The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #68732   Message #1165820
Posted By: The Fooles Troupe
20-Apr-04 - 03:58 AM
Thread Name: Learning piano/organ
Subject: RE: Learning piano/organ
Becky MAY be right - these days cheap 'electronic organs' abound.

I had no trouble adjusting to more than 2 staves - I also did choral work, and used to play piano accompaniment for my father who was a very good violinist. I also did duets & trios on the piano (requiring 4 & 6 stave music), something which doesn't seem to be as popular nowadays - but that was before TV. I was also used to reading multipart staff notation for orchestral, band, choral, etc, as part of my Musical Training - I wanted to be a conductor and/or musical arranger, so I studied relevant things like that too. Reading scores that have so many parts that you only get a single line of music per instrument per page, meant that simple 3 part notation was not hard for me.

I used to practice the organ stuff which I could on the piano, even playing the pedal parts in the bass so I would hear what they sounded like. This was the recommended system when I was learning. It was expected in my environment that those things were of the 'basic practice' level to be completed before accessing pipe organ. The first few times were expected to be 'the learning phaase' on the pipe organ, then you were just expected to be trying totally new pieces to check the balance of the sound selections, or practicing difficult things like Fuges, etc which could only be practiced on the organ because of the pedal parts. All the same, it was expected that you had the parts for the manuals (both hands) off to the level that you almost never needed to look at the music for them, using the piano.

A lot of 'Church Music' involved only adding pedal parts to 2 stave music: hymns etc were only provided in 2 stave notation, so the idea of being able to practice it on the piano was not as silly as it sounds anyway.

There only three words that will help you get accustomed to playing on a different instrument Becky, "Practice!" "Practice!" "Practice!".

Robin