Organist in High Heels

[mlroseplant]

I opened up You Tube the other day, and somewhere at the top of my feed was this video. Given the sorts of videos that I usually watch, I didn't really think anything of it. Bach's Concerto for four harpsichords, which, if memory serves, is a transcription of a Vivaldi piece or something like that. This arrangement was for pipe organ. So it's an arrangement of an arrangement. Hmmm, mildly interesting, I thought. I clicked on it. The video started to play. I was listening to it, not really paying close attention to the screen, and was enjoying the recording, when I thought I noticed something out the corner of my eye. Wait just a minute.  .  . Did I just see what I think I just saw? I backed up the video. No way! I did just see what I thought I saw. Check it out:

 

[at9]

A least one of the comments in Youtube refers to her high heels. Quite incredible the way she dances over the pedalboard.

Another video of her, in higher heels, with rather different repertoire:

 

[Cali]

It's about 2 minutes in. Not extreme high, but stilettos.

[p1ng74]

3 hours ago, mlroseplant said:

I opened up You Tube the other day, and somewhere at the top of my feed was this video. Given the sorts of videos that I usually watch, I didn't really think anything of it. Bach's Concerto for four harpsichords, which, if memory serves, is a transcription of a Vivaldi piece or something like that. This arrangement was for pipe organ. So it's an arrangement of an arrangement. Hmmm, mildly interesting, I thought. I clicked on it. The video started to play. I was listening to it, not really paying close attention to the screen, and was enjoying the recording, when I thought I noticed something out the corner of my eye. Wait just a minute.  .  . Did I just see what I think I just saw? I backed up the video. No way! I did just see what I thought I saw. Check it out:

 

You don’t play organ in your stilettos?  I’m disappointed :p. 

I love this piece, and the organ playing is fantastic.  It’s a transcription of Vivaldi’s Concerto for 4 violins, which I had the pleasure of playing in high school.  

I play a little organ, and men’s shoes are simply too big and clunky for organ playing, even in size 9.  What shoes do you wear?  I haven’t gotten around to getting organ shoes yet so I’m playing with no shoes.  Organ shoes have a bit of a heel to make heel and toe technique easier, and also have felted bottoms to not scratch the pedal board.  For that reason we would never allow stilettos on our organ lol.  That said, it appears this organist is playing with toe only technique, which I understand is appropriate for the baroque style here.  I also play toe only, but that is due to me being a beginner and I haven’t learned toe heel yet lol.  

Edited March 29, 2020 by p1ng74

[spikesmike]

Hi everyone : If you want to see Beauty, High Heels and music,  Watch Lola Astanova and Hauser play Moonlight sonata. ALSO, watch her play Clair de Lune. NO put down - but better than organ music.

I would put it all up on this site but I do not have the know how to do that.    spikesmike

[mlroseplant]

18 minutes ago, p1ng74 said:

You don’t play organ in your stilettos?  I’m disappointed :p. 

I love this piece, and the organ playing is fantastic.  It’s a transcription of Vivaldi’s Concerto for 4 violins, which I had the pleasure of playing in high school.  

I play a little organ, and men’s shoes are simply too big and clunky for organ playing, even in size 9.  What shoes do you wear?  I haven’t gotten around to getting organ shoes yet so I’m playing with no shoes.  Organ shoes have a bit of a heel to make heel and toe technique easier, and also have felted bottoms to not scratch the pedal board.  For that reason we would never allow stilettos on our organ lol.  That said, it appears this organist is playing with toe only technique, which I understand is appropriate for the baroque style here.  I also play toe only, but that is due to me being a beginner and I haven’t learned toe heel yet lol.  

No, I don't play in stilettos. I tried that once, and it made my bad playing even worse! My keyboard skills are not that great, but I started on the organ at the age of 50 because there was a need for it. I also started off playing barefoot, but I bought some organ shoes after a couple of months of practice, and it was like I gained six months' worth of skill pretty much instantly. The thin felt bottoms allow you to "feel" where you're at (well, if you're any good, haha), but allow you to play the interval of a third in a legato style. The hollow spot just forward of the heel is barely big enough to clear a white key.

My organ shoes are TicTacToe brand, as I did not care for the styles that Organmaster offers. I wound up buying the female oxford, which not only fits my narrow foot better, but I actually don't mind the look that much. I managed to find a video, and took a screen shot, which just happened to show the shoes I came in on sitting on the floor beneath the organ bench. I know this wasn't done on purpose, because obviously, I did not shoot my own video. I think my wife actually shot this video, which explains why it starts 2 seconds too late and ends before I am actually done.

I have to play exactly once a year (by that I mean I have to cover an entire service) because our organist is so reliable that she never misses. Ever. Except that she goes to visit her mother in Korea once a year, and is gone for one Sunday. So I pretty much have a whole year to prepare. It about takes me that long! Only I don't have to play this year because COVID-19 put the kibosh not only on her travel plans, but also on church services in general.

[at9]

A few years ago I linked to this excellent high-heeled performance on the piano. It's good enough to repeat on this thread:

 

Or for a very different genre of music being played in HH:

 

[Jkrenzer]

It's always great seeing heels in situations like these but i really don't see it as added difficulty. Most time when agility is foot movements are needed it the toes that do the work. Heels may even help by holding the foot more prone to toe tapping.

[p1ng74]

Sometimes the angle created by the high heel changes the feeling of the whole experience.  When I drive manual transmission, 3” heels make it so much easier to heel-toe shift.  Over 4”, my left calf starts to get a real workout from the hyper-extension!

I searched for more organ playing by Pascale Melis and in this one they are playing a Fandango.  Organists can have great showmanship too -  she is playing with bright pink stilettos!  

 

[mlroseplant]

On 3/29/2020 at 3:23 PM, Jkrenzer said:

It's always great seeing heels in situations like these but i really don't see it as added difficulty. Most time when agility is foot movements are needed it the toes that do the work. Heels may even help by holding the foot more prone to toe tapping.

No offense to anybody here, all these piano videos are visually pleasant, but not really noteworthy. Like Joe says, and I'm paraphrasing here, anybody can play piano in high heels. It's not a big deal. Playing organ in high heels is MUCH more impressive.

[p1ng74]

3 hours ago, mlroseplant said:

No offense to anybody here, all these piano videos are visually pleasant, but not really noteworthy. Like Joe says, and I'm paraphrasing here, anybody can play piano in high heels. It's not a big deal. Playing organ in high heels is MUCH more impressive.

Now I'm contemplating having a cobbler resole and reheel a pair of heels with felt and use them for my "organ shoes".  

[Shyheels]

The piano videos aren't noteworthy. I like it. 

[at9]

One friend of mine complains that some pieces of music have far too many notes in them. Her husband and son are both very musical (mainly classical and vintage 1920s-1950s), she just puts up with it. This is the sort of thing she really hates:

 

[mlroseplant]

19 hours ago, at9 said:

One friend of mine complains that some pieces of music have far too many notes in them. Her husband and son are both very musical (mainly classical and vintage 1920s-1950s), she just puts up with it. This is the sort of thing she really hates:

 

Ah yes, good old Mendelssohn! His music tends to be deceptively difficult, and it's not the number of notes, it's how the rhythmic elements all fit together. I have to admit being a fanboy of Tiffany Poon, been following her for a couple years, but she's not a big heel wearer.

My own wife puts up with a lot of stuff she doesn't really enjoy, for much the same reason as your friend. I think that's half the reason why she encourages me to play the organ--I have to go to the church to practice!

19 hours ago, Shyheels said:

The piano videos aren't noteworthy. I like it. 

Believe it or don't, that wording was completely unintentional.

20 hours ago, p1ng74 said:

Now I'm contemplating having a cobbler resole and reheel a pair of heels with felt and use them for my "organ shoes".  

That's actually not a bad idea! Let us know how it works out. I'm truly curious.

[HeeledSlides]

Here’s another very nice video of an organist playing in high heels.

 

[spikesmike]

Hay  HeeledSlides : I like that girls high heels and I like her face.  spikesmike = Dirty old man.

[mlroseplant]

5 hours ago, HeeledSlides said:

Here’s another very nice video of an organist playing in high heels.

 

That is a great find! Well, visually anyway. I know this piece very well (although my organ skills are not up to it), and my first thought was, "What the hell is REALLY going on here?", as that was one of the most tedious and ponderous interpretations of the opening Toccata I believe I've ever heard. Then I made it up to the point where the pedal first entered in the fugue, and I had to stop and look her up. After reading the comments on this video, it all makes perfect sense. I didn't take the time to find out who she is, but she's obviously not a professional organist, and the heels thing was meant to be more of a joke or experiment. I'm certainly not against that at all, but it's not a recording I would ever listen to for its fresh interpretation. I'm sorry if I sound like a music critic, I'm my own worst critic, and I recognize the limits of my abilities. Are those Hot Chicks? O.o

[p1ng74]

1 hour ago, mlroseplant said:

That is a great find! Well, visually anyway. I know this piece very well (although my organ skills are not up to it), and my first thought was, "What the hell is REALLY going on here?", as that was one of the most tedious and ponderous interpretations of the opening Toccata I believe I've ever heard. Then I made it up to the point where the pedal first entered in the fugue, and I had to stop and look her up. After reading the comments on this video, it all makes perfect sense. I didn't take the time to find out who she is, but she's obviously not a professional organist, and the heels thing was meant to be more of a joke or experiment. I'm certainly not against that at all, but it's not a recording I would ever listen to for its fresh interpretation. I'm sorry if I sound like a music critic, I'm my own worst critic, and I recognize the limits of my abilities. Are those Hot Chicks? O.o

I watched it the whole way through, but I just love tracker action organs.  It must have been a real treat to play that piece on that organ - I'd love to place myself in her shoes, heels and all!  

[mlroseplant]

24 minutes ago, p1ng74 said:

I watched it the whole way through, but I just love tracker action organs.  It must have been a real treat to play that piece on that organ - I'd love to place myself in her shoes, heels and all!  

The organ itself seems absolutely top-notch. There is a church in my town that has a similarly sized tracker organ. Unfortunately, it's not MY church. I've often threatened to defect and become a Presbyterian just because of that organ! It is fairly obvious in the video that the playing suffered on account of those heels, however. There was not even an attempt at legato playing.

[p1ng74]

57 minutes ago, mlroseplant said:

It is fairly obvious in the video that the playing suffered on account of those heels, however. There was not even an attempt at legato playing.

I'm not sure if it is the heels or just some of the technique that differs from what I know about organ playing, which is limited  to what I have pieced together from various sources, none of which were formal lessons.  I mean, the first thing I noticed is how low on the pedal she toes the natural pedals.  Makes for a huge distance between the natural and half-tone pedals, which I imagine creates a ton of extra movement and work for legato playing.  But then again, I am so tall that when I sit at the bench my heels are basically already sitting on the pedals, so I can't help but toe all the pedals really high up.  This kind of playing is what I'm more used to seeing:

 

 

[mlroseplant]

19 hours ago, p1ng74 said:

I'm not sure if it is the heels or just some of the technique that differs from what I know about organ playing, which is limited  to what I have pieced together from various sources, none of which were formal lessons.  I mean, the first thing I noticed is how low on the pedal she toes the natural pedals.  Makes for a huge distance between the natural and half-tone pedals, which I imagine creates a ton of extra movement and work for legato playing.  But then again, I am so tall that when I sit at the bench my heels are basically already sitting on the pedals, so I can't help but toe all the pedals really high up.  This kind of playing is what I'm more used to seeing:

 

 

Yes, the second performance is something like what I expected in the first, only with high heels! Upon re-listening/watching the first gal, I have come to the conclusion that it's probably more the player more than it is the heels. I think she was making a fun video, and there's nothing wrong with that. Yes, you are supposed to keep your feet closer to the sharp pedals than what she does, if for no other reason that you can "feel" where the groups of 2 and 3 are without having to look at them. I still have to look pretty often, but I'm slowly, painfully getting better at sight reading.

When I first decided that I needed to play the organ, and it's getting close to three years ago, my sister, who is an actual organist (I only play one on TV) recommended that I get this book called "The Organist's Manual: Technical Studies & Selected Compositions for the Organ," Roger E. Davis. It's a little spendy, I think I paid about 80 bucks for my copy, but I dove right in with the pedal exercises and etudes. I therefore learned the heel-and-toe method of playing from the beginning, and I've found it very difficult to change now, nor do I really want to. The only reasons to change that I can think of is if I ever had to play an super old Baroque organ that had short pedals (ain't never gonna happen), and if I ever decided I wanted to play in truly high heels, which is just silly. Not that I'm above doing anything silly, but I guess I'd rather spend my time actually improving. Anyhow, I highly recommend that book if you're looking to do more than just dabble. I know it helped me tremendously, and far beyond just pedaling.

[HeeledSlides]

On 4/7/2020 at 6:27 PM, mlroseplant said:

The organ itself seems absolutely top-notch. There is a church in my town that has a similarly sized tracker organ. Unfortunately, it's not MY church. I've often threatened to defect and become a Presbyterian just because of that organ! It is fairly obvious in the video that the playing suffered on account of those heels, however. There was not even an attempt at legato playing.

I fully agree, musically it’s not a great performance. But she still manages to get through, even in high heels as an added difficulty. I am sure that many amateurs are not able at all to play this famous piece. How much legato you need for Bach, that’s a never ending discussion among organists. What makes this video interesting for me is of course the visual part. So I have to agree with p1ng74 as well: I’d love to place myself in her high heels on this organ too!

[mlroseplant]

15 minutes ago, HeeledSlides said:

I fully agree, musically it’s not a great performance. But she still manages to get through, even in high heels as an added difficulty. I am sure that many amateurs are not able at all to play this famous piece. How much legato you need for Bach, that’s a never ending discussion among organists. What makes this video interesting for me is of course the visual part. So I have to agree with p1ng74 as well: I’d love to place myself in her high heels on this organ too!

Just to be clear, I am among the players who can't make it through this piece! Still workin' on it.  .  . Dammit Jim, I'm a cellist, not an organist! It does seem obvious reading through the comments that this was intended to be a fun video, not a serious, introspective performance. At that, it succeeds brilliantly! The comments also say that she apparently does not have an instrument available for her to play anymore. That is a crying shame.