The only way

Can we learn to play the organ from reading books, watching videos, or hanging out in online forums?

I think you understand that to some extent we need some of that. When we get stuck, it's OK to seek help.

But we often seek help too soon.

Doing is the best help there is because it involves taking action, making mistakes, owning them, and owning the results. And yet, people often write to me things like, "I tried to do this but it didn't work."

​Of course, it won't work the first time, the second or the fifth time for that matter. The only time it works right away is when we get lucky.

But most often it's work. Long grinding work. Such work when our mind screams to stop playing and go watch a video. Such work when the texture of the piece is so complex that you wish you hadn't started practicing it. Such work when you improvise you don't know what you're doing and think you're wasting time.

​But in the end it matters how many times you conquered your inner dragons keeping yourself glued on the organ bench when it didn't work and not how many times you got lucky.