For many who play the piano, the organ is ‘another country’. But with 2025 designated ‘Play the Organ Year’, Maggie Hamilton outlines opportunities for adventurous young pianists to explore new territory.
The RCO Summer Course includes the strand Teaching the Fundamentals of Playing the Organ, led by Anne Marsden Thomas
The RCO Summer Course includes the strand Teaching the Fundamentals of Playing the Organ, led by Anne Marsden Thomas - RCO/Simon Jacobs

When I was 15, I told my piano teacher that I had started taking organ lessons. She was horrified. ‘It will ruin your technique,’ she admonished. For sure, the two instruments do require distinctive techniques; but that does not mean it is impossible to play both well – as proven by Franz Liszt and Olivier Messiaen, for example – and I found that playing the organ heightened my awareness of technique as well as giving me a clearer insight into harmonic and contrapuntal textures, from all of which my piano playing benefited.

For young pianists who may be intrigued by the organ, and wonder whether they might take to it, there are a number of ways to test the water. The best-known events are organised by the Royal College of Organists and by Creative Oundle.

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