Last Friday, I met with Michael Gartz for an organ lesson at Trinity Episcopal Church. For the first time that I can recall I was late to the lesson. I stopped at the bank on the way and the ATM decided to keep my debit card! Fortunately, the bank was opened and they retrieved my card. Between this incident, traffic, and construction I was about 10 minutes late.
When I finally arrived Michael was waiting for me at the organ. We started the lesson with the Bach Prelude and Fugue in C Major (BWV 553). As with most lesson, my first challenge was to adjust to the pipe organ hearing the decay of previous notes while playing the current note. I primarily practice on my electronic organ at home and on electronic organs (at least older models from the 70’s) there is not a decay. I am still having tempo issues with the second half of the prelude and the entire fugue which is evidence that I did not practice enough with the metronome.
Michael approved my rendition of Come, All Christians, Be Committed. This hymn took many months (possible over a year) for me to learn correctly. It felt great to have Michael check this one off my practice list!
The highlight of the lesson was playing Holy, Holy, Holy. After some instruction from Michael, I was able to play this hymn in a manner that would be acceptable to a congregation. I felt such joy hearing the music coming from the pipes while I played.
Overall it was a great and enjoyable lesson!
Heidi Bender writes about her experiences of learning to play the organ. She started on the adventure in 2009.
She also writes on her website Tons of Thanks, which helps people write thank-you notes. Heidi is also a cat lady who writes at The Joy of Cats.
It is great you get so much enjoyment from playing the organ and going to the lessons. Don’t know about the debit card though.
Keep up the good work.