This post was written in 2020, and not all the material mentioned is still free to view for people who aren’t RCO Members. But take a look, anyway!
For the past three years I’ve been Editor of iRCO, the virtual campus of the Royal College of Organists – my job being to look after all the learning materials that the RCO makes available to its members – an online resource of over 300 teaching films, downloadable articles, fact sheets, reading lists: on everything from practical skills such as pedalling, repertoire, examination technique and hymn playing to academic research from the RCO Journal.
Up till now, this material was only free of charge if you were an RCO member – however you should know that for the duration of the COVID-19 lockdown (well, until 30th June) it’s all been made open access – the RCO wanting to give help, support and encouragement to organists all over the world who are currently faced with further depressing weeks of no access to their instrument, maybe not even a home keyboard, and precious little work either.
So take a look – all you have to do is create a (free) guest login the first time you visit.
I’m also producing weekly emails for the RCO e-Diary at the moment, bundling together ideas from iRCO around different topics (curating, I believe, is the fashionable term) along with other COVID-19 related help for musicians. So from the last few weeks:
Developing or continuing a teaching career during lockdown – a summary of iRCO resources on online teaching in general, and organ teaching in particular: Learning during Lockdown: teaching online
Improvisation techniques from total beginner to FRCO examination standard, with links to some great exponents on YouTube: Learning during Lockdown: improvisation
Strategies towards practice techniques and developing virtuosity: Learning during Lockdown: practice techniques
On of my favourites is a series of eight short practical films around the skills an Organ Scholar needs to acquire, produced by the RCO in partnership with Oundle for Organists. It’s aimed at the next generation of organists but has lots to interest organists in general: keyboard skills, registration, improvisation, and Stephen Farr, RCO Chief Examiner, discussing practice techniques as he learns a new piece, live to camera.
Find iRCO here and if you want to get the weekly RCO COVID-19 emails mentioned above, then sign up with the RCO here and tick the box for e-Diary.
