What do you do when good-willing people criticize your actions? Do you listen to their advice or do you ignore them?
It depends what do they criticize, right? If they criticize my art, personally I tend to pay attention only to those who are in the same shoes as myself, who are creators. And not only creators but people who show their art to the world. People who are just bystanders - they don’t matter. Anonymous comments on YouTube - don’t matter, nasty comments on my blog - they don’t matter. Some people go so far as to turn off commenting option on the blog completely. One-star reviews on Amazon for your book? They don’t matter. Five-star reviews for that matter - they don’t matter either. What about family members? Do you ignore them too? Well, if they are creators like me, I do take their criticism seriously, everyone else - doesn’t matter. Of course, it hurts to read nasty comments from arm-chair quarterback. But you know what - they haven’t done any of the hard work to earn your respect and trust. You, on the other hand - constantly create and ship your art, make yourself vulnerable to criticism and put yourself on the line. This is brave. And rare. When I was just starting to share my organ playing videos on YouTube many years ago, I remember one comment somebody wrote that if I want to teach others how to play pipe organ, I have to learn to play myself without mistakes myself. Apparently he found a few wrong notes in one of my videos. I asked him that I would be honored if he could direct me to some of his videos so that I could learn from him. Guess what? He vanished and never came back to comment. So as soon as you ask them to show their work, they run away, because they probably understand that they have nothing to show for it. Real creators never criticize others with the intention to hurt them. Sure, we may say a word or two about how their art could be improved but this is intentionally optimistic feedback. You might think that it is very arrogant from my part to think this way. Basically to ignore everybody, like Hugh McLeod writes in his book with the same title. And in a sense it is. But this is the only way to keep creating and keep shipping. I know that my writing isn’t perfect, that it isn’t on the level that world-class writers write. But it doesn’t matter to me. What matters is that I did my work today and shared it. I believe that practice will make it better over time. So if you write that this is the worst post you have ever read in the comments, I’m going to ignore it too and I’m not going to beat myself up for that. And if you write that this is the best post you have ever read, I’ll write “thank you” politely also without thinking of myself as genius. Good and bad feedback doesn’t matter. Otherwise we either grow our egos so much that we think we are the best on earth or we humiliate ourselves and hide our art in the closet and eventually stop creating altogether. I think we can do better than that.
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Have you ever seen this stupid ad on your phone when you check your mail: “How Can We Take Control Of Our Future?” That’s obviously a lie - they will gladly take your money in exchange of false promises.
But this morning when I saw this message, I thought, maybe there is some deeper meaning in all this. How can I control my future if I could be dead any minute? Or people who love me and whom I love could be dead in the blink of an eye too… That’s not exaggeration. People die every day… That’s a fact of life. Another fact of life is that we don’t control anything. That being said, there are some ways of how I could move to the direction where given the right circumstances my life could be immensely improved. For this to happen, I need to start balancing the four areas of my life: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. My physical self needs at least 3 basic things to start moving in the healthy direction - sleep, food and movement. I need at least 8 hours of quality sleep every night, eat healthy meals with moderation and at least 30 minutes a day of some form of physical exercise. With all 3 basics I need work - I tend to go to sleep too late and therefore don’t feel fully rested in early in the morning when I wake up. Also doing activities on the phone before bed isn’t healthy. We all know that but it’s so addictive, isn’t it? With eating I tend to eat too much. It would be nice to skip dinner but I’m struggling with this. With physical exercise I have been doing better recently - going to the gym or taking a walk or exercising at home. We’ll see if this habit lasts. Maybe later when it’s easy for me to motivate myself to move I could fix my sleep and eating habits as well. The second area is my emotional self. Here I have to stay away from toxic people and avoid stressful situations. It’s not as simple as it might sound because I need to learn to say no. No to people who complain, no to people who suck my energy without giving anything in return and yes to people whom I love and who love me. If I can’t change the people around me, I must change the way I react to toxic people. I think I’m doing better at this over time. Earlier I would get quite frustrated or angry with them but now I simply don’t engage and walk away. I’m not perfect, though. Toxic situations still occur but less often than some years before. I’ve been learning or so it seems. The third area is my mental self. Basically this is my creative side of me. I have to create and share with the world at least something every day or else my creative muscle will atrophy. To me this means writing, drawing, teaching, composing, playing, reading and improvising. I try to do all 7 activities every day so it’s best to start my day creatively because time is short. But sometimes I catch myself procrastinating and eating sunflower seeds. So there is still space for improvement here. Notice I’m not saying there is space for improvement in doing these 7 creative things. To me, all it matters is that quantity and quality will come from there. All it matters is that I do all these things (or just one thing or several) and with time I will get better at them. The last area of my life is my spiritual side. To different people it means different things. For some it means being religious and praying, for some - meditation, for some - being grateful. I choose to be grateful for everything that is happening around me. Yes, for the headache I was feeling yesterday too. Because everything can be understood as practice. So there you have it: if every day we could improve some tiny aspect of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual areas of our lives, we would move to the right direction as human beings. I first heard about this from the book of James Altucher “Choose Yourself” if you want to get to the source. There is no such thing as controlling our futures but we would position ourselves in a way where we could improve ourselves one step at a time. Also I know that thinking too much about future or past doesn’t help. Stress, anxiety, fear, shame and other toxic emotions come from this attachment. It means I have to stay in the present moment as much as possible. To control my future, I have to stay in the now. And this is the most difficult thing for me. What about you? What’s your experience about controlling your future?
Vidas: Hi guys, this is Vidas.
Ausra: And Ausra. Vidas: Let’s start episode 255 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Heidi and she writes: Since I have imposed upon you again with a lengthy answer to what I’m sure you thought was a question that would have a succinct reply, I will reduce my desires into a few bullet points: (although I’m glad you know a little bit more about who I am) * I wish to expand my grasp of Theory to enable me to learn Improvisation * Most difficult are the physical challenges and the lack of motivation to practice because I get discouraged when I remember how I used to play. I still play well, just not as well as I was able to, and I remember that whenever I play. It is a blessing, and a curse! * My wishlist: Training materials and perhaps video? ? for the Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C-Minor. V: Let’s start from the ending, right? We have this fingering and pedaling prepared for the score of Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, right Ausra? A: Yes, that’s right, we have it. V: So Heidi and others who are interested in learning this piece can take advantage of it right away and Heidi is a new Total Organist student, she joined it recently and let’s welcome her and we hope that she can also quadruple her results and motivation. That’s her second challenge, right? The lack of motivation to practice because she remembers in the past how she used to play well. A: And I think she mentions herself those two problems are connected. Between physical challenges and lack of motivation I think that physical challenge comes from the lack of motivation to practice. It means that she practice not enough. V: Umm-hmm. And that’s the reason I thought about this problem for a very, very long time when creating materials for Total Organist and everything seemed right for that program. It’s very comprehensive. Actually too many materials to choose from and now we have organized everything according to the level of difficulty for beginners, basic level, intermediate, advanced level so everyone can choose whatever it is their skill level to learn and practice, whatever they like best. But you feel Ausra what’s the problem, right? That people who start learning a piece and not necessarily finish it. A: That’s right. Actually yes, that’s a problem with many of us in many cases. Even when we studied for our doctoral at UNL. I have learned that there are so many doctoral students who are not able to finish their dissertations and I think after taking all those years of studies, all those travels, getting all those credits done and taking comprehensive exams, I think to write dissertation and to finish it is just like a piece a cake, but it seems that it’s not and so many just quit doing it and will not receive their degree and that’s a pity. V: Maybe they don’t want it badly enough, right? A: But after spending so many years doing extensive studies. V: But I mean the diploma, the degree. Maybe it was important for them in the beginning and less important at the end. Maybe their goals changed. A: I think it’s some sort of procrastination that catches them up at this stage of getting a degree. V: I see. So, talking about Heidi and others who feel the lack of motivation to practice I came up with a solution recently. A: Really, tell us about it. V: I told you about that yesterday. Technology can save us, you know. A: How? V: There is a platform called BaseCamp and now I set up a communication channel for our groups. People who are transcribing fingering and pedaling for us, who are transcribing podcasts, and also for Total Organist students. And right now we have like sixty-seven students on the team and the good thing is you can have instant, automatic accountability. At the end of the day I can send them a question, “What did you work on today?” Every day, unless they decide it’s too much or they quit, right? It’s their choice. But I want to help them quadruple their motivation and if they quadruple motivation they will quadruple their results of their practice too. Because every day they know that I am going to ask this question of them and they will feel responsible to practice a little bit, at least fifteen minutes a day. What do you think about it, Ausra? A: So you will be like a mother for them, yes teaching, “No, no, no, you have to finish your meal, you have to brush your teeth before bed.” V: Sure, yeah. I could be mother or father, I don’t care as long as it gets people results. A: Yeah. V: What’s your question would be at the end of the day? A: That’s a too hard question, maybe I will not answer it. V: Maybe at the beginning of the day you could ask what people are going to practice on today, right? A: Yes, that’s right, I would like it more. V: At the beginning Ausra, and at the end Vidas. A very nice team. So you see guys if we used email coaching, right? Like we did, people would send us questions with their problems and we would answer those questions via email. That is helpful, right Ausra? But people first have to send them to us. That’s a big, big hurdle. And then nobody sees them, nobody notices. But here on this platform, on BaseCamp, everyone on Total Organist team, about sixty-seven people, will get a notification that somebody has written an answer. What did he or she practice on today, right? And then perhaps they will comment on it and perhaps they will share their own answer, too. You see, it’s like a community. A little bit of a community feeling and we could grow together. What do you think, Ausra? A: I think that’s a nice idea. V: I wouldn’t be able to do that on my own writing those questions to sixty-seven students, sixty-seven times but now technology allows me to automatically set up this question at the end of the day and people just get it and write an answer if they wish. So Heidi is Total Organist student and I think she will get so much out of it too. A: So now what about the first question. Heidi wishes to expand her grasp of theory in order to be able to improvise. V: Obviously, you could start improvising without any knowledge of theory by choosing random four pitches as we sometimes like to suggest, right? But Music theory never hurts. So we have a few courses on chords, on harmony, and she could take advantage within Total Organist. A: Yes, as you say theory never hurts. Tell that to my students at school. There will be a different opinion I think, that theory actually hurts. V: You know Heidi says she has lack of motivation to practice but in comparison to your students at school I think she has too much motivation to practice because she sends me questions like that. A: That’s true, that’s true. V: Has anybody asked this question before at school? A: Only “why do we have to do it?” V: So that’s the big difference. And remember when you practice… A: Miracles happen.
This blog/podcast is supported by Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training online. It has hundreds of courses, coaching and practice materials for every area of organ playing, thousands of instructional videos and PDF's. You will NOT find more value anywhere else online...
Total Organist helps you to master any piece, perfect your technique, develop your sight-reading skills, and improvise or compose your own music and much much more... Sign up and begin your training today. And of course, you will get the 1st month free too. You can cancel anytime. Check it out here Here's what one of our students is saying: My favorite things are: the daily encouragement and the reinforcement of technique which serves me well and helps to keep me focused as a full time church musician. Having some of the scores pre-marked saves me preparation time and can allow me to learn a piece faster. Have a great day, Robert Would you like to receive the same or even better results that Robert is getting? If so, join 80+ other Total Organist students here. Would you like to feel such a strong urge to practice every day that if you skip just one day, you will feel strange, kind of like something important is missing in your day.
And when you do practice, how about seeing amazing results from your efforts, be it pedal playing, sight-reading, transposition, repertoire, hymn playing, improvisation, music theory or harmony? If so, you will love our daily accountability feature in our Total Organist communication channel at Basecamp. You will not only know exactly what your goals are for each day, week or month, but you will also see what other Total Organist students are learning. This feature alone will quadruple your motivation and results of your practice because you will feel accountable and supported by our little community. Bellow are some things that some of our students last weekend: (July 21) Jur: I worked on BWV 639, Ich ruf zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ. As recommended by Vidas I split the piece in 7 segments. I can now play the first segment in the right tempo and the second segment is coming together as well. I am not an advanced player and getting this far has taken me 5 days. It is hard to resist the temptation to rush ahead and try to play the entire piece! Barbara So far (EDT, still morning), I've researched music for small organ and french horn for an upcoming church service. Not much luck. Keyboard, pedal exercises, and sight reading this afternoon. David: In Dir ist Freude, BWV 615 and More Palatino by Sweelinck Andrew: Revisiting “Jesu, Meine Freude” by Krebs - that last line is still a challenge. There’s so much going on note by note across the voices, and it all has to happen with precision and clarity. (July 22) Andrew: Jesu, meine Freude (Krebs) - now going smoothly. [Notice the improvement from the day before] John: I'm working on Day 3 of "10 Day Pedal Playing Challenge". Some of the thirds with one foot are difficult for me. For example E-G in the left foot, toe - heel (bar 3). I can do that if I start in the lowest octave of the pedalboard, but find it much more difficult if I begin an octave higher. If I do start at the lowest octave, then the E-C with right foot, toe-heel (also in bar 3) becomes a problem. I'll keep at it. Here's what one of our students is saying about Total Organist: "I am taking a lot away from it. Pedal virtuoso program has helped a lot with my pedal work, as has the transposition course. I began the prelude improvisation formula, but put it by the wayside for a little while. Will try to return to it in the fall. Thank you mostly for the fingering recommendations! " Jeremy Would you like to receive the same or even better results that Jeremy and other students are getting? If so, join 74 other Total Organist students here. By the way, this week we're running Total Organist Summer Special with 50% discount. And of course, you will get the 1st month free too. You can cancel anytime. This offer is valid until July 25. Check it out here I’m going to talk today about the concept of a “bucket of ink.” My mom is a graphic artist, and she once told me a story that in her youth, when she was a student at the art institute, and one of the professors told her that they have to use up a bucket of ink in order to draw well—in order to learn to draw well. So imagine, a bucket of ink. So ten liters of ink. That’s a huge amount of ink! And you have to draw constantly, or write something beautifully, like calligraphy. So that’s what professor Vladas Drema actually said to her, a very famous art historian of Vilnius. And, she told me this story recently, and I thought about our creative efforts. Whatever we do in life, maybe we create music, maybe we draw, maybe we write poetry, or some other kind of activity, even, let’s say, we practice playing organ, right? Imagine that. A bucket of ink symbolizes maybe 10,000 hours of practice. You know, 10,000 hours is like 10 years of regular consistent and intentional practice, maybe two hours per day. And after that amount of diligent work, you become good at this, right? So, I kind of hope that we all get this kind of training every day. Just a little bit, not necessarily two hours of doing something, but maybe 15 minutes a day of creating something which hasn’t been created before, either in text, pictures, audio, or video, and then sharing it with the world, and doing it so persistently that with the concept of a bucket of ink we don’t see the end result of that. It’s like swimming across the ocean. We don’t see the shore, but we know that the shore is there, so it’s a marathon, not a race. You have to pace yourself, you have to be patient, and never rush. Stick to the step by step approach, one step at a time everyday. And I hope you can do that today. My plan is also to create a Pinky and Spiky comic strip about animal rights today, how they are probably creating something very funny in that theme, animals rights. And hopefully, I will finish my big organ piece based on the Lithuanian folk song, "Vilkas grikius sėjo," which I’m working on this week. So, this is my plan, and hopefully, in the evening, I will get a chance to sight read and improvise as well. So that’s for me. What about you? You have to think about your optimal output and plan for that to happen. Even the bare minimum of creative work today would be worth doing, right? If you know that you will repeat this same activity tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, so that in maybe 10 years, you will complete your bucket of ink. This blog and podcast is supported by Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online where you will find courses for every area of organ playing, including technique, practice, sight-reading, repertoire playing, hymn playing, improvisation, composition, music theory and harmony with hundreds of scores and thousands of exercises.
This week we're running Total Organist Summer Special with 50% discount. And of course, you will get the 1st month free too. This offer is valid until July 25. Check it out here Also, if you haven't yet subscribed to receive free updates of this blog, make sure you do that at http://www.organduo.lt. By subscribing you will also receive free video "How To Master Any Organ Composition" and 10 Day Organ Playing Mini Course. Today I’d like to ask you, “How do you start your mornings? The reason I’m interested in knowing this, is because morning routine is going to be a deciding factor how productive and creative you are with your day. Because, if things are equal for most of the people, one person who can start his or her own day in a productive and creative way will have a better day in general. So, it’s really a matter of thinking about it really thoroughly and having a routine everyday you wake up. For example, for me, the first thing I do in the morning is I fire up my computer, and I create something, work on a musical composition. Today, this morning, I was working on an organ solo piece called “Vilkas grikius sėjo”. This is based on a Lithuanian folk song about the wolf who was sowing the buckwheat. And this piece is going to be dedicated to Kae Hannah Matsuda, and I’m very delighted to be able to work on it in fragments every morning. So, this morning, I worked on the second section—it will have four sections—so the second section is pretty much done, now. And, it took me about an hour to do this. So, every morning recently, I’ve been creating something. Sometimes, I create on the spot, like an improvisation, and in that hour, I can actually complete a piece. With my Sibelius Ultimate software and a MIDI keyboard attached, I can improvise an organ piece and then later edit it, and it will be published on the same day. But sometimes, when the piece is longer, like the piece I’m working on right now, I need to spend more days on it—maybe an entire week. That’s okay! But I found that having a morning time for that works best for me, because I’ve read someplace that we, as people, are the most creative and productive two hours after waking up. So, if we think about it, a lot of people check email, scroll social media, check the news first thing in the morning, and that can actually add up instead of five minutes, you can do 20 minutes, instead of 20 minutes, you can spend an hour just scrolling your phone, easily. And then, it’s time to go to work for most days. And there is nothing else creative to do before that; you are in a hurry. So I’ve found that waking up earlier than normal is a good thing for me. Basically, I have plenty of time to be with my thoughts and to spend my morning as creatively as I can. Then, whatever happens in the day, I know at least that one thing was done creatively. For example, if I have an emergency today, I know that at least I created this middle section of this organ piece today. If not, I can go back and work on other things later in the afternoon. That’s okay, too. I can create Pinky and Spiky comics later in the afternoon, and in fact, today, I will do that. It’s important to realize that you have some options in the morning. You don’t have to rush. But for that to happen, you have to go to bed earlier than normal, because if you want to get up earlier, you have to get a good night’s sleep—at least 8 hours. Right? And for me, this means going to bed about 10 o’clock in the evening. And that allows me to wake up around 6 AM or before 6 AM. In the Summer, when it’s sunlight very early, then I have no trouble getting up even earlier. So, I don’t need my alarm clock for getting up. I usually wake up very naturally. But the very first thing I do is to create, because then, my day will be lived in the way that matters to me. And then, in the afternoon, there is another thing that we can sometimes do. If you take a nap for 15 or 20 minutes, then in the afternoon, you will have a burst of energy, too, for a couple hours. So it’s good to split your day into two halves, and if you want to create and be productive in the afternoon, that’s an ideal scenario, too. So guys, I hope you can also start thinking about your morning routines. And how you live your morning is how you live your day. And how we live our days is how we live our lives, basically. So the question is this: How do you want to live your life, then? And if you answer this question, the morning routine basically takes care of itself. How do you want to be remembered? Or, what things do you want to be remembered for? ...After you’re gone, of course. So, if you think about it, then the morning productivity and creativity always comes first, because you want to do things that matter and are most important. Not urgent, though, but most important first. So that means also going to bed earlier, getting up earlier, preparing, perhaps, your workplace in advance in the evening. For example, if I know that I am going to create a musical composition in the morning, I need to sometimes come up with musical material to work on in the evening, so that I won’t waste my morning precious hours looking for material online. I always have this Gregorian Chant Gradual book, very thick book, with me, and I know that the next piece will be taken from that collection. The only thing that I sometimes have to worry about, is the dedication—to whom this piece will be dedicated. So, I have a list of friends, of organists and composers to whom I would like to dedicate my next pieces, so I just basically write down the person’s name who is next on the list, and then, I am ready to create first thing in the morning. And I hope you can do it, too, whatever medium you are creating in, either in sounds, or pictures, or text or photos or drawing or videos, or combinations of the above, it doesn’t matter. And if you do, make sure you share it with the world, because when you create, miracles happen. This blog and podcast is supported by Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online where you will find courses for every area of organ playing, including technique, practice, sight-reading, repertoire playing, hymn playing, improvisation, composition, music theory and harmony with hundreds of scores and thousands of exercises.
To become a member of Total Organist and start supporting this blog, go to http://www.organduo.lt/total-organist. Also, if you haven't yet subscribed to receive free updates of this blog, make sure you do that at http://www.organduo.lt. By subscribing you will also receive free video "How To Master Any Organ Composition" and 10 Day Organ Playing Mini Course. Today I’m going to talk about what is your one thing. Let me explain. A few days ago I woke up quite early with the intent of creating an organ piece like usual and I was working on the composition "Vilkas grikius sėjo" dedicated to Kae Hannah Matsuda based on Lithuanian folk song. I had one section left and I planned to do it that morning and it appears that my plans were changed because my wife had to go to the hospital so we suddenly had to change plans and I took her to the hospital and that’s life right? Life gets in the way and your plans get thrown out of the window. So what do you do then? Do you still manage to create in your day or do you skip one day.
I had big plans as usual, right? Create organ piece, draw Pinky and Spiky comic, then I had a plan to sightread and improvise and teach you guys here and it appears that my plans are no longer the same today. But, I’m still talking to you right now because I found a quick way for you to find out what’s going on. And the reason I’m talking about one thing that is important in your day is when I was at the hospital I simply drew a drawing of Pinky and Spiky. It was not finished, I didn’t have my pastels to color, but it was a work in progress and I shared incomplete work in progress which is still interesting way to share your creativity, right? So does it mean that my day is going to be creative? I think so, yes. Because just one thing. If anything happens to your life and you can create just one thing out of your three or five things you were planning to do. What would that be. OK, you have to think about that too. So it could be different for everybody and it could be different from day to day activities, right? Sometimes it’s different for me, sometimes the one thing for me is composition, sometimes the one thing for me is writing a blog post, sometimes the one thing for me is drawing, sometimes playing and improvising and sightreading and teaching those things creatively. So today for me one thing was to draw a quick sketch of Pinky being sick at the hospital. Some of you might have seen this drawing, I shared it a moment ago. So think about your day. Did you have many plans today? Maybe life is unpredictable for you too. But maybe you can still squeeze in five or ten minutes of creative time, right? Whatever that is for you, find out and start sharing it with the world. It doesn’t have to be complete, it doesn’t have to be perfect, it doesn’t have to be big, right? It just has to be yours and your approach to life. And that’s what matters because maybe tomorrow it will be different day, maybe you will have more time to create and you don’t know yet. Maybe even today you will have more time to create in the evening. You don’t know how life will turn out for you because life is quite unpredictable and planning is sometimes unnecessary, right? But you have to seize the moment and do your one thing that keeps you going. Your one passion, number one and maybe later number two, number three and so on... Is it organ playing for you? For some people it's different and that's OK. I hope you can practice your one thing today and remember when you create, miracles happen. Today I am going to talk about things that we loved doing back when we were kids like six years old and why it is important for us today as adults. You see when a child like six years old was very fond let’s say of drawing right? I for example loved drawing and right up until maybe seventh or eighth grade I participated with my parents in summer camps where the students also drew and I was required to also draw together with them because my both parents at that time were both teachers of art. So I also was surrounded by art at home and I was basically creating, drawing all the time.
My favorite drawing theme was probably horses and airplanes I think too. So I remember that up until maybe thirteen years old. And then I stopped drawing somehow maybe because I had to choose music more, maybe because nobody else from my class drew at that time so basically I wanted to belong, I didn’t want to stand out and I forgot about drawing for a long time. But only three years ago approximately I started to feel the urge of drawing. And even before that I was very envious of artists, of visual artists who expressed their creativity in a visual way. Either in photography or creating pictures, paintings, drawings, sculptures. Anything that is visual was still very appealing to me although I didn’t practice this for many years, let’s say from thirteen years old right up until mayben thirty-eight or thirty-nine years old. You see how many years have passed. Many, many decades and I still didn’t forget about that. And I remember starting drawing little by little after reading Linda Berris book called “Syllabus.” And this book inspired me to start drawing comics. My very first public drawing was created on the occasion of international Churlonis organ and piano competition. I was sitting in the church I remember back in 2015 in September and I started to draw monsters and they were asking many things, saying many things I was hearing in people's music when they played the organ upstairs in the balcony. And it was sort of my commentary in terms of comics. I didn’t know how to draw organ or people at the time and still don’t know very well. But it seemed to me like monsters was something like what I could draw easily. And I started drawing those monsters and sharing them on Facebook. I was so scared at that time and actually was thrilled when organist Hans-Ola Ericsson liked one of my drawings of monsters with the commentary. And I thought maybe it’s not a mortal sin I’m doing right now and maybe I can continue if such a great organist clicked “like” on that drawing. So I continued drawing up until this day. Illustrations, comics, and right now Pinky and Spiky comics. It’s really fascinating to me. But why am I talking about this, right? Because the love of drawing followed me from the time I was six years old and I came back to this love just quite recently. Three years ago. Which means that for you if you look at your childhood back when you were six, seven, eight years old maybe up until eleven, twelve, or even thirteen years old. You will no doubt discover something very curious about yourself. What you loved to do. Maybe you not only drew, maybe you danced, maybe you created music, maybe you wrote poetry. Those activities generally are very applicable for majority of children, right? And most of the children laugh much more than that. So adults laugh five times a day on average, and children laugh three hundred times a day on average and on average we can safely say that children are happier and we can safely say that laughing more would lead us to happiness. But not only laughing probably and I think a big part of being a child is immersing yourself in these activities that we love, right? In my case it was drawing and not only drawing, I loved to conduct and pretend I am a conductor and I took my Mom’s brush and I was conducting Mozart’s 40th Symphony in G Minor and Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. That was my favorite too. So music was also part of my childhood too. And definitely I am a musician right now so I never stopped doing this. But drawing I did stop and it was like some part of me was missing and when recently I came back to this activity I felt much more united in myself. I cannot say that everything is whole right now in my being but much more united that before, before I took up drawing. So if you look at your activities when you were a child and see if you could discover some missing part of you that you are longing to do this right now. Maybe you don’t have the skill, maybe you don’t have the time, maybe you don’t have the tools, right?. It doesn’t matter, right? You can come back to this activity today. However childish it appears to you or others, it doesn’t matter how others react. I think this having hobby today is very beneficial to your well-being as a person, as a whole. And your spiritual well-being too. So I challenge everyone who is listening and who will be listening to this in the future to think about the childhood memories you did and took up those activities. Maybe you could experiment with those activities today. Little by little come back to that feeling of happiness you had as a child. I hope you will create something and share it with the world because when you create miracles happen. I’m so delighted to be able to talk to you about something that is very interesting: creation of new art forms, of new compositions. I hope you had the chance to create too.
First thing in the morning today, I edited my newest piece, I dedicated for Göran Grahn, organist and friend from Sweden. It’s called Kyrie Orbis Factor, based on a Gregorian chant tune. And then, of course, I posted it online, shared it with the world, and then I created a drawing, a comic about Pinky and Spiky. I think that they were looking for strawberries and cream. But, their pets were hiding strawberries and cream from them, so, they were rather angry. So, I again shared it with you earlier in the day, and I live streamed my improvisation from the graduation ceremony today, which is also a form of creation, right? So, the day for me was quite creative, and I hope that you can create, too, in either text, pictures, audio, or video, and share it with the world. And don’t stop there, because tomorrow, you will have a chance to create, share, and repeat again. Thanks, guys, I hope this was useful to you. And let’s create something. And remember, when you create, miracles happen. Vidas: Hi guys, this is Vidas!
Ausra: And Ausra! V: Let’s start Episode 235 of #AskVidasAndAusra Podcast. This question was sent by Ron. He writes: Hi Vidas and Ausra, Thank you guys! What a wonderful response to my email note to you. You’ve got me right, and I feel you understand my level of playing (yes, at home, and lucky that I have an organ for that reason.) I am paying attention to this, and I am going to try this ha-ha-no-longer-secret model. Yes, and I love Cesar Franck, too. What is very nice about your blog-podcast is that Ausra and Vidas are like a Socratic dialogue, and by bouncing things off of each other, so much more information comes out and is expressed. Your comments contain a wealth of information and understanding. I really appreciate this, it is very inspiring, and will keep us moving forward. Cheers, Ron V: So, this is a very pleasant comment, right? A: Yes, it is a very nice letter. It’s nice to know that people appreciate what we are doing. V: I think Ron wrote us about the question with improvisation. Remember, we talked about how you can take any organ composition and apply it as a model. A: Yes, I think we talked about it, yes. V: And Ron, apparently, participates in our improvisation contests on Steamit. A: That’s very nice. I actually enjoy his improvisations a lot. V: And he’s improving. Advancing every week. A: True. You know, if you will do that on a daily basis, you definitely will improve. It cannot be any other way. V: How many years does it take to reach perfection, Ausra? A: Well, I would say it’s never perfect. So, it takes many years. V: And even at the end it’s not perfect. A: True. V: But every day is better than the last, right? A: That’s also true. V: So that’s what we strive for—to be better ourselves than yesterday. And not necessarily to compare ourselves with others. A: True. V: Do you have this habit of comparing Ausra with the masters? A: Well, I had it before, earlier in my life, yes. I would compare myself to others. V: To whom? A: Well, other famous organists. But you know, then finally I realized that you cannot compare yourself to others, because you are not in the same situation as they were. So, it really doesn’t matter. V: They never were in your shoes? A: True. So each of us is unique with our own unique history. V: And also you unique experiences and talents. A: True. V: And, what is more important, combinations of those talents. A: That’s right, so… V: For example, a lot of people play the organ. Right? And if you compare yourself to others, you are just one in a million, or one in a hundred thousand—how many organists are playing on the Earth, I don’t know. Right? A: Right. V: But, you might have another hobby besides that. And then two hobbies combined, organ plus that other activity, you are already in the minority. Right? So, if you combine even the third activity that you are doing, then you are definitely unique on Earth, I think. Three things is more than enough to combine in order to be original. A: Yes, that’s true. Do you think it’s important to be original? V: No. I think somebody wiser than me said anyone who strives to be original never will be original. A: Interesting. V: Because originality is not the point. I think the point is something else. What is the point, Ausra? A: Well, it depends on what we are talking about, because now when you talked about originality, I started to think about modern music. V: Yeah. A: And there was at some point that you had to show something original in your composition. If you wouldn’t do that, your composition would be “bad.” V: And in certain circles, there is still this idea that you have to be original. You have to invent something. A: But, I think that so much ugly music was composed… V: Because of this. A: Because of this yes, of trying in any way to be original. V: And forgetting another concept. Not originality, but beauty. A: True! But of course, when we are talking about beauty, you know, everybody has his own understanding of what beauty is. What’s beautiful music? V: What’s a beautiful flower? Would you agree that any flower is beautiful? A: Probably, yes, maybe with some exceptions. V: Yeah, like a weed, right? A: Yes. V: But still, when the dandelions or something, when they blossom they are beautiful. A: True. But not on my lawn, probably! V: Yeah. Tell them, “Get out! Find a new home!” A: Yes, it’s true. V: Our neighbors. A: Mhm. V: So, nature is always beautiful, and a man who imitates nature in earlier days, human endeavor also wanted to express beauty in this way, too. But today, simulating nature is not the point. Right? No longer the point. A: Yes! Because now, you just take a picture if you want to simulate nature. That’s the easiest way to do it. V: But if you take a picture, and a million other people take a picture, your picture will get lost, right? Because it’s just like any other picture. Of course, you could add your own unique touch. Something that, you know, other people would not do. And that’s enough, I think, to be original. To express yourself, your own experience. A: So how would you apply it to the organ? V: To organ performance, or organ creativity? A: Both! V: Let’s say in organ performance, when you have a composition which is created many years ago by the masters, and hundreds of other people are playing the same piece, they’re not playing the same piece in the same way. A: But do you think that originality is very important when you are playing, let’s say, standard organ repertoire? V: It depends how far you can go, right? We’ve all heard those strange performances of, let’s say, standard works, where originality is too strident, Right? Too obvious. And probably it distracts you from the piece. A: But I guess the more famous you are, the more eccentric you can become. You know? If you are performing, then nobody will say, “Oh look how he played.” Because, “Oh wow, yes, he can do it, he’s a star.” Do you know what I mean? V: I know what you mean! Ton Koopman, right? A: I know! V: We went to his recital last summer in the festival here in Vilnius. And his tempi were like maybe one third too fast. A: And he’s a virtuosic performer, definitely. It was one of the most excellent performances that I’ve heard in my life. But still, some of those tempi raised for me a lot of questions. But you know, how can you doubt him? He’s star. V: He can do whatever he wants, right? A: True. V: And you and me, if we played this way…. A: I know or somebody else would do it, people would just think it’s crazy. V: But, if you did it long enough, this would become part of your brand—part of your trademark. A: Well, it’s also like Joris Verdin playing Franck. Very fast, no ritenuto at the end of a piece. Just gone, like a wind! V: Right, because he discovered something about the discrepancies with the earlier metronome and the modern metronome markings. And it’s how it is devised, this metronome. So he says that in Franck’s day, metronomes were beating faster. And that’s why Franck’s music, in his view, should sound more virtuosic. [This discussion continues in the next podcast episode. Stay tuned… And please send more of your questions. We love helping you grow.] |
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Drs. Vidas Pinkevicius and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene Organists of Vilnius University , creators of Secrets of Organ Playing. Our Hauptwerk Setup:
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