is it safe to store ahlborn galanti organ pedals in my cold garage? The garage is about 10 degrees F.

I bought this cute rosewood melodeon for $10. It was made by Prince & Co., patent 1846, four octaves. It has an air pump peddle and a swell peddle. The low stretcher, peddles, and legs can all be removed for easy transport. It seems like the perfect keyboard for small space living.

https://preview.redd.it/rjsnql2uyhyd1.jpg?width=2560&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9db7ce286f40067a4f2285c8fb26d48fa2e75a1b

The bellows cloth was patched at the corners. The patches failed too. There was also a line where the bellows folded on the sides that was thin enough to show light through. I've removed the cloth and plan to replace it. I'm in the process of getting some hide glue.

The commercially available cloth is absurdly expensive. My plan is to coat some light cotton canvas with silicone caulk, scraping it into the weave with a big putty knife. I could either try to do it as a single piece or I could overlap corners with diamond shaped laps, sew them, and coat with a touch more silicone to adhere the layers. Or I could work straight seams with minimal overlap. Or I could seam it away from the corners. It's that question of strength vs. flexibility. Worst case, it has to be re-done in a few years.

Does anyone here have experience with this kind of non-OEM material repair? Thoughts?

For the past week, I have been obsessed with this piece, especially with this registration. The description says it's by Frescobaldi, and one of many canzonas. I really want the sheet music, but cannot seem to identify which canzona it is in particular. Anyone here know the piece?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiTmFON1t3c&ab_channel=RonnyKrippner

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlsR2LpqIWQ

To conclude this week of the Reformation Day another Lutheran hymn with a clearly different character than 'Ein feste Burg'. This hymn was one of the first hymns Luther wrote in 1524 (now 500 years ago). Johann Heinrich Buttstett wrote a fine setting on this hymn. I played it on the model of the Baumeister organ of Maihingen, sampled by Pipeloops.

About:

• I'm new to organs and am looking into buying a 2/3 manual digital organ. I play piano and I recently got access to a church organ I can play at but I can only practice it once a week or every other.

Looked into: viscount legend, contorum, and some of the others like Hammonds XKs and old vintage organs like the Hammond A100s/b3 etc.

I've seen people saying to use Leslie's with Hammonds and the Legends. However from YouTube they are played with more Jazz and upbeat type church music. While I prefer the more gothic cathedral sounding organ.

Can the viscount legend or Hammonds sound like a classical pipe organ? Is the difference just in the style in settings? I know the contorum has speakers, it sounds more like what I'm looking for but will it sound better with an external speaker(s) and if so what kind? I know for hammond and the viscount legend I see people suggesting a leslie.

I've just started playing again after a 20 year hiatus and the church where I practice has a costume party/sausage sizzle for Halloween and it got me thinking that next year I could open up all the doors and crank out some spooky tunes to accompany it.

I've just finished (re)learning the Toccata in d minor, do any of you have any other favourite creepy, halloween-vibes song recommendations? Preferably easy-intermediate level (ie the toccata is fine, the fugue probably a bit hard, or rather long. But I guess I've got a year to learn it haha). Thanks for your ideas!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdjIDt0w0KI

Christian Flor (1626 – 1697) was a German composer and organist. Working at churches in Rendsburg and Lüneburg, he was widely known for vocal and organ compositions. He composed one of the earliest Passion oratorios, in 1667. Johann Sebastian Bach probably became acquainted with compositions by Flor during his stay as a student in Lüneburgand may have been influenced by them. According to other sources, Bach is said to have known Flor personally and to have appreciated his compositions. His reputation is also supported by the fact that both Johann Gottfried Walther (1732) and Johann Mattheson wrote about him in their music encyclopaedias.
(source: Wikipedia)

This chorale prelude on the Luther hymn 'Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott' has been played on two manuals. You can hear the cantus firmus both in the right hand and the left hand. Within the settings for organ on this hymn (that I know of), this is quite the unique piece.

Hello everyone,

I've been studying organ for a couple of years now (and piano for a few more on top of that), and I want to start getting my feet wet with liturgical playing. Most of the opportunities near me are for Catholic and Lutheran services, however I was not raised in either of those traditions and thus I'm not familiar with the services (outside of attending several masses in both Europe and USA to get a feel for it). I'd really like to start practicing liturgical playing so that I can offer my services as a substitute organist in the future.

Are there any good resources online for learning what goes into the liturgy from an organists perspective?

I am a young organist based in the UK, currently studying for my A-levels. I am an Organ Scholar at a large parish church where I have gained lots of experience in both solo performance and choral accompaniment, to the point of me being able to play to a grade 8+ standard. I have also done some work during holiday season, covering at some smaller churches for their standard fee.

I am now wanting to earn some some money playing for weddings and more so funerals(less seasonal). Is it acceptable to approach local churches offering my service despite me not playing there on sundays/regular basis? There is often a resident organist there and I could potentially be taking work away, despite them playing there on a regular basis.

https://preview.redd.it/bvc4udceurxd1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d89955f32db5298f9ee9455d6ed67f4212d84d92

Hello I am looking for a repair person to help me with this newly acquired Thomas Lawrence Welk organ. It turns on and makes some noises but certainly not like it's meant to. I am in Oakland, CA. Thank you!!

Hey! A while back someone donated their 651 to me, however we found it was dead. Despite that, we managed to repurpose the pedal board to work with midi. That went great, however I have the swell pedals, and wondering how can I repurpose them? I was thinking of hooking up an arguing and converting it into a single axis yoke, but I don't know the voltages for the potentiometer

I went up to spot tune a couple of 4' clarion pipes about four days ago. I didn't wear ear protection, not realizing (stupidly) how loud they would be in that register. Since then I've had tinnitus in both ears every time I lay down; it's especially bad at night. I should have known better. I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience, and if the ringing has gone away. Hoping this isn't permanent damage.

Hi, I’m considering buying a viscount legend live to go alongside my hammond m44 and was wondering if the viscount came with a built on speaker like the m44. Thank you

Hey guys ! Just wondering a ballpark for how much this could be worth? Its in pretty nice condition and sounds beautiful. Just need to put the top piece back on

Raise your hand if you've ever heard of Catawissa. I had heard of it, but never been there, and I live about 45 minutes away. It's a very small town obscured by the metropolis of Pacific, Missouri, named after the railroad that gave it viability. (Pacific is about 7500 people today). I first visited St. Patrick's church in late 2022. I got called because a couple was getting married there. This was the groom's grandmother's family parish, he was an architect, and St. Patrick is the patron saint of architects, so it was all perfect. They mentioned to their photographer that they planned to use recorded music, but the photographer, being familiar with the place, informed them that was impossible because the church did not have electricity or a PA system. The photographer turned them on to a singer in St. Louis, who went looking for an accompanist, who ended up finding me. I met the organ at about 9am with time to prep for the 11am wedding. With no electricity, the organ is still hand-pumped, so the family provided a family member to be the calcant. Oh, and one other little thing, the church also has no heat. This was early December. It was in the high 30s in the church.

Long story short, the wedding went great, and I vowed to come back and document the instrument sometime.

Father Jeremy Secrist joined me for this one, because he's the biggest Pfeffer fan I know in this area. He restored one in his Parish in St. Thomas, Missouri a few years back (we made a video about that one). The organ itself is in remarkable shape. It's seen a little bit of restoration work by someone I can't remember at the moment. It was used for an OHS convention in St. Louis in I think 1979, so it had seen some preparation for that.

There's not a lot unique about this organ, it's very similar to many other Pfeffers we've featured. There were a lot in this area. The only drawback to making this video is it took almost a year to get back out there, meaning it had started to turn cold again, and it was a chilly day when we shot this video.

The video is here: https://youtu.be/-jgGk1yqrQE I hope you like it!

Whenever i set the combination pistons in on the angelus with the memory lock it deletes in one day, anyone have an answer on how to fix this?

Trying to figure out how everything works, any tips would be appreciated!

Hello! I've recently inherited many old floppy disks with music from a Lowrey Royale SU-500 organ and am trying to figure out if there is a way to play these files (or convert them) through a computer. Some may have been created on an earlier model organ. My goal is to archive these and share them with the rest of my family. Unfortunately, the estate sold off the organ so I don't have access to it anymore. I am good with computers and electronics, so am open to a variety of solutions.

From what I can tell, most of these are ".LMR" files and seem to be some kind or proprietary format. I've found references to software that can convert "SU series" to "A series" and "A series" to "E Series." From there, the trail goes cold.

Anyone by chance have experience with something like this?

Edit: Here is a link to a sample file if anyone want's to take a closer look at one. I was originally hoping it might work like a MIDI, but didn't have any success. https://www.hostize.com/v/qODBzeJVeM (Disclaimer: I've never used this service to share a file, other suggestions welcome)
35K, MD5 c5434ead5912e97fe2616ebaf0739310 SUSONG00.LMR

Hello, organists!

I'm planning to take the American Guild of Organists (AGO) Service Playing Certification (SPC) examination next year, but my sight-reading is, uh, execrable. I've already sight-read the seven examples for practice that the AGO provides (PDF titled "Service Playing Test Sight-Reading Examples").

Does anyone know of good sources for hundreds to thousands of pieces at about that difficulty or a little harder? I'd love examples with pedal, too, even though that's not necessary for the SPC exam. I've been using the repertoire in Roger E. Davis's The Organists' Manual and the chorales from Marcel Dupré's Le Tombeau de Titelouze so far.

I'd also love any tips on getting better at sight-reading or what helped you learn.

Thank you for reading this!

Been playing piano with my teacher for about 7 years, and my teacher, who’s also an organist, has also been “teaching” me organ since about a year ago. The thing is that it honestly didn’t feel like it mattered much if my teacher was there or not when trying to learn organ. Can I simply just learn organ by myself with the piano technique I have? What are your thoughts on this?