Starting the organ at 19--too late?

[Guest]

I am 19 and have been studying the piano for 13 years. I recently started playing the organ. Immediately fell in love with the instrument; I've been practicing five hours per day and am even thinking about changing my career plans so I can be an organist.

I've been reading the bios of notable organists, and most of them started when they were 10-13, usually after a few years of piano. Is 19 (with prior piano experience) too late to start playing the organ and become really good?

[samibe]

No, you're good. I started at 27 and I've made decent progress in the last 5 years with only a couple hours per week (on average). If you can dedicate several hours a day of good focused practice, you will progress very quickly. Several other members of the forum started learning organ well past their twenties and have done quite well.

You have an advantage to most people learning a musical instrument in that you already know how to practice and read music. If you really want to get started on the right foot, find a good teacher (now) that can help you learn organ technique correctly the first time (not like me where I had to unlearn my haphazard pedaling after I finally got around to hiring a teacher) and who can give you a good introduction to repertoire, registration, expression, etc.

[andijah]

Whether a player becomes "really" good depends on a variety of influences. You seem to have a good starting point, knowing your way round a keyboard and having time for practice. I agree with samibe that getting a good teacher will really make a difference.
Before you actually change your career, please take into account that making your living out of something that used to be a nice pasttime acitivity might lose its charm over time. I've known quite a few decent musicians who said after a few years of being a pro that they wished they had continued the hobby instead of making it their day job. But that also depends on the individual. I just wanted to give you this as food for thought.

[lcid]

Be encouraged...you can become an excellent organist with your love for the instrument!!! Your strong piano background is just what you need and most organ teachers will not accept an organ student without it. I didn't begin serious classical pipe organ studies until the age of 43 and have done well for church service playing, however, not a concert artist. I too had a strong piano background and began organ practicing an average of 2-hours a day. I'm now retired and sub for two churches and I have never regretted the years of study. The American Guild of Organists (AGO) has programs trying to get piano students interested in the organ. They target ages (12-18). You are only one year older than this group. The following websites may answer some questions for you and be of help. https://www.agohq.org/education/poe/poe https://www.agohq.org/education/poe/poe-plus/

[Guest]

I started at 7yrs old on the piano. At the time (50+ yrs ago) I learnt all sort of crazy scales and chords and stuff that I had no idea why I was learning. Move the clock on a little at 13 an electric organ was brought into the home. No lessons just took to it like a duck to water. Later on I'm still playing and I've found all of the stuff I learnt has come in really useful. I've got lazy and tend to play now from lead sheets rather than full sheet music but in fairness how many times do you need to be told where the notes are fro a Gm7 chord. You got to the organ / piano without instruction so a Gm7 should be easy. Unless you are a serious jazz pianist and don't take the music as written to seriously I've found the organ far less restricting than the piano. Make music on it rather than religiously following every dot. Most pianists struggle with the pedals on the organ but again a bit of practice and it comes. You know your scales so you can work out pretty quickly how to walk up and move around on the pedals. The spinet with only 13 pedals is very different to a full pedal board. I can't play the organ pedals with shoes. There are purists who criticize this but for me they can blow it out of their ear. I still play piano and electronic organs on a regular basis but I've also got easy access to a 3 x 19 Wurlitzer pipe organ. Everything I learnt years ago as stayed with me and comes in really useful. At 19 you are definitely not too old to take up the organ. My advice would be try and get your music out of the instrument rather than try and play every dot. Enjoy but don't give up your piano. I feel this may be a different view to some of the earlier posts but I do remember a church trained organist asking how I managed to get my music from a single row of dots and some chords. The top note is the melody and being piano trained you should know where the rest of the chord would be. Each to their own and good luck.

[lcid]

Thanks, SilverfoxUK. I play piano for my local hospital and mostly play with lead sheets and having a ball jazzing things up. I only do serious material when I organ-sub for a church. The piano is a beautiful grand Petrof and I love the mellow sound and excellent action.

[jbird604]

Yes, many of us here started the organ (or at least got serious about it) much later than 19. While I started piano at age 8 and first played a small organ in my teens, I was in my twenties when I first got a chance to play regularly for a church on a full AGO console. Then I did something else for many years, and returned to playing the organ for church when I was 40, in a small church where I only had to play hymns. Only when I was in my 50's did I land an actual paying job playing the organ, and finally had to get very serious about my technique, and discipline myself to practice daily. Happily, I wasn't too old to learn, and have made major strides and continue to do so at age 67. So you are starting "early" in my book!

And I do know a few younger guys who only got into organ after many years of piano, who were college age or older when they took up the organ, who are now making a living with the organ. One "rising star" in the classical organ field is a young man whose mother bought him an organ from my shop a few years ago when he was in college and only in about the second year of his organ training. He went on to enter a prestigious French organ academy and is now concertizing throughout Europe.

I think the fact that the organ immediately stole your heart when you tried it shows that you have that "call" that so many of us felt when first hearing or playing an organ of some kind. Not every musician feels that, of course. Many are "called" to the piano or the violin or to vocal music or another field of music. But if you have the "organ bug" you will be happiest when you are pursuing the King of Instruments!

As mentioned above, it is quite difficult to make a living as a professional musician, and possibly more so as an organist these days. Not that it's impossible, but the reality is that the vast majority of organists earn most of the living in some other way. While you should pursue the organ as if it is to be your "whole life," you must still keep an eye on stark reality, and prepare to feed and clothe yourself by whatever means required while you pursue your love of the organ and its music.

Best wishes! Please stay on this forum and let us know how things are going.

[toodles]

Prior piano experience is an excellent background for organ. You will do fine. As many have noted here, it is hard to make a living as a professional organist, or any other kind of musician. Those who do, often have three jobs-- teach music at a school or university, have a church job (as organist or as Music Minister/Director) at very large churches, and have private students. Many small or moderate sized churches have organists who have other professional day jobs. Some of the latter work for organ dealers.

Though at your age I might very well have considered music as a profession, it's a good thing I didn't. I've been afflicted with a form of arthritis that has done a lot of damage to my hands and wrists, and playing organ is not always possible--good thing I didn't go there for my profession. I find piano easier to play than organ for that reason.

[Teradon]

Enjoy your music at what ever level you play. If you can play for a church that is great.
What the future holds is unknown but the big organs seem to be going away. Not many music stores in the USA have big organs, they are a hard sell now.
Many organ makers have left the USA. Lowrey is closing up, Wersi has left, Allen may be gone (not sure), Wuritlzer is gone....and so on.

[Larrytow]

Um, NO ! Allen is not gone. Far from it actually.

[Guest]

Thank you all for the responses. I'm glad I found this forum. It's very encouraging that others started at a similar age or later.