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Feg wrote:If there was a church organ sitting on the sales floor of your local piano shop, would you sit down and try playing it, or hang back?

Most definately not. I wouldn't want to embarass anybody by making a cock up and I certainly wouldn't want to make a noise!!

I'm going to have to ask Mabs if she would recommend one of her students do such a difficult task of playing a church organ after only five months of lessons (she is a church organist herself, of course). I am in a quandary of quandaries about it, considering what I've said about always wanting to play a church organ, but also the folly of setting unreachable goals and expecting too much too soon. That is if she replies to an email I sent her last Thursday regarding playing repertoire pieces that I've mentioned in PM's to Gill.

I'm going to have to ask Mabs if she would recommend one of her students do such a difficult task of playing a church organ after only five months of lessons (she is a church organist herself, of course). I am in a quandary of quandaries about it, considering what I've said about always wanting to play a church organ, but also the folly of setting unreachable goals and expecting too much too soon. That is if she replies to an email I sent her last Thursday regarding playing repertoire pieces that I've mentioned in PM's to Gill.

It's not a TASK, it's a bit of FUN. Nobody's going to be saying 'Ooo wrong note, try again.' Adjust your mental attitude to this adventure and LOOSEN UP!!!!!
Some kids came up to the organ after church one day and one was playing Mission Impossible and I was playing the shrieky bit over the top. Fun...remember that?

Gill the Piano wrote: Some kids came up to the organ after church one day and one was playing Mission Impossible and I was playing the shrieky bit over the top. Fun...remember that?

By jove, you have some fun at your church, don't you? Not like my local place, where Gertie Goggleswick locks the blooming thing before I can even get and LOOK at the console.

I too have been to church services (obviously not in Birmingham) where muso kids have had a good old fool around on the piano/organ whilst their parents/grandparents are in the church hall putting the world to rights over a cup of Tetley and a couple of custard creams. The difference is those kids (and probably those at your church Gill) sound better than what I can do, and they can probably sight read as well, the clever little expletives. If only I'd had the chance at their age.....

Gill the Piano wrote:It's not a TASK, it's a bit of FUN. Nobody's going to be saying 'Ooo wrong note, try again.'

You don't know my wife, do you????

Still no news from Mabs by the way.

Well anyway, I'll be needing a new copy of CTM 1, I think.

dave brum wrote: those kids (and probably those at your church Gill) sound better than what I can do

Nope. But they were enjoying themselves. Which is what you have to let yourself do.

dave brum wrote:

Gill the Piano wrote:It's not a TASK, it's a bit of FUN. Nobody's going to be saying 'Ooo wrong note, try again.'

You don't know my wife, do you????

And she won't say anything either. I shall take my ruler.

Well at least I've had a better time doing twenty or so answering rhythms in the ABRSM theory book. I can do this without any difficulty at all, the rhythms seem to come naturally to me (so I MUST be musical). I'm now finishing off the book, and doing my twenty tunes and scales.

I also find I can concentrate more on the patterns of dots tonight. Maybe because it's Saturday and I don't take any chemical antidepressants on Saturdays.

I apologise but I've forgotten how to 'enjoy myself' as life gives me nothing to enjoy these days.

dave brum wrote: I've forgotten how to 'enjoy myself' .

Wait till you've had a blast on a church organ with all the stops out...brings out the inner megalomaniac...

Only one way that would work, with you playing and me sat in the room where the bass pipes are. Better than electric shock therapy, surely. Leave the organ playing to the organists!

Still no news from Mabs. At least I have done my homework, the first piece from CTM2, and completed my Theory Book 1 for her to markymark.

dave brum wrote: Leave the organ playing to the organists!

If I did that, I wouldn't be playing it; I'm NOT an organist. Still, up to you. If you don't want to have fun, you don't have to!

Gill the Piano wrote:

dave brum wrote: Leave the organ playing to the organists!

If I did that, I wouldn't be playing it; I'm NOT an organist. Still, up to you. If you don't want to have fun, you don't have to!

I really dunno what is the wisest thing to do here given my predicament. Should I go through with this, or play it safe?? It's not as if I can ask my local vicar, as his Director of Music is Fanny blithering Fosdyke! Mabs has gone silent on me. So I do not know what I should do. HELP!!! Before I tear my hair out!!!!

How about something positive, my homework for this week:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3sfq-YR45o

Just practicing my two hymns this morning. Almost perfect as far as my piano in my house is concerned, but on a strange organ in a strange place in front of someone I don't know, definitely too much for me, I think, and a recipe for disaster.

This is not to say things will always be like this, supposing I don't give up, maybe in 18 months or so I'll be ready for the challenge of a church organ. The way I am now, even playing Mabs' piano, which she's used to teach hundreds of people on fills me with fear and pieces that I've practiced and practiced on at home until the nervousness has gone away, I play shakily and badly at her joint. A piano is a piano is a piano, same 88 keys in the same order, and each one of Mabs' piano keys is tuned to the same frequency as mine. Mabs is by no means not an authoritarian ogre. So I've never understood why this always has been the case, apart from my own attitude. How can I fix it? My wife always tells me that I always expect things to go wrong and she's absolutely right because they always seem to do that. I just want something to go as I plan it to do so and feel modestly pleased with my achievements at the end of the day (not necessarily 'wahey, let's have a party' sort of contentment).

I know both my hymns will come out not the way I want them to do on the Marlow organ because when I'm sat at home, I can remember where the notes are much easier that when I'm in a strange place and everything seems so unreal/feels different/more power etc. To me, this is inexperience as well as not being able to read a piece at sight and play it.

The congregation would soon tire of me stopping to correct wrong notes should I ever do what Gill does on a Sunday, and will happily have a whip round for a sound system and a few A&M hymn CD's.

OK, just heard from Mabel. She says that I should keep my repertoire at 6 pieces at any one time, and as I learn a new piece to add that whilst letting go of a piece I've been doing for a long time. Start with my six favourite pieces.

If that's what she says, that's what I intend to do. I shall see her about the other matter that's bugging me (I think, like 9/11, we should henceforth refer to it as '8/13) when I see her on the morrow.

I've told you before, I shall fire up the organ and leave you to it. Entirely up to you.

I think we should commission You Gov to have a poll with the question 'should a 44 year old piano learner for 4 months with a self esteem problem and more enthusiasm than musical skill be allowed to play a church organ 88 miles from home under the supervision of someone he doesn't know'?

But paupers are we. I'll just ask Mrs.Mucklethwaite tomorrow afternoon. She is after all my teacher and she knows what I can and cannot do in the here and now. I've sent her links to my Youtube channel of me playing both my hymns.

Turning a negative into a positive (as only I know how to do), playing Blaenwern, Hyfrydol or both at Mabs' adult learners concert at her house is probably more within my reachability at this time. I hopoe she's got some news on that tomorrow.

There is always the option of asking her next year or whenever if I could play the organ at her church in Warwickshire, even though I may have to pay for the privelige. Would give me time to pick up SR experience, confidence, and adjustment of my whole attitude.

Looking forward to my piano lesson later. One of the few things I actually enjoy...and Mabel makes it enjoyable.

Gill the Piano wrote:It's not a TASK, it's a bit of FUN. Nobody's going to be saying 'Ooo wrong note, try again.' Adjust your mental attitude to this adventure and LOOSEN UP!!!!!
Some kids came up to the organ after church one day and one was playing Mission Impossible and I was playing the shrieky bit over the top. Fun...remember that?

Mabel agrees with you Gill. She doesn't see why not, plus I can gain experience from it. She told me when she went on hols in April to Cuba, she went into a cathedral there and there was this young guy playing the organ. When he had finished, Mabs gave him a round of applause and on finding out he spoke English, told him she was a church organist in Britain. With that, he offered the console to her, who gave a recital of her own, using the old photocopied piece of music he was playing from.

She also says it would be fun for me. So now I have her blessing, roll on August 13th. What else could go wrong.....my car to catch fire on the M40, or to get lost and find myself in Slough?

Where have you gawn, Gill. It's so quiet and I'm talking to myself!!!

Been so busy with one thing and another, I forgot to post this, my homework for next time, from CTM 2 and it's from the Anna Magdalena Notebook by that famous composer from Llanelli, Johann Sospan Bach:
My first task is to learn the jumps at the end of bar 2 to the beginning of bar 3, 4 to 5 and 6 to 7.

I also had a new major scale, although I've played some repertoire pieces in Bb before I've never done the scale/peggie before, as the fingering is all different. The left hand scale starts 3-2-1 and the corresponding arcaboo goes 3-2-1-3-2-1. 'Ah', says I to Mabel, 'it's the Ted Rogers scale, is it?' Can you believe, she's never heard of Ted Rogers!

dave brum wrote:Been so busy with one thing and another, I forgot to post this, my homework for next time, from CTM 2 and it's from the Anna Magdalena Notebook by that famous composer from Llanelli, Johann Sospan Bach:

scan0005.jpg

My first task is to learn the jumps at the end of bar 2 to the beginning of bar 3, 4 to 5 and 6 to 7.

I like the bit in bars 11-12 which always makes me think of Flanders & Swann, it goes "pee po pee po belly belly bum bum". There, you won't be able to play it to her with a straight face now, will you?

I love your videos, btw, you're a very expressive player, stop kicking yourself up the bum.

Have you come across the Song of the Birds in list B for ABRSM grade 1? It's one of my favourites, used to be played on the cello by Pablo Casals at the end of all his concerts to remind him of the country he'd self-exiled from.

love, Gizzx

Interesting. Mabs has got me on something called 'Sightreading Folk' by Laura Shur, which is basically folk songs from Britain and further afield 'set' as sight read exercises, and one of the pieces in book 2 (wot I'm on now) is the Lincolnshire Poacher, from the new grade 1 book.

It'll always remind me of the shortwave radio station based in Cyprus owned by the British military, which was used to pass coded messages from East to West and vice-versa during the Cold War. Sequences of numbers were read out, with an interval signal of the first few bars of The Lincolnshire Poacher. The station came to be known as 'The Lincolnshire Poacher' (there was a similar one from s e Asia known as 'Cherry Ripe').

Funny that I'm just in the process of learning the 'pee-po pee-po belly belly bum bum' sequence in the Bach. The piece modulates from D to A but for a while it goes into A's dominant of E on the 'bum-bum'. I didn't think Flanders and Swann were as overtly Carry On-ish as that. I had a CD on in my shop yesterday featuring the Mozart horn concerto famously parodied by them in the song 'Ill Wind', and I couldn't help thinking of 'to sound my horn, I had to develop my embouchure'.

dave brum wrote:
The GOOD news, The Lincolnshire Poacher's one of the pieces for g1. OOOOOOh, tis my delight on a shiny night as I take me grade one 'ere! (does this mean we can now take our rifles as well as our scales and arpeggio books into the exam?)

If I could sing (unlike Gill or Gizzington), I'd record the song and post it on my channel, with those words. Maybe even re-write it so it becomes 'The Lincolnshire Candidate'

Been busy practising my 'Landler' to play at Mabel's adult learners concert on Wednesday night. Should be fun, just as long as I remember one thing, not to go slagging off Fanny Fosdyke and her 'High-Class Academy of Fine Pianoforte and Emporium of Musicianship' (no blacks, Irish, dogs, or awkward blokes wot ask too many questions)...

Just play and keep yer gob shut; let your music speak for you! You'll be ace!

Well, some other herbert will be bound to ask me 'how long have you been learning the piano' but for me, it'll be difficult for me to answer that one without re-living negative experiences. But the two words I shall not mention are Fanny and Fosdyke....well, her real first name and surname anyway!!!

Less than a month to Marlovian gig now....

Vis a vis my homework, I'm having difficulty with my belly belly bum bum, even though the pee po pee po didn't cause me a great deal of strife. I'm going to call it my 'toning up exercises' for the two bellies and two bums.

Less than 4 hours to my concert at Mabelchops' house. This should indeed be a test, not because I'm playing for Mabel but because I'm playing for 'the management'. Hopefully I'll make some new friends there, would be good. I need to have more piano playing friends in Brum.

You'll be perfectly fine. I hope you enjoy(ed) it!

Got to practice now, as well as prepare our evening meal, take a shower, get the washing in before we have to be at Mabs' place for 7 (which is around 2.5 miles away). No filming (unlike Marlow).

Well, I didn't get that new friend to go duetting with, but I got to play FOUR tunes, the one I intended to play was okay, the other three I hadn't practiced on but I did make some cock ups on. Karen played a whole Chopin Prelude, and then told us she was off to Australia next week! AUSTRALIA!!! Only foreign country I've ever been to is Wales!

At least everything I played was non stroppo.

Karen must have cocked it up big stylee to have to flee to australia...
Well done, knew you'd be fine!

Karen did wildest dream stuff for me, four pages of Chopin, however she tended to underestimate her playability and musical talent, just like someone not a million kilometres away from where I'm sat sitted here. There was another bloke who played the Mozart Rondo from CTM3 but he was clearly struggling and out of his depth. Should have aimed slightly lower I think. I was the only person who not only played more than one piece, didn't need the help of Mabel during the performance. I did it all solo.

Most modest as well, I think I was. And I did NOT mention Gertie Giggleswick or anything negative once - though I was a trifle unsure what to say when Mabs asked us all to introduce ourselves and say why we're learning and what we want to get out of learning the piano.

You say your name, say you want to beat the b*gger and you want to get a nice choon out of it...

Ah, so you too had your slumber rudely interrupted by thunder and lightning at 2.30 then? Although here it was around 3.00. Not forecast, so didn't need to water the garden last night then.

I've actually taken the major step of promising Mabs I shall never complain to her about sight reading again as the difficult G2-3 stuff I'm struggling with now has killed my anxieties doing it at g1 level, as i found out last night when I tried a couple of AB g1 specimens. The fear just wasn't there, I just did them!

The rude awakening was the cat pogoing off my stomach from the windowsill en route to her air raid shelter under the table in the front room. So once awake, that was it...

I'm off to a concert featuring Mabelcakes' graduates choir at a historic house in Brum I've never been to before. She'll be accompanying with a bit of luck, and her boyfriend will be in the kitchen overseeing the supervision of the urn and the cutting of the Manor House into equal sized lumps. I've said it before, she has beautiful supple hands. Are yours nice and supple Gill, or has the jewellery left ingrained marks and one or two spencers on the digits??

Then after Tuesday, I won't be seeing her until the autumn I'm going to be getting PLWS very very badly, a precursor to the 'winter blues'.

Possible crisis developing after one of the most surreal experiences I've ever had at a simple little concert.

My hands aren't as flexible as they ought to be because I don't do Proper Practice. But the rings help - ever heard of weight lifting?
Checked on the organ availability today; looks as though you'll be able to take yer pick!

Gill the Piano wrote:Checked on the organ availability today; looks as though you'll be able to take yer pick!

That is, if I ever make it down there. I had a very shocking experience today which could have been avoided if not for 'management's' insistence. I just hope to Allah Mabel doesn't ask me if we both had a nice time at the concert.

What's up, chuck?

I did not want to go in to that concert (despite me looking forward to it for months) when I saw Fanny Fosdyke's car parked outside. I turned back and said I'm not going if she's there but my wife in her infinite wisdom created a scene and so I had to. The old witch was part of the bleeding choir, she sang a solo version of Bugeilio'r Gwenith Gwyn.....in ENGLISH!!! as well as accompanying for a rendition of a folk song 'The Dilly Song' on bodhran, and even using the piano app on her expensive Japanese device to tune the choir (as it was a capella). There was nothing she couldn't do. If every single person apart from myself, my wife and Mabel KNEW she had once 1) made a paying pupil cry when she smugly asked him to play something he knew and I guess she also knew that he couldn't play 2) unproffessionally and untactfully said to this same paying customer 'You are the awkwardest person I have ever had the misfortune to teach' thus shattering this person's confidence as a piano student and 3) refused to answer a valid and RELEVANT question this person had with 'I'm a piano teacher, not a psychotherapist' despite me passing on several items of piano learning material I'd tried and failed on to her out of the goodness of my heart and a willingness to recycle WITHOUT one word of thanks - then maybe she would have been treated in a slightly more deserving and just fashion by the audience and fellow choir members.

I would have loved a walk around the grounds in the sunshine (never been to that house before) but my wife and I had to leave hastily and sheepishly like we were trying to escape from a prisoners day out just to get past Mr and Mrs Fosdyke. I didn't even want to look at the old ratbag.

So, what it basically means is that I now feel as angry and frustrated as I did when I had that major falling out with Mrs. F as it's brought back every single one of the painful memories I have been trying for over two years to forget. And my confidence has just gone. Just because a) Mabel should have warned me that old heifer is actually part of the choir I'd paid £10 in good faith to see and b) management hadn't tried to stop me from walking away from this troublesome situation, despite being £10 down.

As I say, I just hope she doesn't mention it on Tuesday. Though knowing my luck she will and having succeeded in not slagging off Gertie O'Reilly, it's going to be difficult not to on Tuesday, and I'm dreading that.

You simply say you had to leave early for personal reasons and leave it at that. Don't let anyone else control your love of music - it's yours, nobody can take it away from you.

I had a nosey on social media yesterday to find out about a new CD Mabel said she'd recorded with the choir (but not yet released due to copyright restrictions not being finalised yet) and the group's Farcebook page includes the CD cover photo of the whole choir (around 10 in number) including a photo of both Mabel and Gertrude.

The problem the latter has is that I believe whilst she is a very good musician and has worked hard for every single qualification she has, she creates a very strong impression of looking down her nose at people who cannot sing/play piano/organ/whatever as she can, making her not only a crap teacher but, as these savage insults prove, a crap person also. What she has told me is totally unforgiveable but then she swans around like butter wouldn't melt in her cakehole. And I do not want to have anything further to do with the nasty old so and so as she upset me that much.

Yet I do not want to stop playing again, but it's like I get these kicks in the teeth and I cannot control them. If I'd have had my way we wouldn't have gone, simple as. Because I knew the fact that this nasty so and so has done something to me that basically turned me away from music and pianos, and even my relationship with God and going to church on a Sunday. I knew that even seeing her would bring back the pain. But no, management knew best and now I'm in yet another conflict with her over the subject, which I'm not at all happy about.

Fanny Fosdyke must be the only music teacher in the world that actually drives folk away from the the joys of music! (her website is a must see if you like black humour).

I think I may have found a novel way of dealing with the Fosdyke case. I've been trying to imagine the smug little queen in all her glory....sat on the throne! Years ago someone once told me to imagine people you don't like (bank managers, Jobcentre, inlaws etc.) sat on the toilet and it's something that actually works!! Though Fanny Fosdyke wouldn't have to spray half a can of Airwick around the room as the rest of us have to (because 'it' is most probably is delicately scented with wild roses, oleander and honeysuckle) she'd still look a right picture sat there reading the Telegraph colour supplement/Pianist magazine with her hair in a net and her long johns round her ankles!!!

And so to the positive aspects of yesterday's concert (Guardian reviewer mode trying but failing to come into effect). A set of folk songs, a set of classical and a set of popular songs ('Firestarter' by Prodigy was not one of the popular ones though, but Blue Moon was).

They did a folk song I'd never heard before but I liked (despite FF's solo) which went something like: 'What shall I sing-o? I'll sing you one-o' and so on through two-o, three-o up to ten-o. Shades of 'this old man, he played one...'

That's 'Green Grow The Rushes O'. Would have thought it might be in the Jolly Bloater.