Digital Toy Counter

My digital toy counter arrived today all loaded with the sounds I selected. As instructed, I tested it with a pair of headphones and it worked fine. Now I REALLY can't wait for the organ to arrive. It looks like the dealer for the organ will show up in a couple of days to look over the place so he can better prepare for the delivery and installation.

Exciting step

Tonight I wrote the check for the downpayment on my Allen Theatre Q-311sp and will mail it tomorrow morning. While the estate is not settled yet, it should be shortly. I already spoke to my credit union to get a personal loan for the balance of the cost of the organ until I get the money from my Aunt's estate.

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.