Practise Before You Play | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Practise Before You Play | Previous Challenge Entry
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01/23/08
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While still a young man living in Perth, Western Australia, I was fascinated by organs and organ music. At that time I played only a piano or small pedal organ. Pipe organs were way out of my league! I had sometimes listened to a magnificent organ in the Presbyterian church in the city of Perth and one day made up my mind to approach the resident organist.

I was surprised but delighted when he agreed to give me some lessons, in exchange for which I would assist him in a number of small ways. If you have played a pipe organ you will know the incredible impact of the volume of sound, the variety and colour of the huge range of pipes. It was all so overwhelming!

But I was a novice and a lot of hard work lay ahead. My teacher insisted that I had first to learn the proper use of the pedal board. He forbad me to use my hands on the upper keyboards. He set me heel-and-toe scales and exercises for each of the notes of the pedal board, and week by week examined my progress.

It was an agonising experience as the weeks passed and still he was not satisfied. I spent many of my evenings at that organ until about a month later my tutor declared my apprenticeship on the pedal board ended. I need not look at my feet again! The day came when I played for services, weddings and other special occasions.

The memory of those days has remained with me throughout the years and I have frequently been grateful for the disciplines of my novitiate.

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