Pleasant Surprise

Theatre organ people are always bemoaning the average age of their concert attendees or the membership in their organizations. Well... I was looking through the newly released membership list of my state ATOS chapter and found someone in my town. I emailed him and got a response from his mother. She said he has not reached the age of 12 yet and is studying both classical and theatre organ (to top it off.. from my teacher.) I wrote back to his mom saying the I would love to invite THEM over when I get my organ so he can try it out.

Wake Up and Live

I have several excellent pipe organ recordings of "Wake Up and Live" but have been unable to find the printed music for this tune. Sunday afternoon I was playing through an old Robbins book entitled, "Bing Crosby's favorite songs" and low and behold guess what showed up on page 39! I now have a copy of "Wake Up and Live" to work on... tricky rhythms.

I have always said I wanted to make a database of all the titles in all my collections but I have shelves of them.. it would be a huge task.. Maybe when I retire.

Talk Turkey

Saturday I went down to the Stadele's Allen Organ to play the Q-311sp which I will be purchasing. I played it for a good two hours. Although I do not have the money yet from the estate, I discussed specifics. I will be getting the organ with 2-4 speakers, the midi assistant, and headphone jacks. We hooked up the midi assistant in the store and listened to a couple of pieces played. It was a learning experience to watch the the player change the stops ... one can learn a lot about registration from it. Of course now I am MORE anxious to get the money and purchase the organ.

Piano Lessons

My piano lessons with John Baratta are coming along fine. We have finished book one of the adult method and have moved on to Hannon and a Mozart book. He said shortly we will work on a Joplin rag. I try every day to practice and actually feel guilty when I don't. I never felt like that about piano lessons before. I guess that is why I am improving and I am seeing carry-over to my other playing.

New Miditizer 260

I upgraded my Miditizer setup to the newest version (.883) and the graphics are spectacular. My registration carried over so there was no extra charge. Unfortunately my settings for my midi keyboards and my piston registrations did not carry over. After some fiddling, I got it working. In a way it was good to lose my piston memory since it made me think about and listen to the sounds. Some of the ranks were noticeably different.. better, so I had to rethink some of the registrations. I will also have to spend some time on the relative volume balance between the ranks, but it is a pleasure to play. In this version, they illiminated the three general piston which is more true to the Wurlitzer that did not have general pistons.

16' stops

Lately I have been experimenting with adding 16' stops to my registrations. WOW if you are careful about not playing too low, this makes a VERY lush full sound. For example, I have been adding a 16' tuba to my frequent registration of 8' tuba with 4' tibia. This makes a wonderful variation of a sound I frequently use.

My Silent Love

I love it when I find a new tune that is great on the organ. I a cd of someone playing "My Silent Love" by David Suesse and was able to locate a copy of it on "musicnotes.com." It is great finding a new tune that fits so nice on the organ. This one has a great swelling of two measures with triplets.. just great opportunities here!

5 1/3 rank

I have never gotten the 5 1/3' rank to sound good. After reading Walter Strony's book again, I now realize it is a harmonic of the 16' sound so you need strong 16's. I was always just using it with a 16' Tibia and it wasn't working. You need to use 16' color reeds and strings to give a good solid 16' base. I now hear how it should sound.

When Sunny gets Blue

I finally worked out the bridge chords so they sound good on the organ. The piano arrangement that I have sounds fine.. but trying to work out the chords and pedals on the organ has not been working. As usual.. I woke up the morning with an idea of different inversions and pedal notes and it sounds great. It is such a haunting tune. I am glad I have it worked out (at least acceptably.) I guess persistence pays off.

Dinner for one, please James

Sightreading through a book of "jazz standards" on the piano I tried a song that I never played before, "Dinner for one, please James" by Michael Carr. It is a hauntingly sad tune which I immediately liked. I will have to work on a good organ arrangement for it... the song is just crying out for a lush pipe sound. It is great when one discovers a new tune (to yourself.)

Trees by Rasback

I started fooling around with it tonight as an organ/piano duet. It will take some more specific arranging, but with soft strings and vox on the accompaniment keyboard and a stronger more full string-type ensemble on the solo. I can put a piano at 8' and 4' on the great. I produced some some pretty good effects of a duet with two people playing. I will work on it more. It will be easier to work on when I get my Allen.

Allen Theatre organ recordings and reverb

For some reason the people who make most of the recordings of the Allen Theatre organs want the "pure" George Wright sound without much, if any reverb. As a result almost all of the Allen theatre organ CDs sound harsh and up front, in your face. The other day I purchased a Don Thompson recording on a 311 and it sounded like a cheap electronic in someone's living room. For the heck of it, I played it through my computer and Miditizer reverb system and it sounded 100% better. After some pondering, I figured out how to burn an Allen CD with more reverb and WOW, it sounds great. Something I would play for my friends. It took some time to do so I will not do it with many more, but at least I know how to do it now.. by running it through Audacity with it set as "As I hear it" This means I have have to do it all in real time.

Mezzo-Forte Registration

Well I finally changed two of my three general pistons on the Miditizer to a MF and F registration as suggested in Walt Stroney's book (with some allowances for the polyphony limitations of my Miditzer setup.) WOW what a difference it makes...It gives me the sound I was hearing in my head but not able to get out of the Miditzer. I played through my Oliver vocal selections and it was fun. I even fixed the traps on the Miditzer pedal so I was able to use a snare in the accomp. and a drum and cymbal in the pedal for "Oomp Pah Pah." What fun. This whole things makes me ache for the time when I will get my Allen.

Visit Stadele's Organ

I recently went down to Stadele's organ to play the Q-311sp that I will be purchasing soon. It was fun.. and made me more anxious, looking forward to the time that it will be in my house. We discussed some things such as speakers and whether or not to purchase the Midi Assistant. No decisions have been made yet on either of those things.

I recorded myself playing for 52 minutes. When I got home to listen there were two things I noticed. One - the organ sounds great although there are some things I would like revoiced but that is a decision to be made after I hear how it sounds in my home. Two - I have to get used to playing organs that I am not totally familar with. When playing and I did not like the sound, I would try to readjust the registrations, only to then stumble around on the keyboard and lose my place in the music. When I get the organ, I will practice playing by adjusting the stop tabs while playing and not just using only pistons as I do on the Miditzer.. because that is all I can really do on it.

I made a CD of my playing.. nothing to write home about (or to write here about.) It will be good for my own historical collection of my playing. I will try editing the songs on Audiocity to remove some of my major pausing and stumbling.. we will see how that turns out.

Talking of recordings of me... I recently found an old cassette tape of the time in the 1970s when I first went to the Allen organ dealer (the same one) to try out my first Allen. It was interesting to here the playing and conversations.

After this trip I really am hearing the clock tick.....

First playing of Theatre Pipes in years - New Hope

I went to a meeting of the GSTOS in New Hope, PA and had a chance to play the home installation of a 3/23 Wurltizer hybrid pipe organ. For more information on the organ, see: http://www.gstos.org/newhope.htm. The organ was sweet! It was well voiced and the volume was perfect for the space. I did okay playing a few tunes but since I am used to using only pistons on my Miditzer and not selecting stops while I play, the registration did not go perfectly, but I was pleased. This experience made me even more excited about my own organ coming... whenever the funds are available.. hopefully soon.

Dining Room

The electrician came in a hung the new ceiling fixture which has a spot light for the organ and also the two sconces which are on the wall above where the organ will be. The room is now painted with an accent color on the organ wall and a border which runs around the top of the room tying the two colored walls together. It looks great. All that is left is for the new laminate floor which should be sometime around October. Things are coming along.

Strony's Theatre Organ Registration book

From reading Walter Strony's web site, I see that his book on theatre organ registration is now out of print as he is finishing off his new edition. He says to keep checking the web site to see when the new edition will be released. I can't wait!

My Ship

After looking through my extensive collection of sheet music and collections and asking a few friends. I realized that I did not have access to a copy of "My Ship" by Kurt Weil. The reason I was looking for it was I heard it on a Jelani Eddinton cd (Stars Fell on Alabama) and I thought it was such a lovely, haunting melody. I finally ended up purchasing it online from musicnotes.com. The printout was wonderful. I will photocopy the one from my inkjet, so it will no smear if it gets wet. I have been working on the tune on my organ... there is so much you can do with it!

Preparing for my Allen 311sp

Even though I am not sure when I will be purchasing the Allen Q-311sp, I have started arranging the current dining room for it. Today an electrician arrived to mount a new ceiling light which includes a spot which will shine on the organ. We also discussed exactly how I will want my two new sconces mounted to the wall. He will come back another day to cut the wall board to run wires and mount the sconces. Yesterday, the movers came and took my Kwai piano up to the church to which I had donated it. Last summer I purchased a Yamaha CP-300 keyboard to replace the actual piano. It has an incredible touch and sounds pretty good.

Using YouTube

When I have been struggling with the arrangement of a tune to make it sound right on the organ, sometimes, I go to YouTube to see what other people have done with it. Since the theatre organ is a "Unit Orchestra", it is good to hear various arrangements of the same tune played by different type of musicians on various instruments or by various groups. If one wants to listen to different arrangements, it is easy to get well over 15 different on YouTube... especially if you are searching for a classic. Recently I have researched "Harlem Nocturne" and "Willow Weep for Me" and have found many very different arrangements of the same tune. Try it out.

"New" song found

I have been going through my music files to find new pieces to try out and came across "Harlem Nocturne." It is very nice with a haunting melody. I went to YouTube and listed to some old black and white recordings of bands playing it to get some ideas on how to make a nice arrangement for the organ. I think this one may turn into one of my "regulars."

Piano lessons

Oh, the problems of having taught myself piano. Over the years I have had several teachers who tried to pick up from -the skills I had, missing on some basic stuff I would have gotten much earlier if I had started with a teacher in the beginning. Saturday, my new teacher started me on Book I of the Aaron Adult method. While I know all the theory, timing, and rests, I need a lot of work on my finger position and fingering. My teacher explained to me that the reason I always hit a spot in my playing and could not go further was I was not paying attention to proper fingering and hand position. While this is tedious to start in the beginning of the book, we are moving very fast and I am sure this will be a big help later down the road. (I have to keep telling myself that... and I really do believe it although it is frustrating at times.)

Organ Placement

After much thinking, yesterday I decided that the place to put my new organ (when it comes) is no longer in the living room. I will be putting it in my dining room where I currently have my piano which I will be donating to my church. This will be good for two reasons. One, it will not disrupt the furniture layout in the living room and, two, since I live in a condo, my dining room is more isolated from my neighbors.

Full Ensemble change

After listening to several Theatre organ recordings, I have changed the piston setting on my fullest ensemble. I added a 2' and 1' Tiba.. WOW that makes a great difference. It is so much brighter and takes away all the muddiness.

Allen - 324 Lyn Larsen model

I was told by several people at Allen that that a LL-324 had been purchased by someone near me. I contacted the owner, Bob Van Zweden, who invited me to try it out. He was nice enough to leave me alone with it. After about an hour I got used to the instrument and possible registrations. I found it interesting that the solo manual had no 16' stops but had a base coupler and I since have been told that that is fairly usual with modern theatre organs. The experience was pretty good. I even made some recordings of my playing (many mistakes.) I tried some traditional ballads and a couple of novelty numbers. I really liked the piano sound. The instrument had not yet been voiced and it needed it! It has 6 speakers and the owner preferred to have the sound come all from one spot so he has mixed up the speakers so there is no separation between the two tibias, voxes, etc. He said I could come back again. I would love to try the instrument again when it is voiced. The whole experience made me look forward to the purchase of my Q-311sp...not soon enough!

Orchestral registration

I just listened to a Simon Gledhill recording on the 3/18 Barton of Warren Performing Arts center. Wow what wonderful orchestral registration! I don't know if it was the Barton (as opposed to Wurlitzer), but whatever... it sounds so orchestral! I am going to look for more of his CDs.

Spreadsheet for my CDs

My collection of theatre organ CDs is growing so I wanted a way to keep trace of them and "organize" them (sorry the pun.) I made an Excel spreadsheet with the following columns
CD/LP - Artist - Title of CD - Organ - Comments
Now (hopefully) I will not duplicate when I purchase new CDs.

Allen 324 - Lyn Larsen

I just made contact with someone locally who as a Lyn Larsen model 324 Allen Theatre organ and he has invited me to his home to try it out. It may be a little more organ than I will be able to purchase, but it will be fun to try it out.

Surprise find!

After reading the article about the re-opening of local movie theatre in our local paper (The New Jersey Herald) today, I was surprised to read that it had an organ. I knocked on the door of the theatre on the way home today and it is right! There is a cute little Estey 2/3 organ. Because it was a home instrument, it is amplified through a speaker... and get this -- the speaker is a Leslie so when you turn on the tremulant, the speaker starts spinning. Nelson Page, the manager of the theatre is involved in TOSI and was excited to meet me. Another person in the theatre was very proud of the instrument and showed me the console and the chamber. Currently the organ's wind line is disconnected for painting but the organ will be played every Friday night before the 7:30 show. Since the organ was a home organ, there is roll player that is still in concert. I can't wait to hear this organ and try it out!

Casio Keyboard problem

The Casio that I have been using with my Miditzer setup has been giving me problems. When I pressed the power button, the red power light did not always go on and when it did, it was dim. I was worried I was going to have to replace it. TaDa!!!! I checked yesterday and the power adapter was not plugged tightly into the keyboard. Now everything is fine .. phwew

Trems and no trems

The other night I was listening to Australian's, Ian McLean's web site
http://theatreorgans.com/ianmclean
and admired the way he played back and forth with trems and no trems. Sometimes our ears just get too tired of all the trems in theatre organ playing. British players tend to play with no trem more than American players. I broke out some of my Sidney Torch recordings to specifically listen how and when he did not use trem.

I started experimenting with a section of no trems using the diapason and horn diapason on my Miditzer in "Shangri-La." It was a refreshingly lush sound with ensemble playing (all on one keyboard) for a limited time. At the end of the piece with a fast run up the accompaniment manual to a jazz ninth (I think major ninth) chord at the end. The whole piece has a very different sound.

Sudden Surprise

I recently found out that I may be coming into a sizable chunk of money -- it could take a year or two. I already have spoken to Lee Stadele (he is still the local Allen dealer) and will be considering purchasing an Allen Q-311SP (after I get the money and also put down a laminate floor in my living room. I plan to get the headphone attachment so I can play it any time.

I recently went to the Allen factory to play one and was astonished that I had become used to my small pedalboard and my pedal skills are completely shot! It took my about two weeks to get used to the small pedalboard. Hopefully, I will get used to the full pedalboard soon enough.

The Miditizer

I initially downloaded the free software for a two manual virtual theatre organ and hooked up the two keyboards which I already owned. I eventually purchased two more midi keyboards and a midi pedalboard with 17 pedals. When the whole thing was set up I paid for the upgraded, three manual version of the Miditzer. Now with the whole thing connected to my computer, I play a ok-sounding theatre organ every night (with headphones.)

All these years since I sold my Allen organ, never touched a standard organ with full pedalboard. Now I have gotten used to my small pedalboard. Hopefully this will not create problems down the road.

Now that I was totally in the theatre organ scene again, I rejoined the Garden State Chapter of ATOS along with ATOS. I am also creating a large collection of theatre organ CDs. Hopefully I will be able to transfer to LPs to CDs this summer.

The low years

I played my piano a great deal but there were many times I missed my organ so much that it almost ached. Finally one day in the winter of 2008 while surfing the web I came across an interesting web site.. the virtual organ (Miditizer.) www.virtualorgan.com Suddenly now at 55 my theatre organ needs would possibly be met.

My move to Vernon, NJ

I eventually purchased a house in Vernon, NJ, up on a hill with a very steep driveway. It was an A-frame with a loft. I had my Allen organ dealer move the organ up there... a huge undertaking. When I realized that owning a house was too much for a single person, I decided to move into a condo and sold my beloved and much played Allen Organ. I moved my piano to my condo.

The beginning

I don't know how it all started, but when I was in H.S. I started playing popular organ on our church organ. When I went away to College in Tennessee in 1970, I found out about the American Theatre Organ Society and joined. This started my huge theatre organ LP collection. In the late 1970s I needed my own organ and nearly bought a Rogers but the one I wanted was no longer available. I ended up (to my pleasure) purchasing an Allen 425 theatre model, "Music Scene" with card reader for alterable sounds from the local dealer, Lee Stadele. I thoroughly enjoyed it and performed several concerts in my home.

I attended the national ATOS convention in 1978 at Atlanta. It was a wonderful experience I got to meet many people and even some professional organists. I traveled around on the buses with Ashley Miller (a former Radio City Music Hall organist) who I had met before. He related some fascinating stories.

At this time I got involved in the Garden State Chapter of the ATOS and was involved in the removal of the theatre organ from the Fabian Theatre in Paterson, NJ. We were in the process of installing it in the Casa Italiano an former Stanley theatre in Newark. As my career to expanded I no longer had time to travel to Newark.