AVA205: I would like to become a reasonably capable parish organist
This question was sent by Petty. She writes:\n\nI would like to offer my contribution as follows :\n\n1. What is your dream for your organ playing?\n\nTo become a reasonably capable parish organist.\n\n2. What are 3 most important things that are holding you back from\nrealizing your dream?\n\nI would like to provide a brief background of myself to put my input into a better perspective :\n\nI will be turning 50 in a few days' time and have just retired. I started\nlearning to play the piano since the age of 7 until my early thirties when I have to leave for a job overseas. I have since been playing the piano, not very often, as a leisure hobby, i.e. only with sparing technical\nexercises. I have stood in as substitute organist a few times in 2016 and\n2017 which sparked my interest in taking organ lessons, and this started last September. I practise in the church a few times a week and will practise on the piano other times - finger exercises and piano pieces. To me, the three most important issues in adapting to organ playing is :\n\na/ adapting to the different touch in organ playing - I have started seriously taking up technical exercises for the fingers again, but it has taken me a while to adapt to applying the right touch on the organ keyboard.\n\nb/ overall physical "coordination" of the body - the relative distance\nbetween the eyes/the score/the hands are quite different (farther off) from the piano (upright or grand). Proper posture and how to conduct movement would be essential or it could lead to unnecessary muscles fatigue, as I have experienced.\n\nc/ muscle coordination - this follows from (b) above. There is no short of resources about correct posture in organ playing but I think it might be useful for beginners to be advised of how to, say, keep necks/shoulders/hips/thighs appropriately relaxed, during and after practice. Since there is a lot of matters requiring attention in learning a new instrument, the mind and body would possibly become tense at some point, particularly when playing with hands and feet together. Specific advice to keep the body properly relaxed would be useful.\n\nThanks for allowing me to share my experience.\n\nRegards,\nPetty