The Reluctant Organist
Making the Transition from Piano to Church Organ
This web site contains practical advice for the pianist turned organist and those who are just beginning their role as church organist and who are trying to become established in both pedal playing and getting the most from the time available for practice.
The term “Reluctant Organist” is a misnomer because anyone who is serving in the post of Church Organist will be anything but reluctant. In fact, he or she will probably be a very generous hard-working soul who receives very little encouragement for the many hours of practice and preparation that is required when learning to play the church organ well.
Perhaps the biggest challenge to the pianist turned organist is learning to use the pedals. The fact is, it is much easier to play hymns - and a lot of other music - if you use the pedals!
Being too ambitious is a common fault - we’d all like to play the big, impressive sounding pieces but realistically, they are too difficult and time consuming for a novice organist who has a lot of material to rehearse and prepare.
Stick to easier pieces, those that are manageable at your standard, and play them well. Most people won’t recognize that your pieces are easier to play, but many people will recognize mistakes when they happen!
Set yourself realistic goals.
Short Term: Develop a repertoire of easy voluntaries and work on some of the popular hymns that are more difficult to play - All Creatures of our God and King for example - you could also change the key from Eb to D to make it easier.
Medium Term: Pick one or two of the most popular and easiest hymns and start learning the bass pedals - don’t avoid the pedals because once learnt, they make playing hymns easier!
Long Term: Depends on what your goals are. However, the ability to sight-read well and improvise, are two very useful abilities to have.
It is possible to be so busy playing that your standard of musicianship gets worse rather than better and when this happens it is often the case that your enthusiasm diminishes too!
This is a “slippery slope” to wishing you were somewhere else, or worse, packing it in altogether. Try to stay ahead of the game rather than allow yourself to become overwhelmed with lots of music that is too difficult to play at your standard. Remember ... play easy music well - not difficult music badly.
Musicality and Phrasing.
One day you’ll learn it, forget it, but let it inform your performance and take your playing to a higher level. Until then, do what is necessary to survive. Make gradual progress and make a huge contribution - over time your contribution may become much greater than you realise.
