Service Playing Skills Classes
Chicago International Organ Academy (CIOA) launched a series of new classes in Service Playing Skills (SPS) in August of 2018. As a pioneer in high-level instruction delivered online and in person, the Academy offers a wide variety of options for one-hour classes that address skills which all organists use in their weekly work as church musicians and performers.
These classes are designed to develop and enhance the practical skills of organ students and church musicians of all levels everywhere, and they are intended to assist those preparing to take any level of the AGO Professional Certification Exams, including NPM certification. Phillip Kloeckner, DMA, the founder and artistic director of CIOA, is the instructor for all classes. Class schedules and content are flexible and can be adjusted in the future according to the interest communicated by prospective class participants.
The fee for each class session is currently $25 per person, with no contracts or obligations. You are welcome to participate in person at First United Methodist Church, 77 W. Washington Street, Chicago (The Chicago Temple) or online via video conferencing. All class participants, in person and online, will have the option of playing for the instructor in front of the class in order to receive immediate feedback and guidance. All participants are able to ask questions during any class.
For the same fee, recordings of all previous class sessions, marked by asterisks in the list below, are available now to those whose schedule did not allow participation at the time that the classes were being given. All future classes will also be recorded and available for viewing shortly thereafter.
Individual instruction is available on request in any of the subjects listed below.
Please click, as indicated, to register your interest in studying and enrolling in one or more classes. Schedule options, directions for payment, and access to the Meeting ID for the video conferencing service will be sent in response to your indication of interest.
1. Hymn-playing and Service Music
2. Transposing Hymns*
3. Sight-reading*
4. Organ Repertoire
(introductory [SPC]*, intermediate [CAGO], and advanced [AAGO, FAGO])
5. Modulation*
6. Music Theory and Keyboard Harmony* (Support for transposition, modulation, harmonizing melodies, and improvisation)
7. Anthem, solo, and psalm accompaniment
8. Figured Bass
9. Adapting piano accompaniments to the organ
10. Open-score reading (G, F, and C clefs)
11. Harmonizing melodies
12. Musicianship, Ear Training
(including the transcription of melodies, duets, hymns, chorales, and error detection)
13. Improvisation
An asterisk next to class titles in the list above indicates that those classes have been recorded and are available for viewing now. To access these recorded classes, please click the “Indicate Interest” button and select those recorded classes.
Other subjects may also be offered upon request.
Please contact info@cioa.global with any questions you may have that are not answered above.