Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast No. 756. This question was sent by Richard and he writes:

1. I wish to learn new music - preferably music by masters such as Bach, Reger, Vierne, Buxtehude, etc. I wish to improve skills such as sight-reading, transposition. I wish to learn new skills such as open score reading, figured bass.

2. Obstacles are the time required to learn challenging music, the need to constantly learn new service music for church, prepare the choir, plan music, etc. Also a certain amount of pressure from family/friends to spend as little time as possible with practice so I will have more time to spend with them.

Welcome to Episode No. 753 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by our friend Rien Schalkwijk and he asks; "How do you learn to play toccatas? Is the learning process different for you if you’re refreshing an old toccata vs learning new toccata? How is Ausra learning them?"

Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast episode 746! Today Ausra and I will talk about how to avoid mistakes in organ practice. Hope you will enjoy it!

Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast episode 744! This question was sent by our good friend James Flores from Australia and who shared some of his feedback on our recent episode talking how much to practice on the organ per day. He writes:

"This was a very insightful podcast. For me it's also about deadlines. I think I may have covered this in a video of my own in the past too. The challenge I'm facing now is not about how much to practice, but about how to find joy and motivation in organ playing again."

Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast episode 742! Today Ausra and I will talk about an important aspect of organ playing - how much should you practice? Hope you will enjoy it!

Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast episode 741! This question was sent by David and he writes:

Hello Vidas, Thank you for the email. I am happy to answer the two questions. My dream is to learn how to play pieces that I love or that are "standard repertoire" with confidence and good technique. Three things holding me back are better technique, better ways to learn a piece and playing faster. Most challenging are fingering a piece and ornamentations. I hope this helps.
David

Vidas: Hello and welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast!

Ausra: This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better organist.

V: We’re your hosts Vidas Pinkevicius...

A: ...and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene.

V: We have over 25 years of experience of playing the organ

A: ...and we’ve been teaching thousands of organists online from 89 countries since 2011.

V: So now let’s jump in and get started with the podcast for today.

A: We hope you’ll enjoy it!

V:  Hi guys!  This is Vidas.

A:  And Ausra.

​V:  Let’s start episode 734 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Kathrin, and she writes:
That's a really interesting topic. Can I add a few questions?

- Level 1 - 2 - 3 method sounds plausible. But for me, when a piece really looks like level 1, after practicing for a while, it turns out, it's at least level 2. I never found level 1 pieces. What would you suggest?

V: So that was the first question.  And the second…

- First I have to prepare my services. It costs me a lot of time to remember pre- and postludes. When I don't play a piece for a few weeks, I have forgotten it. So I don't have much time to learn new pieces. Do you have a method not to forget pieces anymore?

V:  These are related questions, but also a little separate, right, Ausra?

A:  Yes.

V:  Want to talk a little bit about Level 1-2-3?

A:  Yes, well you know, Kathrin says that when she starts to practice Level 1 piece, after a while it turns out it’s not Level 1 for her.  So I think maybe she picks out pieces that are too difficult for her.

V:  Mm hm.  Basically, we sometimes misjudge our sightreading skills, and we have to remember that in Kathrin’s case, she has to play it in public for church service, and it’s not the same as practicing a piece of music on your own, in your music room, in your practice room, when nobody else is hearing you, listening to you.  You get a little more tension, more nerves, nervous, and usually it takes more time to practice than at home.  Maybe twice as long, I would say.  It’s the same as our students, with our Unda Maris students - be prepared before concerts one month ahead of time.  And it’s still not enough time for them sometimes.

A:  Yeah, but you know for me, Level 1 piece is a piece of music that I can sit and sightread.  And it doesn’t matter whether I would sightread it either at home or in public.  That’s Level 1 piece for me.

V:  Mm, yeah.  Could be.

A:  And you know, what I do with such pieces, of course I will never just record out of the first time, although I could do it, but it might sound not as well as I wish that it will sound.  Because I need to play maybe 2 or 3 times, because I get more acquainted even with the simple stuff, and I could add more phrasing…

V:  More nuances.

A:  Yes, and it basically sounds more natural.  Because if I would just sightread it once and record it or play it in public, it might sound like very metronomic and very boring and very unmusical.  That’s why I need just to play it a few more times.  So for Kathrin, I would also suggest that she would do Level 1 pieces, pieces that she can sightread easily.  Maybe with one or two mistakes.

V:  For everyone their own, because what you could sightread might take others a week, or a month to learn.  And vice versa - what you can learn in a month, for some genius organist can take a few minutes just so he can get familiar with.  I believe there are people like that, who can sightread extraordinary difficult pieces. And there are legends about Bach himself, Johann Sebastian Bach, going to some musician friend’s house and sitting down at the harpsichord and trying out unfamiliar piece, and usually that was his habit actually, going to some friends first to try out his instruments and the pieces that are on the music rack.  And usually he would do this without any problem.  But just once I think he got stuck in one difficult spot, he started that page again, and got stuck in the same spot again, and maybe he did it even third time just to make sure he can go through it, but even then he couldn’t, and said - what did he say, do you remember?

A:  No, I don’t remember.

V:  It was something along the lines that, “Know you can’t master in everything” basically.  You can’t really sightread everything. So that was in Bach’s time when the music was less varied, he was probably playing contemporary music in his friend’s house - music that was created in his time, or maybe a decade earlier - Baroque music generally.  But today we have so much variety of music from various centuries, and it takes probably much more varied skill to play Level 1 pieces today.  So yeah, expand your sightreading abilities, Kathrin, and think about this way - that if you do this regularly - you have to of course sightread music every week, every few days, every probably few practice sessions, make a habit out of this.  The more the better.  And after a few months, you will notice that you will get better with this, note reading and sightreading, score reading.  And what will happen, that what is now Level 2 for you might become Level 1 in 3 months or 4 or 5 or 6 months, right Ausra?

A:  Yes, but let’s go back to the second part of the question where, what to do that you would not forget music that you have learned.  I think that’s almost impossible, because it all depends on how well you have learned that piece.  Because if you really have learned it well enough in and out, you know how the piece is put together and you always play the same fingering, and you perform the piece a few times in public, I would say it’s almost impossible to completely forget this piece.  For some types of music, it might take longer time to recover the things, but for some pieces you can maybe play it once or two and go and play public.  That this is so hard for you to remember what you have played before and performed already, played in public, it means you haven’t learned it well enough.  Maybe you haven’t got your fingering down, you know, something really, really really did not work.  Maybe you just thought that you know the piece well, but you haven’t really.

V:  It actually resonates with the first part of the question about Level 1 and Level 2 pieces, the second part, because what is plausible that Kathrin prepares hard for the music that she has to perform at the service next Sunday.  She has a few days to do it, and if she takes Level 2 pieces, and Level 2 is one week difficult piece, the piece that you can prepare in a week or a few weeks, actually, not even one week.  So if she barely can prepare it for that week, she will have difficulty on Sunday I think.  It’s just too hard.

A:  Sure, and you know my suggestion would be when you learned piece and you played it in public, then you need to make sort of order in your mind and in your schedule, you need to think what you will do with that piece next.  Are you willing to perform it in the future, will it be useful for you or not?  If not, then just forget about that piece.  But if you know that you will need to play it sometime in the future, then don’t let it just simply stay without playing.  Play it maybe once a week or twice a week, but really find time to go over that piece, that it would still keep under your fingers.  Then you don’t have to learn it again after maybe a few months or half a year or after one year.

V:  Yes, you’re right.  I would say that you have to create a plan for your practice.  If you’re playing week after week new music, it’s obviously not enough, one week, to prepare prelude and postlude for each service, a new one every week.  So what happens, and that relates to my, for example, Fridays livestreams “On the Bench with Vidas,” when I have to prepare every week new music.  Sometimes I sightread, sometimes I improvise, but sometimes, some music I prepare well in advance.  And I know the pieces that I’m going to perform ahead of time, ahead of maybe a few weeks, even 4 weeks.  So my suggestion is work on a few weeks' repertoire simultaneously.  Let’s say week 1 you have two pieces, week 2 two pieces, week 3 two pieces, and week 4 two pieces.  So at any given moment, you should be working let’s say on 8 pieces.  It doesn’t mean you have to spend two hours on each piece, but just practice them couple of times a month before.  Imagine that - that it will get better and better and better.  The next, you have to just make a plan and write down the number of pieces that you want to play, title of pieces, composers, and put them in a separate folder and start rotating the ones that you have performed, take out of the folder, and put another pair of pieces into the folder and start playing it.

A:  And you know, the more repertoire you have, the more flexible you will become, because you can repeat pieces that you have played for a few months ago.  And maybe you played the piece as a prelude, maybe the next time you will do it as postlude.  Because you know prelude and postlude music can be overall very general, because you have solemn feasts for church, and you have just a simple time, yes, without any big occasions.  So then for those not-such-a-solemn occasions, you can play just generic preludes and postludes.

V:  Mm hm.  Correct. So, hope this was useful to Kathrin and others who are preparing music to play every week.  And please send us more of your questions.  We love helping you grow.  This was Vidas.

A:  And Ausra.

V:  And remember, when you practice,

A: Miracles happen.

V: This podcast is supported by Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online.

A: 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...

V: 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…

A: Sign up and begin your training today at organduo.lt and click on Total Organist. And of course, you will get the 1st month free too. You can cancel anytime.

V: If you like our organ music, you can also support us on Buy Me a Coffee platform and get early access:

​A: Find out more at https://buymeacoffee.com/organduo

Vidas: Hello and welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast!

Ausra: This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better organist.

V: We’re your hosts Vidas Pinkevicius...

A: ...and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene.

V: We have over 25 years of experience of playing the organ

A: ...and we’ve been teaching thousands of organists online from 89 countries since 2011.

V: So now let’s jump in and get started with the podcast for today.

A: We hope you’ll enjoy it!

V:  Hi guys!  This is Vidas.

A:  And Ausra.

V:  Let’s start episode 732 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Rien, and he writes:

Maybe you could answer this question in a podcast (referring to Benas): with some pieces you “feel” while practicing that everything comes together. And if you are there, you stay there. Even if you don’t play the piece for a while, it still flows (maybe with some light practice) out of your hands in the right way, while other pieces don’t seem to “stick”. What’s the reason? Not enough practice, wrong practice routines? Or just a mismatch between the piece and performer?

And Benas answers:

Hi, Rien, that's a very interesting topic you've touched upon - yes, I think some pieces are just inherently "mismatched" with the performer (I've had quite a few when I was learning piano in music school), but after a while I tried revisiting them and often found that the issue was the skill level required to play as well as understand the piece. But some of them just can't seem to be done right no matter how hard you try, yet they flow in other performers' hands and feet beautifully - maybe they could offer insight into how they perceive the piece? It surely would be interesting to know all the factors that go into "matching" the performer and the piece of music.

To which Rien answers:

It would be nice if Ausra and Vidas make a Podcast over it. I myself struggle with Toccatas (my brain seems to have troubles with repeating patterns) and with pieces with lots of accidentals. That’s the reason I still haven’t published “Prière à Notre Dame” by Boëllmann. There are lots of accidentals in it. So I prefer a piece written in 5 flats over a piece in F full with accidentals. But why? I think that’s interesting…

​V:  So Ausra, Rien was reacting to our recent podcast conversation about playing Trio Sonatas.  That was the question that Benas submitted earlier, how he’s scared to play more Trio Sonatas, remember?

A:  Yes, I remember.

V:  And that was a good discussion out of this episode.

A:  Yes. What came out, while reading all this, listening to what you were reading, sometimes I wanted to cry, sometimes I wanted to laugh, and sometimes I wanted to shout. (laughs)

V:  Let’s recap, and let’s explain what you’re talking about.

A:  Yeah. Let me talk first of all about those accidentals.  Well, I think that people, many people are scared of accidentals.  Remember our friend from Sweden who was performing that enormous, big piece with the choir by Latvian composer, and he showed our Partitura and he had to follow and the piece lasted like forever, and he would cry, “Oh look - there are like five crosses and six crosses!” At the beginning, I could not understand what he means by “crosses” and later I understood that he…

V: Sharps.

A:  …that he calls that “sharps” and he was terrified, although he performed entire piece already.

V:  It might be translation, literal translation from German.

A:  Could be, could be, yes.

V:  I’m not sure, but I’ve heard it before.

A:  Yes. But anyway, I think all this, because people are worried accidentals, there could be two reasons.  Either they are really bad at music theory, or another thing that it’s simply a mental block.  Because believe, if you know music theory really well, it does not matter if you play in C Major or in C sharp Major.  All keys are exactly the same.  They can feel different for your fingers, because of course I would say that the C major key is the most uncomfortable for the hand, because the more accidentals you get, the easier it gets for the arm and for your hand.

V:  Until a certain extent.

A:  Yeah, until a certain extent.

V:  It’s like playing pedal scales in C major.  Not as comfortable as D major.

A:  Yes.  And for example, when I’m playing the Barber, I just pray that piece would have more accidentals in the pedal, because it’s much easier to play accidentals in the pedalboard than lower keys.  So it’s all just the way of how you come up to the piece and what you say to yourself.  And in general, we talked about how we came back to the piece after a year and revisiting it and how it felt much better or it still felt worse.  In general, I think that many things for musicians depends on the mental state, and how can you put together things in your brain.

V:  Mm hm.

A:  Because if you say that this piece is not right for you, if it’s too difficult for you, it has too many sharps or flats, then of course you put like a mental block for yourself and you will not overcome it.

V:  Yes, and Rien asked me how I personally look at pieces with lots of accidentals and some dissonant music, right, music, abstract music, right.  Definitely it’s much more difficult than tonal music for me to play.  Also, I’m not a superman.  But I look at it as a professional:  if that’s the piece that they have to play, like somebody assigned it to me, or if I chose it to play because I like the piece, not necessarily because I think it’s easy, but I like it and I want to play it, I will find a way to master it one way or another.  Maybe it will not be as fast as the other music that I usually play, maybe not as easy, maybe it will require some special learning techniques and tricks, but I think the music is most important.  If you like it, you will find a way to persevere.

A:  And you know, I never think, what I know for sure, that if you will not challenge yourself, whatever kind of challenge you will choose, either to play trio, or not to play pieces with many accidentals, or to play let’s say toccata as Rien said, with repeating patterns…by the way Rien, I hate repeating patterns too, they hurt my hands and sort of yes, so I see what you mean.  But if you want to do that, you will never overcome yourself and you will never be comfortable with, because you cannot be comfortable with playing with many accidentals if you will not try.  So maybe I would suggest for Rien, maybe do a challenge for yourself over the summer.  Maybe every week, or every day when you’re practicing a new piece, add one more accidental.

V:  But that goes against Rien’s attitude toward playing, because for him, he said his music, organ playing, is relaxation.

A:  Then you should…

V:  After a stressful job, he gets home and gets this relaxing time on the organ and he can play and record.  So if we’re talking about really practicing and working out on the organ bench, that’s like another stressful routine for him.  I don’t know if he’s up to it.

A:  Well, that seems to be a hopeless business.  You cannot overcome something if you won’t do it and if you won’t challenge yourself.

V:  I think it’s more important to think about your goals.  What would you like to achieve in organ playing in three or six months or one year or five years from now.  Do you want to master all six Trio Sonatas, maybe like Benas wanted?

A:  Yes, but I’m not looking at such difficult pieces as Trio Sonatas, but let’s say the Prière…

V:  Prière, uh huh, it’s not very difficult.

A:  …a Notre Dame, yes, then definitely it’s worth to learn all those accidentals because it’s a beautiful piece.

V:  But it requires, of course, sort of attitude to be comfortable with uncomfortable, with being uncomfortable on the bench.  That’s the thing.  When you’re practicing Pilates in the morning, Ausra, do you always feel relaxed and easy?

A:  No, definitely not.

V:  No, you sweat.  You sweat.

A:  Yes.

V:  And you get strenuous exercise, and sometimes you want even to quit probably, in the middle.  Or not?

A:  No, when I start I never want to quit, but I know that many, many, many friends of mine look at me like I am insane, like something is wrong with me.

V:  Maybe they don’t have this goal that you do.

A:  Well, but if you know that it’s good for you, it helps for you, so why don’t you do it?

V:  Well yeah, that requires a shift in attitude.  Why are you practicing organ?  In general, right?  To have a good time?  Sure, that’s a good goal.  But then you will be at the same level in five years that you are now.  You will look at your, I don’t know, your portfolio of pieces that you mastered before, five years before right, if we are in the future, if we are five years from now, and this, the same pieces will be right now that you are playing, or similar pieces that you’re playing.  I think it’s good to play easy pieces.  I’m not against easy pieces at all.  I create easy pieces also.  But what my friend, our friend James Flores discovered is a very nice system.  I want to recapitulate it and repeat it, and focus on it a little bit.  Level 1 piece, Level 2 piece, and Level 3 piece - and you have to constantly be learning three pieces at least in your repertoire all the time.  Level 1 piece is the piece that you can sightread basically, or with minimal practice perform after a few tries.  That’s basically a piece you can do in one day.  Level 2 piece is  a piece that you need a week or a few weeks to do, so it’s considerably more.  Usually it’s like a longer piece and maybe even more advanced piece, but not as advanced as Level 3 piece.  Level 3 piece requires at least one month or several months, like many concert pieces are.  So if you constantly work on three pieces at the same time, you have also a piece for relaxation like Level 1, a little more difficult piece for short-term goal, a week or two from now, Level 2, and a longer term goal, a month or two after, from now, Level 3.  What would you say Ausra, is this…

A:  Yes, that's a very excellent approach.  I think it’s a very good way to approach the organ and to set yourself goals.  Because if you won’t challenge yourself, you won’t advance, that’s it.

V:  Yes, and there’s nothing wrong with people who don’t want to advance.

A:  Of course, but you know, yes.

V:  We have to be open minded about everybody, right?

A:  Yes, because you know, you just play maybe for yourself and maybe specific audience of yours.  Because I could not listen to Meditations all the time, or to loud and fast pieces all the time.  I need variety.

V:  Mm hm.

A:  And I myself try to play various music because if you just stick to one style that suits you, you will always just stay an amateur.

V:  Amateur in a good way, yes?  Because for example, Rien who has a question like this, why he is struggling more with a piece with lots of accidentals than a piece written with five flats.  It’s of course probably everyone is different.  But I think if he adapted such an approach that we are suggesting, always pushing a little bit yourself, just a little bit, then this piece with five flats will become easier, as easy as four flats, as easy as three, two, and one flat eventually, and these accidentals won’t bother him anymore.  And the same is with Benas.  Of course some pieces don’t seem to stick, right, to the hands right now.  But that’s temporary state.  I think in two months or three months from now, if Benas practices more difficult music and comes back to an older piece, he might discover something fresh about this piece and not be scared anymore.

A:  Yes, there is truth in what you are saying, but I also would like to contradict you a little bit, because each performer has its own character and its own ability level, and its own physicality.  Some of us are tall and skinny, and some are short and fat and - whatever.  Some have long fingers and some have short fingers, and some can reach octaves and can reach far beyond the octave. So some of us have like phlegmatic character, some melancholicals, melancholics, yes and others are really funny all the time, and I guess each of us has its own type of music that views is better than another type.  So that might be a part of that thing, why one piece sticks and another don’t.  Of course, technicality, technical ability is very important, but there are other sides of it as well.

V:  So in Rien’s case, if he likes to play cantabiles, right, he would always play only cantabiles.  He always would play adagios and relaxing pieces if that was his personality issue, right? But we can see on his YouTube channel, he has all kinds of music, even loud and fast music when it’s technically manageable.  So I would say it’s just technicality he has to overcome or not, and that’s it.

A:  Yes, most of the time, the problem sleeps in our technical skills.

V:  And the mind of course dictates how we are overcoming those technical skills.  Overcoming or not.  Mind of course lets us set goals and overcome those challenges.

A:  Yes, if it’s worth overcoming, because let’s say I think each of us has its own demons.  Like for me, it’s really hard to play thick texture because it really hurts my hands.  So I’m trying not to overuse them, because if you will push yourself in the wrong direction you might not be able to play one day at all.

V:  I also have similar situation with Schumann recently.  I wanted to record all the pieces by Schumann, Robert Schumann, on the organ.  And I recorded a few, and after I played a few more, I started noticing my hands hurt.  And then you said “stop.”  When I told you this, you said, “stop playing Schumann - look what happened to him, right?”

A:  Yes, he hurt himself, his hands.  So definitely not the easiest composer to play.

V:  Mm hm.  Yeah.  Look at your physique first and see what works for you.  And if your hands and feet allow you, then it’s only your mind which is stopping you.

A:  Yes, you know, and I often feel how nice that I’m not in school anymore and I can play whatever I want.  (laughs) It’s really nice, and nobody can tell you what to play and what not to play.

V:  And beautiful thing about organ repertoire, organ music in general, I’m now including improvisation too, and hymn playing, is that you will never run out of music to play.  Because we have like seven centuries of organ music written and surviving repertoire to look at, and to everyone’s taste, to everyone’s technical abilities.  If you have a certain kind of organ accessible to you, you can learn that kind of repertoire, if you don’t have that organ you learn another repertoire.  It’s all up to you, and it’s such a vast amount of choices that - it’s like reading books, you will never run out of books to read.

​A:  Sure, and I’m thinking that at some point I will play only hymns on the organ.  Because I’m putting so much effort into my YouTube channel over a few years, and my most popular video is hymn - Abide With Me - which I’m playing on our folding reed organ Henrietta.  Simply without pedals, with my two hands, and it’s still the most popular of my videos.  So why to struggle to play big pieces by J.S. Bach or Cesar Franck and other great composers, when you can just open your hymnal and play a hymn.

V:  It’s probably not necessarily revealing to the video itself, because it’s popular due to some certain algorithm that YouTube created, and maybe it resonated to a certain audience, right?  And maybe your other videos didn’t catch that algorithm for some reason.  But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t play music that you love.

A:  Yes, but it’s easy to play hymns without any preparation.

V:  And of course, you can compose music based on those hymns, too.

A:  Yes, that’s what I’m doing.

V:  Nice.  So guys, this was a rather long conversation, but maybe it was helpful and shed some light on the matters that you are thinking about as well in your organ playing journey.  And if you want to submit any other requests or questions that we could discuss over the podcast one day, please do so.  We would be delighted to help you grow as an organist.  This was Vidas.

A:  And Ausra.

V:  And remember, when you practice,

A: Miracles happen.

V: This podcast is supported by Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online.

A: 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...

V: 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…

A: Sign up and begin your training today at organduo.lt and click on Total Organist. And of course, you will get the 1st month free too. You can cancel anytime.

V: If you like our organ music, you can also support us on Buy Me a Coffee platform and get early access:

A: Find out more at https://buymeacoffee.com/organduo

Vidas: Hello and welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast!

Ausra: This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better organist.

V: We’re your hosts Vidas Pinkevicius...

A: ...and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene.

V: We have over 25 years of experience of playing the organ

A: ...and we’ve been teaching thousands of organists online from 89 countries since 2011.

V: So now let’s jump in and get started with the podcast for today.

A: We hope you’ll enjoy it!

V:  Hi guys!  This is Vidas.

A:  And Ausra.

Vidas:  Let’s start episode 708 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Dawn, and she writes:

“Hi Vidas,

I’m finding your advice very helpful. I’ve started to approach my pieces like my scales, ‘from memory’ and I’m definitely making progress. I’m recognising finger patterns are better too, which I normally don’t. So thank you for your advice on memorisation.

In answer to your questions:

My dream is to play competently and confidently. Perhaps in the future to reach Grade 8 standard if I’m ever good enough.
The 3 things holding me back:

1. Poor fingering.
2. Poor rhythm.
3. Slow speed.

Thanks again for your advice and support. It’s much appreciated.
Dawn”

Vidas:  Say, “hello,” Ausra, to a person who has your own name, only in English!

Ausra:  I know! I know! Dawn means Ausra in Lithuanian, so we carry the same name!

Vidas:  Greetings! What can you advise, for starters, to Dawn?

Ausra:  Well, poor fingering, yes, first of all, if you think that you have poor fingering, probably I could suggest that you write down fingering, because that might help for you to improve your poor fingering, because it’s a good thing for beginners to do it, because otherwise every time, you might play the same piece with different fingering, and it might confuse you, and you might make mistakes!

Vidas:  If Dawn was reading my newsletter, at the beginning of signing up, we have a 10 day mini-course, and one of the emails was about fingering—how to write fingering and pedaling, as well, for the piece—for a Baroque piece and a Romantic piece, for legato playing and articulated legato playing, so I think it would be good for Dawn to review those emails and, as Ausra says, write down fingering in her pieces. A good example, of course, would be to look at our site, Secrets of Organ Playing, where we have some fingering and pedaling written in the scores available for our students so that you could study how we do it, and that’s helpful. You could even play from those scores as well, if you choose the right piece from our collections and archives and catalog. 

Ausra:  Yes, that’s a good suggestion, Vidas!

Vidas:  Yes, so… you will find the link, of course, in our Website, https://www.organduo.lt.

Ausra:  And next, poor rhythm. I think my suggestion would be to count, and to count loud at the beginning at least! This might help to solve the rhythm problems. Actually, many people, many musicians, struggle with that. That’s a common problem, and actually, the most useful tool that I learned was to subdivide while playing. What I mean by subdividing is that if the smallest note value is, let’s say, 1/16th in the piece that you are working on, then you need to subdivide everything into the 1/16ths. I mean, for example, you are holding a quarter note, yes, and you are counting 1 – 2 – 3 – 4, because the quarter note with have 4 16th notes, and you would do that throughout the entire piece, that would keep you in a good rhythm, you would play the right rhythm, and you could keep in the right tempo, too. Because no, very often people don’t like to count. They don’t like to subdivide. Some actually use the metronome to help them, but I don’t think it’s such a good idea. You might check up your tempo with a metronome, but you cannot play with it, because it’s not helpful. It’s not musical. So subdivision and counting is the best thing, and many people say, “Oh, I’m counting!” but they still cannot play it right, you know, that’s because they are just imagining that they are counting. You really need to do it physically with your tongue!

Vidas:  Out loud!

Ausra:  Out loud, yes.

Vidas:  And even, you can record yourself doing that and listen to your recording, and you will find out if you are counting out loud correctly in the correct rhythm. Right? And pulse!

Ausra:  Yes.

Vidas:  And number 3. Slow speed. Basically, what she means, probably, is that she cannot play fast. Right? Which is nice! What is wrong with playing slowly? Right? Slow music could be played slowly!

Ausra:  Yes, but too bad that not all music is written in a slow tempo, so you need to be able to play faster and in different tempos. But, I think that tempo will come up, you will speed up with more practice. I think it’s very important to not get frustrated with your slow speed, because it’s good for the beginners or the beginning of learning a new piece, because then you will deal with all the technicalities of your piece. The tempo will come up naturally. You will speed up naturally.

Vidas:  I know that now Ausra will laugh at me, what I’m about to say. You need to apply my 10-step method. Shall I review this from the start?

Ausra:  Yes, but I think I will start yawning very soon.

Vidas:  Yes. You go to sleep and I will finish the episode! Step number 1: Start and stop at the beginning of each beat. If in the 4/4 meter there are four beats, you start with the first beat, play fast all the notes in between note 1 and 2. And it’s easy, because it’s a very small fragment. Everybody could do those 4 notes in 16ths. You stop, and then prepare for the next fragment of four notes—one beat, right? And then do the same thing until you reach the end of the piece, with both hands, with both feet together, right? But very very short fragments, and do this a few times until you can do three times in a row with no mistakes. That’s step number one…. And Ausra is actually yawning!!! What!!!

Ausra:  ...and it’s only step number one!

Vidas:  So it’s a good bedtime story?

Ausra:  Yes, it is, but now it’s morning, so…

Vidas:  Basically, step number two, you double the fragment and start and stop at the beginning of every half note. Basically twice per measure until the end of the piece. Several times, also three times in a row without mistakes. And number three, you double the fragment again and stop at the beginning of each measure. And then two measures, four measures, entire line, two lines, one page, two pages, four pages, eight pages, well, and maybe that’s the end of the piece, or the end of the piece would be the next step. So basically, that’s 10 or 11 steps for a very long piece… could be. But that’s a very very effective way to get to this fast tempo, fast speed. What do you think, Ausra?

Ausra:  Yes, it’s a very good way, but in my case, since I’m always working on so much music that I don’t have time!

Vidas:  But you are not a beginner, you see! It’s…

Ausra:  I know! I know!

Vidas:  Maybe it’s not for you! You don’t have these problems. You can solve the tempo issue naturally, organically. But for people like Dawn and others who actually write down this problem for us, this advice is one of the best I could give.

Ausra:  I think it’s a very good advice you just need to be patient with it.

Vidas:  We don’t have this problem, so we actually practice, maybe, organically, playing the piece and studying the difficult spots alone, isolating difficult spots, not an entire piece, but maybe when we master the difficult spots, then we can practice the entire piece organically without the need of those short fragments.

Ausra:  But I know that you have done this method with some pieces, very difficult pieces that you had to learn in a very short time.

Vidas:  Yes. It actually speeds up the learning process quite a bit.

Ausra:  And it’s interesting because it seems so time consuming, you know, working on all these combinations, but it actually saves time in the long run.

Vidas:  Yes, and it actually frees up my mind. I know that if I’m applying step one, step two, step three, and so on, I’m on the right path. I’m not wandering around and wasting time with difficult music. And difficult music is a very subjective thing to everyone. Right? For us, difficult music might mean inaccessible music to some organists or vice versa. Or easy music to us might mean inaccessible to other organists. Right? So it’s all about your own skills right now! And if Dawn is hoping to reach grade 8 skills…

Ausra:  ...which is a very good goal, because she has a goal and usually when people have goals, set up a goal like this, for example, to reach grade 8, I think it’s very good because usually they reach their goal.

Vidas:  Yes, and you have to, of course, reach grade 7 before that, and grade 6, and 5, and probably that’s the UK’s system. Right? And they have examinations, you have to take courses and even tests to pass those grades, and obviously, that’s a very good system to have from the beginning until you reach grade 8, or even… I don’t know if they have grade 10 for example. Maybe not, maybe grade 8 is the highest. I haven’t checked lately. But that’s a good goal, actually.

Ausra:  Yes, very good.

Vidas:  So hopefully, this was helpful to Dawn and others, and please send us more of your very specific questions—this was specific enough, right?

Ausra:  Yes, yes, this was very specific.

Vidas:  And we could give you specific answers. And remember, when you practice,

Ausra: Miracles happen!

​V: This podcast is supported by Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online.

A: 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...

V: 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…

A: Sign up and begin your training today at organduo.lt and click on Total Organist. And of course, you will get the 1st month free too. You can cancel anytime.

​V: : If you need one-on-one coaching, you can check out our page on Buy Me a Coffee platform:

​A: Find out more at https://buymeacoffee.com/organduo

Vidas: Hello and welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast!

Ausra: This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better organist.

V: We’re your hosts Vidas Pinkevicius...

A: ...and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene.

V: We have over 25 years of experience of playing the organ

A: ...and we’ve been teaching thousands of organists online from 89 countries since 2011.

V: So now let’s jump in and get started with the podcast for today.

A: We hope you’ll enjoy it!

V:  Hi guys!  This is Vidas.

A:  And Ausra.

Vidas: Let’s start episode 703 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Pamela, and she has a dream to be the best organist that she can be. And holding her back is playing anxiety, physical stamina, and lack of concentration.

Vidas:  So, it’s of course very general, Ausra, not very specific. Right?

Ausra:  Well, yes.

Vidas:  “The best organist that she can be. What does it mean?

Ausra:  Well, I think that’s a nice goal, because especially young people often say, “I want to be the best organist in the world,” “I want to be the best organist in the universe,” and I think that she wants to be the best of herself. So, I think she, in putting her goal as this, formulating her goal as this, she knows that she has some sort of limitations, which I think is important, because I think it’s very important to be realistic about ourselves.

Vidas:  You’re right, but what I meant was, we don’t know what she’s playing. Right? What type of music she’s playing, what type of organ she is playing, so that is why our advice cannot be very specific, and might not work for her. Right? But we will try.

Ausra:  Yes, and she mentions a few problems, and we can discuss those. For example, anxiety. Yes?

Vidas:  Mhmm

Ausra:  So I think in order to beat the anxiety, what you have to do is actually to perform more often for like a real audience. The more often you go public with your playing, the easier it will get, the less anxiety you will get.

Vidas:  Is it like similar to driving a car, Ausra?

Ausra:  Yes, I think it’s the same with anything that requires high quality skills, and it’s happening in time.

Vidas:  In real time!

Ausra:  In real time, yes.

Vidas:  The risk of making mistakes is big. Right? The stakes are high. Of course, driving a car, the stakes are higher than making mistakes on the organ.

Ausra:  Oh yes! Your mistakes will not kill anybody, so…

Vidas:  Yes, so… but you still can pretend you’re playing it live for an audience, while recording yourself, while giving yourself, let’s say, an opportunity to perform in front of your family or friends, regular opportunities like that.

Ausra:  And another thing that Pamela mentions is concentration! And I think I will give her one advice that I hope will help for both, for concentration and for performance anxiety, and this is actually breathing, because breathing is crucial while playing. It helps you stay concentrated and will calm you down so you won’t feel such a big anxiety. You won’t be so anxious. So just before starting your public performance, take a few deep breaths, maybe do some relaxation exercises before that and then take a few deep breaths before starting performing, and remember during your actual performance to keep breathing. It’s very important, because just pay attention to it, because usually people say, “I’m breathing, it’s okay, everything is fine.” But from my experience, I can see that usually people while performing, they don’t breathe as deep and as natural as they should have, because the body gets tense, the muscles get tense, and the people forget to breathe.

Vidas:  Yeah, it’s a stressful situation, so you tense your shoulders, you raise your shoulders, keep your breathing shallow, and try to rush through that piece as best as you can.

Ausra:  And you know, the less you breath, the worse your performance will become, because you will get anxious, you probably might make mistakes, most mistakes make you even more anxious, and you, of course, with lack of oxygen, your brain will lose your concentration! You won’t be able to stay focused and relaxed and to do what you have to do.

Vidas:  She also mentions physical stamina as the challenge holding her back. Stamina means working for longer hours. Right? Playing for longer periods of time.

Ausra:  Well, you know, we all are sort of not perfect with our physical conditions, so… we all have our own mountains to reach and to climb, so, some people have short legs, short arms, some have too long legs and arms, some have spine problems, back problems, some people have had strokes, cannot move one of the hands or legs equally, so we all have to do the best we can. But actually physical exercises might help, too! Like do some yoga, some Pilates, and do some breaks during your practice hours, because if you’re thinking you will just sit down on the organ bench and do like four hours of practice without stopping, then no, you cannot do that. Even if you don’t have any disabilities, you still have to do breaks and to rest and relax your muscles and relax your mind, do some exercises and do some breathing exercises and to find what works out for you.

Vidas:  I think the Pomodoro technique works very well in order to figure out when to take a rest. The Pomodoro technique basically can be applied to any type of activity and it lets you practice for 25 minutes at a time, and then you take a 5 minute break, and then again practice for 25 minutes, and then again a 5 minute break. So then those practice activities can be done 4 times for 25 minutes plus a 5 minute break. But then after that, if you still want to practice, you have to take your break longer than 5 minutes. It’s a half and hour break. And then you can start your practice session all over again for 25 minutes with a 5 minute break. So that’s how it works. After 2 hours, you have to have a longer break, basically. 30 minutes. And there are timers to really time your activities and rests for that. You can find your own version of a timer.

Ausra:  That’s a very good advice!

Vidas:  Yeah. I, of course, forget that, but on a good day, I apply that and try to take frequent rests. You know, if you take a rest when you are still not tired, you will never get tired! Right, Ausra?

Ausra:  Oh yes, that would be nice.

Vidas:  That’s the main idea of the Pomodoro technique, because after 25 minutes, you are not still very tired. A lesson is 45 minutes long, sometimes even an hour. What is a 25 minute interval? After a long piece practice session, you can have 2 or 3 runs of the same piece, and 25 minutes would be over. Right? And then you can take a break without actually feeling too tired. So that’s my advice to Pamela about physical stamina. Take frequent breaks and maybe take advantage of the Pomodoro technique. Okay, was it useful for you guys? Please let us know! And if so, please send us more of your questions; we love helping you grow. And remember, when you practice, 

Ausra: Miracles happen!

​V: This podcast is supported by Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online.

A: 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...

V: 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…

A: Sign up and begin your training today at organduo.lt and click on Total Organist. And of course, you will get the 1st month free too. You can cancel anytime.

​V: : If you need one-on-one coaching, you can check out our page on Buy Me a Coffee platform:

​A: Find out more at https://buymeacoffee.com/organduo