Organ Pedal Technique: How to Change Position Correctly With Your Feet to Avoid Lower Back Pain?

There are numerous instances in organ music, where the organist has to change position of the feet. Such places might include scale passages, ascending and descending melodic lines, sequences etc. If such passage is played incorrectly for extended periods of time, chances of developing lower back pain are quite high. If you are curious to know how such lines should be performed, this article is for you.

First of all, it is important to maintain the straight position of the upper body, face the music rack, and point your knees to the direction of the feet. However, in playing melodic lines which extend from the right side of the pedal board to the left side (or vice versa) it is not possible to perform such passages with ease and fluency without changing position. In other words, if you play on the right side of the pedal board with your both feet and have to jump suddenly downwards to the left side, you have to switch to different position.

Push-off with the opposite foot when changing position. When suddenly changing direction and position on the pedal board, apply the following trick and you will be able to achieve the precision without pain and strain of the lower back. If you play on the right side of the pedal board and want to switch to the left side, find a suitable note in your music and push-off with your right foot. As you push-off with this foot, move your lower body in a position where your both knees are pointing in the direction of the feet (left in this case). On the contrary, push-off with the left foot, if the melodic line ascends to the right.

It is very convenient to change position on the long note of the pedal line. However, if you see only fast-moving notes in such episode, you can still achieve the same effect with correct repetitive practice. Take this fragment, and play it in a slow tempo a few times and try to change position as described above. Practice this fragment until you can play it correctly at least three times in a row.

Consult your physician if the pain persists. Note that the above trick applies only in cases when the lower back pain arises from the incorrect playing habit. However, as we all understand, lower back pain might have various different reasons. In such cases and if the pain persists, it is best to consult your physician for medical advice.

By the way, do you want to learn to play the King of Instruments - the pipe organ? If so, download my FREE video guide "How to Master Any Organ Composition" http://www.organduo.lt/organ-tutorial.html in which I will show you my EXACT steps, techniques, and methods that I use to practice, learn and master any piece of organ music.

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Organ Practice Tips: How to Develop Both Feet Equally in Pedal Playing?

Have you ever observed the feet of theater organists in performance? They are able to play the notes with their left foot while pushing numerous toe studs for registration changes and swell boxes. All of their pedal technique depends on the left foot. However, if theater organist wants to play classical organ music where both feet technique is required, he or she will find it extremely hard to use both feet in the performance. In this article, I will provide the tips which will help theater organists to develop both feet technique on the organ. Beginners at the organ with no pedal playing experience might also find this article helpful.

First of all, we have to realize that any skill, including pedal playing, must be acquired through regular and patient practice. No matter how good you may be at the theater organ, when it comes to classical pedal playing, it is just plain too complicated in the beginning. Do not despair, however, and understand that you will have to take the same steps as you would in theater organ playing.

Majority of music composed for accompanying silent movies on theater organs requires constant registration and color changes to imitate different orchestral instruments and different moods of movie episodes. In performing such music, the organist has to change registration either by pushing pistons with the thumb or use the toe studs with the foot. Most of the time, since both hands are particularly busy, theater organists use the right foot for toe studs and leave only the left foot for pedal playing. As a result, they have a virtuoso left foot technique but underdeveloped right foot.

What this means is that whenever such organists want to study classical organ repertoire, they have to start with some easy pedal exercises in order to achieve the same ability with the right foot gradually.

Do not start practicing pedal scales from the beginning. Although pedal scales are one of the best ways to develop a perfect pedal technique at the organ, they are obviously too difficult for the beginner organist (and for theater organist as well). Pedal scales are too advanced because you need to use toe-heel technique constantly. As this is too complicated at first, start with some easy exercises which will not involve using heels in the beginning.

Choose alternate toe exercises first. The easiest pedal exercises that theater organists could practice are alternate toe exercises. This means that they involve using left and right toes only in alternation. For example, play ascending and descending sequences of thirds. Such exercise might look like this: C E D F E G F A G B A C etc., or C A B G A F G E F D E C D B etc. In addition, play ascending and descending lines of fourths: C F D G E A F B etc., or C G B F A E G D F C etc. Exercises in fifths are also perfect for the beginning: C G D A E B F C etc. or C F B E A D G C etc.

Play these exercises legato with alternate toes in a slow tempo. As they become easy, you can choose different exercises using heels as well. Remember, that the development of the correct pedal technique requires regular and patient practice. As everything in organ playing, both feet technique takes time to master but it is well worth the effort because the whole new dimension of organ music will open up in front of you.

By the way, do you want to learn to play the King of Instruments - the pipe organ? If so, download my FREE video guide "How to Master Any Organ Composition" http://www.organduo.lt/organ-tutorial.html in which I will show you my EXACT steps, techniques, and methods that I use to practice, learn and master any piece of organ music.

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How To Choose A Guitar Distortion Pedal

With all the Guitar Distortion Pedals on the market today, it can be frustrating to find the right one that is best for you. This is probably one of the most asked questions as a guitar player that is still working with their sound. I honestly believe that there isn't one exact answer for this, but I can certainly shed some light on things that you'll want to be aware of when choosing your guitar distortion pedal.

One of the first things you'll need to decide is how much distortion do you want, what kind of distortion do you want, and how much tone variation do you want? All of these elements are in direct connection to the style of music that you're playing as well.

In other words, if you're playing country music and need a little extra distortion for leads, you probably won't use an extreme heavy metal pedal or Hendrix Fuzz face distortion pedal. You get the idea. Chances are you would use something that best fits your music.

With that in mind, I will say that there are several good distortion boxes that do the trick well. One great overall distortion box in the good old faithful MXR Distortion Plus. This gives a good amount of distortion without changing the color of your sound. Another great pedal to consider within the MXR line is the Micro Amp. As far as I'm concerned the MXR micro amp is a hidden gem within distortion pedals. It's actually more of an overdrive, but it pushes any amp just enough to get into a nice over-driven sound without going off the deep end. It also does not change the color of your sound.

I really like the BOSS Overdrive pedals the OD.1 and the Super Overdrive. The original OD.1 does not have a tone knob on it and it's discontinued but you can still find them on ebay. They are on of the best overdrive pedals in my opinion because they actually take the exact natural sound of the amp and simply boost all of the characteristics. This pedal works perfect with Marshall amps. The super overdrive does have a tone knob on it and allow a bit more tone shaping. This pedal is currently still available.

The best all-around distortion pedal for rock, metal, even country, is the Boss Metal Zone. WHY? Because it has a ton of distortion available and can be backed down to the littlest amount of distortion.

However, the number one reason why I say it's the best overall distortion pedal is because it has an on-board parametric equalizer section with 18db of boost and cut. This will allow you to shape almost any possible tone you can imagine, and frankly you can use this to shape your main rhythm sound.

You can take an everyday average sounding amplifier and make it scream with this pedal. It's that well-rounded. It's not un-common to see guitarists use this pedal as their main tone shaping unit, for all styles of music.

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4 Tips for Developing Perfect Pedal Technique by Playing Scales on the Organ

Many organists understand the importance of playing pedal scales on the organ. Because they can help to develop flexibility of an ankle, pedal scales is one of the best ways to achieve the perfect pedal technique. However, very often organists hesitate to incorporate them in their daily practice because they do not know how to choose the most efficient pedaling for playing scales. In this article, I will give you 4 tips in playing pedal scales which will help you to move your organ playing to the next level.

Keep the knees and heels together. The traditional way of playing pedals is to keep the knees and heels together. In other words, both your feet should move as one unit. I understand that for some people it will be hard to do so. In this case, at least try to keep the heels together when playing pedal scales. This is necessary because we will choose the most efficient pedaling based on this technique.Play legato. The next important point is to play with legato touch. This means that there should be no breaks between the notes. This is actually not always easy to achieve in pedal playing. I remember how hard I had to try to be able to play the notes evenly and without breaks even at a slow tempo when I was a student. It took me at least a week to master one scale. However don't be discouraged and don't give up. Just stick to it.Toe-toe-heel-heel technique. The most efficient way of choosing the pedaling is to use toe-toe-heel-heel technique. This means that we play the first note with the left toe then with the right toe. The third note is played with the left heel and the fourth - with the right heel. After that just start playing with the left toe. This technique allows us to keep the heels and knees together and to play with the inside of the feet.Adjust the pedaling when necessary. Sometimes it will be necessary to adjust the pedaling according to the accidentals because we can't play the sharp keys with our heels. For some keys you will have to start the scale with the heel etc. In these cases, I recommend you start choosing the pedaling from the middle of the scale and then work your way downwards. For keys which have 3 consecutive sharps or flats, such as D flat major or F sharp major, you will have to slide from one sharp to another with the same toe.

Take a slow tempo, and master one major and one minor scale a week. Try to achieve a nice legato and see that all notes would sound evenly. Next week add another pair of scales (in the order of ascending number of accidentals) until in about 12 weeks you can play all of them. Then it will be sufficient to play them only once during your daily practice. If you do this regularly, your ankles will become much more flexible and you will start to notice tremendous changes in your pedal technique.

By the way, do you want to learn to play the King of Instruments - the pipe organ? If so, download my FREE video guide "How to Master Any Organ Composition" http://www.organduo.lt/organ-tutorial.html in which I will show you my EXACT steps, techniques, and methods that I use to practice, learn and master any piece of organ music.

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What Are 3 Pedal Mistakes Which May Slow Down Your Progress in Organ Playing?

Many organists who try to develop a perfect pedal technique struggle at their attempts. This is because either they do not know the correct methods of practice, or they lack patience or they simply make common mistakes in pedal playing. In this article, I will explain what these mistakes are and how to avoid them.

Not changing the position. In order to play passages in the outer edges of the pedal board fluently, we need to shift the position. This technique also allows us to feel comfortable and avoid unnecessary tension of the body. However, not every organist knows how to use this technique properly.

Actually, it is quite simple. When you need to make a large leap in your pedal part, push-off the pedals with the left foot if the leap is upwards. Likewise push-off with the right foot when there is a large leap downwards. As you push-off with your foot, make sure you shift the entire lower part of your body, too. The upper body has to stay stable facing the music. This technique makes playing pedal scales very easy and comfortable. Just shift the position a few times over the course of the scale.

Playing hands and feet together from the beginning in polyphonic music. Because polyphonic organ music, such as four-voice fugues can be very exciting yet quite challenging to learn, I don't recommend learning the fugue by playing hands and feet together right away.

Unless you are very experienced in sight-reading and organ playing in general, learn separate voices of the fugue first. Later practice two-voice and three-voice combinations. Only then you will be ready to play the full four-part texture. Practicing otherwise makes learning the correct articulation quite difficult. In addition, because of complex polyphony you may not be able to pay attention to details in your pedal playing technique.

Note that you can subdivide the piece into smaller fragments and learn them in this way first. Then combine the fragments into larger episodes. It may seem time-consuming and you may think that playing all voices together from the beginning would be faster. However, if you want some serious progress in your organ playing, have patience, take your time to learn the piece really well and don't rush.

Not using pedal preparation. If you know what pedal preparation is all about, chances are that you are practicing correctly. The easiest way to explain how pedal preparation works is this: after playing one note in the pedal part, immediately move your foot to the next position and wait for its turn to play. In other words, as you release one pedal, move the foot to the next note in one fluent motion. This technique helps to achieve precision in the pedal playing.

However, even though we may know the right way to play, we don't necessarily take the steps which lead to success. For some reasons, sometimes we are just happy if we press the right notes on the pedal board. Of course, using pedal preparation takes some serious mindset and patience but I can guarantee that it's worth it.

You see, if we insist on preparing for the next note in the pedal part and practice that specific fragment repeatedly, after a while it will become automatic and the foot will just know were to go next.

If you follow my advice and try to avoid these mistakes you will be on the correct path to develop a perfect pedal technique.

By the way, do you want to learn to play the King of Instruments - the pipe organ? If so, download my FREE video guide "How to Master Any Organ Composition" http://www.organduo.lt/organ-tutorial.html in which I will show you my EXACT steps, techniques, and methods that I use to practice, learn and master any piece of organ music.

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Organ Technique: Avoid These Pedal Playing Mistakes to Facilitate Your Progress

Are you struggling to take your pedal playing to the next level? Or perhaps wondering why your performance is not stylistically appropriate. Chances are you are making common mistakes which might slow down your progress and do not allow to make your playing sound convincing. Please read on to find out the solution.

Looking at the feet when playing the pedals. This can happen quite often, especially at the beginning stages of organ playing. Since the pedal board is unfamiliar to the beginner organist, there is always a strong temptation to locate the keys by looking at them. However, it is always better to look at the music and try to feel the pedal board with our feet. If we insist on not looking down, then after a very reasonable time we will begin to feel where any specific pedal is. Pedal preparation also helps to achieve that.

Not using the entire leg in early music. In order to depress the pedals we usually use the motion from an ankle which is the correct way to play music written after around 1800s. However, not every organist knows that for early music, and especially on historical instruments or replicas of old organs the depression of the pedals should be done using the entire leg.

This theory is debatable whether or not it is applicable to the performance of early music on modern instruments. We should at least try to adhere to it when playing old instruments or instruments that are built in old style.
The technique of playing pedals using the entire leg comes from the clavichord which was popular stringed keyboard instrument at that time and an instrument of choice of practice for many organists. It was the clavichord technique which became the basis of organ technique (at least in German-speaking lands). On the clavichord, the depression of the pedal keys is achieved mainly using the weight of the leg. Otherwise the string of the clavichord would not make a deep and reverberating sound. In consequence, this technique was applied to the pedal playing on old organs as well.

It is really important that you develop the right practicing habits early on in your pedal playing. Being strict with yourself and paying attention whether or not you are making the mistakes in your performance can save much precious time. However, it is never too late to start fixing the mistakes and forming the right playing habits. If you follow my suggestions carefully, you will have more chances to perform difficult organ music with confidence.

By the way, do you want to learn to play the King of Instruments - the pipe organ? If so, download my FREE video guide "How to Master Any Organ Composition" http://www.organduo.lt/organ-tutorial.html in which I will show you my EXACT steps, techniques, and methods that I use to practice, learn and master any piece of organ music.

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Organ Technique: Four Common Pedal Playing Mistakes

Although every organist wants to have a perfect pedal technique, many of them make similar mistakes. These mistakes inhibit the progress of an organist and form incorrect playing habits. The quality of the music also becomes not as good as it could be. Therefore, it is important to recognize these mistakes and try to correct them.

Using heels in the Baroque music. There are exceptions to this rule, but the tradition is that we should avoid using heels in early music. This is because the pedal boards of historical organs very often are built in such a way that playing with heels would be quite difficult. For example, the pedals of the French classical organs are very narrow and short. Even more so is with Renaissance organs.

By the way, using toes only technique it is much easier to achieve the desired articulation - articulate legato touch. However, not every organist is taught this way even today. This is partly because the legato school of organ playing was applied to the early music for a long time.

Avoiding heels in the Romantic and Modern music. I have met some organists who play even the 19th century and 20th century compositions with toes only. Toe-heel technique has strong foundations in the Romantic organ tradition and we should not hesitate to use it when it is appropriate.

My guess is that some organists avoid using heels for various reasons but one of them might be that they don't know the principles behind toe-heel technique. They don't know how to do efficient and solid pedaling for scale passages. In consequence, the pedal part performed in such a way might sound too choppy and detached.

Using left foot only. This is quite normal way of playing for theater organists and I am not criticizing them now. They need their right foot for many toe studs they have on their organs; they also use this foot for swell pedal and crescendo pedal excessively. Their left feet technique becomes very efficient and virtuosic.

However, there are some organists who hesitate using the right foot for pedal playing. This is partly due to the lack of proper training. They are only capable of playing long sustained notes in the pedal part and much of the concert organ music is inaccessible to them. Although people who start playing organ from the beginning using the correct technique definitely have an advantage here, but it is never too late to start forming the right playing habits.

Playing with too much power. Have you observed organists who play the pedals (and the manuals for that matter) with such tremendous force that you could even hear the unnecessary noise coming from their feet (or fingers)? I have met such people and they really would benefit much more if they could try to relax their feet (and hands) and not hit the pedals with too much power.

Actually, we should have the feeling of playing about mezzo piano on the pedal board. Use only as much energy as you need to depress the pedals and not more. Anything above the minimum power just creates that extra noise, makes the articulation imprecise and creates a chance of even breaking a key or something in the mechanics of the organ, like a tracker.

If you avoid making these mistakes and practice wisely, you will have much better chances to successfully develop a good pedal technique. Even the most difficult and virtuoso organ compositions would not seem too complicated for you to learn. In order to achieve this level, try to form good practicing habits.

By the way, do you want to learn to play the King of Instruments - the pipe organ? If so, download my FREE video guide "How to Master Any Organ Composition" http://www.organduo.lt/organ-tutorial.html in which I will show you my EXACT steps, techniques, and methods that I use to practice, learn and master any piece of organ music.

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