Carsten Klomp

Organ Playing from the

Very Beginning
Organ Course for Beginners

BU 2990

Musikverlag • Dr. J. Butz • Bonn

 The very
First stop beginning
A very good place to start ............................................................................................................................ Page 4
f Structure and contents ..................................................................................................... Page 4
f Are you sitting comfortably?........................................................................................... Page 4
f Finding the right height for the bench ....................................................................... Page 4
f Position of organ bench and player ............................................................................. Page 5
f Technical words ................................................................................................................... Page 5
f Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... Page 5
Introduction for the teacher ........................................................................................................................ Page 6

Basic music
Second stop theory
Finding the key to the keys .......................................................................................................................... Page 8

Key issues ........................................................................................................................................................... Page 9

The long and short of it ................................................................................................................................. Page 9

Rests are music too .......................................................................................................................................Page 11

Going dotty .....................................................................................................................................................Page 11

Behind bars ......................................................................................................................................................Page 11

Third stop Music theory

.M|1 . White notes ............................................................................................................................... Page 15

.M|2 . Location, location, location ................................................................................................. Page 17

.M|3 . Some sharp words about flats  ..................................................................................... Page 25

.M|4 . Some sharp words about flats  ..................................................................................... Page 27

.M|5 . Accidentals will happen ........................................................................................................ Page 29

.M|6 . Intervals – coming back for seconds? .............................................................................. Page 37

.M|7 . Major and minor ...................................................................................................................... Page 39

.M|8 . Major and minor (exercises) ................................................................................................ Page 41

.M|9 . Interval complementation ................................................................................................... Page 43

.M|10 . Interval complementation (exercises) ............................................................................. Page 45

.M|11 . Diminished and augmented ............................................................................................... Page 59

.M|12 . Diminished and augmented (exercises) ......................................................................... Page 61

.M|13 . What you see is what you get ............................................................................................. Page 63

.M|14 . What you see is what you get (exercises) ....................................................................... Page 65

.M|15 . From pitch to scale ................................................................................................................. Page 73

.M|16 . The major scale ........................................................................................................................ Page 76

.M|17 . The minor scale ........................................................................................................................ Page 78

.M|18 . Triads ........................................................................................................................................... Page 81

.M|19 . Types of triad ............................................................................................................................ Page 83

.M|20 . Types of triad (exercises) ....................................................................................................... Page 84

.M|21 . Turning things around: inversions .................................................................................... Page 87

.M|22 . Inversions (exercises) ............................................................................................................. Page 88

.M|23 . Inversions (exercises).............................................................................................................. Page 97

Fourth stop Organ theory

.O|1. Take your seat ........................................................................................................................... Page 12

.O|2. Get the wind up ....................................................................................................................... Page 12

.O|3. Using your hands and your feet ......................................................................................... Page 19

.O|4. Having a swell (or a great) time? ........................................................................................ Page 20

.O|5. Top stops .................................................................................................................................... Page 31

.O|6. Sounds a bit shaky: the tremulant .................................................................................... Page 35

.O|7. Joining forces: the couplers ................................................................................................. Page 47

.O|8. Shut that door! – the swell box .......................................................................................... Page 49

.O|9. All flue pipes great and small .............................................................................................. Page 53

.O|10 . Flutes and strings .................................................................................................................... Page 55

.O|11 . All reed pipes bright (and beautiful?) .............................................................................. Page 56

.O|12 . How many feet? ....................................................................................................................... Page 68

.O|13 . What you see is what you get (also true of the stops)................................................ Page 71

.O|14 . Mutation stops: a strange blend ........................................................................................ Page 75

.O|15 . Of mixtures and other magic potions .............................................................................. Page 90

.O|16 . Getting from the keyboard to the sound: where the action is  ....................... Page 93
.O|17 . Getting from the keyboard to the sound: where the action is  ....................... Page 95

Keep on track through the lessons and

measure your progress START
U Start on page 12
► 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
A very good place to start
Dear budding organist, on another, they can find a list at the begin-
People have always claimed that, to start learning ning of the book of all the different topics
the organ, you need to have had several years of covered. The solutions to the tasks can be found on
piano lessons. This book doesn’t deny that prin- page 99.
ciple, but the reality of organ lessons doesn’t al- All of the specialist jargon is translated and/or ex-
ways match the ideal learning scenario. Quite a few plained. Apart from at the beginning of a piece,
people starting to learn the organ have never fingering is generally only given when the hand
learnt to play the piano, or did so a very long time changes position.
ago. Perhaps a boy was given a tour of an or- The ^ above a pedal note means it is played with
gan in his confirmation classes and fell in love with the toe of the right foot; if it is beneath the note, it
the instrument. Or a maths student is looking for is played with the toe of the left foot. The N means
something to take her mind off her studies. Or right or left heel.
a home-maker had three years of piano les-
sons when she was little and is looking for a new Before we begin, let’s ask the most important ques-
hobby now that the children have moved out – par- tion – i.e.:
ticularly as the vicar has already asked her several
times if she could accompany the odd service on Are you sitting comfortably?
the organ. Or there’s Christoph, my son, who start- When we play the organ, we work equally with
ed on percussion when he was five, never wanted our hands and our feet. So it is logical that
to learn the piano, but at the age of nine asked our position must make both equally easy.
his dad to teach him to play the organ. None of There are standardised sizes for console design (the
these people will want to be put off from learning part of the organ with the manuals, pedals and
the organ for three years while they brush up their stops), but sometimes organ-builders don’t adhere
piano playing, and none of them has enough time to them, and you certainly won’t find them on his-
to start learning two instruments at once. torical instruments. And since not everyone playing
In fact, the difference between the piano and the the organ will be the same height, the benches on
organ is much bigger than you would think, given the teaching and practice organs need to be adjus-
how similar their keyboards look. Unlike a note table. If the bench isn’t adjustable, perhaps some
played on the piano, which starts getting quieter pieces of wood can be placed under its feet. Pedal
as soon as it has been played, a note played on the boosters are also useful, as small children can reach
organ will sound exactly the same from the time the them easily to operate the pedals, but very few or-
key is pressed until the player lets it go. In terms of gans are fitted with them.
its sound, therefore, the organ is much closer to a Because the sitting position depends on the
wind instrument than a piano. So even if someone entire height of the body, the length of the
who has learnt the piano will be able to find their legs and the ratio between calf and thigh,
way around the organ a bit more quickly, they will and because this organ course is intended for
still need to learn an entirely new instrument. I everyone, big and small, no photos or draw-
therefore welcome you all to Organ Playing from the ings are provided here. Rather, I will try and de-
Very Beginning. scribe what it feels like if you’re sitting proper-
ly. In the early days in particular, it is absolutely
Structure and contents worth taking the time to work with your teacher to
find a position that is right for you. Poor posture is
This organ course is not divided up into chapters,
not just uncomfortable, but can also hamper or pre-
but into learning units which, alongside the week-
vent the movements needed to play the organ.
ly “music rations”, also contain colour-coded texts
on various topics. These are:
Finding the right height for the bench
► basic music theory (from page 8),
When setting the height of the bench, it is neces-
► music theory with ear training
sary to make sure that your feet can touch enough
► and organ theory. of the pedals to be able to easily press them by mov-
Just as in organ lessons, this course may jump ing the foot up and down at the ankle. So the toe of
from one topic to another. If someone would the foot should not hang down above the pedals:
prefer to focus first on one topic and then only the heel hangs lightly in the air. At the same

4
time, it should not cost you any effort to hold your Technical words
feet in the air in order to avoid accidentally pressing
the pedals. If you aren’t using the pedals for quite a Like every area of life, music has its own spe-
long time, you’ll find that many organ benches have cial words. I have therefore included a glos-
a bar below the seat which provides not only struc- sary ( page 104 ff ) of many musical terms
tural stability, but also a handy place to rest your used in this volume. It contains brief explana-
feet. tions of the words written in bold print through-
out the course.
Position of organ bench and player
Acknowledgements
Just as important are the position of the bench
and the position of the player sitting on it. If you My first message of thanks must go to my son Chris-
sit too far forward on the bench, you will con- toph (now fourteen years old). He had to battle
stantly feel that you are about to slide off. If you sit through the entire organ course using my handwrit-
too far back, your thighs will not be free enough ten manuscript, and showed me some of the places
to be able to move easily to the right and left. where my approach was less than ideal.
The pedals must not be used to support the up-
I would also like to thank Butz-Verlag, and particu-
per body, so it is important that the body is well-
larly Hans-Peter Bähr, the publisher, for taking the
balanced on the bench, “at rest”, so to speak. A good
risk and putting in all the hard work to turn this
posture gives the player as much support as neces-
novel organ course into a publication. My thanks
sary while allowing as much freedom of movement
as possible. also go to Tobias Bauer for proofreading so well and
making good suggestions for improvements, and
At the same time, you should sit close enough to to Benjamin T. Hilger for designing this volume and
the keyboard to reach all the manuals (the rows of providing some photos of the interior of an organ.
keys for the hands) but far enough away to be able
to move very freely. The angle between lower and I would particularly like to thank Jenny Setchell,
upper arm should be around 110°. To get to the cor- from whose beautiful book Organs & Organists. Their
rect angle, it may be necessary to move the bench Inside Stories I have been allowed to borrow some
backwards or forwards. photos for this organ course – and which I can re-
commend to all organ fans (and not just because
What I do is to start by finding a good sitting po-
she kindly let me use them).*
sition on the bench and then move the bench it-
self as far backwards or forwards as I need. Despite I am grateful to Paul Hönicke for giving his time and
the time this takes, I do it every time before I play. using his organ software to record the CD, and to Jiri
And you really must take time for this, no matter Zurek for giving permission to use his samples from
whether you are playing in public or “merely” practis- the Schnittger organ in Zwolle.
ing. If, as happens on some consoles, you can’t find
The English edition of this organ course must also
a perfect position, you just have to make a reason-
of course include a note of thanks to Andrew Sims,
able compromise. But for practice purposes, you
who combined the work of translating and adap-
should look for an organ bench which you can play
ting the German texts with a sense of humour, as
from without ruining your posture.
well as to Paul Tarling, who kindly checked the ac-
Each of the weekly learning units starts with a piece curacy of the translation.
for pedal solo. For short people and children, it may
be necessary to adjust the organ bench before and/ Finally, I would like to thank my many colleagues
or after this piece is played. In the pedal solo pieces, who have never ceased encouraging me to keep
the feet must reach the pedals easily ( “Finding working on my course and to publish it.
the right height for the bench”). In the other pieces, Wishing you much joy as you learn to play the most
it is more important to be able to reach the keys of wonderful of instruments,
the manuals.
So for children in particular it is important not to
forget to keep adjusting the organ bench to the Carsten Klomp
right height – the day will come when you are tall
enough to reach both the manuals and the pedals *) Organs & Organists. Their Inside Stories is available
easily at the same time. as catalogue number BuB 21 from Butz-Verlag.

5
Introduction for the teacher

Dear colleague, produced by our instrument will still pose a chal-

Both my own teaching experience and numerous lenge for them too.
conversations with other organ teachers have ► The volume is divided into “weekly rations”,
clearly and repeatedly highlighted the lack of an each of which begins with a brief piece for the ped-
organ course for beginners. Many of the exist- als. Each unit covers different aspects of organ
ing courses are regarded as over-academic – as playing, and thematic chapters have deliberately
though playing (!) the organ shouldn’t be fun – or been avoided. So Organ Playing from the Very Be-
people complain that the early lessons are too ginning can (!) be worked straight through from
hard, or the expected progress too fast. front to back. At the same time, the prescribed
Further to this, the teaching environment has learning units are of course just a point of refer-
changed a lot in recent years. Just a few years ence. If someone wants to do more or less, they
ago, it was still the norm, indeed the generally are welcome to do so.
expected and required precondition, that several ► Almost every learning unit includes a brief
years of piano playing would precede any organ text about elementary music theory or organ
lessons, but that is far from always being the case theory. Here, I have worked from the situation I
today. Partly, this is due to the encouraging fact experience so frequently when giving organ tours
that organ teachers are daring enough (or see the and first lessons: sheer curiosity creates questions
need) to teach younger children. Also, the many about the meaning of switches, buttons and pis-
options available, coupled with a lack of leisure tons which are answered in the first few texts
time for children and young adults, mean that about organ design. The texts in this volume are
they are not so keen to be fobbed off with the ar- introductory in nature and easy for the non-organ-
gument that they need to learn the piano before ist to understand.
starting on the organ. Not many children today
► I believe that (basic) musical training must
will be willing to shelve their desire to play the
include ear training. This volume also contains
organ for three years in order to learn the piano,
a few sample exercises; on the CD, these are
or to wait until their legs are long enough to reach
played not on the organ, but on the piano.
the pedals.
The title Organ Playing from the Very Beginning is
When it comes to the over-50s – another signifi-
deliberately inclusive. This is not an organ course
cant group of people taking organ lessons – who
specifically for children or specifically for adults.
had a few piano lessons when they were young,
A decision to opt for one or the other would in-
but have hardly touched a keyboard since then,
evitably have meant that children might not be
the same applies. They will also be less than will-
able to cope, or would be bored, and/or adults
ing to get to grips with the piano first; on the
wouldn’t feel they were being taken seriously.
contrary, many of them start learning the organ
because their church is desperate for someone to Hopefully, though, the course is one that can be
play for services. used to teach both child and adult beginners.
Organ Playing from the Very Beginning tries to I have consciously refrained from providing too
make a virtue of these necessities: many teaching instructions, and have only writ-
ten down the material that the pupils need. So
► It really does start at the very beginning, and this organ course only provides the material
advances quite slowly. The first few pages are de- needed for learning; I leave the teaching meth-
signed for pupils who have no keyboard experi- od up to you, my fellow organ teacher, trusting
ence at all (and can of course be skipped). that modern methods of teaching the organ are
► Almost all the pieces have been produced or available and known to you.
reworked for this course. So it is teaching ma- The idea of starting each lesson with a pedal
terial which should still be fun. solo originally stemmed from the problem with
► Organ Playing from the Very Beginning can of the pupil’s height. My nine-year-old son was too
course be used by pupils who have some initial small to be able to reach both the manuals and
experience on the piano – pedal technique, hand- the pedals with ease. So the organ bench was
foot coordination and the very different sounds lowered for the mostly eight-bar pedal pieces,

6
and raised again for the other pieces. On the
other hand, playing the pedals is one of the fasci-
nating aspects of organ playing, and represents
unfamiliar territory for the non-organist – chil-
dren and adults alike. So it seems to me to make
sense to start with the basics of this technique
from the outset. And even without the need to
adjust the height of the bench, this concept has
also worked exceedingly well in early lessons for
adults. The upshot is a large number of pieces
which – at least in my experience – are far more
enjoyable than most pedal exercises.
Permit me one comment about teaching meth-
ods: when I expect legato playing in this organ
course, it has nothing to do with stylistic prefe-
rences or phrasing. Rather, players starting out
sometimes find it very difficult to maintain the
pressure on the keys and pedals, resulting in
an involuntary and unintended non-legato. In
my experience, it is worthwhile starting (!) by in-
sisting on legato, and then gradually also trying
out other phrasing possibilities. Pieces designed
for this can be found in this volume. Similarly,
the fingerings and pedallings I have suggested
are pointers to possible phrasings, and can cer-
tainly be changed. The accompanying CD high-
lights possible phrasings, but these are mere
suggestions. I have retained original slurs, e.g. in
the Bartók arrangements, but do not feel they
necessarily signify legato, rather being indica-
tive of phrases.
Finally, a request: please do write to me and tell
me how you get on with Organ Playing from the
Very Beginning, and what improvements could
be made. If possible, these contributions will
feed into subsequent editions of this volume.
The best way to contact me is via Butz-Verlag,
who will forward your messages to me.
Grote Kerk, Breda, Netherlands © Jenny Setchell

Heidelberg, Spring 2020,

Carsten Klomp

7
 4 001
q + q = h or: two crotchets equal a minim.
The numbers above and below the systems show which fingers to use:
1 = thumb, 2 = index finger, 3 = middle finger, 4 = ring finger, 5 = little finger
1 2 1 3 1
Right
Right
hand
hand
C D E
Count: 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
5 C B A
Left
Left
hand
hand
1 2 1 3

002
3
Right
Right
hand
hand

Count: 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1234
Left
Left
hand
hand
3 3
5a
Pedal solo 003
The ^ beneath a pedal note means it is played with the toe of the left foot.
If the symbol is above the note, it is played with the toe of the right foot.
G
C
Pedal
Pedal

004
h + h = w or: two minims equal a semibreve.
6 The tie between two notes (see the pedals, bars 1 and 2) means that
the note is held, rather than played again.
4 1
Right
Right
hand
hand 4
Count: 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 34 1 2 34
4
4
Left
Left
hand
hand
2

4
Pedal
Pedal 4
005
4
4
Count: 1 2 3 4
Count: 1 ...
Clap this rhythm and count aloud as you do it.
Make up your own rhythm. It should also consist of eight 4/4 bars.
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 13
 16

From one hand to the other 022

► 02
3 1 3 3
4

3
4
3 3 2 1

3
4 18

023
4 5 2
4

4
4
4 4

4
4

Fig. 6:
Abb. 6: ▼ On this example of a German organ, the Brustwerk, containing the pipes located right in front
of the player, is easy to spot – and you can also see it on the front cover of this book!

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 21
 23 030
► 05
4 4
4

4
4
5 2

4
4
8' only

Some sharp words about flats  Music theory 3

The distance between each key and its nearest neighbour (which may be a black key between the
white keys) is called a semitone.
The # symbol isn’t a hashtag – it’s a sharp! If it comes in front of a note it moves that note a semi-
tone higher, i.e. one key to the right on the keyboard. If it comes before a C, we call the altered
note C sharp, and the same goes for the other white notes on the keyboard – D sharp, E sharp,
F sharp, etc. up to B sharp.
There would appear to be a few notes missing from the keyboard. F becomes F sharp – that makes
sense. But how does B become B sharp or E become E sharp? There are no separate keys for those
notes. Nevertheless, a sharp in front of a B or E means that they are raised by a semitone. Since
the semitone above B (and E) is not a black key, we use instead the next white key, the one we
normally call C (or F).
Find out more in U Music theory 4 on page 27.

Task: Here are some notes with sharps in front of them. Name them and find them on the keyboard.

(Solution on page 99)

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 25
 066
► 25
Béla Bartók (1881–1945)
Arrangement: C. K.
4 3
4

4
4
5

4
4

10

In this piece, it makes sense to practise the hands separately first.

Joining forces: the couplers Organ theory 7

The couplers link the keyboards together. For example, the stops of the second manual can be
controlled from the first manual (manual couplers) and the stops on the manuals can be con-
trolled from the pedals (pedal couplers). The score will say something like “II/I” or “I/Ped”, meaning
that the second manual is to be coupled to the first, or that the first manual is to be coupled to the
pedals. Usually, coupling only works in one direction, i.e. the second manual can be played from
the first manual, but not the other way round. The coupling of the manuals to each other or to the
pedals results in a significant increase in the potential number of combinations of sounds on the
organ.
In many cases, the couplers are controlled by the feet. In this case, pedal couplers (U Fig. 19 on
page 50, also Fig. 17 on page 49) or pistons (U Fig. 20 on page 50, also Fig. 16 on page 49) are
located just above the pedals. Sometimes the couplers are switched on and off by drawstops,
rocker tabs, etc. (U Fig. 18 on page 50).
If the couplers are activated, this will often affect the touch – the feeling you get when pressing
the keys – of the manuals (you won’t really notice it on the pedals): if the couplers work mechani-
cally, the manuals on most organs become a bit heavier to play.

Task: Find the couplers on your teaching organ and work out which parts of the organ can be
coupled and how the touch changes when you activate the couplers.

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 47
 135

Learning unit 41
136 Das klinget so herrlich
► 66
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
Arrangement: C. K.
5 5 2 1
c

c
5

7
3 4 3

sim.

13 2 1. 2.
1 3

96 ► 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20