Secrets Of Organ Playing Podcast

This question was sent by Neil. He writes: Wow—it is so kind of you and Ausra to reply! I'm honored. My biggest challenges over the last six months have been pedal playing (which I basically have not done, except for harmonic pedal-point use) and registration. My wife and I keep looking for suitable organ shoes, but my feet are wide and I don't know what to buy. So far I play in my left sock for pedal-points. Or I'll play Bach's "Jesu, Joy..." with a G pedal point, and then reach down for a low C and D for the cadence back to G (may J.S. not strike me down with a lightning bolt!). But my church only seats about 200, so the pedals don't seem to be necessary. As far as registration, I have a 2 manual Allen electronic organ, and I'm getting pretty good at finding the colors that I want, but I am not able to change colors between verses of hymns, which I would like very much to do. I think you can use the piston-buttons for that, perhaps, but I haven't figured them out yet. You see, I don't have much time at

This question was sent by Laurie and also Dianne and they both are our Total Organist students and I’ve asked the question at the end of the week “What are they struggling with recently?” And Laurie answered by writing: My biggest struggle has always been, just do it. If I can get myself to the organ bench - oh, and by the way I have a practice instrument in my home, I can have a good time practicing. But for some reason, it is very difficult to get myself to the bench. And then Dianne added: I often have the same issue. I have a practice organ at home as well, but I am not actively playing organ in any church right now... Our church only has a keyboard (and unfortunately they are happy with that). So I always feel like there are more pressing things for me to do than practice, but there are few things I enjoy more. https://www.organduo.lt https://www.organduo.lt/total-organist

This question was sent by David, and he writes: When I'm playing Sine Nomine once through or twice through, I do well... but the 4th or 5th time through, I start to make mistakes; particularly at the very beginning and very end of the piece. Also, I picked a prelude that is too long, and at the end of the piece, the organ just does not want to play all the notes that are written in the music... the top notes drop out--not enough polyphony with a large registration, so I lose the melody and part of the harmony of the final cadence of the piece. Ugh.. so here I am the day before the service, and I am cutting the piece in half (there is a fair stopping point half way through the arrangement) and re-writing the end of the first half so it sounds more like it's finished at that point in the music. Unfortunately, the church is reluctant to purchase a newer organ (more capable electronic or even small pipe organ) because they are convinced that it is impossible to find new organists to play them, and there are

This question was sent by John, and he writes: I’ve almost learnt In dulci jubilo by Bach, your training videos have been so helpful thank you! It seemed a really daunting piece to learn, but its coming together quicker than I expected, all the sight reading has helped me and your teaching has really helped me improve. My question is how should I play this piece on smaller church organs in buildings that have flat acoustics. When I played my recital on St Johns organ in Vilnius, it was an incredible eye opening experience to play on a large mechanical organ in a huge acoustic. I came to realize how articulate legato suddenly made sense playing on an instrument closer to Bach’s time in a resonant acoustic. When I listen to other professionals play this piece in large churches or cathedrals, I can hear some parts get lost in the blend of legato. But when I play it in our church, I’m worried it sounds a bit too staccato and the gaps between the longer notes sounds a little disjointed. Can you give some a

This question was sent by Irineo. He writes: “How can you detect the German, French, English spirit or accent in Bach’s suites? There weren’t so many different answers back then, so how can you tell?”

This question was sent by William. He wrote: Hello again! Question. I am working on some choral preludes from the Orgelbuchlen. When there is a melody separated from left hand and pedal, do you articulate all of the parts? Thank you. William

This question was sent by Anders and he wrote: Hi Vidas and Ausra! I´m following the information you give with great interest. I have been playing the piano for a while but I´m not very good at it, though I really love it and listening to great music, Classic as well as Jazz and Ragtime. In the last period I have started to think much about playing the organ and I've asked the local organist to give me lessons (lessons are free in the Swedish Church) and I hope lessons will start this autumn. I bought an old Electronic organ but am extremely disappointed since the sound is outright awful. It´s not what is called a Church organ, they´re much more expensive. I will throw my Electronic organ and buy some good instrument with a really good sound. The short answer to the questions are: 1.) My Dream is to be able to play "well enough" on the organ some of my favorite music on a good pipe organ. This I wish to do in a Church where I can enjoy the fantastic and mysterious sound of the different voices of the pipes

Today’s question was sent by Spencer. And he asks for tutorials on playing varied hymn harmonies.

This question was sent by Ana Marija and she writes: Hello! I am going to play a recital with my violinist friend on historical short octave organ (with no pedals, 8 stops). But we have some trouble finding repertoire, that is suitable for this organ. For the solo organ part, I will be playing some music by Byrd, Tomkins, Sweelinck, Frescobaldi and Froberger...do you have any other idea? But mainly, we have a hard time finding pieces for violin and short octave organ...we would really appreciate if you could help us with any suggestion!:) Thank you for your wonderful work and help:) Ana Marija

This question was sent by Dineke and she writes: Dear Vidas, Glad with the quickly received materials, and the bonus, for the pedal virtuoso course start. Although most things went automatically, I wish you to say my thanks. Admiring your lots of work and your knowledge in digital ways. ​ Kind regards, Dineke

This question was sent by Rob. He writes: "Perhaps it is a good idea to help (beginning) organists by instructing them how to accompany a singing audience during a church service. Not everybody know how to accompany singing hymns etc. during church services."

This question was sent by Rob. He writes: Dear Vidas, In this mail I’ll provide the answers to you questions: (that is the least I can do for the wonderful work that you and your wife do) 1. What is your dream for your organ playing? My dream of organ playing is to completely free, sit down at the organ console and play and improvise whatever I want. (my inspiration comes from people like Pierre Cochereau, Jean Langlais, Marcel Dupre, Ben van Oosten, Sophie-Veronique Cauchefer-Choplin and others). 2. What are 3 most important things that are holding you back from realizing your dream? 1) (Lack of) technique i.e. the idea that I am not “advanced enough” to take on any organ piece 2) the false notion that certain pieces are “too difficult” 3) finding enough time to develop my skills In a separate email I’d like to share some feedback with you and tell you a little bit about myself if that is ok. Kind regards, Rob

This question was sent by Carsten and he wrote: "f I may be so keen to ask for an amount of your valuable time, I would be very interested in your professional listener's perspective feedback and honest criticism on these five specific pieces, which I consider to be some sort of personal milestones in my improvisation": * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHGg5MNR_pU&index=10&list=PLYdkxyPei724Y0j84venfoRvc5gwsm8Xu * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrXpVSn7Rck&index=6&list=PLYdkxyPei727ElPM5TWHznueOrcgfRl8a * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRmukobxviM&list=PLYdkxyPei727ElPM5TWHznueOrcgfRl8a&index=7 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df1tLEjszZU&list=PLYdkxyPei7275-UNgjQs3RHe0zx4g3BbB&index=5 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKUoHi8QtuA&index=14&list=PLYdkxyPei7275-UNgjQs3RHe0zx4g3BbB Vidas and/or Ausra, THANK YOU SO MUCH for your patient reading... I guess I could go on for hours of writing, but I think I should leave the rest for further emails... ;-) Have a great t

This question was sent by Carsten. ​ Dear Vidas and Ausra, I'm glad to hear from you and I'm happy as well that my donation is so highly appreciated. Please take it as my personal way to say "Thank you!" to both of you for all of your great inspiring and continuous advice, newsletters and videos, which always helped me out when I got stuck on my way to further dive into playing the organ. Apropos getting stuck: My current job of being a software developer was very demanding over the past months -- and still is, with still no time to relax within visible reach. This had a big impact on my schedule, so my hobby of organ playing suffered a lot since I did not feel like sitting down on the bench every day. Of course, I had a bad conscience about this because I remembered all of your articles about time management, being consistent in practice, taking the daily 15 minutes and so on... But in the end, to my very surprise, I was even able to improvise on some symphonic pieces for about 2.5 hours on a big IV+P ca

This question was sent by Paul. He writes: Would you please rate the top 10 most popular organ toccatas in difficulty? Which is easiest? I'm sure everyone would love to know! Thank you for your blog. My top 8 organ toccatas that I like are: 1. By Pachelbel D Major (from Toccata and Fugue) 2. BWV 912 3. By Thedore Dubois G Major 4. By Boellmann Suite Gothique 5. BWV 538 D minor Dorian 6. By Gigout in B Minor 7. By Widor 6th symphony 8. Bach's D minor BWV 565. Nine and ten I will leave to you as I'm sure there are many organ toccatas I don't know exist. Would you please put these in order of difficulty? Thank you for all you and your wife do. Sincerely, Paul

This question was sent by Henry, and he writes: Thank you so much for the first video you have just sent me Sir... My question is, what are the techniques for playing scales perfectly , how to play without looking the hands , how to look ahead and lastly how to prepare an organ practice schedule?

This question was sent by Jur. And he writes: My biggest challenge is still to be patient and not rush ahead in a piece before I have mastered it bit by bit. I know this is a very bad habit and this is the reason why I never can play without making mistakes. I am trying to find the discipline! Practising just one piece does get a bit boring so in addition to BWV 639 I have now also started working on BWV 731. I have practised this in the past but with different fingering, I am now relearning it with yours. Best regards, Jur

This question was sent by Becca and Becca writes: My dream is to become a proficient at playing hymns on the organ, after years of not playing. Piano was my concentration of study. Besides serious practice, the following three things are holding me back: 1. Finding the best approach to reacquainting myself with playing the organ, in general. 2. Need to refresh the technique of playing the foot pedals. 3. A better understanding of the use of registration in hymn playing.

This question was sent by Juan. He writes: Hello Mr. Pinkevicius: ​Thanks a lot for your enormous work propagating the practice of organ. I followed your daily e-mails with special attention dissecting every sentence you wrote in the process of improving organ techniques. My case is a little different because I am man who plays piano for personal entertainment and now when I am retired from public work as software engineer I decided to explore the intricacies of organ playing and state of the art of this wonderful instrument. My knowledge of software, electronics and music had let me to begin the process of "midifying" my Rodgers electric organ aside of the adventure of playing it. And now, to answer your questions, (1) my dream is to continue improving my organ playing in musically and technically manner, and (2) really the only thing that is holding me to get my dream is simply TIME but I think with patience and good tips I can get my proposal. Going back, the reason I got your web link was because I w

This question was sent by Howard and he writes: One suggestion I have for your program is to diversify the focus to other kinds of instruments especially large British and American instruments that have pistons and toe studs. A program on the recommended piston settings for a ~30 min recital on an organ with say 6 General and 6 each of Divisional pistons would be great. Thanks.