Organ Playing

So last week at church I felt that I should play the organ this last Sunday. I have NEVER played the organ! I am not sure whether I was supposed learn to play only for this last Sunday or for other days as well.

Most people know that I have very strong opinions about the piano and the organ. They are completely different instruments and it is incorrect to think that just because you can do one, that you can do the other as well. The main similarity is that they both have keyboards; this is why I believe that most people think if you can play one, you can play the other. However, there are MANY differences, pianos have pedals that the organ doesn't. The sustain pedal affords many benefits that I personally enjoy. The organ has stops (and lots of them!), foot pedals, and lots of other buttons that can be changed. (More about that later!)

I am a piano girl. That's just the way it is. One summer, many years ago, I was going to take piano and organ. Every other week I would switch. I had 1-2 lessons on the organ all summer because I would keep coming back to the piano and asking questions. That is my true love (of instruments anyway!).

However, I enjoy the organ (to listen to) and totally respect people who do it well! I believe I am not coordinated enough to play the keyboard with my hands and play a separate keyboard with my feet all at the same time!

A prompting is a prompting and I had several thoughts. One is that I can't succeed if I don't try. The other is that a baby learning to walk will fall down many times before walking is mastered.

I also debated if I would be able to try it out this past Sunday as it was Ward Conference and I wasn't sure if I wanted to debut my organ skills (or lack thereof) in front of our ward and stake people.

(As an aside, I am not the ward pianist/organist. I have several callings, one of which is the ward music chairman. My organist recently had baby number 3 and needed a bit of time to recoup.)

Last Tuesday I took the girls to achievement and I went into the chapel to see what I could do. All of the stops were messed up! I took some time trying to figure out what I like and don't like. I have never done that before. Then I tried to play the pieces that were scheduled for Sunday.

The technique for playing the organ is different in that you need to make the notes sustain, even though there is no sustain pedal. This requires you to maneuver your fingers differently than you would on the piano with a sustain pedal. I believe this a good skill to have as some piano pieces you will have to hold down some notes and move your fingers and play other notes while still holding the first notes with different fingers than they were originally depressed with. (ie. Gymnopedie by Satie). Although this is still different from organ, there is a similarity.

I didn't do horribly, but neither was it wonderful. By the time I finished on Tuesday, I could play well for those hymns - without the pedals.....With the pedals it was plain disastrous!--No kidding!

I believed that I was supposed to play on this past Sunday. So I did. I didn't know that you need to turn up the volume to the point that OSHA would say I need ear protection! The organist in the ward told me that just before church. Apparently, whoever the genius was that designed the organ faced the speakers back at the organist and not towards the audience. That means that I had to lose some hearing so the audience could hear it!

After the first hymn, a different organist came up and told me that the tranpose dial was active! I didn't even know there was one on it! So, I fixed that and the rest of the hymns were relatively uneventful.

All in all, it was good to learn to play some, although I never expect to be an expert or anything like unto it. :)