Piano to Organ or Organ only?

[skyboltone]

Greetings: This is as close to a Woodshed forum as I can find here. </P>


I'm a organ wanna be. I now have an M3 Hammond and a KawaiES-X weighted key piano. I've ordered the Keyboard magazine recommended course "Learn and Master the Piano" I read (from HS band) treble clef but bass clef will be a challenge.</P>


Should I stick to the piano or do the whole process with the organ? That would be my preference......I can sell the Kawai to help finanace a Leslie for instance. </P>


Any comment will be appreciated. I play guitar, but that's not important right now. I don't sight read guitar. </P>


Dan</P>

[Austin766]

Re: Piano to Organ or Organ only?

Well, if you want to play organ, then I say go for it (of course you're going to get a lot of people telling you to go for the organ if you wanna play it, at least on these fora, you are). I can tell you that I am a lousy organist, but I'm an organist. So if organ is something you wanna learn, go for it.

[OrgansR4Me]

Re: Piano to Organ or Organ only?



Learning to read music just takes patience and practice. We used to call it hammering out a part back in the dark ages. You study the score and go as slowly as you have to. There is no fault in making mistakes -- they are all learning opportunities.</P>


If you've had a good feel for the piano, don't stop the lessons. Everything you learn about keyboard skills will serve you well in becoming an organists. The touch and phrasing will be different on the organ, but the transition isn't hard.</P>


You may want to "jam" on the organ and yes, it will be alot better with a Leslie, but if you aren't just now learning keep your goals prioritized. The Leslie isn't as important and the learning process you are in now and if that is advanced by piano lessons, stay the course!</P>

[skyboltone]

Re: Piano to Organ or Organ only?

Thanks for the advice. I'll work with both instruments at the same time. I don't want to neglect the pedals as I grow with the keyboard. You are correct about priority. A leslie would be awfully nice but not essential.

[David Stemmons]

Re: Piano to Organ or Organ only?



I have been taking pipe organ lessons for a year now. It was recommended to me that if I began organ lessons with a reasonable background in piano first, it would make the process easier. I have found this to be both true and false. It is a real help to be able to read and play well before you start the organ so that you can focus on the organ, but, it is also very hard to change your playing technique for the organ after having formed solid habbits on the piano.</P>


Dave </P>

[Pipedreamer]

[Nullifier]

Re: Piano to Organ or Organ only?



A few years ago I heard an interview on PipeDreams that Mr Barone had with Wilma Jensen, organist and teacher at ( I think it was) St George's Church in Nashville, Tn. She was featured on that show and I loved listening to her musicianship.</P>


This isn't an exact quote but I recall her saying she felt that a piano background was essential to being a "good" organist.</P>


What do ya'll think??</P>

[jimmywilliams]

Re: Piano to Organ or Organ only?



Hi Dan. </P>


Some recommend piano for developing finger strength and agility (pianois not forgiving of"lazy" fingering!). But the playing technique is very different. You can tell when an accomplished pianist plays an organ using piano technique instead - it will usually sound more "choppy" and sometimes the bass pedal notes will be played on the left hand instead. I can play the organ (not as good as I hope to some day) but not the piano - I really have no idea how to properly play a piano.</P>


Bass clef would be easier to figure out if you just imagined it as a continuum from the treble clef. Just mentally stick in an extra line for the low C in the treble clef - at least that helped me. You will have 2 staves of bass clef for the organ - one for the left hand (usually) and another for the bass pedals.</P>


You can't go wrong either way - just the practice of reading piano or organ music will help. But it takes a lot of practice - so dedicate a chunk of time aside each day to practice. If only I could follow my own advice...</P>


A strong desire to learn will be your best asset. Good luck!</P>


-jim</P>

[nullogik]

Re: Piano to Organ or Organ only?



[quote user="Austin766"] I can tell you that I am a lousy organist, but I'm an organist.[/quote]</p>

I'm the opposite. I'm much much better on the organ than on the piano. Strange that! I think its partly due to the different "touch" required by piano players - I would describe my own piano playing as "wooden"...I haven't touched a piano for some time.
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As for starting the organ...
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What I would say that its a great head start if you already have established keyboard skills (i.e. from piano playing) as its means then you don't have to learn both the hands and feet from scratch - half the job done already! And hopefully, you'd have honed some of your sight and score reading skills at the same time which should help you on the way to playing organ music. This is the way I started and I found I could progress faster since most of the core skills were in place already and only needed adapting for the organ - which I found to be quite straightforward.
</p>

Personally, if I were to start all over again, I would still recommend the "piano route" first. I probably would have dropped the organ long ago (if I started from "scatch") due to a lack of patience had I not had the keyboard and score reading skills in place. With these skills in place, progress was fairly quick and satisfying. </p>

I recommend taking regular piano lessons to get your keyboard, score reading and sight reading skills up to a reasonable level - then progress to the organ. The additional advantage is that you will be able to play both the piano and organ well rather than just one or the other!
</p>

[soubasse32]

Re: Piano to Organ or Organ only?



I firmly believe piano is a pre-requisite to the organ. When I have organ students I ask them to spend part of their practice time on the piano.</P>


A well-regulatedpiano's action helps build up the musculature of the hands. One also learns independence of fingers, different touches and articulations, etc.</P>


Since a lot of piano literature tends to be rather virtuoso (octaves, parallel thirds, block chords, rapid scales, etc.) it helps your technique become very solid, even if you do not end up playing much virtuoso organ literature.</P>


This is the approach I took, and it worked extremely well for me. I was an established adult pianist before I even took my first organ lesson.</P>


As a beginning organist my main frustration was that my hands could play anything, but my feet couldn't keep up. It took a bit of practice but I finally did figure it out. There are of course touch and articulation differences between instruments, but these arerelatively minor in relation to building up a core keyboard technique.</P>

[skyboltone]

Re: Piano to Organ or Organ only?



I think the consesus has been pretty well established here. And it's rather intuitive to my mind. I'll figure out the Leslie aspect later on in the game. For now I'll be working on piano. Thanks all for the informed, thoughtful responses. </P>


Dan</P>