Church Organist

My church musician resumé has expanded.

Now, in addition to euphonium, guitar, djembe, and egg shaker, I can add "organ" to my list of instruments played during worship.  Yes, indeed.  Feb 19, 2012 will go down in the annals of history as Eric Selle's official organ debut.

Don't be fooled by these phrases of grandeur. . . I am not really an organ player.  I learned how to play piano in college - and I love it!  I have listened to many talented organists in my time (I even turned pages for some of them at Concordia), so I know what good organ playing sounds like.  But when it comes to actually playing the organ myself, well, it's a different kind of sound.

The organ is a completely different instrument, and organ technique is very different from piano technique.  For starters, while the piano has a sustaining pedal - which allows the sound of a note or chord to continue on after your finger has struck the key - the organ requires you to hold any given key down for the exact amount of time you'd like the note to last.  This makes playing a nice smooth, legato melody very difficult on the organ, especially if you have to change the position of your hands on the keyboard.  Secondly, the volume of any given note on the piano is determined by how hard you press a key.  With the organ, every correct and incorrect note sounds just as loudly (or quietly) as the next one (i.e. there's no hiding your mistakes!).

I have yet to touch on one of the most obvious distinctions between the two instruments:  while playing the piano requires one to coordinate both hands in order to play several notes at once (an amazing feat in and of itself), an organist needs to use both hands AND feet at the same time (that's right, ALL four appendages . . . my brain gets tired just thinking about it).

Needless to say, my organ playing sounded very much like a pianist trying to play the organ for the first time.  Thankfully, the 12 church members present were very appreciative for my efforts, and politely thanked me after the service.

Here's a picture of me practicing organ earlier in the week, complete with a kerosene heater, as the temperature was only about 5 or 6 degrees Celcius inside the building.  P.S. I'm not actually using the foot pedals to play the bass line.

This is another excuse to post a picture of my beautiful (and talented) wife, Haidee.  I really couldn't have successfully played organ on Sunday without her.  Especially when our pastor, Nomura Sensei, suddenly made the announcement (in Japanese):  "I need to catch the train to Tokyo at 12:15, so we're skipping these sections and jumping straight to the communion liturgy."  Now then, if he was talking about tuna, apples, or being a first-year college student (see previous blog) I might have had a chance at understanding his words.  Thankfully, though, Haidee was right on board.  She simply turned a few pages and pointed to where I was supposed to start playing.


While I would be more interested in improving my piano technique, I am excited that I have this opportunity, here at Izumi Lutheran Church, to play the organ.  It's fun to be a church musician a this low key environment, where people really appreciate my offering.  Who knows, with more practice maybe I'll even try out the foot pedals!