Vidas: Hi, guys, this is Vidas.

Ausra: And Ausra.
 
V: Let’s start episode 410, of Secret of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by May, who our Total Organist student.  And she writes:
 
Hi Vidas!  Thank you for sending the Week 5 material of Harmony for Organists Level 1.  My keyboard harmony is weak and I am still struggling with the harmonic progression from week 3, running behind.  It takes a long time going through each of the six – tonic to dominant, dominant to tonic, tonic to subdominant, subdominant to tonic – the six closed and open chord forms in only the major and minor scales with one sharp or less, not including the one flat scales.  I started practicing these harmonic progressions are Wednesday.  I’m playing better than two days ago, but still have to pause and think, for example, which is the common note, and also going up or down.  I don’t have time to write down the chords before I practice.  It is also much difficult to play all four notes by hands only.  My question is, how good should I be with three harmonic progression exercises before I proceed with four?  Thanks!  ~May
 
V: What do you think, Ausra?  This is your expertise.
 
A: Well, it depends on what your final goal is.  Well, what I do at school with my kids, I usually spend two weeks on one theme, on one subject.  Let’s say the first theme is how to connect two chords with the common note.  And we spend maybe not so much as two weeks on this subject, because it is quite easy – this is the easiest way to connect two chords if you have a common note.  But, it, you know, it matters what your final goal is.  Because what we do at school, we do written exercises first, but we play them on the piano, of course, from your head, not from the score.  And then we sing them.
 
V:  Mm-hm.
 
A: Which is the hardest way to do.  And earlier we had to sing it from our head, now we allow them to write down first and sing from the score.  And when we achieve this goal in two weeks, then we move to a new subject.
 
V: I feel that you are such a great teacher in harmony, Ausra!
 
A: (laughs) Well, I don’t think I am so great, but I am doing my best.
 
V: Do your students appreciate you?
 
A:  Some of them, yes. But some of them just struggle too hard.
 
V:  But probably all of them understand that you are an expert at this.
 
A: Definitely, yes.  I don’t think we have any doubt about it.
 
V:  But you said earlier that some of them just tried to do tricks with you, right?  They ask you why is this so here and here and here, and you have to explain to them even though you see that they don’t understand the basics, right?
 
A: Yes, I have.
 
V: They try to catch you.  But not so much now.
 
A: No.  Usually, I am the one who catches them – cheating, for example.
 
V: Interesting.
 
A: This is funny, when we are doing exercises in four voices, you have to have, you know, soprano, alto, tenor, and bass from the beginning to the end – there’s no exceptions.  And sometimes, I see there are no erasing marks,
 
V: Uh-huh, erasing.
 
A: Erasing marks, yes.  And everything is so clean and nice.  And suddenly in one spot, there is like, one or two measures of tenor voice missing (laughs). And I see that we cheated and we took this exercise from somebody and rewrote it.  It makes me laugh, but also, you know, I laugh in my mind.  I don’t show it.  I think it’s a very bad way and wrong head to take things from others and place them as your own.
 
V: Do you think there is a market for selling your homework to a student? (laughs)
 
A: I don’t think, not yet. But who knows?  In the future, somebody might get rich!
 
V: Yeah, like me!
 
A: Yes, true!
 
V: But I might make mistakes.
 
A: You know, by now, after teaching for fourteen years keyboard harmony, I’m pretty good at determining who can do what.  And if somebody will bring me work, I’m pretty good at determining if they made it by themselves or not,
 
V: I will do my work, and you will determine if I did it myself or not.  Yesterday, we cleaned the house, and do you think I cleaned it myself, or not?
 
A: Well, yes, but I had to struggle for a long time that you will do your part of the job.
 
V: (laughs) Oh gosh.  This is funny.  Do you want me to tell the guys, our listeners, what I wrote to May?
 
A: Sure.
 
V: In response to her question, I wrote,
 
Thanks, May!  You are certainly on the right track.  Ausra’s harmony students at school also generally play very slowly such exercises. I would say, strive for fluency, but at a slow tempo, before going to the next week’s exercises.  But, if you mentally understand the structure, even though you still get stuck in executing them, maybe you can go on to the next one if you feel it’s good enough.  Something like three mistakes is okay.
 
And she wrote:
 
Thank you for your quick response to this.  I tried the Week 4 exercises, transposing sequences, and I actually found them easier than Week 3.  In Week 4 exercises, the chords are in closed positions with the right hand playing three notes and the left hand playing one note.  I find it much more manageable than playing the progressions with chords in open position.  Thanks again.
 
A: Yes, definitely open position is much harder than closed position.
 
V: And especially if you are playing this on the organ, you have to play just tenor with the left hand, and bass with the pedals.
 
A: True.  And at school, actually we only play on the piano.  But I always require that my students would play two voices with the left hand and two voices with the right hand.  Because it’s easier when you have technical exercise, and you have one position throughout the exercise, either closed or open.  But generally, when you start to harmonize more complex things, the positions change in the exercise.
 
V: Within the exercise.
 
A: Yes.
 
V: So both positions are very useful to know.
 
A: True.  But if you are thinking in the long term about mixing all these positions, then it’s easier, you have two voices in one hand and two in another, because it’s easier to think about voice leading.
 
V: Ausra, do you like harmony?
 
A: Yes, I like it very much.
 
V:  I can feel that our listeners will feel that too, that you enjoy teaching harmony actually.  Not only harmony as a subject itself, but actually communicating your knowledge with others.
 
A: Yes, it’s quite fun.  I like it!
 
V: That is nice.
 
A:  Because I believe that knowing harmony puts a ground for a solid musician.
 
V:  Mm-hm.  You don’t regret that you know so much about harmony?
 
A: No, definitely not.
 
V:  Mm-hm.  You know much more about music in general then, because of harmony.
 
A: True, true.  Because now I can sort of understand any given piece of music.  Because I can analyze the harmonies.  It tells a lot about the piece.
 
V:  Mm-hm.  It’s like reading a poem in Japanese.  You know what it means, you can translate.
 
A: True. Of course, I don’t know Japanese, so.
 
V: So you’re like a harmony translator for people.
 
A: That’s right.
 
V: Nice.
 
A:  And I give my students exercises, you know, of analyzing some excerpts from the music itself.  And I like to tease them sometimes, talking about cadences, and keys, and non-chordal notes.  We don’t like this kind of exercises, some of them.  Because you need to think.  And we don’t like to think.
 
V:  Can I ask you something?
 
A: Sure.
 
V: Remember, you did those keyboard harmony exercises videos. Sometimes I recorded them for you, you were playing, and sometimes you recorded them by yourself.  And I know being on camera is not your, not your best way to spend your free time, right?
 
A: Definitely.  I don’t like cameras.
 
V:  To put it easily.  Do you feel differently about it now than a couple of years ago when you did it?
 
A:  Well, I still don’t think I would like to be on camera.
 
V:  I mean, not you on camera, just your hands on camera.
 
A: Still.
 
V: (laughs)
 
A:  It’s me, it’s my hands and my voice.
 
V: Is your, are your hands so precious and private?
 
A: No, I think I’m just too shy for such kind of exhibition.
 
V: Exhibition?  It’s not exhibition!
 
A: Still. You know what I mean.
 
V: Excellent.  So, guys, if you want Ausra to change her mind and do more of these videos, because I can’t change her mind for you, ask her!  Be very persuasive, more persuasive than I.  Okay?  And 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 379 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast and this question was sent by Ariane and she writes:
 
“I have been working on chord progressions in F Major and tried to find the right chords for hymns in the same key. I need to recognize the patterns, so rather than playing the progressions in all sorts of keys I try to stick to one at a time.”
 
V: Wow Ausra, it’s so nice people are actually practicing harmony exercises.
 
A: Yes, that’s so rare.
 
V: Umm-hmm.
 
A: But to be honest I’ve not quite comprehended this question.  Could you explain it to me how you understood it?
 
V: Yes. It doesn’t mean that I am understanding it correctly but I will try.  So let’s say Ariane is working on hymns, right?  And she needs to understand the chords that are built for the hymns.  Maybe she even wants to harmonize those hymns.  So she practices chord progressions in F Major because a particular hymn that she is working on is written in F Major and she then takes some of those chords from the progressions in F Majors and applies to the hymns in the same key.  So she needs to recognize the patterns basically and stick to one key.  Does that make sense?
 
A: Well, yes and no.
 
V: What does make sense, Ausra?
 
A: That she tries something from F Major to apply to F Major of a different melody in F Major is what you are trying to say.
 
V: Yes, yes, exactly.  It’s a long way that she’s taking, right?
 
A: I don’t think that’s the right way to the harmony and to learn things because it doesn’t make sense to me.
 
V: It reminds me of how I was approaching improvisation actually at first when I was studying Jan Peeterszoon Sweelinck’s treatise on counterpoint and composition.  It’s called Composition's Regeln and it was notated or written down by his students.  I believe it was Weckmann and Reincken and maybe even Jacob Praetorius who joined in writing them down but basically those rules come from Sweelinck.  And at the time I was so fascinated by this polyphonic writing and this treatise that I thought if I for example take a piece by Scheidemann, which is in a similar style, right?  And I deconstruct the motives and fragments and memorize and transpose them into different keys that I would be able to recreate Scheidemann’s style on my own hymn tunes or chorale melodies and remember I did this lecture-recital when I played 4 or 5 versets based on one Lutheran chorale and my patterns and polyphonic texture was entirely based on Scheidemann’s works.  Did that work Ausra?
 
A: Well I think it worked for that occasion.  But I still don’t think this is the right way to learn improvisation, to learn harmony.
 
V: Right, because if I understand correctly Ariane also for example tries to recognize the patterns from chord progressions, take those patterns and apply to F Major hymns, right?
 
A: Well if you would learn keyboard for once you wouldn’t have to do that.
 
V: Uhh-huh.
 
A: Because if you would learn certain patterns you could apply it to any given key.
 
V: Exactly.  What I didn’t understand at the time when I was trying to teach myself improvisation was that this treatise teaches me how to think in musical ideas, take a motive and how to develop it, take a polyphonic texture and how to compose it or improvise it so it sounds convincing in that particular style.  It teaches people how to think in musical ideas, right?  It doesn’t teach us how to imitate the same thing but to think basically, to work with our brains.  The same thing I believe happens with harmony.  When we teach people how to harmonize first of all they play progressions and we don’t require them to memorize those progressions in a way that they won’t understand what is going on but basically for themselves they will be able to think in musical terms and figure out other chords that fit that particular hymn.  Does it make sense?
 
A: Yes, it makes sense.
 
V: It’s not an automatic way, you have to think about it but I think it’s much faster and more musically pleasing too.
 
A: I think so too, yes.
 
V: And you are not stuck to one particular pattern or progression that you know.  You can come up with 10 or 20 or more different patterns on the spot.  Whatever comes in front of you, you can react, right?
 
A: Yes, that’s true.
 
V: It’s sort of free thinking in musical ideas which is much more applicable to real life situations when Ariane needs to harmonize a real hymn tune or a chorale.  OK.  Do you think this idea will help Ariane and others?
 
A: Yes I hope so.
 
V: So guys please keep sending us your wonderful 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 331 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Lev, and he writes:
 
Hello Vidas,

Could you please (if you find time) take a look at my suggestions for progression T1TS2SD3DT4T in C major and a minor (Exercise 9-2 from Harmony for organists course) and give me short feedback about mistakes. I'd like to make sure I've understood the harmony stuff correctly so far.

Thanks in advance and best regards

V: Ausra and I just a moment ago looked at this file, and we were actually very impressed. Right? Because we didn’t see almost any mistakes.
 
A: Yes! We could not find any, except from orthography. When you put slurs in the Tenor voice, they need to look up.
 
V: If the stem goes up, then the slur or the tie has to go from above, too. If the stem goes downward, faces downward, like in the alto voice or in the base voice, then the note slur also needs to go from below. Right?
 
A: Otherwise, all the voice leading is correct.
 
V: This is really nice. The assignment was to harmonize, in four parts, a progression of three chords, basically: Tonic, Subdominant, Dominant, and again, Tonic. But, make the Tonic sound twice, the Subdominant sound twice, the Dominant sound twice, and the Tonic again sound twice, but not repeated, but in different melodic positions. So, that’s what we were talking about in the harmony course, so far, and Lev seems to understand the subject very well.
 
A: Yes, that looks like that.
 
V: Do you have these exercises in your harmony class, Ausra? Similar ones?
 
A: Yes, I have this exercise. I believe it’s taken from my course that I’m teaching.
V: You mean stolen!
 
A: Yes. Never mind that, it’s general knowledge. It’s actually suited for beginners.
 
V: Once people know how to put one chord correctly, how to connect two chords correctly, and then how to repeat the same chord in a different melodic position, then they could make a longer phrase out of four or six or seven or even eight, chords, and starting from different melodic positions. For example, in C major, you could start from the note “C” in the soprano, “E” in the soprano, or “G” in the soprano! And, you could also do closed position chords or open position chords. So, in C major, there could be, like, six versions. Right?
 
A: That’s right.
 
V: And then the same thing in A minor, also, one third below. What about your students, Ausra, at school? Do they make mistakes on this kind of exercise?
 
A: Well, some do and some do not. So, it’s different.
 
V: Of those who do make mistakes, what would they lack? What kind of knowledge do they lack, or skills?
 
A: I think they are probably too lazy, some of them. Some of them don’t want to apply the rules, and that’s a problem.
 
V: Don’t want to follow the rules.
 
A: Yes.
 
V: They are artists, right?
 
A: Well…
 
V: Like myself.
 
A: They imagine themselves, that they are artists.
 
V: I also don’t follow the rules.
 
A: I wouldn’t call them artists.
 
V: Would you call me an artist?
 
A: Yes, but you know how to do these exercises, so don’t compare yourself with my students.
 
V: Right.
 
A: Who are like 16, 17, 18 years old.
 
V: Do you remember my harmony exercises from school like 20 or 30 years ago?
 
A: Yes, I do remember.
 
V: I did show them to you, right?
 
A: Yes.
 
V: What did you think about them?
 
A: I thought that you are better at writing musical dictations than harmonizing.
 
V: Oh, so I have better musical pitch than head…
 
A: that’s right, that’s what I thought…
 
V: Than brain… What about yours? Do you remember what your experience was when you were in school?
 
A: Well, let’s face it, you know, I finished the school which is much better than yours. So… the requirements in our school were much higher than yours?
 
V: Why would you say that?
 
A: Well, because it is true?
 
V: Is it? Are you sure?
 
A: Yes, I am definitely sure!
 
V: Take it back!
 
A: No, I will not!
 
V: Okay, I feel so sad, I think I’m going to cry, but maybe I will continue teaching people today, too. I’ll cry after the podcast. Okay? Remind me to cry.
 
A: Okay, I will!
 
V: So, Lev is doing a great job, I think, with harmony. I wonder if he plays them—if after he writes them he plays them, because it’s really beneficial, right?
 
A: Yes, it is! Sometimes I think that we spend too much time on writing down things, and not enough of practicing them on the keyboard.
 
V: Because, the main skill that we are trying to develop is practical, not theoretical knowledge.
 
A: True. So, you need, of course, to do written exercise, because if you start right away doing them on keyboard, it might be too hard, and then you might make voice-leading mistakes, and do a sloppy job. But after writing them down for a while, you really need to go and practice them on the keyboard in various keys—not only in C major and A minor.
 
V: Right. The exercise for hymn in Harmony for Organists, Level 1 was in C major and A minor, because just in that week we have those pairs of keys. In school, Ausra, do you also assign paired tonalities?
 
A: Usually, yes.
 
V: Because it would be too much to do everything.
 
A: That’s right.
 
V: Only crazy people could practice everything.
 
A: But, for example, this kind of exercise, I don’t give them to do it as a written assignment. I give it to my students to play it on piano from any position in a given key, and then they have also to sing it, too.
 
V: Oh, that’s a different subject.
 
A: Yes.
 
V: In which class do they have to sing it?
 
A: In Solfeggio.
 
V: Ear training?
 
A: Yes, ear training. I think Solfeggio is a term which even Americans should know. It’s sort of international.
 
V: So, Solfeggio with two Gs.
 
A: Yes, it comes from the French.
 
V: Or Italian.
A: I think from the French. We might check on it…
 
V: Solfège… right….
 
A: Solfeggio.
 
V: If “Solfeggio,” then it’s Italian, if “Solfège, then it’s French.
 
A: Yes. Because, ear training is not…. well… not a term that I really like, because it doesn’t describe so well what we are doing in the class, because ear training courses, as you call it, in our school….. first comes the ability to sight read things—to sing things from the score. That’s why we call it Solfège.
 
V: Because we use syllables: Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Si
 
A: Yes, that’s right. And of course, we do other stuff as well, so.. I prefer the “Solfège,” not “Ear Training” term.
 
V: Right, that’s kind of International. In talking about A minor, or any minor keys, what are some challenges that people should overcome when harmonizing these progressions?
 
A: Well, of course if you are in a minor key, you need to raise the seventh scale degree, then harmonize the dominant chord.
 
V: Why?
 
A: Because Dominant is major in both major and minor keys.
 
V: Why? Always ask this question, Ausra, and then you get to the bottom of things.
 
A: Why? That’s tradition that you need to carry on.
 
V: Maybe it’s a stupid tradition, you know? Somebody started it, and we are living in the 21st century, and this tradition came from the 17th century. Why should we follow the 6 or 5 centuries tradition. Maybe we should do whatever we want!
 
A: Yes, you can do that. I don’t mind.
 
V: Would it sound good?
 
A: No.
 
V: Why?
 
A: Well, because then you could not resolve it to tonic?
 
V: Why do we have to resolve everything to tonic?
 
A: That’s how music works. You have consonants, and you have dissonances, and you are building tension and releasing it…
 
V: What if I don’t want to release tension?
 
A: Well…
 
V: Or Build tension?
 
A: Well, if you compose music without releasing tension, I think your listeners will run out of the church after hearing you for 10 minutes, probably.
 
V: Maybe that would be a good thing. They would run and get exercise.
 
A: It depends upon what your goal is!
 
V: Getting people into fresh air.
 
A: True.
 
V: What about if I don’t want to build up tension, and just want to play things calmly—so without seventh scale degree raised?
 
A: Well, you could do that, but then you wouldn’t get a dominant chord. You could not call this chord in A minor key, E-G-B. Yes? If you wouldn’t have a G#, you could not call it a dominant chord. Then it would have another function. It would be more like a subdominant chord. So, that’s another story.
 
V: Wow. But then, people would not run out of the church.
 
A: But maybe they fall asleep.
 
V: Oh! Sleep is also good.
 
A: True.
 
V: We get more refreshed after sleep, too. Okay guys! This conversation is going to the silly direction now, and I hope you got some entertainment, so please keep sending your questions to us. We love helping you grow. And remember, when you practice,
 
A: Miracles happen.

By Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene (get free updates of new posts here)

On Monday during our harmony lesson, I taught Victoria the concept of secondary dominants.

It's a trick we use in harmony to visit closely related keys for a very short period of time.

It's not a modulation where we end a musical idea in a new key with a cadence. It's much much shorter - just 2 or 3 foreign chords.

Imagine C major key for a moment. Here is the tonic chord from bass up (CEG). Now maybe D6 chord (BDG) and back to tonic (CEG).

Now play BDEG#. That's D43 chord of A minor. A minor is the 6th scale degree chord. So that's D43 of vi. Now resolve it to A minor chord (ACEA).

So BDEG# is a secondary dominant chord in this case.

Then you can come back to C major by playing ii65 (FCDA), Cadential T64 (GCEG) and D7 (GDFB) and Tonic (CCEC).

Try to play the whole cadence on the keyboard:

CCEG-BDDG-CCEG-BDEG#-ACEA-FCDA-GCEG-GDFB-CCEC.

You see how colorful your harmony with this G# already is? Victoria thought so too.

Would you like to know more of the things I taught Victoria recently? If so, today I'm glad to share with you my Harmony Review for Beginners 3. It's the material from my last 4 lessons with her (over 3.5 hours of audio training).

I will teach you the 2nd scale degree 7th chord and its inversions (ii7, ii65, ii43, ii42 and their multiple resolutions) as well as harmonic analysis of "Ich ruf zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ", BWV 639 by J.S. Bach.

I'm including Vidas' PDF guidebook to mastering this piece with fingering and pedaling as a bonus. If you order until May 31, you'll get 50 % discount.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that this training is free for Total Organist students.

Happy practicing!

Let me know if you need help with anything or feel stuck.

By Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene (get free updates of new posts here)

Yesterday I was teaching my Harmony for 10th graders class and this one student struggled with passing and neighboring 64 chords.

Then assignment was to harmonize a simple 8 measure melody in the soprano with 4 part harmony using root position, 1st inversion tonic, subdominant and the dominant chords as well as tonic and subdominant neighbor 64 chords and tonic and dominant passing 64 chords.

I always joke that these 64 chords are the first thing they can use even being relatively inexperienced with harmony to make an impression of advanced and beautiful chord progressions.

Enjoy the video I made about them.

By Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene (get free updates of new posts here)​​​​​

​I'm excited to release 4 MP3 recordings from my harmony lessons with Victoria. It's a continuation from Harmony Review for Beginners.

Progress gradually as you brush up on some wonderful harmonic concepts. These trainings will even help your hymn playing too! 50 % discount is valid until May 3.

Harmony Review for Beginners 2

Free for Total Organist students.

By Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene (get free updates of new posts here)​​​​​

​Yesterday in our harmony lesson with Victoria we analyzed the hymn setting Wondrous Love.

It doesn't have any accidentals next to the clef and ends on the D minor chord. That's why it's not a D minor key but Dorian mode with raised 6th scale degree.

It turns out that Dorian mode was still common in Bach's time. You might remember his Dorian Toccata:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRY7zrMGCi8

By the way, here's Vidas' video about the ancient modes I thought you'll enjoy watching:
Demonstration of the Diatonic Modes (Vidas Pinkevicius)

​Let me know if this helps.

By Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene (get free updates of new posts here)​​​​​

Victoria was very curious. She wanted to know how to play a cadence in G major with chords I-V6-I-IV6-I64-V-V7-I.

My hands were visible at the keyboard. I played really slow but she kept asking me what the notes of the chords were.

I thought this will be helpful for others who are beginners at harmony.

Here they are (starting from the bass up):

G-B-D-G, F#-A-D-A, G-B-D-G, E-C-G-C, D-D-G-B, D-D-F#-A, D-C-F#-A and G-G-B-G.

Happy practicing and remember...

Organ takes you beyond reality.

By Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene (get free updates of new posts here)​​​​​

Do you need harmony when you are a beginner on the organ?

Some people do. They need it in their church service playing or for analyzing pieces that they play.

So how do you learn harmony if you are an absolute beginner?

It's hard, isn't it?

Victoria asked my help in understanding  Vidas' Harmony for Organists Level 1 course. She couldn't understand the material Vidas presented in his videos and PDF training.

She also needed help in understanding my videos some of you may remember from this blog.

So I agreed to help her. To take her by the hand and spell out each chord, teach her the reasoning behind each chord so that she could practice those exercises on her own, to give her feedback when she was doing something wrong, to encourage her to practice further.

I had four lessons with her, talked in person using a telephone.

We used some material from Vidas' course.

Here's what I taught her:

Open and closed position
Melodic position
Voice ranges in harmony
T, S, D chords and inversions
D7 chord
VII7 chord and its resolution
Cadences in F major and D minor
Cadence in G major
Harmonic position
Diatonic sequences
Chromatic sequences
Transposing sequences

I see this material might be helpful to many other beginner students who are struggling with harmony.

So I'm releasing my Harmony Review for Beginners audio training (50 % discount is valid until April 5).

Note that it's NOT for people who know how to harmonize a tune, how to play cadences, how to improvise in various keys using chords.

This is for absolute beginners who would not understand Vidas' Harmony for Organists Level 1 course but need help in harmony (yes, you do need to know how to read notes in the treble and bass clefs).

Hope this helps.