Most advanced organists need to transpose at sight, whether it is accompanying soloists, changing the keys of hymns to fit a prelude or postlude, or when improvising on a given theme.  Hymn transposition is part of the keyboard skills tests for both CertRCO and ARCO diplomas.  The typical student approaches transposition with great fear, as […]

This download from the RCO Academy suggests ways of preparing a student for a church post, and providing support for the amateur student who is already a church organist.  Even if students think they will never want to play in church, there are still important skills to be acquired in learning to play hymns and […]

There is always so much to pack into an organ lesson, and introducing a new piece to a student is often rushed, with the student then using unsuccessful strategies to learn it on their own.  This download from the RCO Academy suggests ways in which you can encourage a student to learn a piece accurately […]

Choosing the next piece for the student to learn is arguably the teacher’s most challenging and important task.  This download from the RCO Academy looks at how to choose good teaching pieces and suggests suitable tutor-books and anthologies.  It also includes a chart to assess the standard of your student and typical appropriate pieces. Repertoire […]

This download from the RCO Academy covers aspects of teaching technique to students, including posture, pedalling, and playing legato.  It addresses bad habits, particularly those that have been acquired initially on the piano, and suggests remedies, and includes a list of books for developing organ technique. Technique how to teach it This article originally appeared […]

This download from the RCO Academy, gives guidance to those teaching the organ – both those preparing for the Licentiateship in Teaching (LRTCO), and others who want to achieve a better result from their teaching.

French physiotherapist Coralie Cousin, who specialises in work with musicians, shares some of her observations on posture and gesture at the organ.

The nineteenth century in Britain was a time of public lectures and learned societies. The College of Organists was well ahead of its time, and offered improving lectures to an increasingly organised constituency of musicians from its foundation. Andrew McCrea provides an introduction and checklist of the lectures given from the early years of the […]

The Church Music Society (CMS) was founded in 1906 ‘to facilitate the selection and performance of the music which is most suitable for different occasions of Divine worship, and for different kinds of choir’. Richard Lyne reviews the history of the Society’s publications from the early twenty-first century, and notes how the publishing policy and […]