Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast

Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast No. 760! This question was sent by our good YouTube organist friend Philippe Le Gargean and he writes: "How easy it seems for you to improvise multiple processionals, and yet all different!" So today Ausra and I are going to talk about Vidas' improvised processionals which he plays for various ceremonies and how to do it. Hope you will enjo...

Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast No. 762! Today it's going to be a special episode where we discuss our organ 2025 year in review. Hope you will enjoy it! Here you will find all my scores: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/en/category/arrangeme/?q=Secrets+of+Organ+Playing&aff_id=454957Secrets of Organ Playing Mug: https://www.zazzle.co.uk/z/ywbhd071?rf=238366920809443329You can sup...

Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast No. 759! Today we will discuss the topic of what do we do with toxic comments. Hope you will enjoy the conversation! Here you will find all my scores: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/en/category/arrangeme/?q=Secrets+of+Organ+Playing&aff_id=454957Secrets of Organ Playing Mug: https://www.zazzle.co.uk/z/ywbhd071?rf=238366920809443329You can support this...

Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast No. 758! This question was sent by Patrick and he writes:"Thank you for your podcast, recordings, and tips. They are a great encouragement to me to persevere in my studies. Presently I’m struggling getting to the keyboard, but this has been the best or most productive year I've had so far. I've been bad about sitting down and focusing on jus...

Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast No. 757! Today we'd like to talk about organist burnout. Hope you will enjoy it! Here you will find all my scores: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/en/category/arrangeme/?q=Secrets+of+Organ+Playing&aff_id=454957Secrets of Organ Playing Mug: https://www.zazzle.co.uk/z/ywbhd071?rf=238366920809443329You can support this channel by becoming a member he...

Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast No. 756. This question was sent by Richard and he writes:1. I wish to learn new music - preferably music by masters such as Bach, Reger, Vierne, Buxtehude, etc. I wish to improve skills such as sight-reading, transposition. I wish to learn new skills such as open score reading, figured bass.2. Obstacles are the time required to learn challenging music, t...

Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast No. 755. This question was sent by Tad and he writes:1- I would love to be able to sight read and improvise over hymns with ease2- I struggle with reading from 4 lines at once and how to add improvisations and re-harmonisations that fit the tone and key of the hymn properlyHere you will find all my scores: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/en/category/arran...

Welcome to episode 754 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Ann and she writes:"I have a question. I'm a long time pianist, played organ through my college years, didn't play for many years, and have been studying with a teacher again and practicing a lot for the last couple of years. Love it!! My teacher is always telling me to play with a low wrist and fing...

Welcome to Episode No. 753 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by our friend Rien Schalkwijk and he asks; "How do you learn to play toccatas? Is the learning process different for you if you’re refreshing an old toccata vs learning new toccata? How is Ausra learning them?"Here you will find all my scores: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/en/category/arrangeme/?q=Sec...

Welcome to Episode No. 752 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. Today Ausra and I would like to discuss a question sent by our friend Rien Schalkwijk. He wants to know if there are any tips and tricks for transcribing improvisations. Hope you will enjoy it! Here you will find all my scores: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/en/category/arrangeme/?q=Secrets+of+Organ+Playing&aff_id=454957Secrets of...

Welcome to Episode No. 751 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. Today Ausra and I would like to discuss a comment sent by Duncan who writes: "I’ve been playing the organ for a while and got used to playing in new balance 327 trainers". Hope you will enjoy it! Here you will find all my scores: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/en/category/arrangeme/?q=Secrets+of+Organ+Playing&aff_id=4549...

Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast episode 749! Today let's discuss the question if it worth reading treatises about historical performance practice? Here you will find all my scores: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/en/category/arrangeme/?q=Secrets+of+Organ+Playing&aff_id=454957Secrets of Organ Playing Mug: https://www.zazzle.co.uk/z/abykn9us?rf=238366920809443329You can support th...

Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast episode 748! Today's question was sent by our friend Rien Schalkwijk and he writes:How do you choose your keys for your recent piece for instance. And how do you choose the modulations in a piece? Next to that I’m intrigued by the style from Ausra where she uses a different key every few bars but it still sounds so smooth. Here you will find all my s...

Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast episode 747! Today's question was sent by Guilhermeand he writes:Hi Vidas,I probably won't be able to properly answer these questions, so I apologise in advance for a possibly long email which might not have much use. It's also a bit to help me organise my thoughts. I'm from Portugal (a village close to Porto). I played the organ in churc...

Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast episode 746! Today Ausra and I will talk about how to avoid mistakes in organ practice. Hope you will enjoy it! Here you will find all my scores: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/en/category/arrangeme/?q=Secrets+of+Organ+Playing&aff_id=454957Secrets of Organ Playing Mug: https://www.zazzle.co.uk/z/abykn9us?rf=238366920809443329You can support this chan...

Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast episode 745! This question was sent by Dawn who is our Total Organist program member and she wants to know how can she improve fingering in general without using annotated scores? Here you will find all my scores: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/en/category/arrangeme/?q=Secrets+of+Organ+Playing&aff_id=454957You can support this channel by becoming a m...

Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast episode 744! This question was sent by our good friend James Flores from Australia and who shared some of his feedback on our recent episode talking how much to practice on the organ per day. He writes: "This was a very insightful podcast. For me it's also about deadlines. I think I may have covered this in a video of my own in the past too. The...

Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast episode 743! This question was sent by David and he writes: Hello Vidas,Thank you for your wonderful advice and tips you give on ‘Secrets of Organ Playing’! I look forward to the articles and appreciate them very much. I have also played the pipe organ for many years and have gone through the Canadian Royal Conservatory of Music program. Since getting ma...

Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast episode 742! Today Ausra and I will talk about an important aspect of organ playing - how much should you practice? Hope you will enjoy it! Here you will find all my scores: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/en/category/arrangeme/?q=Secrets+of+Organ+Playing&aff_id=454957You can support this channel by becoming a member here: https://www.youtube.com/chan...

Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast episode 741! This question was sent by David and he writes: Hello Vidas,Thank you for the email. I am happy to answer the two questions. My dream is to learn how to play pieces that I love or that are "standard repertoire" with confidence and good technique. Three things holding me back are better technique, better ways to learn a piece and pla...

Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast episode 740! This question was sent by Jeovane and he writes:Hello Vidas, could you help me with a question? What is the significance, in registrations, of Grand choeur, grand jeu and plein jeu? I learned that plein jeu is the combination of all the founds and mixtures; grand jeu the combination of all principals, mixtures and reeds; and grand choeur a o...

Let's start episode 739 of Secrets of Organ Playing podcast. This question was sent by Tamsin Jones and she writes:My organ teacher taught me various ways to orient myself and to find notes while playing the pedals, such as finding the gaps between black keys or brushing up or down to the next note. However, my intuition is telling me that at some point I need to begin playing mainly by intern...

Let's start episode 738 of Secrets of Organ Playing podcast. This question was sent by Jeovane and he asks: Did the Soviets allow sacred music? This question reminds me of Arvo Part’s Credo, banned for "political provocation". Hope you will enjoy the conversation!

Let's start episode 737 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Kathrin and she writes: Do you also compose for others, after their wishes? Do you get such requests sometimes? For what instruments do you compose beside the organ or piano? Hope you will enjoy it!

Let's start episode 736 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Alessandro and he writes: I am writing to you to ask for advice about my situation as a passionate organist with health problems. I suffer from diabetes, therefore I have problems with the pedalboard to find the notes due to the decrease of the sense of position, typical of the disease. I also have vision pr...