Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast

AVA152: How Would You Play Your New 10 Day Pedal Playing Challenge? by Vidas Pinkevicius

AVA151: What Is Figured Bass? by Vidas Pinkevicius

AVA150: What Is Passacaglia? by Vidas Pinkevicius

Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast #132! Today's guest is an Italian organist Walter Gatti. ​Currently he teaches organ, organ composition and harpsichord at Civico Istituto Musicale “Arcangelo Corelli” (Pinerolo), organ, musical theory at Scuola Intercomunale della Val Pellice (Luserna San Giovanni). ​Additionally Walter is a teacher of organ, choir direction and choral composition at Sc...

AVA149: Do You Have A Piece Of Similar Difficulty To Handel's Largo With Fingering And Pedaling? by Vidas Pinkevicius

AVA148: When I Went To School I Was Taught To Play Everything Legato (Continued) by Vidas Pinkevicius

AVA146: I Usually Choose A Hymn For the Prelude And Probably Practice Them 50+ Times by Vidas Pinkevicius

AVA147: When I Went To School I Was Taught To Play Everything Legato by Vidas Pinkevicius

AVA244: I improvise at every service by Vidas Pinkevicius

AVA243: On Dupre's method of improvising on a free theme by Vidas Pinkevicius

Create, Share, Repeat by Vidas Pinkevicius

Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast #131! Today's guest Belgian organist Daniel Vanden Broecke. Het Orgel in Vlaanderen ("The Organ in Flanders") is a non-profit association founded in 1990 in order to maintain and to improve the organ culture and the organ heritage in Flanders. This organ heritage should be re-valuated and brought to the attention of people who are not so involved like or...

Today’s question was sent by Michael and he writes: “Good morning Vidas. Thank you for your email and Organ tips. I do not know if it too late to reply to your email. To answer your two questions I will first of all explain my situation. I am Organist at St Lawrence’s Feltham Roman Catholic Church and I play at 3 Masses at the Weekend for which I receive a small stipend. I also play for Weddings a...

This question was sent by Barbara, and she writes: “Hi Vidas, I appreciate these copies of sheet music with fingering. I would like to see the fingering for traditional hymns.“

This question was sent in by Dan. And basically he comments after my question to him. I asked him ‘what is he struggling with in organ playing currently?’ And he wrote: "With the Walther piece I find concentrating on the manual parts when the pedal enters, to be a challenge particularly, as in this piece, he’s got the melody in the pedal. I’m taking it way way slower then this at the moment though...

This question was sent by David. He writes: “I really can't thank you enough for making all this available. It has been my dream to be a proficient church organist (my wife is a United Methodist Pastor) and perhaps to do some recitals and some composing. I practice on a real Møller organ but where I play once a month is an electronic Allen organ. Your materials have kept me moving forward. You've...

Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast #130! Today's guest is an American organist Randall Krum. He was born in Albany, New York and grew up in the nearby village of Ephratah where he studied piano and organ with local teachers. During high school he began focused organ studies with area organist, Dr. Elmer A. Tidmarsh, a onetime student of Charles-Marie Widor and a longtime friend of Marcel...

This question was sent by Peter. He writes: “I think the amount of time we waste on things which are of no benefit is frightening. I wonder why? What makes the difference between the things you want to do (like eating tasty food, lying in bed, drinking to excess, wasting time on the computer etc.) and the things which you ought to do (practicing the organ, eating healthy food, getting to bed early...

This question was sent by Irineo, and he writes: Hello there once again, maestro Pinkevicius. Now THAT IS an interesting subject you chose for your podcast. Actually, I suspect different keys have different "taste" or meaning depending on each individual. For instance, Bach's splendid Toccata in G-minor BWV 915 has a fantastic Fugue which is not only splendid, but jocular. It's extremely witty as...

This question was sent by Fr. Michael he writes: “Dear Vidas, I am writing today to inquire if you by any chance know of any resource that may contain church hymns (a hymnal, etc.) that contains fingering and pedaling written in? No problems at all if there isn't, I am managing fine, but just thought I would pick your brain on this and see if such a resource exists.”

I’m so delighted to be able to teach you about avoiding mistakes when playing in an equal tempo today. Listen to the audio version here. You see, recently one of my “Unda Maris” studio students played in our church and he had a trouble of keeping equal tempo and avoiding mistakes. I thought to help him with some of the tips which might be of value to you too because you also probably need to avoid...

This question was sent by Rivadavia. And she writes: “I am studying at least 15 minutes a day as suggested and have discovered that sometimes laziness or tiredness goes away and I can study for at least 1 hour in all. I love reading your podcasts, because I learn a lot from the difficulties that advanced musicians have. As I said in another email, I am a beginner (some sheet music from Ana Magdale...

Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast #129! Today is a special podcast. Our subscribers who know me probably are aware that I am quite a spontaneous person, I don't like to plan too much. So yesterday when I received an email from a Finish organist Airi Saloniemi asking for an opportunity to try our largest pipe organ in Lithuania at Vilnius University St John's church, I spontaneously said,...

This question was sent by Dan. He writes: “Hi Vidas, just wondering, as of late, have you moved the podcast feed over to another provider? It looks like you have, as clicking the links to listen for example, on your latest post on your main site, takes me over to a site called musicoin.org. Apparently you can play directly from their site, but that for me, doesn’t seem to be working. I use a Scree...

During the last rehearsal of our Unda Maris organ studio, I asked one of our students who doesn't even read music to choose 4 notes and improvise something interesting. Would you like to know what this process is like and where it can lead you? If so, my tips are for you.