Hello,

I am new to this forum as I am merely a piano teacher who has been commandeered to play various church organs for services in the parish. It has taken me some time to not be so nervous playing for a congregation and I wanted to try using the pedals.

However, I can reach them with my toe but not my heel. Is there something obvious about pedalling I am getting wrong or does anyone have any technique suggestions?

I have been asked to play for the Remembrance service and wanted to really belt out some of the hymns with the help of the pedals.

Also, are there any recommended books for manuals only or beginners pedals you would recommend for playing the congregation in and out, also during communion? With my teaching practice, I don't have a lot of time to practice at the church so need something I can bash out without too much time.

Many thanks for any suggestions.

Tasha

Depending on the level you wish to progress to, this might not necesarially matter. The entire works of Bach are playable without using heels!! indeed it was rare on German Baroque organs of that time with their straight pedalboards.

How tall are you? for a normal person sitting upright (lots of right angles!) you should be able to use the toe and heel of your foot. What type of shoes are you using? Do they have a small heel, of around an inch or so?

But don't be afraid to use your toes only for hymns - it might not provide a beautifully legato bass line, but it will be perfectly adequate with practice.

The tutor i was given was an american guide by a man called Roger E. Davis. It was written not for the absolute beginner (And you most definitely aren't if you teach piano!) but provided gradually graded exercises in organ rather than piano technique, as well as introductions to the pedals and gradually graded pieces. It might be worth a look for you.

Hope some of this helps - if not... ASK QUESTIONS!!

db

Are you sitting far enough forward on the bench?

Some good advice already given. As far as music to play goes , there are lots of albums from this publisher.

Http://www.kevinmayhew.com

Hi,

I used David Sanger's book - Play the Organ - which was good.
If you play the piano though, I'd recommend starting on volume two!

Hope this helps!

Nick

I can recommend a book called "Don't be afraid of the pedals" by Colin Hand, a self-help organ tutor which is designed for the pianist-turned-organist and contains useful hymns and voluntaries. The manual parts are very simple, but it takes you gently through pedalling. Not that I've got very far with it myself - it's one of those things I keep meaning to work on (see signature)!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dont-Afraid-Pedals...e/dp/1840034963

Kevin Mayhew do music for "mostly manuals" which is great for beginners. Also look out for Pachelbel toccatas, many of which have flashy though straightforward parts for manuals over long-held pedal notes which only change about once a page, if that. They always go down a treat with my congregation.

There are also lots of 18th C. English trumpet or cornet voluntaries for manuals only by the likes of Walond, Stanley, Greene, Bennet, Heron....very attractive and as a trained pianist you could probably play them at sight.

You are going to have a lot of fun!

I'm in a similar position to you in that I am a piano teacher who occasionally gets roped in for playing organ in church. When I have time (!) I hope to learn properly. Our church has an electric organ and I can get away without using pedals for the hymns and basics.
I would love to use the pedals but at a mere 4' 7'' don't think I've got a hope of reaching the pedals with my heels! I shall follow this thread with interest so you all know you'll be helping someone else out too! Best wishes, hope you enjoy your organ playing.

Piano times I stand at 4'11" so to find someone shorter than me is a rarity. To reach organ pedals the Bench has to go right forward. I have been tempted to attack the bench with a saw, ensuring I had a spirit level to keep things level, and suitable blocks that comply with health and safety legislations for my taller and longer legged colleagues (Churches tend not to purchase adjustable Organ Benches even though such things are made)

The Kevin Mayhew Mostly Manuals series are good for one-offs whilst you are learning to use the pedals. If you have the luxury of a 16ft pipe on one of the ranks of manuals use it. Many people won't know you are not using the pedals especially if it balanced by a 2ft pipe or mixture.

Experiment by playing the LH and octave lower thus imitating a 16ft pipe on one manual and the RH at pitch, on another. If the second manual is the swell, ensure the box is open. Shift the whole thing up an octave, and if necessary swap manuals.

Even with your commitments, you do need to spend some time practising. I'm sure you can find the odd half hour once a week.

I personally would avoid Kevin Mayhew books like the plague. The pieces by their "in-house" are mainly worthy but dull - why waste time on them. The other collections are not edited satisfactorily in my view - sources should be given and it should be clear what the composer wrote and what an editor has added. There are also far too many arrangements.

I suggest (as an easy way of obtainng a varied selection of music):
The new Oxford Service books for organ - three books for manuals only and three books for manuals and pedals.
(http://www.musicroom.com/Series/5067/oxford-service-music-for-organ)

Also edited by Ann Marsden Thomas: The Graded Anthology books, grades 2 & 3. Hardly any pedals in the first couple of volumes. (There is a splendid loud piece by S Wesley with, I think, just one pedal in the Grade 2 book, if I remember correctly)
(http://www.musicroom.com/Series/2413/graded-anthology)

Although the editorial procedure is now a bit out of date, the albums edited by C H Trevor are full of excellent pieces and, I think, still unbeatable.
(http://www.musicroom.com/Search/Find.aspx?searchtext=C+H+Trevor&lx_pagenumber=1):
There are many volumes for manuals only. The "Old English Organ music for manuals" series is superb and there are two books of Seasonal Choral Preludes for manuals which I used constantly when I was learning - and still go back to now (45 years on!).

There are two volumes published by Dover which ought to be good (although I haven't looked at them): (http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/019098/details.html) & (http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/068290/details.html)

Then there's the Bach (attrib.) Short 8 Preludes and Fugues. Good music and simple pedal parts, especially for the preludes.

A quick look at the ABRSM organ syllabus might give you some ideas as well - they now start at grade 1 and there are many pieces that don't require pedals in the first three grades.

Is the organ stool adjustable, is it on blocks?

I am a pianist that has occasionally been press-ganged into playing the organ when a real organist cannot be found. [And yes .. that means an atheist (or at best agnostic) playing religious music in a church]

I am 6'1" so I don't have your excuse. All the same I simply play on the manuals and ignore the foot-pedals. And it sounds fine.

Regular listeners (non-musicians) are happy enough with the results ... and if there is a real organist in the audience that can tell the difference, and cares, well ... they are welcome to take over from me !!

You can be a 'proper' organist and not have faith. There are plenty of examples of that situation to be found! To be a competent church organist, it is necessary to be sympathetic to the liturgy, but it is not necessary to believe in it...

I find this interesting since many of their in-house composers have experience as Cathedral Organists, and all their music editors are music graduates with substantial knowledge of a variety of instruments.

They may not be to your taste, but having known people employed by Kevin Mayhew, I can not question the Caliber of their staff. (including one of the type setters for Mostly Manuals who I have used as an accompanist. he has London Board Double A level that exceed theory at Grade 8, was a piano specialist at RSAMD, and did the graduate diploma course that included quite a substantial knowledge of musicology. (also has Grade 8 Flute)

I also agree with you MrB I know of people quite able to appreciate liturgy on an intellectual level and produce a musical programme in sympathy with it yet have no faith what so ever!

Also, having looked at the etimology of the terms Agnostic and Atheist, apart from semantics, would somebody please let me know the difference as they essentially mean the same thing.

I'm afraid I don't understand what this has got to do with being a good composer.

Any professionally-trained musician can produce well-written music - but that doesn't mean it's worth publishing. Some cathedral organists have been, and are, composers as well, but not that many. That's not why they were given the job!

However the ones I knew they had employed were... and good arrangers too. It is very easy to be over dismissive because you don't like one or two books.

Fair enough. I just think that the vast majority of these "new" pieces are not very inspiring and I can't see any reason for playing them when there is such a huge repertoire of (in my opinion) real music rather than these pastiches and derivative pieces. Obviously there are some good pieces there (including Fetes by Stanley Vann which he dedicated to me).

It doesn't matter what older "reluctant" organists play, but I would like to think that students were playing the real thing.

I have to agree with Stephen.

Notwithstanding the excellent qualifications and experience of the editors, there is very good reason to doubt the quality of many of the arrangments and new compositions published by Kevin Mayhew, most especially in hymnody, which has been well rehearsed on this Boad and elsewhere. The arrangements of orchestral items are invariably weaker than those published in late Victorian and Edwardian times. Many of the new pieces appear to be 'note spinning', though they may have value in divine worship where a piece is needed to relate to a particular hymn tune.

Any short-comings of Kevin Mayhew as a publisher house seem more related to policy than the quality of the editors.

However, may I raise one point in connection with their organ music? The print seems unusual to read. It may be that the notes and stave are printed too small for the layout. Something seems not quite right, more in the earlier publications than later ones. The covers are quite the best part of the organ music from that publishing house!

There a some really nice manuals only pieces in Boellman's Heures Mystiques, in two volumes published by Enoch & Co, Paris. These are tuneful and mostly two pages. All are within the competence of an average pianist.

Barry Williams

Thanks for the constructive crit re typesetting at Kevin Mayhew. I can pass that on to one of their type-setters who does take a pride in his work and take criticism well. He has done some accompanying work for me in the past and likes to do as good a job as possible. (nice guy too!)