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so now, at T minus 24 hours, do you think you are at liberty to divulge the contents of the cake list then? Coffee and walnut? Madeira? Victoria sponge sandwich? Battenberg?? Key lime pie??? I'll have 'em all!!!

The anxiety is now beginning to set in, because I've absolutely no idea what to expect when I knock on a strange door tomorrow morning.

'Rachie' is not in the Catholic hymn book, neither is it in any of the 'easy play' books I have on my hard drive. (it's the most popular choice for rugby hymn 'I Bob Un Sy'n FFyddlon')

You'll not get battenburg in this house...marzipan - bleurgh!

Okay I shall take this up with the Musician's Union then!! No cake, no play

Still shaking like a bloody leaf.....Hope I can keep me dinner down!

A Marathon evening of practicing the same three hymns awaits me

I do hope it'll go alright tomorrow. I'm trying my best not to worry about it.

That's that then. I've practiced practised and practiced, tried to tell myself something won't go wrong and I'm now getting ready for the long trip down the M40. Hope I can say after today Thames Valley Police won't be putting me on their ten most wanted list for vandalism on Church property.....http://www.piano-tuners.org/piano-forum ... =13&t=9721#

I don't know why you're worried; you're just having a go at something you need never do again if you don't like it! And I'm going to be outside so I shan't hear any mistakes. Unless you have all the stops out...

Well.....

So after that lovely positive day out playing those lovely organs in Bucks with Gill, back I return to my miserable negative existence here in Birmingham.....

I wish the both of us were happy people like you and Eric, despite everything life has chucked at you, the both of you keep smiling. Neither one of us know how to do that, I was saying on the journey back up north.

I've just played BOTH my hymns perfectly, in time and alone.

I now realise what, or rather who the problem is, that miserable old s@d I'm married to has turned me into a nervous wreck. She is the problem, and the reason why I'll always be looking over my shoulder and afraid of what others will think. The awful truth.

Stop the negativity. Did you play the films back & see what I meant about the time? It's not much, but enough to trip you up. Other than that, da iawn, bach!

Not had a chance to yet, straight on the piano as soon as I got home. Not even had a brew yet.

Here's something positive, it's my pay day tomorrow.

Oh, remember what you were saying about going to another church? She is vehement that she will not because her disability prevents her from singing the hymns from the hymn book, or even humming along as she is 100% tone deaf so her out of tune la-la-la-ing will disrupt everyone elses' singing. She said this herself. So no getting pally with the organist anywhere even if it isn't Gertie O'Reilly. She truly is my biggest saboteur and this is what I have to put up with on a daily basis.

Go to church on your own then. And you didn't come here today alone; you could have been left alone and not shown any support. Positivity...

Gill the Piano wrote:Go to church on your own then. .

I cannot possibly do that. She will think I'm having it orf with some female (or possibly male) there, or she will persistently winge that 'we should be doing things together as we're married'. I would never be able to win. The best support I had was from YOU, Gill and everything you said to try and help me to become a better player will be acted upon. Not like her, all she did was get under my feet all day and I could have done without her. I would have enjoyed myself much much more.

You don't know how she thinks, as I say, I've put up with it for 10 years.

So, I am desperately searching for one positive thing to say and here it is. So far, Bread Of Heaven, Bread Of Heaven, Feed me .......'

First organ vid now live on my Youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyQU6NR ... dsUl97u2SQ

Odd that I can't find that Walter Carroll book anywhere, Gill. I think I must have chucked it away when I gave up last time as it was in very bad condition.

So, when are you coming up here then for a taste of my home cooked food then? (no pub lunches as pubs in Birmingham are no-go areas, chavs chavs and more filthy rotten drunken chavs).

We're going nowhere till Eric gets enough meat on his bones for a long car trip!
Liked the vids - well done.

Helen Emo likes the vids:

There's no straight-faced way to say this but you have a very relaxed and natural touch, that's something that can't be learnt. That piece...

...Is good and ready to go at any church service, I know a few long-serving organists that can't play the hymn as well as that!

that's fantastic! I'm very impressed, note perfect. You're good and ready for a booming male voice choir now!

This is a MAJOR boost.

Widen them doors, head coming through! TOLD you it was good.

Another five years and I shall be in great demand in Birmingham churches (probably because I'll undercut all other organists by playing for a standard fee of £0.00, probably because any more than that and it would have to be declared to the dole office!)

Gill the Piano wrote:........ something you need never do again if you don't like it!

What do you mean, of course I'm doing it again in another few months or so. Time to put a brown-nosing plan for Mabel!!!

Just had a go at Rhuddlan for the first time. It isn't easy and I couldn't get any sort of tune from those dots so I had to use Youtube to see if Rob Charles had it on his channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YtyP6KEzkY

well, that wasn't the tune I got from it....

I don't suppose it's in your Reluctant Organist book, that's the trouble. I was really impressed with the quality of the arrangements in that book; wonder if there's a book 2?

It isn't and I'm not sure if there is a Book 2. I got that from the LoB. There's plenty of other easy play Dave-friendly fish in the sea besides Rhuddlan.

I had absolutely no idea this was on in Liverpool yesterday:

http://www.liverpool-one.com/tickle

If I'd had known, I'd had brought some music with me to play. Especially as not all of the pianos were being played at any one time yesterday.

Well then Gill, what gigs have we got tomorrow?? (I can't come along in my black trenchcoat, false beard and glasses now as you'd spot me right away now!) I think my favourite organ was...well they were ALL my favourites in true Forsythian style.

Had some of your eggs for breakfast Gill, and they were delicious! Just like the eggs we used to have for our breakfast back in the 70s when I was a kid! We had a mix of the ones from the chicken house and the 'fertile' ones. Thank you again for them.

So, you'll probably be having a whale of a time playing those merry organs today, I'm stuck indoors with nowt to do

Wish cats laid eggs.

Harking back to a previous posting I made on this subject, I have now succeeded in re-learning 2 pieces I played perfectly for Mabel a few months ago (easy pieces from CTM1) and which I couldn't play from the book on Gills' piano. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, four days. This is because..... I'm not going to say it in English or Welsh so I'll say it in French: Je ne peux pas lecture a vue

Speaking positively, maybe next time I pick up an old tune and try and remember how I played it, it'll only take three days, twenty-three hours, fifty-nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds to get it back!

Ar, well, what's s/r for, anyway? Sadly I've more than once been told it's for passing the sight-reading test, which seems unnecessarily circular to me. Of curse some people probably need to be able to sight-read "on the fly" particularly if they're going to play in any sort of band or orchestra, but really, piano players aren't normally called on to do this until they are at around grade 5 level or more. Up to then, the other purpose of sight-reading...

...It always makes me laugh when I read in lists of wrong translations into English the instructions on some Japanese kitchen device "not to be used for the other purpose" - sort of implies "and you know exactly what we mean by that, oh yes you do, we've been watching you"...

sorry, where was I? Oh yes, the other purpose of sight-reading, which is to work out how this music goes without someone else having to play it to me first. And I do think you're perfectly capable of doing that. You just have to accept that you ARE ALLOWED to stop, go back and correct yourself, play the chord three times in a row, do separate hands, and so on. Nobody told me I wasn't allowed to do that when I spent five years going from grade 1 to grade 6 with no piano teacher (OK, I had a cello teacher and a theory teacher).

So next time anyone tells you that sight-reading HAS to mean you must play through without stopping, just tell them "not necessarily"

It would help I suppose. It really bugs me that it takes me so long to learn new tunes as it's so boring practising the same stuff all the time.

Christ, it's quiet on here without Marlow's answer to Liberace. Or has the Lounge finally expired and I am resigned to idly chit chatting with myself?? Gizzy, rescue us.

dave brum wrote:Christ, it's quiet on here without Marlow's answer to Liberace. Or has the Lounge finally expired and I am resigned to idly chit chatting with myself?? Gizzy, rescue us.

I'm still here

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Feg wrote:

dave brum wrote:Christ, it's quiet on here without Marlow's answer to Liberace. Or has the Lounge finally expired and I am resigned to idly chit chatting with myself?? Gizzy, rescue us.

I'm still here

Sitting quietly in a corner with a hat over your eyes, surreptitiously taking down every word and muttering "vairrrry interessting..." once in a while

You've just reminded me I need to ring my piano tuner (he who you recommended to me) as mine is going a bit twangy at the top end. Will need to move the audience off first
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/719 ... dience.jpg

Gizzy in Cambridge

Oh that's brill. I'm not all on my jack jones then.....yet!

All of my musical exploits last Wednesday with Gill are now live on my Youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/Pianobloke1/videos

Sent similar link to Mabel....

The audience is quite restrained in comparison with some I have to relocate in my travels, Gizzy! My friend keeps a card which I gave her when she bought her new piano; it says NOTHING TO BE PLACED ON TOP OF THIS PIANO. NOT A THING. ZIPPO. ZERO. NOT EVER. NO EXCEPTIONS. Mind you, it's quite hard to see it amongst all the cr*p on top of the piano... Not that I can talk; the top surface of my piano isn't exactly clear!

Gill the Piano wrote: My friend keeps a card which I gave her when she bought her new piano; it says NOTHING TO BE PLACED ON TOP OF THIS PIANO. NOT A THING. ZIPPO. ZERO. NOT EVER. NO EXCEPTIONS.

Moonlight (remember her) had a cat that was very keen on sitting atop her polished piano!

The glasslike polish of a piano is in direct proportion to the sharpness of the claws of the cat who likes skating on it.

Sarah seems to like sitting on top of my soundsystem. She's already scratched it. Naughty Sarah Janeychops!!

Doesn't seem like one week since I went to Marlow! I suppose anyone can just break into these country churches and have a play, providing they know where the keys are. In Birmingham, churches are locked (that goes for affluent villages in north Worcs/Warks also) due to metal thieves pinching the organ pipes and melting them down.

I have to admit having the church organ bug now!

Ah, but if you tell where the keys are, I have to kill you. In a Christian, caring way, natch...

I really want to have a go on the one at St Chads, as played by Helen on her YT channel:

www.youtube.com/user/Hel7808/videos

If budding organists can't get to play on these things, what hope is there for a new generation of church organists to replace the dying generation of them that is causing the organist shortages??

If budding organists don't pluck up the courage to ask, none!

Most budding organists are intimidated by the authority pomp and general aloofness of the Church to even think about tentatively asking, especially when there are people such as Fanny Fosdyke around.

Jesus before Roman Council/Sanhedrin comes to mind.

Most budding organists should choose a nice friendly church. Where a budding organist might get their arm torn off if they asked to play...if that weren't too counterproductive.

I can get my arm torn off in the 'friendly' churches as well, if they actually exist up here and have not been colonised by rednecks. That being the case, I'd have to concentrate on pedals only as I can play a simple scale on them!

I know of two churches in this area of town that Fanny plays at, and therefore would be no-go zones for me and my wife. I wonder if David Urquhart (Anglican Bishop of Birmingham) knows there is at least one organist playing in his churches with the same odious and intimidatory qualities as 'Gripper Stebson' in Grange Hill?

Gill the Piano wrote:Most budding organists should choose a nice friendly church. Where a budding organist might get their arm torn off if they asked to play...if that weren't too counterproductive.

My Dad played at St John's in Glastonbury for a couple of years - four manuals and a big enough instrument to do guided tours inside. He fell downstairs and broke his right arm (he was left handed, luckily) and after just one week off he was back in church accompanying with one hand, two feet and judicious use of couplers.

I was in the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Liverpuddletown last week and they have a huge 4 manual in there with stops galore all over the place, like the glass lift in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I actually heard it being played for evening Mass but as it wasn't a full cathedral service, not to its full strength and capabilities.

What's a coupler? Is that the 'great to swell' 'great to pedal' stops that enable both manuals to be amalgamated??

That's the one. Couples one manual/footboard to the other.
Gizzy, what a lovely church to play in! Even with one arm....

I want to have another go on one now, especially as now I've played back all of my videos! I'm going to have to get a book on church/pipe organs out of the Library.

Lots out there. For 'How To' you can't beat CH Trevor.

I can't actually see myself doing what you're doing Gill as a) I'm not 'in' with any churches here b) Fanny Fosdyke already is and she would stop me should I ever become proficient and c) I'm not going to get the chance to practice on one again as last week was a once in a lifetime opportunity. But it's a nice thought!!