How to work well on an Electronic Organ

Growth in interest in organ playing is partly due to easy availability of electronic organs. Their compactness, volume control, headphone socket and recording facility, not to mention sound sampling and midi are attractive features and best of all, you can own your own, and customise it to sound like any famous organ in your space. There is no need to bother your neighbourhood church, having to travel, possibly getting cold in the winter, not to mention well intentioned interruptions for any number of good reasons in order to practise. Modern instruments come with good guarantees too!

When studying in Leipzig with a small group a couple of years ago, I was amazed when the tutor, Ullrich Böhme, asked, do you practise on an electronic organ by any chance? Everyone wondered how it was obvious to him and to few others. Thinking about this during my own teaching and playing it became very clear for the need of awareness of the pitfalls of extensive or exclusive use of an electronic when tracker or electro-pneumatic organs have to be played either in exams, recitals or on Sundays. Examinees suddenly find a tracker action organ very hard to play and control. Simply pushing the keys down seems a much bigger effort, which is unnerving, especially for an older organist whose style and playing habits have developed over a long period of time. Being forced to play more slowly can be unsettling when the desired tempo is hard to deliver without customary ease of fingerwork.

It is tempting to wallow in the sound of a beautiful organ with the reverb control set high. For serious practice, it is better to turn it right down or off altogether. Working diligently on a dry, dead sound brings one face to face, or fingers to feet, with all those notes that are either too short or held on too long, and chords which don’t sound completely together. Scrappiness from faulty technique being revealed is utterly depressing, but one has to muster sufficient grit to try again, relax the arms, sit up straight, then confidently and actively direct rounded fingers at a good legato, one hand at a time, pedal line also solo. Some organists who are principally pianists may inadvertently use reverb as if it was the right pedal on the piano, thus releasing notes too early. Listening carefully, playing on a dead ish sound should sort that out. It might seem a grind to be faced with fundamentals such as note lengths when you are a highly qualified professional in another field, but the music will sound less good than it should when such basics have been overlooked or unheard. A dry sound also shows up varied finger strengths. Far better to learn how to strengthen those fingers and the weaker side, usually the left. Best not, however, to injure the hand as Schumann did so tragically.  When I hear a top harpsichordist play the organ, it is obvious immediately, the finger work is so tip top, accurate, together, the result of time spent connecting one note to another lightly, without jangles and slips.

Tracker action afficionados talk about the start and stop of a note. On an electronic organ, there is no difference between a note pressed lightly as opposed to one pressed with more weight. This makes it all too easy, and dull. Young people who have piano lessons on an acoustic piano and only have a keyboard or electronic piano to work on at home are in exactly the same position as organists. A good teacher notices, as there is often no subtlety, frequently a hard edge when the acoustic keys are pushed too hard and fingers bend the wrong way. More advanced keyboards, pianos and organs do come with a built in resistance, but such features may not be standard and may increase the price tag. If you are thinking of obtaining one, try before you buy.

A word about détaché playing and articulation. This has been much discussed since the 1980’s when it became desirable to study the written instructions of early masters such as Diruta, CPE Bach and many more. Instruments with different timbral qualities and actions were built to make it possible to play in the correct stylistic way. Speeds have increased as a result. Books such as ‘Making Music on the Organ’ by Peter Hurford described how British organists should approach the music of Bach, and many recordings since have demonstrated what we should all be aiming at. However, when exquisite professional skills are copied by players wth less refined skills, awkward music making results. Subtle, tiny gaps between notes when playing Baroque music end up being too long and meaningless. They have been misunderstood and such players would be better encouraged to play the right notes in the right order and in the right time, ( legato) as the late Eric Morecambe so amusingly stated to André Previn on one of the Morecambe and Wise specials. Add to that notes phrased correctly, whether in the fashionable way or not. What matters is accuracy, musicality and utter sincerity.

Like many, I too, have an electronic organ to note bash on at home. It has made a big difference to the amount of music I learn, and speeded up the time it takes to master a piece of music because of increased contact time with the instrument. I would not be without it. But I always relish playing on the Dulwich organ once a piece is learned. Direct contact with the real sound source opens up a new musical vista simply because it can respond to you. The lowest notes are the most satisfying, being felt as well as heard. In church, or in a large concert hall, the sound is designed to be right for the space, whereas it is less satisfying playing on a sampled, compressed Organo Pleno when the volume has to be adjusted, preferably from a sound desk at the back of the hall or church, when accompanying a choir, with and without an orchestra. Yet, at home, we need that volume control to keep domestic and neighbourly peace.

Many organists are fascinated by the mechanics or electronics of the instrument, a bit like those who play with train sets, and simply like the sound it makes. The actual music, for some, is secondary to this, though I hasten to add, not all. Some become great organ builders. Our principal focus, however,  should always be the music, and how best to deliver it for congregation and/ or audience.

Postscript: one of the greatest teachers of organ in recent decades, Jacques van Oortmerssen, died suddenly aged 65 on 21 November 2015 from a brain haemorrhage. His School of Duo and Trio Playing skilfully guides us how to treat each note. He has taught many of the great players of current times and recorded the complete works of Bach. After a half hour session in a masterclass with JvO in 2009 I came away feeling that I had been given confidence to proceed and have not looked back. He was an inspiration to many and will be sorely missed.

Marilyn Harper