Is perfect pitch needed for an organist? This is the question I hear asked a lot. What is perfect pitch, by the way? They say one has perfect pitch when one can say which note is being played exactly. You can play in any octave with any instrument - this person would tell you right away. There's no question that this skill is fun and helpful to have. But it can be a blessing and a curse: not every organ is tuned like a piano. Some might sound half-step or more higher, some - half-step or more lower. An organist with perfect pitch would hear a completely different key, right? It's quite disturbing, unless you play this instrument yourself - the strange feeling disappears and you adjust your hearing right away. What is more important than perfect pitch is the skill to tell the meaning of the notes - the keys, the cadences, the modulations, or the sequences. That's far more useful than perfect pitch to any musician because you can tell not only what you are hearing but also why these notes are there. Nonetheless, I know quite a few of musicians who brag about having perfect pitch but are clueless about how the piece is put together. And frankly there isn't any useful way of explaining to them what they're missing either. I guess if you were a gold fish and you would be put in a round aquarium, your entire world would be round, right?
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Drs. Vidas Pinkevicius and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene Organists of Vilnius University , creators of Secrets of Organ Playing. 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. |