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The road from pianist to organist (2 replies and 4 comments)
Morwenna welcome and congratulations on being our first guest topic creator. An interesting question that I have not seen in other forums and one I can not add to as I played organ from the beginning. Lest see what others have to say. Regards David
I started on the organ at about the age of 14, having played the piano from the age of four and reached G8 piano; I swapped to organ as my main instrument about five years later (much to the annoyance of my piano teacher, who agreed to teach me the organ only so as to ensure that I didn't "ruin" my piano technique). Despite reaching a reasonable standard on the organ, and working as a professional organist for a time, I still find it *much* easier to sight read on the piano and really need to prepare organ music before performing it, if at all possible. It would be interesting to know whether that is also true for those who started from scratch on the organ. Incidentally, much nonsense is talked about ruining piano technique by playing the organ. With a reasonable ear and a modicum of intelligence, there is no reason why that should happen. It's perfectly possibly to play both sensitively and stylishly, although there are notable exceptions of course!
I commenced lessons at the relatively late age of 15. I attended a wedding when I was 11, and decided the organ could offer more than descant recorder! - no disrespect to the recorder, a lovely instrument. For various reasons music lessons could not begin for another 4 years. I started piano with a local church organist who had diplomas for piano, organ and voice training, on the clear understanding that I started organ as soon as possible, though in the process, I developed a great love for the piano.
Perhaps the most helpful tip on organ playing was given on my first lesson, when the under keyboard light was switched on to display the pedals, and was then turned off again to the comment you won't be needing that again. This has proved invaluable. Relying on foot feel also contributed to coping with reading three staves.
As to technique, I knew an organist who additionally played both the trombone and bassoon, with no apparent transference problems between the two lung powered instruments. In fairness it is worth noting that within each instrument (piano/organ) there are quite different touches between respectively Clementi or Scarlatti and Chopin, and Bach and Cesar Franck.
I ventured onto the organ at the (apparently, considering the above comments) comparatively ancient age of 23 having played piano since childhood. I couldn't afford a piano at the time but managed to persuade a local priest to let me use the church organ at night. It was an amazing experience - so much fun having all those sounds to play with and so much sheer volume to invoke all in the privacy of a large, deadly quiet building. I decided that this was musical megalomania and I loved it. I soon moved, however, so didn't have the chance to explore the instrument very far. Last year - at a REALLY advanced age this time - I decided to look up the organ again. I bought a practice instrument, installed it in the house and started taking lessons. What a great decision that has turned out to be. Not only am I having acres of fun, I'm practicing more and improving all the time. So much so that I'd now like to upgrade to a better instrument (I will be in contact, Mr Mason!). Oh, and whilst the touch and feel is certainly different to the piano, I don't find that it interferes when I change instruments. I just have to think about what I'm doing for the first few bars. The speed of my bass clef reading has also improved. I honestly don't have too much trouble with the pedals. They seem to come pretty naturally so long as I don't panic and overthink the situation! Main thing is to trust your legs, I think!
I play organs in two local churches, usually for about three services per month. I alternate with pianists, and I have been bemused by how intimidated some pianists (even pianists who are very much more accomplished than I am) are by the pipe organ.
I recently wrote a book (about Hauptwerk), and as the target audience for the book included people setting out to play the organ for the first time, I tried to account for the attitude I sometimes find amongst pianists, as regards the organ. Here are some thoughts that might account to it (extracted from the book):
QUOTATION BEGINS:
2.3 Playing the Pipe Organ
A real pipe organ is quite unlike any other musical instrument. I know several very highly trained pianists who are expert musicians, who read music fluently and who are able to sight read almost any piece of music put in front of them. However, I am quite unable to persuade some to them to have a session or two playing one or other of the two real pipe organs which I play regularly. They say that they find it intimidating. Yet, I do my best to tell them that they would make a hugely better attempt at playing the music than I am able to do. So why is the pipe organ intimidating?
2.3.1 So Many Keyboards
Most organs have more than one keyboard manual. Therefore you have a choice as soon as you sit at a pipe organ: which keyboard should you play? You will have gathered from the first section of this chapter, that the resources available tend to differ clearly across the divisions of a pipe organ.
If you are a pianist, you may find it difficult to play with your left and right hands on two different keyboards; at two different levels. Just do it all the time and you'll eventually get used to it.
To put it briefly (and apologies to professional organists who may consider this an oversimplification) the resources of a pipe organ can be considered to provide the following musical opportunities:
The Swell Organ
If you need a reminder, in a typical English organ layout this will be the upper manual if the organ has just two or three manuals.
Play the swell organ where you need to be able to control the volume - use the swell expression pedal to provide a range of quieter volumes. Also, the swell division often has some of the softer stops, such as quieter strings and string celeste ranks which suit quiet contemplative music. You can also use the swell division in the left hand for chordal accompaniment to a melody played on one of the other divisions.
The swell division will often have a tremulant, which can also aid expression in a quiet piece.
The Great Organ
As we have stated, the manual for the great organ division is typically the middle keyboard manual if there are three manual divisions, or the lower manual if there are only two. The great organ often has the greatest variety of stops, including reeds, mutations and mixtures. The pianist will be tempted to play with both hands on this manual, but as already stated, if you wish to develop comfortable playing with the hands on different keyboards, it is better to try as often as possible, to separate the hands, perhaps playing the left hand on the swell and the right on the great.
Almost always, organ builders couple the other divisions to the great, rather than vice-versa possibly with the exception of coupling it to the pedals. Therefore, remember if you want a good tutti, (what a friend of mine called a fruity tutti!) couple the other divisions to the great and play on the great.
The Choir Organ
The choir organ division is typically played by the lower manual of a three manual instrument. It is generally considered to be the minor division, usually less extensive than the great or the swell divisions. The choir division is enclosed in a perhaps a minority of organs, giving it expression, but usually it provides a small scale range of tones for quiet playing or for accompaniment of quiet singing.
The Solo Organ
In an organ with four manual divisions, the top manual is likely to control the solo division. As its name suggests, this division contains ranks suitable for providing solo or melody line in performance and large scale accompaniment. It may be equipped with powerful solo reeds such as the tuba mirabilis and trumpets en chamade (horizontally mounted in front of the case).
2.3.2 The Pedalboard
The pedalboard might also be responsible for putting pianists off playing the organ. Detailed discussion of playing technique is far outside the scope of this book, but as a virtual pipe organ should be played in the same manner as the real thing, a few comments might help the beginner. (Please bear in mind that an author might sometimes write about things of which s/he is hardly capable her/himself! Thus, I make no claims whatsoever as to my playing ability.)
Before attempting to play the pedals, check the height of the bench - it will suit you best if you can just reach the upper surface of the pedal sticks with the soles of your feet and your heels horizontally level with the soles. If you have the bench too high you will be unable to use both the toe and the heel of your shoe to play the pedals, and this will inhibit your ability to play.
Many organ teachers advocate that the natural notes of the pedalboard should be played mainly with the heel, and that the sharps/flats should be played mainly with the toes. Certainly developing this method will help give you fluency on the pedals and help you to achieve a legato pedal line when needed.
Legato playing, mentioned in the previous paragraph, is an important skill to acquire for players of any keyboard instrument, as well as on the organ pedalboard. On the organ. the technique is more important than on the piano, because the organ pipe has no natural sustain or slow decay (other than reverberation which may be afforded by the acoustic of the building). Thus, when playing the organ keyboard, it is often necessary to sustain a note whilst moving the fingers to enable the playing of new notes. This necessitates a change of fingers whilst allowing the note to play without interruption. The same requirement is made of an organist playing the pedals. A note may need to be sustained by exchanging feet so that the toe or heel originally playing the note may be moved to another pedal.
2.3.3 Registration
The art of registration is one of the most challenging aspects of organ playing. However, it is also the source of so much pleasure. The facility of playing such very quiet chords in strings or string celeste combined with a deep but quiet bourdon in the pedals is hugely satisfying, but when contrasted a few moments later with a tutti including pedal reeds and full chords with the divisions coupled gives the organist a full opportunity of expunging her/his megalomania! And a fully fledged Hauptwerk virtual pipe organ can do that!
One important aspect of getting to grips with registration, especially when dealing with a larger instrument, is familiarity. And that takes time. Sitting at the console of a sizeable instrument which one may never have played before is daunting - made worse when the draw stops are labelled in some unreadable mediaeval script and the light is poor!
Perhaps the rule is start small: try the flutes & diapasons. Listen to the eight, four and two foot diapasons, then the flutes, adding each octave in turn. Then try the eight foot with the two foot, and the one foot if available. Carefully learn to recognise the features of the sound of each of these combinations and recognise the use to which you might put them. Then progressively pull all the eight foot diapasons and flutes, and recognise the contribution of each rank as it is added. And try to imagine the use to which those registrations might be put.
Adding mutation stops into the blend will brighten the sound, and give it bite. Adding mixtures will do that as well, but ensure that you explore the sounds of mixtures with just eight foot and four foot flues as well, as there are some wonderfully expressive mixtures which can be added to a minimal blend of eight and four foot flutes or diapasons.
Then explore the solo stops - the quieter reeds such as the oboe and clarinet. Progress through the clarion towards the loud solo reeds, trumpets, tuba et cetera.
Explore the pedal division and find pedal combinations which suit well your favourite combinations in the manual divisions.
As you progress note down those registrations which you enjoyed and for which you can envisage specific rôles in your playing. That way you won't have to spend time on the next occasion repeating these investigations.
Finally, remember that it is not at all unusual in a real pipe organ to find some ranks, or parts of some ranks, that are out-of-tune, or which produce rattling in the organ casework. Organs are expensive to maintain, clean and tune and all but the wealthiest of parishes or communities will have difficulty keeping their instrument in tip-top condition. Make a note of any pipes or ranks which you think you might like to avoid in that context!
2.3.4 All those Controls
When one plays the pipe organ, one does not only have to play the notes, using both hands and both feet, but one also has to accomplish a number of other tasks at the same time. You will almost certainly need to pull out or push in draw stops at several points in your music, so as to make minor adjustments in your registrations. You will have to operate thumb pistons or toe pistons to make major changes of registration. And you may have to operate an expression pedal to control progressively the volume of the swell division and a crescendo shoe to adjust continuously the range of speaking stops.
All of this activity, coupled with the need to turn the pages of the music (surely a case for learning pieces by heart!) makes organ-playing very demanding indeed. And the Hauptwerk virtual pipe organ is just as demanding in all of those ways as the real organ. If you are a beginner, and Hauptwerk is to be your introduction to the world of the pipe organ, I say"Welcome to the club!".
QUOTATION ENDS
I thought that some of the points quoted above might indicate some of the points to watch for any pianist beginning to play the organ.
Kenneth Spencer
I can throw in some pedals for the last line or two of a hymn, but don't think I'm ever going to have the time to get to grips with them properly. There's definitely the point mentioned in the first post that my brain throws a wobbly at the thought of the right side of my body playing bass. The other thing is trying to persuade it to cope with 3 or 4 things at once... left hand, right hand (it's been doing those two no problem since I was 6) plus left foot and right foot.
No problem adding left foot if I simply play the lowest note being played by my left hand. But if I want to divorce what my left foot is doing from what my left hand is doing, I have to start concentrating. As ever, it all comes down to practice and that comes down to time.... now there's the problem.
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I would love to hear from other people who, like me, have turned themselves into organists from a piano playing background. After several years my brain has built a reasonably secure map of the pedalboard, but I can still mis-read notes at the top of it, because my mind can't quite always accept that notes played by the right hand side of my body are written in the bass clef! Would love to hear your experiences.