Organ Lessons

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Grandma and the boys at the organ; M is playing the foot pedals and K is playing the Great manual.

Today, we all went to Jackson to meet with a master organ player (my mom) to learn how organs work, and what it takes to play one.

We first got to look at some old and new organ pipes, some made of wood and some of metal. Do you know the difference between a string pipe, principal pipe, and reed pipe? We do now! (Here's an article about organ pipes and how they work.)

The top keyboard is the Swell manual, and the bottom keyboard is the Great manual. There are stops for each, and there are options to allow the Swell settings to be applied to the Great manual.


K plays a Christmas-y tune on the Great manual.

Each of us got to play a song or two on the organ as mom showed us different ways of setting the stops, using the pedals, and our favorite, the Sforzando setting. Sforzando is another of way of saying "really loud".

We also got to go behind the scenes to see the air compressor and pipes. The organ at the church is tuned three times a year, and was renovated about 20 years ago during a larger renovation of the church and sanctuary.


M is playing sforzando in this picture - the little red light just to the right and above the Swell manual indicates "Sforzando". I suggest using this setting when you're playing your favorite song.



M and K are pretty impressed with the whole setup.

Thanks for the organ lessons, mom! We have a new appreciation for what a complex instrument it really is.

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