Learning Organ Before Piano?

[nickadams]

I have been learning piano for one year now and just recently was offered the opportunity to take organ lessons with a doctoral organ student at my school.

The problem is that I will be graduating in 2 years and so I will lose access to my school's organ practice rooms and so chances to play organ will become few and far between (I don't want to pay thousands for an electric organ and I don't have any church connections).


So my question is do you think it is worthwhile to take organ for two years if there is a good chance I would have to return to piano as my primary instrument after that and only play organ on special occasions?

[iansinclair]

Yes I do, though not perhaps for the reasons you might think.

First off, a disclaimer: I was a church organist/choir master/minister of music (pick your title) for decades; I learned organ -- not piano -- in college, and really only picked up the piano when I retired (although I had taken piano lessons when I was about 7 years old through say 10 or 12 years old).  So my opinions may be a little odd...

Organ and piano are very different instruments; they are not just simply two contraptions with keyboards.  You cannot learn to play piano by playing organ; conversely, you can't learn to play organ by playing piano.  That is to say, beyond some fairly basic techniques, such as scales and arpeggios and the like (although even there, there are differences in fingering).  By learning both instruments, however, you will be exposed to a much wider range of music than you ever would be on either one or the other alone, and a wholly different world of methods to make the written music sound the way you think it should -- and much of that ability will carry over from one instrument to the other.

In my humble opinion (says he, putting on his hard hat), almost all baroque and pre-baroque music -- including Bach -- is better played on either harpsichord or organ than on piano; learning organ will help a great deal if you are ever so fortunate as to get your hands on a harpsichord.  Not that it can't be played on a piano -- far from it -- but with the exception of a few pieces for clavichord, the instrument intended was harpsichord or organ, not piano -- and much of the fingering and all of the dynamics is very different.

Further, I would amplify your comment on access: access to an organ, never mind an organist who can and will teach, is rare.

Therefore I would grab this opportunity and make the most of it! 

One thing I can assure you of: learning organ will not hurt your piano playing one bit.  (although there will be occasions afterwards when you really really want that pedal keyboard, or a second manual... )

[timothy42b]

If you get hooked on organ, you will find it even easier to buy a decent organ cheap than a piano.  There are great deals out there because nobody plays organ anymore.

(I'm on an organist hiring committe and always struggle to find anybody qualified.) 

[hfmadopter]

If you get hooked on organ, you will find it even easier to buy a decent organ cheap than a piano.  There are great deals out there because nobody plays organ anymore.

(I'm on an organist hiring committe and always struggle to find anybody qualified.) 

I know that decent used organs are going for bargain rates these days. Might need a little fix up but even that is not like piano.

I always wanted to play organ or give it a try. Never have, although I started out on accordion. So that was different from most here ! I just thank my parents for starting me in music in general. They are deceased, I should have thanked them long ago.