Actually, I find that the hardest thing to do is to get your left hand playing the alto and tenor together with the right hand playing only the melody (such as using a solo stop for the melody line).

I think that it lays mostly in the preparation and the familiarity with the music. I don't always have pedal throughout the whole hymn.

I'm also something of an organ novice. I find that it is much easier to get into pedal parts if you memorise or at least are very familiar with the parts for the manuals and you've decided which hands to play the top three voices.

Francis,

When playing trios, I always practice slowly, but I have not spent time practicing just the left hand and pedal. I will try this on the next trio I work up.

I am a real BELIEVER in the photocopy to be looked at/studied/read and listened to mentally/practiced mentally/colored with colored pencils/etc.

What do you mean by "memorize the difficult passages"? I understand the concept of "motor memory"; however, my motor memory is totally dependent upon my having the notes on the page before my eyes. The moment the page of notes is gone, so is my motor memory. I would almost say that once I have learned a piece, that my eyes and my motor memory do the playing.

As long as I am playing from two staves (such as a hymn), I have no problem exchanging alto and tenor parts "depending on width of intervals", nor do I have any confusion between the pedal (bass line) and the left hand (tenor line or tenor+alto lines). My problem is with THREE STAVES and only rarely, fleetingly, and unpredictably.


hartleymartin,

With respect to hymn playing: If I am going to play just the melody line on one manual, the alto and tenor on another manual, and the bass line on the pedal, I will take the time and use Sibelius and put the music on two staves (melody on top stave and alto, tenor, and bass on the bottom stave). This is what works for me.
I agree wholeheartedly that it is necessary to decide at the beginning of learning a new hymn which hands will play the top three voices and I would add that is is also necessary to determine and label the fingering that works best and always practice consistently.

For me, the "confusion between pedal and left hand" only happens on trios written on three staves, and then only rarely, fleetingly, and unpredictably. It can happen even with pieces that I have played many, many times and over a number of years.


Protasius,

When this "confusion" happens, it is as if the two bass clefs of a trio (left hand and pedal) are upside down...by that I mean that my left hand wants to play the pedal note and my foot (always my left foot, by the way) wants to play the left hand's note. I have a physical sensation of my upper body twisting to the left (counter-clock-wise when viewed from above) and my lower body twisting to the right (clock-wise when viewed from above). [My husband assures me that I, in fact, display no such physical motion.] This "confusion" is short of duration - possibly the length of time for one or two beats of the piece being played, then everything rights itself and I can again play the correct stave with the correct appendage.


All,

Your comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Felicity

I have a problem with my feet wanting to follow the left hand. Whatever that hand is doing, the feet will copy if I don't pay close attention. Whatever disadvantages there are to that, I at least made use of it to get more familiar with playing hymns with pedal. Unfortunately, that doesn't work with trios, so I recommend what Francis did - practice left hand and pedal slowly.