Practice Plan

Practice Parts in Combinations of Three

As you move to the eleventh step, combining all three parts, keep your ears tuned to the three listening skills. For early-level organists this step is usually the most difficult. It seems to require the involvement of more separate corners of the mind at once than we are accustomed to using.

As you begin combining parts, it is critical that you practice slowly, allowing your conscious mind to guide the fingers and feet through each action with security and precision until the conscious mind is trained.

If you find persistent problems, you have probably progressed to this step too quickly. Go back to the individual parts or combinations of two parts that still pose a challenge, deepening your learning by playing a larger number of correct repetitions than before. Do this through two or three practice sessions, and then start work on combining the three parts again later.