Learn to Play the Organ. How?

One of the most interesting and fascinating instruments to play, is the organ. There are many variations of this instrument, from the standard electronic, as seen in the picture, to the more refined Church Organ, Orchestral Organ or the Theatre Pipe Organ as they are called. They can have as few as two keyboards (manuals) to as many as six. Learning the organ can seem difficult but also extremely rewarding, as the musical variety they are capable of is astounding.

The organ is a challenging instrument to play correctly, and there are many ways to play it correctly, both in popular and classical repertoire. However, if you have a good keyboard technique to begin with, you can move to the multiple keyboards and pedals with more ease. The organ, or at least the pipe organ, is not really the place to learn to read music or play a keyboard. You should get this knowledge on a piano, or home electronic organ first.
Find an organ teacher. Ask around at local churches or colleges. Many colleges have undergraduate programs in applied organ, and music theory in general. You can also check organ-related periodicals for teachers. But, the best way is to contact your local chapter of The American Theatre Organ Society (www.atos.org), or The American Guild of Organists (www.ago.org) and research getting a teacher recommendation through them.
There are some great books which can help you get up to speed quickly, in terms of keyboard playing. One of the best is called "How to Play the Piano, Despite Years of Lessons". It helps you get up to speed with simple keyboard playing.
Buy a pair of organ master's shoes. You can purchase them online for around fifty dollars. Pedals are a unique aspect of organ-playing, and having good footwear will help you develop efficient technique.
Purchase an introductory level organ book. There are many on the market, so be sure to get suggestions from your teacher or another organist.
Practice! There is only one way to learn any instrument. The more practice you can put in, the more you will get out of it.

Almost all organists have previous training on piano. If you don't have experience, take a few years of piano first.
Get to know other organists in your area. It is a relatively small group of people, and tends to be highly interconnected. Knowing your peers will provide advice and support. Be careful, though. Organ groups, particularly pipe organ groups and clubs, tend to be very cliquish. You need to be able to stand your ground without ticking off the wrong person.
Listen to good organ music. There are many opportunities to hear excellent performances, especially in metropolitan areas. Also, you can get on websites, such as www.ohscatalog.org, and find a huge selection of organ CD's, both Classical, Orchestral and Theatre Organ.

Do not expect to learn all there is to about this instrument quickly. Start with the smaller one, learn the piano, and gradually graduate up to the Pipe Organ. This is a musical experience well worth the effort.
Each organ is different, especially if you are playing the pipe organ. Before playing an organ you are not used to properly, get used to its stops, tone and sensitivity.

Runs & Fills: How To Add Real Excitement To Your Piano Playing!

We've all heard pianists who make us drool with musical jealousy when they play, using a tool box full of lighting-fast runs and clever fills that have us clamoring for more.

I well recall hearing Errol Garner play "I'll Remember April" when I was about 14. I had no idea a piano could be played like that, and I was absolutely fascinated by all the interesting and exciting runs and fills he added to his improvisation of those standards.

If you're anything like me, you would love to learn how to "fill up the empty spaces" with scale fragments, chords, broken chords, and so on. Techniques such as 8th note runs , 16th note runs, 32nd note runs, triplet fills, and many combinations thereof -- some so fast you can't even see which notes are being played. Techniques such as "cascading waterfall runs", the fabulous "pro straddles", the exciting "tremolo-fired runs" and lots more. Learning how to "fill it up" with runs and fills would certainly take your piano playing to the next level.

After listening to countless pianists in all genres, I compiled a list of six types of runs and fills that they often use:

1. "Cocktail" runs --The lightning fast runs used by the great "show" pianists. One hand runs, two hand runs, open-octave runs, tremolo-blasted runs, cascading waterfall runs and more. Made famous by such names as Eddy Duchin, Carman Caballero, Liberace, etc., but also used tastefully by many others, such as Roger Williams and many "pop" piano players.

2. Embellishments -- Mordents, inverted mordents, trills, turns, tremolos, grace notes, glissandos, etc. These are the "finesse" techniques that give your piano playing class and grace. Virtually NO amateur piano players use these, so the pianist that learns these is putting herself or himself in a class usually reserved for professional pianists.

3. Piano tricks -- How to make your piano sound oriental, or make it sound like a drum or a music box? A bell? Latin? Country?

4. Evangelistic runs -- These are the octave runs and fillers used by the great gospel pianists of past and present such as Rudy Atwood and other evangelistic piano players.

5. Jazz & blues runs -- Using the "blues scale" up and down the keyboard, blue note-crunches, slides, etc. These runs are very useful not only in jazz and R & B, but also in "black gospel" (I hate to use that term because it sounds racist, but people use it to describe a certain type of gospel music, so I reluctantly use the term...but only in that sense of the word), fusion, and many rock-pop songs. 6. Fillers galore -- Filling up an empty measure with a counter-melody; creating an intro; creating an ending; developing "turnarounds", plus chromatic fillers, fillers based on the Dorian and Lydian scales and other "church mode" scales used by contemporary jazz and fusion artists.

It is exciting for any pianist to picture himself or herself playing those LIGHTNING FAST runs up the keyboard and back down in time for the next chord, or playing CASCADING RUNS down the keyboard for a WATERFALL of wonderful sounds, to say nothing of using mordents, inverted mordents, trills, turns, tremolos, grace notes, glissandos, fillers galore, cocktail-piano runs, plus gospel-style runs as well as "blues runs" based on the blues scale!

Is it worth the effort to learn some or all of these techniques? It certainly has been for me, but every pianist will have to make that judgment for himself or herself.

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