Quality family time

By Vidas Pinkevicius

How does your organ practice routine should look like? Should you play exercises, practice organ improvisation, organ compositions, or sight-read?

No amount of exercises can substitute sight-reading of collections that you love. You will get many things you need from just playing them through.

Most importantly, whatever you choose, stick with it for at least 3 months in order to begin to see some results.
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It's like reading quality books - one cannot be a decent writer unless one is a prolific reader. Somehow life lessons from the works of others drip by drip are ingrained in one's mind.

Ausra and I practice our sight-reading together (in alternation). Last week we spend in our summer cottage. There we sight-read 8 great harpsichord suites by Handel. This week it's time for Mozart's piano sonatas (Part I).

​If someone in your family is a musician too, it would be wonderful for you to have a regular sight-reading practices with her/him for the entire family (including the children who will later want to imitate their parents). You can also team up with a friend.

It definitely counts as happy and quality family time and boosts your motivation to practice since someone close to you holds you accountable.