Decided to try an organ video today. It's not very sophisticated and because of my clumsy editing audio and video are very slightly out of sync at the end. Gah, I hate seeing myself on video In particular this one shows off my bad pedal technique, sitting wide-legged and playing with the legs instead of with the feet only. Very confronting, as is the grim face. I must work on these things, or else record the hands only.

The sound track is ok though, recorded with the Tascam. This chorale is so beautiful

Bach - BWV 653 - An Wasserflüssen Babylon(5:27)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G1f9e92XpA

This chorale is really beautiful!

I like your playing, Chris. Honestly, I'm not the biggest fan of organ, but I know how difficult is it to become a really good pedal technique!
And I think, you do this very good.
I would also work on the "grim face"

Jana

Hi Chris,

Nice work overall, and great-looking and -sounding video (I especially liked the zoom-in on the initial shot ). I agree that Bach's organ music is really wonderful and it seems to be where his keyboard writing was at its most idiomatic.

I know it's more difficult on the organ in some ways, but one aspect of your playing I think you could work on is your bite and incision. Some of the rhythms and voicing are sounding just a tad noodley to my ears at times. Yes, this appears a more noble and stately theme, but I think a tad more tautness would help the overall effect of that. You do seem to be handling the pedal well -- from what I've heard, no mean feat on the organ.

Thanks for sharing this.

Joe

Thank you Jana !


I don't think you would have to


Yes, any organ performance will benefit from maximum clarity and crispness of articulation of rhythm, much more so than on piano. Indeed, it's also more difficult to achieve. Not sure if I'm deficient here, but certainly there are some unwarranted hesitations, caused by the tension of recording and the wish to not make mistakes (I had to hurry a bit because the battery in my camera runs out so ridiculously fast). Also I take this one a bit more flowing and soft-focus than others - it is a lament after all.


This is not a a very difficult pedal part but yes, it takes enormous effort, dedication and concentration to learn it. It may be even harder for a pianist than for someone who's dedicated to organ right from the start. I must stop looking at my feet so much though. Doesn't look good on video, and it should not be necessary.

Very nice foot playing indeed!

Why my white keys are your black ones and conversely ?

The Tascam sounds good!

Hi Chris,

I enjoyed listening to your Bach Chorale. It has a very gentle flow to it which is beautiful indeed. When the tenor voice comes in, its timbre is almost like English horn. Is that the natural timbre for that register, or did you have to do a preset to achieve it? It's quite a contrast to the higher treble, but nice because it really features the melody there. Anyway, very well played in my opinion. Thanks for posting it.

I gave up on the video, as downloading from YouTube has become an ordeal. I have a PC with double core processors, 4+ gigs of RAM, a DSL connection, and the latest Flash Player add-on. But downloads at that site take forever. I've read that YouTube has not even tried to add sufficient server capacity to meet the needs of the traffic there--and apparently they don't care! I think there is truth to that assertion because if I go on very late at night out of "prime time", the download bar is not being constantly overrun by the play bar on the videos. What I've resorted to lately during the daytime is to start the download, minimize that brouser, open another one and go about my business until I hear the video playing in Windows Media Player.

On the Bach I was content to click on the audio file instead. Often when I'm watching a music video, I close my eyes anyway to eliminate distractions in the video. The absolute music is what I'm after really. I myself don't do videos. Sitting in front of two stereo microphones and being the pianist, page turner and recording engineer is enough for me without being a cameraman too. Plus a video of me would be totally boring, as I don't do antics or mannerisms--I'm all business at the piano.

David

Thanks Didier. I'm glad you (as one of our resident sound gurus) notice the difference the Tascam makes.



Thanks David. The tenor voice, on the upper manual, is the new Krummhorn register which replaces the old wonky Dulcian. It's a bit loud but otherwise very nice, and from a distance it blends nicely with the Prestant and Flute of the 'hauptwerk'.

Chris,
I have a stupid question (maybe someone else doesn't know how). How do you quote in a reply from different posts/postors?

Climbing the learnig-curve,
Eddy

Manually, by copy and pasting. Click Reply on the first post.
Then cut/paste text from another posting as needed, surround that text by



and type your reply under that. Repeat as needed !

Got it. I see now, thanks. The important feature for me was to Reply instead of Quote, and the code fo how to label the author.

I actually meant Quote, not Reply. But it doesn't matter as long as you know what to cut and paste.

Are you sure? The problem when Quoting is that you can't review the content of the prior posts, where you can if your just reply. Plus if I Quote, I'm stuck with the original problem of how may I include a quote from another's reply?

This is a test. No important content contained. Chris see bottom please.
[quote=technut]I actually meant Quote, not Reply. But it doesn't matter as long as you know what to cut and paste.
[/quote]
and
[quote=Rachfan]I enjoyed listening to your Bach Chorale. It has a very gentle flow to it which is beautiful indeed. When the tenor voice comes in, its timbre is almost like English horn. Is that the natural timbre for that register, or did you have to do a preset to achieve it? It's quite a contrast to the higher treble, but nice because it really features the melody there. Anyway, very well played in my opinion. Thanks for posting it.

[/quote]
and
[quote=Jana Marinova]This chorale is really beautiful!

[/quote]


Chris, I cut and paste from different postors and then added "=USERNAME" in the open quote command, but that didn't work as you can see. What am I not doing incorrectly?

You forgot the quotes around the usernames, that is why it doesn't work.
Why these quotes are necessary you may ask ? I don't know, just that it doesn't work without them.

This is a test. No important content contained.

and

and


By George, I think I've got it!