for one hour, two, three hours of new music, preparing for three recitals at the same time.

Ausra:   Yeah.

Vidas:   It's always new things, basically. First couple of months is hell, right?

Ausra:   Yeah.

Vidas:   But then you get better and better, and you sight-read things more easily, right?

Ausra:   Sure.

Vidas:   We really recommend sight-reading, sight-reading many more pieces than you would ever play and practice and polish. That's the best strategy that you could take in the long run.

Of course, don't forget that we have fingered scores and complete fingering and pedaling prepared for you of 8 little preludes and fugues. How many hours do you think that would save for people, writing it for themselves? How many hours would it take?

Ausra:   Actually many, because writing down fingering is very time-consuming.

Vidas:   Did you like writing it down?

Ausra:   No.

Vidas:   I didn't myself. But it's so helpful to have a score with fingering and pedaling, because it saves so much time. Well, if you know what you're doing, it's still at least one hour per page. If you're just writing it down very quickly, one hour per page. If you're practicing three page prelude and fugue from this collection, and you know exactly what you're doing, you would save at least three hours. But obviously people don't know how to write fingering and pedaling, right, Ausra?

Ausra:   Yes.

Vidas:   So it's a big help, maybe, 10, 20, 30 hours of saving time. It would help if you had these scores, so check them out. We really recommend it. Of course, if you sign up now for our Total Organist program, you can have all of them for free for 30 days, for the trial period. If you like it, keep it, and then keep subscribing as long as you want. But if you don't like it, you can just cancel before the month ends. You can do that at www.organduo.lt/total-organist. Of course, send us more questions. We love helping you grow.

Okay, this was Vidas ...

Ausra:   And Ausra.

Vidas: And remember, when you practice -

Ausra: Miracles happen.

Comments

How to Overcome the Left Hand and the Tenor Problem in Hymn Playing on the Organ?

1/8/2012

Comments

For many organists who come to the organ after some years of piano studies, playing hymns poses certain challenges. One of the most obvious problems is being able to play independent tenor part in the left hand. This is because for pianists the left hand very often symbolizes the bass line which on the organ is usually performed in the pedals.

In other words, this skill requires hand and feet coordination which beginning organists naturally have not yet fully developed. Therefore, they may get sometimes frustrated how difficult is to separate the left hand part from the pedals and they start doubling the bass part in the left hand. If you find yourself in this position, this article will show you how to overcome the left hand and tenor problem while playing hymns on the organ.

Never double the bass in the left hand. I understand that this might seem as the easiest fix to this problem. Even some of my colleague organists still play the hymns this way sometimes. They basically play two voices in one hand and two voices in the other plus they add the bass line in the pedals.

Some of them even know that this is incorrect but they claim that it is faster to learn new hymns this way. And of course, if you have reasonable sight-reading skills on the piano but very little or no practice time on the organ, you can even sight-read the easier hymns on the spot. But you have to understand that this kind of playing will not lead you very far.

You see, while practicing playing the tenor part in the left hand and the bass part in the pedals you are developing hand and feet coordination. On the contrary, while practicing doubling the bass line in the left hand part you are developing the skill of doubling which is not useful. The longer you play the bass line both in the left hand and the pedals, the longer it will take you to develop hand and feet coordination in organ playing.

You don’t always have to play the hymns with pedals. This might seem like a strange suggestion coming from the organist but it is true. The hymns sound perfectly fine even without the use of the pedals. Of course, you have to add the correct articulation, interesting registration, and other things that are specific to the organ (I have written an article earlier about hymn playing which you might find useful).

The use of 16’ in the pedals while playing the hymn adds the gravity to the sound. On the other hand, if need more juice you can add 16’ in the manual (if there is such a stop on your organ). So if you feel like you have not enough time to prepare for the service properly, just play all parts on the manual.

Start with just one pedal hymn per service. In the beginning, when you are new to the organ or when it is still hard to coordinate the left hand and pedals for you, prepare just one hymn using pedals. This will save you much of your time. If you can sight-read the hymns reasonably well on the piano, play them through a few times on the organ a week before service without using the pedals.

Then choose one hymn and practice it with the pedals over the course of this week. Gradually, when your skills will become more developed, add a second hymn and prepare it with pedals. With time, you will notice that it gets easier and easier to coordinate the left hand and the pedal part in your organ playing. Then you will be able to sight-read them all using pedals effortlessly.

Practice the hymns as real organ compositions. Although hymns are short and may seem very simple, you should treat them as organ compositions while practicing. You see, even though the texture is straightforward, rhythms are simple, melody is easily recognizable, very often the bass line is the second most developed voice in hymns. This is because the bass part is the foundation of harmony (chords and their relations), just as it is in concert organ pieces.

Therefore, learning the bass line may take the same approach as learning solo organ music. I have written earlier about how to master any organ composition which you can refer to here. In short, I suggest that you subdivide the hymns into fragments according to the lines of the stanza. Practice solo voices separately, then two-voice combinations, later combinations of three voices and only then the entire four-part texture.

If you follow my suggestions and take practicing the hymns seriously, you will notice that you are on the right track. Just be patient, practice regularly, slowly, and wisely, and know that the day when you will find no trouble playing hymns is not very far.

By the way, if you would like to know more about hymn playing, I highly recommend studying Organ Technique: Modern and Early by George Ritchie and George Stauffer. This method book has separate chapter on hymn playing with many important exercises.

Another great resource is Art of Hymn Playing by Charles E. Callahan. It has 250 Introductions, Preludes, Free Accompaniments, and Alternate Harmonizations. The pieces range from 2 part voicing to more complex. It is meant as a graded guide to hymn playing.

By the way, do you want to learn to play the King of Instruments - the pipe organ? If so, download my FREE video guide: "How to Master Any Organ Composition" in which I will show you my EXACT steps, techniques, and methods that I use to practice, learn and master any piece of organ music.

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How to Overcome the Left Hand and the Tenor Problem in Hymn Playing on the Organ?

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