3 Tips for Organists Who Want to Achieve Accuracy in Playing the Pedals

If you are serious about organ playing, then you know how important it is to develop accuracy in playing the pedal part of your organ compositions. It it not easy to hit the right notes with your feet. Many organists struggle to avoid making mistakes in their pedal part. In this article, I will give you three tips which will help you to achieve accuracy in your playing.

Feel the position on the pedal board with your toes. Try to keep your feet close to the sharp keys. This technique allows you to feel the exact position on the pedal board with your toes. For example, you know that sharp pedals are arranged in groups of two and three. Try to locate the F by feeling the edge of the F sharp with your toe. Similarly feel the C sharp and play the C. Resist the temptation of looking down to your feet. It is OK to make mistakes while practicing. Just play it over and over until you get it right. In order to make it automatic, play some more times correctly. Look at the music at least when you play not from memory.

Keep the feet in contact with the pedal board at all times. When you have to move your feet try not to lift them off the pedal board. Instead, slide the feet to the desired pedal while always touching the surface of the pedal board. In other words, the movements of the feet should be horizontal and not vertical. This technique also helps you to get acquainted with the pedal board and play the correct notes with ease. It is especially important that you pay attention to both feet. Do not forget the foot which is resting - relax and let it touch the pedals slightly without pressing them.

Do not use force. Avoid hitting the pedals with unnecessary strength and imagine you play mezzo piano. Depress the pedals with as little power as possible and keep your legs relaxed. In other words, there should not be too much noise when playing the pedals. Of course, on tracker organs some noise cannot be avoided because of the mechanics. This kind of relaxed manner of playing helps to be in control of articulation. Your movements will become very economic and you will feel the fatigue much less.

If you follow my suggestions every time you sit down to practice your organ music, you will improve your pedal technique tremendously. The accuracy while playing complex pedal parts will become much better. Of course, practicing wisely requires a strong will and patience but I can assure you from my personal experience that it's worth the effort.

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