October 2014 Organ Lesson: Correcting wrong practice
Last Saturday I met with Michael for an organ lesson. I would like to be able to say it was an epic lesson – a lesson where all pieces receive Michael’s approval. It had been …
Lesson
Reflections on 5 years of organ lessons (Sept 2009 – Sept 2014)
September 2014 marks the 5th anniversary of when I started organ lessons. 5 years of taking lessons is a huge milestone. My initial goal when starting out was to become a church organist within 5 years. I have …
July 2014 Organ Lesson – Muscle Memory triumphs and woes
Last Tuesday I met Michael for another lesson. Since my previous lesson, Michael has become the organist at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church. This church does not have a pipe organ. They are using an Allen electronic …
June 2014 Organ Lesson with an experiment
Last Saturday, I met with Michael for another organ lesson. It had been 10 weeks since my last lesson! We did an experiment with “Crown Him with Many Crowns” which I share about at the end …
April 2014 Organ Lesson and my first YouTube video
Last Saturday, my organ lesson did not start out very well. It felt disastrous to me! I choose to start with the hymn, “At the Name of Jesus”. I felt nervous performing for Michael. I …
We want smooth mashed potatoes – February 2014 Organ Lesson
“We want smooth mashed potatoes.” – Michael Gartz. I had an organ lesson on February 9, 2014 with Michael. I delayed posting the summary as I wanted a picture of real mashed potatoes. Instead of …
Making it more complicated than it needs to be – December 2013 Lesson
I met with Michael at the end of December for my last lesson of 2013. The lesson went well overall. I demonstrated improvement since my previous lesson which was an accomplishment itself. December was a …
It’s not any harder to play it right – November 2013 Lesson
“It’s not any harder to play it right than to play it wrong.” Michael pointed this out at my organ lesson last Saturday. While playing “Nearer, Still Nearer”, I had some tempo issues. Unlike in …