Nerd Alert!

Warning: This post contains boring, nerdy information about playing the organ. Proceed cautiously.

Last week I was able to attend a 4-day Organ Seminar at BYU. As mentioned before, I am a piano player and I know nothing about playing the organ. This was confirmed wholeheartedly when I arrived at the workshop. Save for a keyboard which looks a teeny bit like the piano, the two instruments could not be more different. Technique, registrations, and pedal-boards make for a very difficult instrument.

I took classes on Music Theory, the Basics of Registrations (all those buttons called "stops" that change the sound), Pedal Technique, Precise Attack and Release of Keys, Playing Legato (fingering substitution), and Independence of Line (being able to play two hands and two feet independently yet together).

I take back everything I've ever said about organists needing a few weeks to prepare to play. I'm hoping I'll be able to play even one congregational hymn in the next 2 months.

This is a picture of the organ in my church. I'm lucky (so I've been told) that we have a pipe organ instead of an electronic one. It's a 2-manual, 11-rank pipe organ from 1950.

Let's zoom in and get a closer look at the infamous "Trumpet" stop, shall we?

One night our workshop went to the Tabernacle to hear the organists talk about that famous organ. It was actually pretty thrilling. There were professional and amateur organists there from around the western U.S. and we were all a little giddy at being so close to this instrument. Did you know I got to play the Tabernacle organ when I was a kid? My dad was doing some work on the phonelines behind the big pipes and someone there offered to let me play. I was way too shy to play an entire piece and so I just played one note. Big regret. Still-- a lot of people have that on their bucket lists and, technically, I can cross that off my list.

I came away from last week overwhelmed, humbled, yet excited to learn more. Both of my grandmothers played the organ for years and years and I'm lamenting the fact that I never learned anything from them. Grandma Hintze played by ear and was self-taught; Grandma Roberts was a technical genius.

Albert Schweitzer, a philosopher, missionary and organist said, "If you are called on to play a church service, it is a greater honor than if you were to play a concert on the finest organ in the world....Thank God each time when you are privileged to sit before the organ console and assist in the worship of the Almighty."

Amen.

One last nerdy gem: I own organ shoes now. Did you know there was such a thing? Pretty cool. And, no, you can't borrow them.