How to find time for organ playing?

One of the most common reasons why people skip practicing the organ is that they don‘t have enough time. With all other important tasks and activities during the day it seems impossible to squeeze that extra time needed for organ practice. People who work from 8 to 5 are often too exhausted to play the organ after work. Our families also require much attention. Is there any recipe or solution how to find time for organ playing? Read on to find out.

First of all, we have to set firm priorities what is most important for us during the day. If organ playing is a hobby for you, then obviously you have other responsibilities every day. These tasks need to be done first, in order to properly fulfill our duties. If you love organ playing and tend to sacrifice other more important things in your life then you should consider setting firm priorities.

I am not suggesting that organ practice does not need any sacrifice at all as you will later find out; I am just saying that first things come first.

Do not prioritize your family. Your family is the most important thing you have in life and they need your special attention and care. If your spouse asks for your help and you are in the middle of your organ practice, don’t say “I will help you when I am done with my organ playing”. Or if your kids ask you to look at their homework, do it right away.

However, we also need to think about what we do when we work. That way we could be more productive in our work, accomplish more, and perhaps have more time for organ playing at the end of the day. Are we working seriously and staying focused on the task at hand all the time or we are reading our email, and newspapers, checking facebook, watching youtube videos during our work day?

All of this takes precious time. I may say, “It will just take a few minutes and I’ll be done”, but in reality I even won’t notice how I may spend 30 minutes or more doing things that are not necessary.

You see, these 30 minutes can be all you need for your organ practice after work. Some people work at evenings so they could practice organ in the morning.

What about playing organ on weekends? Sure you could play more on Saturdays and Sundays. Usually our weekends are not that full of activities and we may try to practice even for 2 hours. That would be great. Imagine, how your organ playing would improve, if you could practice that much every weekend.

You are probably wandering what is the minimum time required for organ playing? On weekdays, perhaps minimum time could be 30 minutes of wise and productive practice . You could work on your keyboard and pedal technique playing Hanon exercises , pedal scales , and sight reading  for 30 minutes every evening and practice for 2 hours on weekends. This could be all you need to see constant improvement.

Even if full practice time is unavailable for you, repeating for 15-20 minutes what you learned the day before could be much better than to skip practice that day altogether.

Some people would rather practice in the mornings, other later in the evenings. Of course, this requires a little of sacrifice. But if you have a goal  in mind, if you are trully passionate about organ, it is probobly worth it.

Do whatever works best for you. Whatever time you choose for organ playing try to make it constant. Put it on your calendar. This way you will know exactly when to practice. You will have a constant time for it and you will not have to worry about how to squeeze it into your schedule every day. Just write it down.

I know that we are all different and our needs are different, too. Every person has to find a special solution. But these are my personal recommendations and I hope you will find at least some of them useful.

By the way, do you want to learn to play the King of Instruments - the pipe organ? If so, download my FREE video guide: "How to Master Any Organ Composition"   in which I will show you my EXACT steps, techniques, and methods that I use to practice, learn and master any piece of organ music.