Our BYU Organ Online Training Sessions for 2022 have concluded. We plan to restart the series starting in October, 2022. Please check back here for the new schedule. All events are free of charge and available to pianists and organists in any location!
Presentations offer a pre-recorded video with interactive chat with the instructor, followed by a live Question and Answer session.. Recordings of each class are available to view for one month following the live presentation.
The classes below are from our 2022 series that has finished.
The BYU Organ Online Training Sessions for Entry-level Organists have been scheduled for the coming season. These webinars are free of chargeand available to pianists and organists in any location!
The presentations will offer a pre-recorded video from 7:00-8:00 pm Mountain Time, with interactive chat with the instructor during the video, followed by a live Question & Answer session until 8:30 pm Mountain Time. Recordings of each class will be available to view for one month following the live presentation.
Click the button above for the Beyond the Basics topics.
We hope to see you at many, if not all training sessions!
For more information and registration, click on each topic below.
This session is an introduction to the organ console, including the divisions of the organ and console devices such as thumb pistons and toe studs, expression and crescendo pedals, and other registrational aids.
A recording of this class will be available to view through November 6.
This session will explain both the names and numbers that appear on organ stops, including the four families of organ tone (principal, flute, string, and reed) along with numbers/numerals (pitch designations) and what they mean.
A recording of this class will be available through December 4.
This session will introduce fingering techniques to achieve beautiful legato musical lines without the use of a sustaining pedal (something not found on an organ).
This session introduces hymn playing in the sustained legato style, and achieving independence of line. Concepts discussed will include: evaluating the text, dealing with the repeated notes, common tone rule, when to play legato and when to play detached.
A native of San Francisco, Elizabeth Forsyth received her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in organ performance from BYU. Active in church music for almost 50 years, she has served Lutheran, Episcopal, Presbyterian, and LDS congregations as both organist and director of music. Currently, she is the organist at First Congregational Church, Berkeley. She has served on the executive boards of both the San Francisco and Philadelphia chapters of the American Guild of Organists and will serve as one of four program chairs for the AGO National Convention in 2024.
As a recitalist, Ms. Forsyth has performed throughout the Bay Area, Utah, Idaho, and Pennsylvania. Recent collaborations with performing groups have included the First Church Festival Chorus, Chora Nova, the Young People’s Symphony Orchestra, the Folsom Lake Symphony, and the Stockton Symphony. Elizabeth teaches both piano and organ at her home in Orinda, CA, where she takes special delight in introducing her teenage piano students to the organ. She is the proud mother of four sons, and has nine grandchildren.