How to Read Organ Music
The organ produces powerful and distinctive tones and has been a beloved and studied instrument for many hundreds of years. Reading organ music is similar to reading standard piano music, with some important variations. Organs can play bass drone notes and change the tone of the sound they produce. Knowing the basics of reading organ sheet music can lead to rich and rewarding musical experiences.
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Instructions
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Sit in front of an organ and examine its components. Organs have at least one keyboard consisting of a succession of white and black keys. Many organs have foot pedals that play deep and powerful notes when pressed. Organs usually also have a variety of switches and knobs that can adjust the tone of the notes, like a chorus effect or a horn filter. How organ music is read and played depends on what the particular organ can do; organs without pedals, and organs without sound switches, will ignore certain sections of the sheet music. Sit at the organ and practice producing tones by pressing keys.
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Examine the organ sheet music. The page will be divided up into a row of three staves, which will extend in rows across the page. The top stave will usually have a treble clef, the middle usually a bass clef, and the lowest will always have a bass clef. Treble and bass clefs have distinctive shapes and indicate whether notes will be played in the higher or lower portions of the organ. The top two staves are associated with the organ’s keyboard, while the lowest stave is written for the pedals. If the organ has no pedals, ignore the bottom stave.
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Learn the names of the lines and spaces of the treble and bass staves. This is done most easily by consulting an online staff-naming chart. Beginning from the bottom line of the treble staff, and ending on the top line, notes are named E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F. The bass stave, starting on the bottom line and working up to the top line, represents the notes G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A. After memorizing the name of each line and space of the staves, practice working upwards and downwards past the lines, imagining unwritten lines and spaces, in order to memorize all the notes you might need to read.
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Learn the names of the notes on the sheet music and associate them with organ notes. Consult an online sheet-music guide to learn particulars of rhythm, accidentals and key signatures. Play through the organ sheet music slowly, playing the top staff with the fingers of your right hand and the middle staff with the fingers of your left hand. Each foot pedal plays a certain bass note that corresponds with a note written on the lowest staff. Flip an organ switch to change the organ’s tone if instructed to do so by the sheet music. Play carefully, and get as much practice as possible.
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Tips & Warnings
Come up with naming mnemonics to help you remember the names of the stave notes. For example, the lines of the bass clef, G, B, D, F, A, could be remembered as Good Babies Don’t Fight Animals.
Watch another organ player read music to see the connection between the notes on the page and the keys of the organ.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit organ image by Vitaliy Pakhnyushchyy from Fotolia.com
