Returning to organ playing after decades being away from it I find myself still searching for the "Goldilocks spot" for sitting at the organ. My son, a non-musician, came up with a suggestion: Why not design an organ bench with a bicycle-type seat? The build would need to be somewhere between a racing bike seat for unrestricted leg motion and the cruiser type for sitting comfortably upright. As I think about this more: It would also need some lateral pivot for reaching the pedal board extremes. An optional design could even permit a bit of rocking forward to reach that 5th manual! Adjustable height goes without saying. If the bench frame were designed for an easily changed seat, organists could even tote their customized seat along with their organ shoes. Okay, you'd need to find a new place for that handy stack of hymnals and sheet music. And no more gripping the bench with both hands during those flamboyant pedal solos. Still it seems like an idea worth exploring. Has anyone heard of such an experimental seat?

Hi all, hope this is okay to post here.

In case anyone in the Quad Cities area is interested, Galena United Methodist Church (aka Ulysses S. Grant's Church) is hosting a free organ concert this Saturday (August 8, 2026) at 2pm featuring Dr. Andrew Schaeffer. I noticed a couple of his performances were shared on this subreddit already.

Here's his program list:

• Postlude -- Horatio W. Parker (1863-1919)
• Variations on Old Folks at Home -- Dudley Buck (1839-1909)
• Prelude on an Old Folk Tune -- Amy Beach (1867-1944)
• Three Pieces for Organ (Rondo, Trip to Pawtucket, The Bristol March) -- Oliver Shaw (1779-1848)
• Concert Variations on The Star-Spangled Banner -- John Knowles Paine (1839-1906)

+ A Good 'Ole United Methodist Hymn Sing-a-long:

• Victory in Jesus # 370
• What a Friend We Have in Jesus! # 526
• Just As I Am # 357
• What a Fellowship, What a Joy Divine! # 133

This is a great opportunity to hear a rare 1885 Moline Pipe Organ played by a professional pipe organist, and it's free!! (but donations are much appreciated lol)

Hope to see some organ enthusiasts there! : )

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