How to Find an Organ Teacher?

Not every aspiring organist has a courage or a desire to study organ on their own from books, manuals, videos, practice scores, courses, articles, and other self-study training materials which are available on-line or off-line. A lot of people prefer to learn from a teacher, an instructor, or a mentor they can meet in person.

So how do you find an organ teacher in your area which would suit your needs? Please note that I'm not talking about a formal organ education from a college, conservatory, university or some other school.

This article is about a private organ studies. Some of the solutions might not be as obvious as they seem.

If you live in an area were there is an association of organists, such as AGO, GDO, RCCO, RCO etc. the first thing you can do is to look up at their website and see if the chapter near you has a listing of available organ teachers. From there you can contact a person directly, tell your story and ask if he or she would be willing to teach you.

If you have no organization of organists near you, you can go to various churches which have organs (preferably pipe organs) and sit in their liturgical services. If you find an organist who performs quality organ music and you like his or her playing, do a little background and musical education check on this person - perhaps online, perhaps at the church itself.

If you like what you find out, go after another church service to the organ, congratulate the organist, tell how much you appreciate his or her work, tell your story, and ask for some lessons. With some organists it will be as simple as discussing the fee. Some people will refuse but then you could ask for recommendations of other organists in your area.

Another similar thing you can do is to go to an organ recital of a local organist. If you like what you hear, read about his or her background and education in the program notes and go to talk to this person after the recital. Don't forget to congratulate him or her first.

The key in these options is to find the first organist you can trust who can introduce you to his or her circle of friends if this person is not willing or able to teach you.

Note that these recommendations might not be valid for every aspiring organist because of this simple reason - a person is living in an area far from churches with decent organists or organ recitals.

Earlier in this situation it would have been very difficult for a person to find a suitable organ teacher. But now when we live in post-industrual, post-geography global connection society, all you need is the connection to the Internet. So if you can read this article, you are all set.

Internet changes everything. It also begins to change the way we learn, study, and train as organists.

By the way, do you want to learn my special powerful techniques which help me to master any piece of organ music up to 10 times faster? If so, download my video Organ Practice Guide.