Let’s start episode 722 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Dawn and she writes: "My New Year's resolution is to be confident at improvising." It's no longer New Year but being confident at improvisation on the organ can be relevant anytime. Hope you will enjoy this podcast episode!

​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:  Let’s start episode 722 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Dawn, and she writes:

“My New Year’s resolution is to be confident at improvising.”
Vidas:  So Ausra, this is no longer New Year, and we are far into 2025, but Dawn is our Total Organist student, and I thought answering this question as a podcast episode would be helpful to many people.

Ausra:  Yes! Yeah. Well that’s a very brave resolution, Dawn! What can I say. I would not make such a resolution for myself.

Vidas:  And of course, every Sunday we have this series, “Learn with Vidas” on our Secrets of Organ Playing YouTube channel where I teach various aspects of organ playing, and a lot of times it’s tutorials for improvisation. So Dawn is actually a regular listener in these live tutorials. So, Ausra, if you were to start improvisation in 2025 or 2026, for example, what would you do? Where would you start, from scratch if you haven’t tried even improvisation before? Where would you go first?

Ausra:  Well, probably, you know, if I would be a church musician, yes?

Vidas:  Yes.

Ausra:  But I would set up a goal to learn to improvise the prelude, postlude, and something quiet and soft for like offering.

Vidas:  Very good idea, and when you’re saying this, it’s actually... right away a form of a suite comes to me. Like a suite or a partita, for example, based on three or four movements, where the first and the last movements are prelude and postlude or processional and recessional, and then in the middle you could have communion or offertory and communion or meditation, something like that, a quieter piece and this is a really really useful genre to master, because a lot of organists need new material every week for service playing, and it’s not always possible to find suitable hymn-based music—preludes, postludes, interludes. Right? And you could actually make it up on the spot.

Ausra:  Yes, that’s a great idea. You know? And your improvisations could be, let’s say, three from any given hymn, or could be based on a hymn. It depends on what…

Vidas:  What do you think, Ausra? Is it easier to improvise in a freestyle without themes based on chorales or hymns, or a hymn setting?

Ausra:  I would say for a beginner, probably to improvise from a given hymn might be easier, because you could use the four-part harmonization for yourself, and to…

Vidas:  Look at the harmonization provided…

Ausra:  ...yes…

Vidas:  ...in the hymnal.

Ausra:  Yes, yes. That might… but of course for the processional/recessional, you could do something very easy. Just, you know, add like… play some dotted chords… like let’s say in the tonic key, then the sixth scale degree chord, the subdominant, dominant, back to tonic, then transpose it into let’s say the subdominant key, do the same thing then, you know, go back to the tonic.

Vidas:  Remember, I did something like this a few tutorials. One of those was for processional, another of those was for recessional based on three themes, where we could also use those as a material for our graduation ceremonies at Vilnius University. There is like an Entrance Procession, 90 seconds long, usually, and we have to provide solemn music, and it’s a little different for recessional, because you can play longer, maybe twice as long, because you need a little more material because a lot of people are leaving the church—many more than during the processional entering the church, but it’s fun! It’s not very difficult to do when you have a form like Ausra says, like a theme of, let’s say, eight measures, and you repeat this theme with some variations in texture but using the same harmony, and then you transpose it to, let’s say, a dominant key do a few variations in that key, and then finally return to the home key, doing a couple of variations, and that’s your entire processional.

Ausra:  Yes, that’s simple and could really work quite well. And you could be really confident in playing it because it’s really easy.

Vidas:  The difficult part is coming up with meaningful harmonies, harmonic progressions. Right? Because it could be as simple as turning subdominant dominant, like repeating a cadence over and over again, like in a chaconne. But if you want to be a little more advanced, then you have a little challenge how to come up with those progressions.

Ausra:  Well, anyway, you can take any piece written by any composer and you could analyze what chords he or she used, and you could use similar patterns.

Vidas:  Like Handel, for example, or Bach.

Ausra:  Yes, because it’s nothing like… you know, it’s not rocket science. Let’s say, let’s take Folia, famous variations, and use that as from Folia, or I don’t know, take that C Major Bach’s prelude from Well Tempered Clavier, and you could get many ideas out of that, how, what kind of chords to use, and which after which to use, and that’s it.

Vidas:  It’s actually a very good actual suggestion for a tutorial, either Folia or Bach’s C Major Prelude from Well Tempered Clavier. Those themes are very famous. A lot of organists would recognize them—especially C Major Prelude from Well Tempered Clavier. And those Harmonies could be understandable to many people, and that’s what you could do also, if you want to create a meaningful outline of your improvisation, and then expand it with some variations.

Ausra:  Because it still will sound different in your playing, because you will choose, probably, a different texture, maybe a different key, and you know, it will sound newer, refreshing!

Vidas:  Exactly. If you take, for example, harmonies from Well Tempered Clavier C Major Prelude, but texture from C Minor Prelude, the famous toccata style configuration in the hands in 16th notes, then it will be a very different piece both from C Major and C Minor originals, it will be yours already. And I’m actually teaching those types of preludes in my prelude improvisation formula, which is based on my dissertation from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

Ausra:  Yes, because you know, one could say it’s plagiarism and you cannot do it, but let’s face it, you know, we all have traditional music. And what I mean by traditional music, I’m not meaning folk music, but all the Western culture music. It’s all derived from twelve notes, that’s it. So basically all the  composers somehow are rewriting each other, because all the music is based on twelve notes.

Vidas:  Plus, if it was plagiarism, it had to be copyrighted music!

Ausra:  Sure.

Vidas:  Today’s music, 20th, 21st century, or second half of the 20th century, not public domain music, not music that you could use freely, and adjust freely and adapt freely and edit and do whatever you want with it. It’s our cultural heritage. But yes, you are free to change it and adapt it, so that’s very good advice, Ausra, for Dawn, who wants to be confident at improvising this year. 

Ausra:  So keep going, Dawn! I really admire you for doing what you are doing.

Vidas:  Maybe, there is one more advice that I specifically recommend, is to record yourself. Record and share your recordings of improvisations with the online organists community, because then not only will you benefit, but everyone else will benefit, but especially you will benefit, actually, if you force yourself to become confident in front of the camera and not to freeze, then you actually, you are preparing for a real live situation like it is in the church where you have to perform for many people listening or not listening to you, if they are leaving the church or entering the church, gathering, but still it’s a stressful situation, but it would be very helpful to record yourself for this specific purpose and let us know how it goes and share those recordings. We would be really happy to hear how you apply our tips in your practice.

Ausra:  Yes, it would be very nice to hear how you improvise.

Vidas:  Excellent. And send us more of your questions; we love helping you grow. And remember, when you practice,

Ausra: Miracles happen!

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Vidas: Hi guys, this is Vidas
 
Ausra: And Ausra
 
Vidas: Let’s start episode 365 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Neil, and he writes:

​​Hello Vidas,

My big problem is confidence but last night it went very well probably because I practiced everything and marked up the service booklet and went through the service in my mind.

Neil

V: So, Ausra, do you feel confident when you play? Because, sometimes I do not feel that confidence, but I still have to play it, regardless of how I feel.
 
A: Well, I think that each of us are not having confidence every time we play, and the reasons might be various. We might be unprepared, or we might not feel well…
 
V: Or we might just lack experience.
 
A: True. So, there might be different reasons. But, if a person says that he or she has confidence every time, always, then I just think that either the person is insincere, or that something is wrong with him or her.
 
V: Or that person doesn’t challenge himself or herself enough. Right?
 
A: It could be true, yes.
 
V: Playing pieces that are too easy.
 
A: That’s right.
 
V: Then we can feel really confident.
 
A: Yes. But, as was mentioned in the question, I think it’s very important to have that preparation. And both physical preparation and mental preparation for an event. As Neil said, he studied the booklet—he circled the service booklet...important spots. And he went through the service in his mind. I think this is a very important thing.
 
V: So imagine this scenario. You have to play a church service, and usually people just show up and play. Maybe they know the hymns in advance, they practiced them, or prelude and postlude or communion piece, whatever, but other than that, they sit down and try to play the service as it happens in the real time. What sometimes happens, is that there are some changes—unexpected changes, and you don’t know what’s happening. You don’t know how to react. You are sometimes thrown out of the path, and some people are better than others with dealing with uncertainties.  And, then, if you feel some stress, you can panic easily.
 
A: Of course!
 
V: And mess up… start to play the wrong hymn, for example, or with the wrong registration, or in the wrong tempo, or in the wrong key.
 
A: Or in the wrong spot.
 
V: Yes. Or just miss an entire hymn. Just miss it entirely. Did you have those experiences, Ausra, missing hymns?
 
A: Of course I had those experiences. But not because of a panic.
 
V: You just missed on purpose?
 
A: No, I was delayed.
 
V: By whom?
 
A: By a postman.
 
V: Oh, tell us!
 
A: I think I told the story that at Eastern Michigan University, not at the university itself, but I was subbing for Vidas during Lent services in the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church. And, there was a postman who came in the middle of the service, and since the pastor in front was busy, and at that time I was at the end next to the organ and I was not playing, he came to me, and I had to sign for some kind of parcel, and he looked at my last name and asked to spell it, because obviously it was the first time for this man that he saw such a long last name, and while I did that, I didn’t notice what was happening near the altar, and the postman left, and there was suddenly a strange silence in the church, and then I just noticed the pastor looked at me and said, “And now we will sing hymn number blah...blah...blah.” Then I started to play, but obviously, I was late.
 
V: But he wasn’t mad.
 
A: No.
 
V: Interesting. I messed up my first, very first, church service, when I was just a kid, playing in my local parish, where my mom and I would go when we were on Summer vacations. And it was a wooden church, and the local priest noticed how I played hymns (I was maybe in the 6th or 7th grade), and he asked me to play a service for a wedding anniversary of an elderly couple. And I foolishly agreed, and I missed Sanctus—Holy Holy Holy part.
 
A: Well, I know why, because it’s a tricky…one of the most tricky parts in a Catholic Mass, to know when to play Sanctus.
 
V: So this was fun. The priest was really happy afterwards. He said it’s not a big deal, and he gave me candy!
 
A: Well, I messed up my first Mass. It wasn’t actually my really first Mass, but maybe my 3rd or 4th, and it was held by a Cardinal.
 
V: A Cardinal! Oh!
 
A: Yes. The only one that we have now, in the Holy Cross Church. It was the special service in February. I don’t know what that festival day is called in English. Do you know, Vidas, what I’m talking about?
 
V: Yeah, the day before Lent. Ash Wednesday?
 
A: No, it’s not Ash Wednesday, in Lithuanian, it’s called Grabnyčios.
 
V: It wasn’t Wednesday?
 
A: No, it wasn’t Ash Wednesday, I know what Ash Wednesday is. It’s the day when the candles are put around peoples necks. Do you know this occasion? Because it is believed that it will heal your throat if you have trouble with it.
 
V: Interesting. I think it’s not Lent, right, yet?
 
A: No, it’s not Lent. It’s before that. It’s always in February.
 
V: Baptism of the Lord? No?
 
A: I don’t think so.
 
V: You don’t think so… I’m looking on line… in February. Presentation of the Lord maybe?
 
A: Yes, I think this is what it is, but we never call it like this in Lithuania.
 
V: Mardi Gras, no? No! Mardi Gras is on Tuesday.
 
A: Yes, it was on Tuesday! If it’s always on Tuesday, yes, it might be.
 
V: Užgavėnės! No…
 
A: No…
V: Mardi Gras is Užgavėnės… so then, probably it’s this Presentation of the Lord.
 
A: Anyway, so I missed The Lord’s Prayer. It wasn’t fun.
 
V: Right. And was the Cardinal’s name Cornelius?
 
A: No, it’s our bird name from Pinky and Spiky comics. Stop joking about things, because you might be kicked out of the church entirely!
 
V: I see! Ok, so let’s continue our conversation about confidence, right? You had confidence issues and I had confidence issues, and Neil has it sometimes, and probably everyone from time to time experiences confidence… and it’s a good thing, right Ausra? Because it means we are challenging ourselves with things that are a little bit beyond what we are capable of.
 
A: Yes, I think it’s a right thing to have this problem sometimes.
 
V: What Neil does, or did, to combat insecurity like this is he marked up the service booklet and went through the service in his mind in advance. Basically, he visualized the service from the beginning until the end, what comes next…
 
A: Yes, it’s very good.
 
V: It really helps.
 
A: It’s really how it should be. Maybe not always when he will play for services for 20 years, maybe he will not have to do it, but for right now, I think that this is the right way. And in general, I think that it’s very good that he has this good experience with having a service well done! Now I think that he has to stick to this memory, and I think it will give him more confidence next time.
 
V: Right. And for other services, which might be different from time to time, it’s a good idea to also go through it in advance, visualize it at home or on your organ bench, ahead of time, too. So, Ausra, tell us: if you will be playing a service any time soon, will you be confident or not?
 
A: Well, not so much, because it has been a while since I played in a real service, an entire Mass. I would have to refresh some parts of it.
 
V: But it comes back pretty quickly.
 
A: Yes, I think so.
 
V: Like riding a bicycle.
 
A: That’s right.
 
V: Sometimes, when I don’t play a service regularly, I get invited in the Summer for example, to substitute for an ensemble of some sort who is on vacation, I then sometimes forget some words from the prayers—maybe some Sanctus words, so then I have to double check the words—the lyrics. But generally, the order of the service, or the order of Mass is pretty set. But, if we both went to another denomination, like a Lutheran church or a Reformed church, or a Methodist Church, then it would be something new.
 
A: Well, but you know in the Lutheran church, everything is pretty much the same as in the Catholic Church. They have only one thing replaced comparing to the Catholic, so. It’s not a big deal.
 
V: Not a big deal.
 
A: True.
 
V: Good. So it’s good that we have commonalities, because organists many times play for different denominations, right?
 
A: Yes.
 
V: And, they have to change in their minds very quickly what kind of congregation this is. Am I in a Lutheran Church, or am I in an Anglican Church now, for example?
 
A: Or am I in a Christian Scientist Church?
 
V: Did you play for Christian Scientists?
 
A: Yes, for two years! This was my favorite church position.
 
V: Why?
 
A: Well, they paid well, and sort of I played hymns and one solo piece with a soloist, and then I did a few solo pieces by myself.
 
V: You told me that you had much freedom.
 
A: Yes, and they never complained. Whatever, they would appreciate everything that I have played and did, and it was just fun.
 
V: Yes, appreciation and freedom are the two big things.
 
A: And, I was actually very worried when I began to work for them, because I thought maybe they would try to convert me to their beliefs in Science and Health, but they never did it, and it was very nice.
 
V: Nice.
 
A: And, to tell the truth, I wasn’t sick for those two years that I worked for the Christian Scientist Church, so maybe I need to go to the States, and find a Christian Scientist Church and start to work for them!
 
V: Okay, I’ll look for plane tickets now.
 
A: Okay.
 
V: Going to America now. Okay, guys, thank you for sending those wonderful questions. Please keep writing to us; we love helping you grow. And remember, when you practice,
 
A: Miracles happen!

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​And now let's go to the podcast for today:

Vidas: Let’s start Episode 116 of #AskVidasAndAusra podcast. Here's the audio version. Today’s question was sent by Neil, and he writes that his challenge is with confidence:

“I do suffer with nerves and when I have a service to play I try to make sure all hymns and service music feel OK.”

So, confidence comes from experience, right Ausra?

Ausra: Yes, but also some people are more confident from the beginning than others.

Vidas: What do you mean?

Ausra: Well, it depends how your parents raised you. Because for some kids, their parents tell them that they can do anything, they are the best, and so on and so forth; and for some, they just tell them, “You cannot do anything right,” “You are bad,” etc. so I think this is also very important.

Vidas: Do you think that--I agree with you, by the way--but do you think that when a person gets to an older age--is an adult, and can make his or her own decisions about life--do you think that these previous childhood experiences might be changed a little bit?

Ausra: Well, I think a little bit, yes; but not much.

Vidas: I mean, can you change who you are?

Ausra: That’s a very hard thing to do.

Vidas: Not inside-out, but maybe you have some strengths that you want to develop, right? And some weaknesses that you want to make less pronounced in your character. So, could you go both directions a little bit, or even more?

Ausra: Yes, you could go a little bit, I think so, yes.

Vidas: Even though your childhood experiences were bad, right?

Ausra: Yes.

Vidas: Actually, research shows that children who had very abusive parents tend to be very independent later in life, and quite creative, by the way. Because in childhood experiences, they had to come up with some creative solution how to cope with those abusive parents and situations like that. Sometimes it’s a good thing to have stressful childhoods. From some perspectives.

Ausra: Well, yes...I...well, yes, but still…

Vidas: Of course, everyone would like to be a princess or a prince, right? Or cosmonaut, astronaut; they want to have this golden opportunity in life, and they have those dreams, right? But sometimes parents don’t let them dream, right? They steal their dreams. But what can you do about those parents? Basically nothing.

Ausra: Yes, and I think Neil, in his question, in the second part of it, he actually answers his own question.

Vidas: Which is: he writes that, “When I have a service to play, I try to make sure all hymns and service music feel okay.”

Ausra: Yes. I think that’s the key to be more confident while you’re playing, while you perform during your service.

Vidas: Be very well prepared?

Ausra: Yes, you need to be very well prepared. This will add to your confidence.

Vidas: This is something like you yourself, Ausra, feel like doing, right? When you have a project coming up, you tend to prepare for it very well.

Ausra: I know, I have to do this. Because otherwise I would not survive. I would just have a nervous breakdown or something.

Vidas: You don’t want to wing it on the spot?

Ausra: Yes, yes.

Vidas: Even though the result might be the same!

Ausra: I know, the result might be the same, but my psychological comfort will be much different!

Vidas: Right. So then, people like yourself and Neil have to spend quite a bit of time in preparation of church services or hymn playing. But by the way, when you for example, when you were working at Grace Lutheran Church in Nebraska, did you have to practice those hymns a lot?

Ausra: Well, not a lot, but I practiced them, yes.

Vidas: But not a lot, right?

Ausra: Not a lot.

Vidas: Even though you are a very prepared person and love to spend some time in advance with projects like hymn playing; even though you are such a person, you didn’t spend hours, right? Why?

Ausra: Well, because I already had a good technical base.

Vidas: And sight-reading abilities?

Ausra: Yes.

Vidas: So there is a way out, even for you and for Neil, I think. Because whenever your experience with sightreading gets better and better and better, I think you will feel the need to prepare diminish; because you will become, as Neil writes, much more confident.

Ausra: Yes, that’s true...actually, that’s true!

Vidas: So guys, I think I”ve never come across a better medicine and solution to this problem, to the confidence problem, than persistent, regular, and passionate sight-reading every single day. You don’t have to do it for hours; you don’t have to do it for half an hour, even; but spend a few minutes at least with a new, unfamiliar organ piece.

Ausra: That’s right.

Vidas: And perhaps, spend some time with harmony, too, and music theory, proofing your theory skills.

Ausra: Yes, scales too.

Vidas: Playing sequences, cadences, modulations.

Ausra: Sometimes, when my eyes lose the text of the music, I’ll just play from my ear, knowing harmony and knowing what should come.

Vidas: There is, of course, this dangerous moment: whenever you lose your text, and before you start to improvise on those chords in the style, when you are okay--but in between, this moment where you can slip and panic, right?

Ausra: Yes, that’s right.

Vidas: But if you have experience, right--real-life experience with getting out of these situations, and improvising and playing harmony--then you can feel much more confident

Ausra: That’s right. And you know, another thing about confidence, being confident--you have to choose your repertoire very wisely. Because sometimes, lack of confidence might be because you are choosing pieces that are too hard for you yet. Of course, you cannot pick out your own hymns, because usually, the pastor decides what hymns will be during the service. But the chorale prelude, and offering, and postlude--you can play what you want.

Vidas: And remember, you don’t have to play all 4 parts in your hymns. You can play the 2 outer parts--soprano and bass--with 2 separate hands with loud registration, and it would sound beautiful.

Ausra: Because while you are preparing for the service, if you are making mistakes in your hymns or your prelude/postlude, it means that during the actual service, it will be even worse, because you will get anxiety, too. So you have to choose very wisely.

Vidas: Mhm. Preferably too easy than too hard.

Ausra: Yes.

Vidas: That would be your final advice, right Ausra?

Ausra: Yes.

Vidas: Excellent. And my advice would be: today, before you hit the sack, make sure you pick up some new organ music and sight-read it. Even on the table, if you don’t have access to a keyboard. It really helps in the long run. Make it a lifelong habit. If you do this for 67 days, then it will become your second nature, and you won’t have to think about it anymore; you just miss it if you don’t do it, right? And become grumpy, like myself if I miss a day or two without practice.

Ausra: Heehee.

Vidas: Wonderful. Thank you, guys, for listening and applying our tips in your practice. It really makes a difference, right Ausra?

Ausra: Yes.

Vidas: And keep sending us your questions; we love helping you grow. Okay guys, this was Vidas.

Ausra: And Ausra.

Vidas: And remember, when you practice…

Ausra: Miracles happen.