How to Be Authoritative in Your Organ Playing

Many organists dream of having the ability to play with authority. They want to achieve the level when their performance can sound with expertise. If you are successful in being authoritative, you will earn the most respect from your listeners and colleagues. In this article I will give you 7 tips which will help your organ playing sound authoritative.

1) Fingering. Let your fingering be as precise as possible. Write in the correct fingers in every difficult passage of your organ piece. Feel free to experiment with several different fingering possibilities but always choose the most efficient one and the one which follows the rules of the specific organ music style and historical period.

2) Pedaling. Do not play with accidental toes or heels. Instead carefully pencil in your choices on every pedal note in your music score. Then try to follow the pedaling to the letter. Correct pedaling is the key to the success in pedal playing.

3) Notes. If you want your playing be authoritative, you should try not to hit the wrong notes. In order to achieve this level, try to have laser-focused attention. Let your mind stay in the current measure. Do not worry about difficult places which are approaching nor about the previous complicated episodes you have already conquered.

4) Rhythms. While playing sections which are advanced rhythmically, try to count out loud and subdivide the beats. Then you will have no trouble in playing any syncopation, duplet, triplet, quadruplet or even sextuplet. This way your rhythms will have the authority you desire.

5) Articulation. Be aware of musical style and historical period of the piece while articulating the notes. The touch should be precise and always consistent. The perfect legato in one place must coincide with the same legato in another spot. The detached articulation in early music should also be consistently executed in every voice and in every measure.

6) Tempo. An authoritative performance will always have steady tempo and the most natural ritardando and accelerando when required. So strive to keep your playing speed constant but be flexible with your nuances. Never allow yourself to speed up or slow down without a serious reason.

7) Registration. Show your expertise in choosing organ stops which follow most closely composers suggestions. If there are no registration indications in the score, do some research and play with the stops which are most suited for this particular historical period, national school or type of composition. However let your ears be your most trusted guide, stay flexible with your approach and adjust to the instrument at hand when necessary.

Summary: do you want to be authoritative in your organ playing? Ensure your fingering, pedaling, notes, rhythms, articulation, tempo and registration are authoritative.

A Peek Into the Different Printing Services Available

Printing is a method by which images or text is transferred on to different mediums. Earlier information was transferred only onto paper but with the advancement of technology, these days' images and text can be transferred onto different materials and surfaces such as fabric, canvas, glasses, plastic and more. There are different types of printing services available for different types of printing and different materials. Given below are some of the most commonly used printing services.

Screen printing:

Screen printing is also known as silk printing and works just like a stencil. Here the ink is passed through a screen onto the material on which the information has to be printed. Usually screen printing is used to print information on surfaces such as t-shirts, mugs, binders, glass, metal, ceramics, wood, paper and more. This method is not very expensive when compared to the other methods and this mainly due to the fact that inexpensive materials are used for the process. The other advantage of this method is that it can be used to print on uneven surfaces too. However the entire process is time consuming when compared to other methods.

Litho printing:

This method makes use of a design template which is prepared as per the requirement of the client. This method is also known as offset printing method and usually it is the method of choice for bulk printing especially for jobs such as magazines, newspapers as well as brochures. But this process can be bit expensive in comparison to the others as the plates have to be prepared. However the quality is the highest in this process and it is extremely fast depending on the machine and up to 50,000 pages can be processed in an hour.

Digital printing:

This method is becoming a very popular choice especially for home office or small business as well as commercial printing. Ink jet printing and laser printing are the two types of digital printing that are quite popular. As the name suggests, this method makes use of a computer, a software as well as digital printer. This method is usually opted for printing commercial advertisement materials.

These are some of the printing services offered by commercial printers these days. Depending on the type of output you require, you will have to choose the type of printing method and negotiate a price with the vendor you have chosen to ensure that you get right price.