 Do you struggle in sight-reading organ music and not looking at the fingers? Let me ask you this: How are your harmony skills? The reason I'm asking this is because they are related to sight-reading skills as well. With time, if you continue to sight-read organ music, the ability to not look at the keyboard and still play the right notes will become better. But it's a process. Besides that, having proficiency in harmony will help you understand the music that you play, even the music that you sight-read. Not only you will think in patterns, but you will also know what they mean. It's like learning a foreign language. You can learn how to pronounce the words in that language and even native speaker can understand you but without knowing what individual words or phrases mean - it will be automatic memorization - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I hope this analogy makes sense. Besides having a decent technique, harmony and analytical skills are a single biggest factor of success in organ playing in general and in sight-reading in particular. So if you study harmony in parallel to sight-reading, you know you're on the right path. [HT to Dominique] Ausra's Harmony Exercise: Practice ascending diatonic sequence in G minor. The chords: V6-V65-I (see video example below):  |
Photo by Edgaras Kurauskas
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Authors
Drs. Vidas Pinkevicius and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene Organists of Vilnius University , creators of Secrets of Organ Playing. 
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Don't have an organ at home? Download paper manuals and pedals, print them out, cut the white spaces, tape the sheets together and you'll be ready to practice anywhere where is a desk and floor. Make sure you have a higher chair. Archives
February 2019
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