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 689 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Martin, and his response is to the question, “What are his goals in organ playing in the next 3-6 months?” So he writes: “Improving my pedaling technique, independence of hands and feet” Vidas: That might be probably goals and also challenges. Right? Ausra: Yes, and I think it’s so true about most of the beginners or even intermediate organists. Vidas: We could recommend something from our courses/programs. Right? Ausra: Yes. Vidas: Definitely “Total Organist” has a lot of material to offer. Not only scores with fingering and pedaling but also programs like “10-day Pedal Playing Challenge”, or if you want a larger course, “Pedal Virtuoso Master Course.” For independence of hand and feet, what would you suggest, Ausra? Ausra: Practicing combinations. That’s the most helpful thing. Vidas: And what would you suggest to practice? Not how, but what? Ausra: Well, you can improve your independence of hand and feet in any repertoire that you are working on right now. Vidas: So basically, Martin has to look and be more specific; he didn’t write anything that he’s practicing right now. That’s too bad. We cannot suggest anything. Ausra: But if he has trouble with independence of his hands and feet, then I’m meaning to coordinate between hands and feet, it means that while working on a new piece, that he cannot play all the voices at the same time. He needs to start working in combinations. Right hand and pedals, left hand and pedals, hands alone, pedals alone, then maybe try to put everything together. Usually for people who are right-handed, the left and and feet give the most trouble, because you want to play with your feet the same things that your left hand is playing, and if you are left-handed then you have the opposite problem; putting the right hand and feet together. And this problem usually disappears with time of your playing. You will improve with each new piece that you are learning. And let’s say after playing organ for a few years, you won’t have that problem anymore, or it won’t be so obvious. Vidas: But there is a catch; you have to play with correct technique. By that, I mean if you play hymns and if you double the base with the pedals and your left hand, then you would not improve. Correct? Ausra: Yes, and that’s very often the case with church musicians. Vidas: Leave out the bass and not play with the hand. Ausra: Yes what this is meaning, is in the left hand you need to play only the tenor voice in hymn accompaniment, and the base line to play it only with the pedal, and the right hand plays alto and soprano. Vidas: Exactly. Ausra: And that’s a challenge for many musicians. Vidas: Especially pianists, because pianists can almost sight-read those hymns with both hands, so they just double the pedals a little bit, which is wrong. Right, Ausra? Ausra: Yes, at least in our opinion, yes, it is. Vidas: It will not help to improve the independence of hands and feet. But I would probably suggest to Martin to add repertoire like meditations, slow pieces, adagios, with manuals and pedals, and then he can practice like Ausra says, in combinations. Not very polyphonically advanced music. That’s what I mean. Ausra: Yes! Yeah. Vidas: Why? Because… Ausra: Because polyphonic music is very advanced. Vidas: Yeah, and for beginners, it’s better to start with homophonic music—music which has melody and accompaniment. Ausra: But of course, if you are willing to pursue your organist career, you will have to play polyphonic music later on, because look how many fugues there are that are written for the organ. Vidas: So, do you think Martin has something to start with from our conversation right now? Ausra: I hope so! Vidas: Or do we have to suggest something else? Ausra: I hope so… Vidas: Yeah, I wish he was more thorough in his response, not just 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7… 7 words, basically, or 9 words. Ausra: So I think his first 7 words we talked quite a lot. Vidas: Yes. That’s probably the best we can do from this. Be more specific, Martin, if you want more specific advice. Give us something to work with here, because we can speculate with what kind of organ you have or not, we can be way off. We can speculate what kind of music you like or don’t like, so we don’t know. We don’t even know what’s your skill level, even if you’re a really beginner or a little basic level organist. We don’t know your experience with the instrument at all. So we did the best we could do. Right Ausra? Ausra: Yes! Vidas: That’s nice. Thank you guys, 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 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
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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 667 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Justin, and he writes, Hello, I am currently subscribed to the Pedal Virtuoso Course. My materials for the week usually arrive on Wednesdays around 11:30 am local time, but for some reason, I didn't receive my materials for Week 5 (not in either my inbox or my spam folder). Could you arrange to have it sent? I've been enjoying the course. I'm an advanced organist, but in all my years of studying and playing, none of my teachers has ever taught pedal scales or arpeggios. So I'm grateful that this material is filling in that gap! Thanks, and all the best, Justin V: First of all, of course I sent Justin the material, missing material, and the problem was with the auto responder service that I’m using. I looked up - everything was set up okay except one specific Week 5. And after Week 5, there is Week 6, 7, 8, etc., and they were scheduled correctly. But since Week 5 was not specified to go on a certain day, then Week 6 also wouldn’t get sent out. So I fixed that mistake. Does this make sense? A: Yes, I guess so. V: (laughs) That’s a little bit technical talk. A: And I’m not a really technical person. V: In some areas you are! A: I could teach about parallel 5ths and octaves. V: Yeah, that’s also technical. So Justin is taking Pedal Virtuoso Master Course. A: Well actually, it’s a very nice message. I was really glad to hear from somebody who is an advanced organist and still can find useful our materials from Total Organist. V: This specific course could really be helpful to advanced organists as well, because we start with C Major scale and C Major scale is not the easiest one to play even if you are experienced organist, right? You have to really develop flexibility of an ankle. And that’s not always the case with organists. A: Yes, and actually this is, that C Major scale is very deceitful, because even on the piano it’s not the easiest scale to play actually. Because often people just avoid the black keys, thinking that they are real trouble-maker, but actually it’s not. Usually the white keys gives more trouble. V: Correct. Unless there are too many black keys, then you can get lost in the keyboard, but what if you have one or two, those two black keys give you sense of direction, and also because if you look at your hand, your palm let’s say, your first finger is lower than the rest of them, so it feels natural to play sharps on some occasions. A: Because when you can use your thumb closer to the black keys, yes. V: Yes. You place your thumb on the white key, and let’s say the second finger on the sharp key. A: Yes, and now a funny thought came to my mind. I thought about Bach’s Prelude in D Major which opens with that pedal line scale. V: Yes, yes. A: And I thought what a good joke it would be to transpose it into C Major. Would it be easier or harder, what do you think? V: With Baroque pedaling, probably easier, probably easier, because all the white keys - remember, the feet are not exactly shaped like your fingers, so it’s a little bit easier to play on the white keys. Although one or two doesn’t hurt also. A: Well, thanks for explaining me that feet are not exactly as my hands! (laughs) I was kind of confused about that. Thanks for clarifying it to me. V: I wasn’t keeping you in mind in this specific example, but maybe some people could relate. A: Yeah, so I was wondering maybe I should learn that D Major Prelude and Fugue. I have played it awhile ago, but maybe I need to play it in C Major and it will be easier. V: That particular scale would be easier, but what about the rest of the Prelude? A: Well, I’m not sure. I need to look into it. V: Yeah. So yeah, difficult scales and arpeggios in this course are very helpful in developing perfect pedal technique, but if you are talking about BWV 532, D Major Prelude and Fugue, this opening, a lot of people are still using modern pedaling to play this passage. A: I know. V: You know that? A: Yes, I know that. V: With heels. A: Too bad, but it’s their choice. What can we do? V: Yeah. Even concert organists and lot of experts on...very famous organists on YouTube for example use heels, whereas Baroque pedaling could be very simple for this passage. Left, left, right, left, right, left, right, right. A: Yes, I guess these virtuoso organists, concert organists as you call them, they probably haven’t played the real Baroque organ. V: Real Baroque pedalboard. A: Yes. V: It’s a flat… A: Yes V: ...pedalboard. A: Because I just can’t imagine using heels on real original Baroque organ. V: Mm hm. Yeah. If you have let’s say at your disposal radiating AGO specification-based pedalboard, with the sides of the pedalboard going upward, it’s completely different feeling than the flat pedalboard that you see in Baroque instruments. And in a lot of cases in Romantic instruments as well. In Lithuania for example, in village churches, right? A: Yes, that’s right. V: The modern pedalboard wasn’t standardized probably up until 20th century, A: As many things actually, wasn’t standardized until that time. As tuning, for example. V: Yes. Tuning, pitch, a lot of instruments were either a little bit higher or a little bit lower than concert pitch A 440. A: So music had more colors. V: A lot of instruments had temperament different from equal temperament of today’s piano. So you could modulate to many different keys, and still feel the difference between the keys. A: That’s right. V: What do you think about people who don’t like exercises and scales and arpeggios - would they benefit from this course, or would, it would be counter-productive? A: I think everybody would benefit from it, but it’s just question of personal choice. V: Yes, some people enjoy playing repertoire straightaway. A: Yes, that’s right. And it’s okay. If exercises are exhausting you or killing you, then why bother, if you are good at what you are doing? V: And on the contrary, there are people that I even know personally who refrain from playing repertoire unless they can play exercises for a long time. They could practice exercises for weeks and months. A: I guess probably for those people, simple exercises is like a therapy, like some sort of meditation, don’t you think so? V: Yes because let’s say in this course you get one set of exercises every week, and if you learn one exercise per day, you’ll get kind of sense of accomplishment. A: Sure, and I guess it’s up to each person to find her or his own way, what really works. V: Yeah. Some people play hymns instead of repertoire or exercises. They’re not interested. A: Which is also perfectly normal, because hymns are fun to play, and they are naturally really pleasing, even musically. V: I found that using hymns in organ demonstrations is really really fun, both for the performer and hopefully for the listener too. A: Yes, especially if you grew up in a church and certain hymns are really deep under your skin. V: Yeah. A: And it really appeals to many people, I think. V: Yeah. It depends who’s listening, of course. A: Sure. V: If you are someone who never sang hymns, then probably organ demonstrations with a different kind of music would work better. All right guys. This was Vidas. A: And Ausra. V: Please send us more of your questions. We love helping you grow. 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! Vidas: Hi guys! This is Vidas. Ausra: And Ausra. Vidas: Let’s start episode 656 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Louis, and he writes: “Hello friends: I have read all about your Pedal Virtuoso Master Course. I would like to answer one important question for me. I have seen that there are many scales and arpeggios. I think that this is very good but I need to practice how to find any pedal without looking at the pedalboard. Have you got any special technique for this? Teachers in Spain use to say the same as some of your teachers: there isn't any technique, you only have to repeat many times while looking at the pedalboard and your brain will memorize the movements. I think that is the problem. I want to find any pedal, any interval... without looking at the pedalboard and with a technique. Please, tell me if you explain this in your course. Thank you very much. I hope to find what I need in your courses. Regards, Luis” Vidas: So, Ausra, what do you think? Can Louis learn to memorize the places on the pedalboard without looking? Ausra: Yes, but for doing that, I don’t think he needs to look at the pedalboard; I think that might be a problem if he plays pedals always looking at the pedalboard. I think that might be a problem why he cannot play without looking at it. Vidas: Oh, you mean the problem might be apparent in the question—the way he asks, right? Ausra: No, I mean that while he learns pedal technique, yes, he says that he’s looking at the pedal board and repeats things many times. I never suggested to anybody to do anything like that. Vidas: Teachers in Spain, he says, but he says some of our teachers used to say… I don’t know what he means. My teachers don’t recommend looking at the pedalboard. Ausra: Mine too… Vidas: Where he got this idea… Ausra: Mine recommended like pedal preparations, but not looking at the pedalboard. Vidas: So, obviously, if you’re just starting and you’re thinking theoretically about this, let’s say you are thinking about this Pedal Virtuoso Master Course without doing your practice, then it’s one thing. It seems theoretical, and you sort of try to solve those problems in your head without practice. But when you sit down, usually people start to feel progress after a couple of weeks, and if they stick to this course until the end, then obviously, more improvement will come, and finding the keys in the pedalboard will not be a problem. Do you agree? Ausra: Yes, that’s what I am thinking! I think that this problem comes because of not practicing enough—not spending enough time with the pedalboard. Vidas: Right. Ausra: But I think that watching at, the pedalboard, really will not help. It may only harm your progress and slow your progress. Vidas: Yes. Ausra: Maybe sometimes in like a few spots over the difficult piece you might want to watch at the pedals, but not like be constantly looking at them. Vidas: And it will come with experience, I think, too. The more he practices, as you say, the easier it will become to adjust. Ausra: Yes, because we don’t practice on one instrument. We don’t play one organ all the time. Usually we have to play on at least a few organs or even more. If you are a concert organist, then you have to adjust to a new pedalboard quite often, so not all the measurements are exactly the same at each instrument, so you need to adjust every time. But it comes with time and practice, and with more experience. Vidas: Yes. I don’t think Louis has taken the jump and started studying from this Pedal Virtuoso Master Course yet. I think he asked the question,… and that’s not his first question, actually, he asked a few more, but hasn’t subscribed to this course yet. Ausra: I have never heard about any kind of pedal course that would teach you the one thing which is to press the right key without looking. Have you heard about anything like this? Vidas: We can create something, but that wouldn’t be fair! Ausra: I know, because it’s just so fun! Vidas: The course could be titled something like, “Memorize all the Pedals.” Why, right? Why would they need to memorize? Ausra: And you know, actually, there is only one situation when I have to look at the pedalboard, actually, while playing organ duets, and if I have to play it with the pedal part. Why is that? Because usually if I play solo I sit in the center of the organ bench, but if I playing duets, I have to share the bench with you, so I’m sort of sitting up-right or up-left, and it’s really different. Vidas: Exactly. You’re not centered. Ausra: That’s right. So sometimes I get in trouble after shifting to a different position and then I have to look at the pedal board. Vidas: The same is for me, except I don’t use the entire pedalboard; I just use half of it when playing duets. Right? The other half is for you! Ausra: Sure! Vidas: Or, if you’re not playing pedals, I’m playing just the lower part and that’s quite enough. You know? Because it’s almost impossible to reach extreme right notes when you’re sitting in the extreme left. Ausra: Yes, that’s true. Vidas: My feet would kick you many times. So advice for Louis, I don’t’ know. Why did he wait? Why does he wait if he wants to achieve pedal virtuosity. Without practicing, there will be no pedal virtuosity, and certainly no improvement in terms of finding pedals without looking at the pedalboard. Ausra: Yes, because there are no magic trick, and no magic word, no magic exercise that would entirely solve all your problems. Vidas: If he’s not sure if this course is for you or not, remember always, you have a 30 day window where you can cancel and get a full refund. Yes, for four weeks you can practice anything from our courses and try it out, and then if you don’t like it, you can ask for a refund. Very few people do, actually. Ausra: Because people are polite, and if they already used your material, they just don’t want to be jerks, I think, Vidas: So you think they don’t like our courses? They just are afraid to ask? That’s what you mean? Ausra: No! Vidas: What do you mean then? Ausra: Okay, don’t provoke me! Vidas: Why not? Okay. What do we have here? Ausra: We have Yoshke, my brother’s dog, and she’s helping us to record podcasts today. 
Vidas: And usually she was very quiet, but now she’s started to lick and sniff all around us. Maybe she wants to play.
Ausra: Maybe she wants to add something about “Pedal Virtuoso Master Course.” Vidas: She likes to work on the keyboard! On the computer keyboard. I’m afraid that she will press some kind of wrong button and my audio recording will stop. Ausra: Could be! Vidas: Okay guys, so we hope this was useful to you. 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 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 |
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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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