Organ Training 2013

Silvertown Bishop Area

Lesson 1 - Thoughts on practicing

Practicing Principles

1. A good posture is the start of a good technique and promotes breathing

2. Practicing is not limited to sitting in front of the keyboard
3. Most practicing actually involves training the brain more than the hands
4. Practicing can and should be fun and need not be long in order to reach goals
5. Practicing should be approached systematically and with a goal in mind
6. Playing through exercises and pieces of music without focus and purpose is a waste of time
7. When learning a new piece select a tempo which allows you to play all the correct notes
8. Aim to always give your brain correct information. In performance it will then rely on that
information to produce the music.
9. In most cases the difficulty lies in smaller sections rather that in the whole piece. Focus on fixing
those sections
10. When a section of music is difficult do not start at the beginning in order to reach it. Start as
close as possible to the problem. It allows you to play the problem passage more often
11. When the music is difficult practice each hand separately and get it up to speed plus an
additional 20%. When the parts are secure combine the hands practice at half the speed you
need and then speed it up from there.
12. Playing the organ involves the whole body. Rate your relaxation/tension on a scale of 1 to 10.
Always question the discomfort in your playing. If you feel discomfort, stop and relax.
13. Take breaks while practicing. Every 30 minutes should be sufficient.

Some thoughts on selecting fingering

1. Once you have worked out the fingering for a passage use the same fingering each time you play
it. It aids memorisation of the passage through muscle memory.
2. Physiologically the thumb is different to the other fingers on the hand. It has two joints instead
of three, is directly connected to the wrist and is the slowest in performing a downward
movement from the knuckle. The thumb is best played from a lower wrist position.
3. The little finger or pinkie is the weakest finger on the hand and is best played from a higher
wrist position so that it can curve to carry weight.
4. Play the white notes just in front of the black notes so that you can play both white and black
notes without major back and forward shifts.
5. The biggest comfortable stretch/gap is between the thumb and first finger. When playing wide
intervals like octaves make sure that the extension between thumb and 2nd finger is not building
tension
6. The thumb is the best finger for crossing under other fingers in order to reach a greater range
when playing scale and arpeggio passages
7. The fingers may cross over one another with the longer finger going over the shorter one in scale
like passages
8. In the context of the organ, you can play with your fingers just above the keys and then create
the key depression from the hand/wrist. The organs tone production is not dependent on key
depression speed as in the case of the piano neither is it dependent on the height you drop the
hand/arm from.
9. There is no right fingering but rather an appropriate one for the passage you are playing.
 Rhythm Syllable Guide
Simple time
3

ta ti - ti ti - ka - ti - ka tre - o - la

ti - ti - ka ti - ka - ti syn - co - pa tim - ka

too tum - ti syn - co - pa

Compound time

tum ti - ti - ti ta - ti

ti ti - ka ti ti - ka - ti - ka ti toom

(c) 2003 Kodaly Music Education Institute of Australia