Socks or shoes

[Holditch]

Happy New Year to everyone!

Hey we don't appear to have a section about playing the organ??

Anyway maybe one can be created, or an administrator can move this thread to the most appropriate place.

My question to everyone who plays the pipe organ is about the issue of playing in shoes or in stocking feet

I have always played in my socks. I don't know the exact reason why, but possibly down to the type of shoes I was wearing when at the age of 13 I began to play the organ. I would have thought if it was a deadly sin, then my organ teacher would have insisted that I wear shoes?

The reason that this question has arisen is that I have asked for and received a wonderful pair of organmaster shoes for Christmas in a vain attempt to alter my thinking about pedal technique and whether to wear shoes or not. I think in the back of my mind that it is a little amateurish to play in socks (may be incorrect?), but I am trying to undo 25 years of "bad technique" by forcing myself to play in shoes.

My thoughts about playing in socks are

1: It was maybe easier to learn quickly how to play the pedals?
2: I can cheat and actually use my toes to help play consecutive notes (bad technique?)
3: My feet are more sensitive when feeling for note position (I should really not rely on this)
4: I doubt Marie C-Alain, Jonathan Scott or Wayne Marshall ever played in their stocking feet!

My thoughts on playing in shoes are

1: The feeling of being an amateur would hopefully be overcome
2: I may never be able to play as well in shoes as in socks (could this just take a lot of practice, or is it so ingrained in my technique that I will never be able to do this?)
3: Would my pedal technique be forced to improve due to lack of being able to cheat?
4: The organmaster shoes give me 2 inches in height (always a bonus)


This topic is a little in jest, but I thought after forcing myself to try and use shoes that maybe I was incorrect and that there is nothing wrong with playing in socks


Your thoughts would be most welcome

[NonPlayingAnorak]

I believe David Sanger generally played in socks, and I know that my mother (one of his former pupils) always takes her shoes off to play. There's nothing wrong with her pedal technique, any more than there was with David's (anyone who ever heard him play the Final of Vierne 6, as he often did, will be able to testify to this!), and both of them had/have unimpeachable teaching records (Mum currently has 1 former pupil as Senior Organ Scholar at Jesus College, Cambridge, four more in scholarships in Oxford, a fifth on his way up this coming September, and a sixth graduated a few years ago and now Chorus Master of Opera North...). There's nothing wrong with the pedal technique of any of Mum's pupils, or David's pupils (anyone who's heard David Goode play the Final from Vierne 6 blah blah blah...).

My personal view is that shoes are unnecessary, and the organ-playing Establishment (the RCO, Oundle - which lost a lot of respect for its unjustified, unceremonious dismissal of the lovely James Parsons recently - and Organmasters) have a tyrannical stranglehold on the organ world, compelling people to waste a very large amount of money on shoes they don't need.

[revtonynewnham]

Hi

I've always played in shoes - but then, wearing socks only in a cold, unheated church in winter whilst practicing is far from comfortable!

Seriously, shoes were regarded as a requirement - but being long before Organmaster shoes were available in the UK, the advice in the tutors was a thin leather sole.  Personally, I use a pair of cheap, fairly narrow shows with a slight point to the toe - they are kept solely for organ playing (except when I forget to take them off before going outside!).  By wearing them only indoors, the risk of picking up grit/stones to damage the finish on the pedal board is reduced, and sticking to the same shoes means that things are consistent.  I'm now on my 2nd pair since I started playing in c.1965

I have tried just socks, but found it very uncomfortable and tiring, and also found that my feet slid too easily - hence more wrong notes.

I would try the shoes for a while, then see which you prefer.

Every Blessing

Tony

[Holditch]

Thank you both for your opinions, I will try the shoes for a while to see what happens. I do like the heels which make certain pedal runs easier, but it is a bit like going to a new country for the first time, it takes some time to get ones bearings!

I'm glad to hear that it is not just us lowly amateurs that play in socks; and yes Tony I have been known to wearing hiking socks in a cold church!

[revtonynewnham]

Hi

I had meant to mention that some time ago I read a book on organ pedal technique.  the author identified various areas of the feet - the obvious toes & hells, plus left & rh side of the toes, sides of the feet & lh & rh sides of the hells!  I use whatever works!  Obviously, if you're a Bach purist, you'll ignore that and use toes only!  I never have - not even on 13 note pedals on "spinet" style home organs - nor on the straight, flat (and very narrow) pedals on my church organ.  If it sounds right, it is right!

Every Blessing

Tony

[KB7DQH]

I read a similar discussion over on the Hauptwerk forum ;)

Eric
KB7DQH