Piano and then Organ, Organ and no piano. Question

[Thomas Dressler]

Well, I've never been particularly fond of method books, prefering to just work on music, but there are a couple books that are generally pretty good. The Harold Gleason Method of Organ Playing is generally accepted as one of the best, though I believe these days it's pretty expensive. Another one that I own that looks very good is Organ Technique: Modern and Early by George Ritchie and George Stauffer. There are also some books I've heard people talk about by Wayne Leupold, but I have never seen them myself so I cannot say how good they are.

For manual technique, I would even play the Bach Inventions at the organ. And for a beginner, there's no reason one could not play easy piano or harpsichord pieces on the organ. When I was learning, my teacher actually made me play the Bartok piano method, Mikrokosmos, on the organ. I didn't especially like it, but I did it and it was helpful.

Tom Dressler

[music lover]

hi my friend had organ lessons for two years. She never had any piano lessons. She just wanted to learn for fun so she was not bothered about having piano grounding. She can play the organ ok but not briliantly.

[criptlyon]

Hello!

For european people (because of shipping), I would recommend the method I use: "Méthode pour grand orgue" from Martine Betremieux.
It's done for keyboard beginners and doesn't ask to know how to play piano before learning organ.

http://www.betremieux.org/
You will find on this website pdf samples and mp3 of this book.

[jvhldb]

When I started my organ studies the music academy gave me a piano teacher for the first 4 months to teach me to read my left hand.

After playing the organ for about a year we had a power failure before a church service last month, I found to my horror that I can't play piano at all anymore (fortuanetly there was an old schol mam in the congregatin that could take over on the piano). My guess is that I'm to used to playing electronic consoles and organs so I don't hit the piano keys hard enough.

My organ teacher thinks it's a waste of time to teach the organ if the pupil still has to learn dynamics and reading music in general (or if they can't reach the pedals).

[wljmrbill]

I too had piano before organ study as in those days -50's,60's was the trend and still is by many instructors. I stated piano at 5 yrs old anyway.. If there is an advantage I feel it in the ability to read music easier when playing organ as I feel organ gets harder quicker than piano reperatore. I have taught students with piano background as well as some without and find they both do fine.Perhaps touch is the biggest difference now that we have more electronic action then tracker action instruments.I am sure will be a long debate through times...LOL

[jensaks]

My organ teacher thinks it's a waste of time to teach the organ if the pupil still has to learn dynamics and reading music in general (or if they can't reach the pedals).[/QUOTE]


This is a good discussion!

I got it into my head that I wanted to learn to play the organ from the time I was very, very young. The sheer beauty overwhelmed me even as a 4 or 5 year old, and I didn't have any interest in playing the piano. When I was seven my parents bought an organ (a small spinet) for our home and I started taking lessons. I had no earlier keyboard training, so I was starting from scratch. Our pastor's son, who was a senior in high school and already an accomplished organist, taught me for my first year until he headed off to college. I continued to take lessons until I graduated from high school, and loved every minute of it.

I don't think there's any good reason for a child to have to take piano first if he or she really wants to play the organ. My teacher taught me to read music, taught me about fingering, basic technique, practice scales, etc. and didn't teach me anything about the pedals or registration until I had mastered reading music and could play some simple pieces. Then he wrote in a simple pedal line on those beginner pieces, and eventually added instruction about registration. It all came together naturally, and it was fun for me.

I've had this particular discussion over the years with many people. My first teacher always told me pianists did not make the best organists because of the difference in touch. Invariably, pianists do not agree with me when I have said that, but most organists do. Of course, it's not something that can't be learned...but it doesn't come naturally, just as a lifelong organist doesn't sit down at a piano and play the keys accurately. I know I couldn't. Yes, the notes are the same, but it's a whole other thing when it comes to actually playing the keys.

I've recently started to get back to work on practicing after quite a few years of raising kids, general busy-ness, etc. I am dismayed at how much work I need! Also, my organ needs some major work and that's not in the budget right now. But I'll get there...

[teddy]

Hello jensacs and welcome to the forum. It was good to read of your experiences

teddy

[Corno Dolce]

Welcome aboard jensaks to a superwonderful site with superfab members all. A really good organ teacher will be able to work around the issues of pupils not being able to reach the pedals or not understanding dynamics or reading music.

[wljmrbill]

Just another thought that I have.. I play piano and organ both all the time...so I can adjust my touch etc.. sometimes I think is more a mental approach telling the forearms what to do for each situation. I know for organ a light legato style touch and for piano a lever type approach... works for me.. and that is the big rule.. if it works for you use it ..it is he sound that matters.