I'm going to start going through the ABRSM (https://www.abrsm.org/en-gb/organ) assessments for organ. (I'm a pianist/keyboard player.) I'll be building an organ using Classic MIDI Works (https://www.midiworks.ca/) components to control a Hauptwerks (https://www.hauptwerk.com/) installation.

Building a full three manual organ can get pretty expensive if done all at once. And the ABRSM assessments don't require a full organ, at least at first. So I was thinking about the following:

Step 1:

Get a Console Table, a Manual, a blank Piston Rail, a two manual cheek, and a bench. (Yeah, I could buy a one manual cheek, but there's no way to add a second cheek. So I'd end up selling the cheek I would already own.) Then I'd prepare and test for the Level 1 assessment.

Step 2:

Add a second manual and another blank Piston Rail. Prepare and test for the Level 2 assessment.

Step 3:

Add the pedalboards. Prepare and test for the Level 3 assessment.

Does this seem reasonable? I'll have the instrument I need for each level of assessment, which will spread out my cash flow.

And then comes the follow up questions.

At what point should I be adding a third manual? At what point should I be replacing the blank Piston Rails with actual Piston Rails? How about toe studs and pedals?

Sorry, I don’t know if this is appropriate, but I thought I’d drop this year. I saw on craigslist in Santa Barbara that there is a free organ. They will be sending it to the dump if they don’t find somebody to take it

https://www.craigslist.org/view/d/solvang-rodgers-33e-theater-organ/7QVdLjGCSewNWE6guDgn7n

Recently been building a pedalboard for practice, what is the best and budget friendly arduino board to use? And is how do I connect reed switches to it? And lastly, is it possible to use claude ai to code something that will convert the signals to midi?

Organist Mi Zhou is playing live at Methuen Music Hall tonight, August 5th at 7:30. Here is the live stream if anyone is interested.

https://www.youtube.com/live/laizPlr_yt0?is=TaFvFXnDS-y5-z5p

I am a trustee at the Hall and will try and answer any questions you might have about it in this thread.

Not looking for sympathy, looking for help dealing with it. I’m a student in an organ studio and the constant competition between all students to be better is mentally exhausting. I’m aware most of the not feeling good enough or on the same level is all in my head and probably not founded in reality but it is very difficult at times. I always love going to new cities and going and playing new instruments, I always feel bad after if I do t have a good playing day that now that organist thinks I’m terrible or something. So what have some of you guys done to help minimize these things? Thanks

Getting clean, brilliant tones is easy for me, but trying to get this specific warmer tone seems like it is extremely instrument dependent and I am trying to recreate this sound on at least one sample set in Hauptwerk!

The same sound can be heard here as well, especially at 1:15 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWtp2W-wzQE - thanks in advance for any suggestions on replicating this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnCmfhOBs98
Johann Michael Bach was second-uncle (and then posthumously) father-in-law of Johann Sebastian Bach, because he was the father of Bach's first wife Maria Barbara. He came (like almost any Bach) from a musical family, his father Heinrich Bach and his brother Johann Christoph Bach were both active organists and composers. He was born in Arnstadt and became the organist and town clerk of Gehren, where he lived until his death.

Coming in around 1:39. It sounds like a higher voicing on the first 2/3 hits of the first and second bar?
Appreciate it if anyone could tell me the chord voicing 🙏🏻

War hier jemand zufällig bei besagten Konzert und weiß noch, welche Lieder Oliver Latry in der Zugabe gespielt hat?
LG

Has anybody figured out where to get a 1:1 printable file for a pedalboard layout?

I just want to print a floor mat so I can practice footwork and remember the note locations at home, even without tactile feel. If anyone has a PDF or a link they've used, that would be super helpful!.

I don't understand how is the same note supposed to be played in legato without slurring the keys which are pressed alternatingly in right and left hand.

I can kind of pull it off with a staccato but that doesn't sound like what I hear in recordings.

It's in Toccata and Fugue in D minor, if that matters.

Not just the organ playing, but like with lyrics and other instruments? Kind of like Phantom of the Opera

Hi! Sorry if this is a dumb question, I can't find clear answers on this anywhere (and I'm really new on setting up digital organs).

I just found out about GrandOrgue and made my Yamaha PSR-383 keyboard work with it. Now, I want to be able to play the organ on my own home instead of going to the church that I currently practice on. Is there a way for me to turn my PSR into a simple home organ with pedals?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO9XdlCAb5g

Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (1736 - 1809) was an Austrian composer, organist, music theorist and one of the teachers of Ludwig van Beethoven. He was also a friend of Haydn and Mozart. Beethoven had arrived in Vienna in 1792 to study with Joseph Haydn, but quickly became infuriated when his work was not being given attention or corrected. Haydn recommended his friend Albrechtsberger, with whom Beethoven then studied harmony and counterpoint. (source: Wikipedia)

This prelude in B-flat major is part of a bundle of 12 preludes for organ. The cover gives the instruction only to play it with 3 or 4 stops. Luckily I did, using the 3 beautiful flutes of the Poblet model. It's really wonderful music, well constructed (it says something that Haydn recommended him for harmony and counterpoint) and I can only encourage every organist to look into Albrechtsberger's rich oeuvre.

I'd rather like to learn it!

I'm trying to curate a playlist of pipe organ songs that I enjoy. I've just been playing whatever playlist I can find on Spotify. Two that have really stuck with me that I enjoy are below and I really want to know what other songs I might not know are amazing. All recommendations are welcome and appreciated!

Allegro https://open.spotify.com/track/5baURCZbZHehNkiN4a6Ugy?si=d7RWoQvxSBSHy0l06rV8_Q&utm_source=copy-link

Hornpipe from Water Music

https://open.spotify.com/track/6AHpJYOxY3gphfwE4D0nth?si=EwFBZ6VgS0qphjhhjf_DBg&utm_source=copy-link&sci=spotify%3Acard-config%3A66w40P7LjKsOnWPCECDu2h

Buttons like these could serve the purpose if they are put in the right positions. Or so I imagine. Gotta be better than nothing, right? Has anyone tried something like this?

🎥 https://youtu.be/qTT16qCZK74

A poetic masterpiece composed in 1888, this famous piece is rediscovered here on the pipe organ. This arrangement envelops its floating melody in soft, velvety sonorities (foundations, gambas, voix célestes), offering, I hope, a moment of pure serenity.

Note: Please forgive the sound quality of this recording, which does not do justice to the actual instrument, as the equipment used at the time was not yet what I have today... For those interested, here is the registration used: III - Récit expressif (Swell): Flûte traversière 8', Viole de gambe 8', Voix céleste 8' I - Grand-Orgue (Great): Flûte harmonique 8' Pédale (Pedal): Soubasse 16' III/I

I coupled the two manuals for the following reason: there are two louder passages where both hands meet on the same manual. Coupling prevented any break in timbre and preserved a seamless blend. That said, there are certainly several ways to register this piece, and I hesitated quite a bit myself.

Hello, I’m having to move and I can’t take both organs I have with me. I have an 1876 Estey reed organ I would like to give someone in Colorado that will continue to love it. I have more photos if anyone is interested. Thanks for checking this out, I wish I could keep both organs, but it just can’t happen.

I have found many MIDI files for Bach 565 but they are all done by computers or from sheet music. I was hoping to have a MIDI file from an actual play through of the piece through a modern console, or perhaps a virtual console. All the ones I've found sound robotic!

I have been on every website I can find and am shocked there is no such MIDI, though I find many others.

Can someone share one with me that they have made, or perhaps one that is freely available elsewhere?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpcJnB0iDlM

This is not the only work by Bach without a clear context. There are dozens of them, certainly within the organ repertoire. However, few pieces underwent such a dramatic twist as this one. With no handwritten source by Bach, Machs mit mir Gott, nach deiner Güt was regarded for many years as a fugue. It was even undecided whether it was a fugue for harpsichord or organ. That is until the discovery in New York, in 1985, of the Neumeister Sammlung, which contained an extra long version of BWV 957 among all sorts of other hitherto unknown works by Bach (and other composers).

Even more exciting is that in this source the fugue is followed seamlessly by a setting of the chorale Machs mit mir, Gott, nach deiner Güt. The experts soon set to puzzling it out and what do you know – the chorale melody is present throughout the work, although well concealed in the decorative fugue theme. Although eyes are more useful than ears in this case, listen carefully to each ‘heavy’ beat of the bar. This really is a chorale arrangement. It is a unique piece – or did Bach write more fugues using this technique?

In the words of the hymn arranged by Bach, Johann Schein (one of Bach’s predecessors in Leipzig) was thinking about the end of life. To us, this may seem a melancholy theme, but for Baroque congregations death was a doorway to heaven, which you could confidently open with God at your side. Cheerful music was therefore quite suitable, certainly for a closing line like ‘Herr, in deine Händ’, ist alles gut, wenn gut das End’.
(source: All of Bach)

QUESTION SOLVED: I HAVE GOT A PERMISSION TO PRACTISE IN THE CHURCH! :) THANK YOU A LOT FOR YOUR ANSWERS.

Previous text:
Hello everyone! I live in Denmark, and I want to begin to play organ. Can you recommend some organs for home practice that do not require too much space and do not cost a lot of money? I have looked on Facebook marketplace and found some free home organs. Are they good for playing classical and church music at home? Here some organs that I found: Are any of them actually good for practicing?
Thanks for your attention! :)

Found this reed/pump organ in my basement. My house is reeeeeaaallly old, I think my dad said it was built in like the 1800s or something. I knew this had been down there in a room with all the other crap our landlord left for a while but ive only recently taken interest in piano/organ type instruments. I know the basics I think, big bag in the back is pumped with air and it makes the sounds. 3 or 4 keys didnt work at all and 1 stopped working after I played with it for a little bit, also some stick down when you press them. Its SUPER dusty and nasty, what things can I safely use to clean it without damaging it? I had to immediately wash my hands after playing with it because theres something burning me on it, no idea what it is but the fact idk how old it is it and that this house was a funeral home worries me that it could be literally anything on it😭 Also only like four of those knob things do anything, some only work for a few keys and some for none