SCOTS is The Scottish Churches’ Organist Training Scheme.  It has been running for more than a decade.   Using an adviser system and training days, it helps organists of all denominations improve skills and technique, and gain confidence.  It is especially useful to beginner organists, or those moving across from the piano.

The next SCOTS Training Day is at St Leonard’s Parish Church, St Andrews on November 21, 2009, from 10.00 a.m. to 3.30 pm. Participants should bring a packed lunch. Tea and coffee will be provided. Cost of the day is £15 (£12 concessions).

The day includes workshops with :

1  Tom Wilkinson on organ repertoire
2  Alan McGeoch on music theory
3 Douglas Galbraith on understanding worship and the role of the musicians, with discussion about the constraints and opportunities in participants’ own parishes.

For more information about the day and a registration form, email the SCOTS membership secretary, Susan Wilson, susanwilson@scotsorgan.org.uk . For more info about SCOTS and its syllabus, have a look at www.scotsorgan.org.uk/scots-01.htm

The order of service for my last wedding had on it a thank-you ‘for the beautiful music’.

Oops, I thought, that’s a bit premature. So even though it was only W & M*, I became rather nervous. However, yesterday I was actually sent pictures of the wedding, something that has never happened before. So I can only assume that they did like the music after all …

On the subject of weddings, here’s a snippet of a telephone conversation I once had with a bride:

Bride:      … and can you play ‘The Marriage of Figaro’?
Me:         That’s a whole opera. Which bit?
Bride:     er … Track 8.

I’m sure there are lots of anecdotes out there from wedding organists. Please comment if you would like to share one.

Evelyn

*W&M = Wagner, Bridal March from Lohengrin (‘Here comes the bride’) and Mendelssohn, Wedding March from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In other words, the two usual ones.

To post a comment or a question, click the link below. You’ll be asked for your email address for security, but it will not be published. You can use your own name or a pseudonym. If you’d rather not comment publicly but would like to get in touch, please feel free to email the blog editor directly (evelyn.stell@forthinpraise.co.uk).

(This post has already featured in an Organists’ newsletter)

Local societies organise recitals, trips, talks and discussions for organists of all denominations.  It is a way of meeting other organists in your area, getting a chance to try out different organs, and learning about other liturgies.  Quite apart from its social and educational value, society membership can be very useful if you need a deputy, or want to borrow a piece of music at short notice for a funeral!

Societies in the Archdiocesan area are:

Edinburgh Society of Organists

Borders Guild of Organists and Church Musicians

Stirling and District Society of Organists

Tayside Organists’ Society  (covers Fife)

Glasgow Society of Organists

The others are:

Aberdeen & District Organists’ Association
Inverness Society of Organists
Lanarkshire Society of Organists

More about these societies, with their contact details, is given on the website of The Scottish Federation of Organists.

The Scottish Federation of Organists (SFO)

The Scottish Federation of Organists is the parent group of all the local societies.  Every year the SFO has a two-day conference where organists from all the local societies meet up.  The annual conferences include some superb recitals, and the social side is always great fun.

The SFO has various committees.  For example, the Finance Committee recommends rates for organists’ salaries and fees  The Organ Advice Committee offers free and independent specialist advice on organs, pipe and electronic.

For more information about the SFO, and details of local societies have a look at its website, www.scotsorgan.org.uk.

(This post has already featured in an Organists’ Newsletter)

Church heating during a dry, cold spell (and we seem to be getting a lot more of these in recent years) can seriously and often permanently damage the wooden pipes and other wooden parts of a pipe organ by drying them out. Heating systems which force hot air into the church are the worst offenders. There are some lovely pipe organs in our churches, and if you are lucky enough to play one, you will want to keep an eye on its welfare.

Some ways to do this:

1       Keep a hygrometer (a little instrument registering moisture in the atmosphere which can be bought cheaply in garden centres) at the organ and check how often and for how long it dips below normal humidity range.  From this you should be able to tell how bad the danger is.

2       Have the organ tuned regularly (twice a year is usual) by a professional organ-builder, who will be able to spot internal signs of damage and hopefully deal with them before they become worse.

3       Call in the tuner if you have a cipher (a note won’t stop playing – you would want to call him in for this anyway!) or a part of the organ goes badly out of tune when it shouldn’t, especially the wooden pipes, such as the flutes.

4       Take advice from your tuner on ways to make the atmosphere in the organ area more humid.  Sometimes a strategically-placed tray of water will help; keep it topped up and try to stop a skin of dust forming on it.  An old blanket draped somewhere near the organ with one end in the water can be useful (steer clear of electrical fittings!).

5       See if the church heating can be adjusted a bit downwards.  With the present cost of fuel the parish may well be prepared to take this on board.

6       Ask the parish to consider installing an organ humidifier, a mechanical device for moistening the air.  Your tuner can tell you more about these, and whether one would be suitable for your instrument.

7       Make use of the free advice available from the Scottish Federation of Organists.  An independent expert will assess the condition of the organ and make recommendations.  For more details, go to www.scotsorgan.org.uk/sfo-01.htm and scroll down the page.

A Note from the Editor:

No sooner had I started up this blog back in June than events overtook me.  Following a hospital stay and then convalescence, I’m now, thank goodness, back on track.

So let’s start all over again …

Welcome to the Forth in Praise Organists’ Blog!

Church organists are a special breed.  We have concerns, queries and problems which are not generally shared by singers or group-instrumentalists, such as dealing with inadequate instruments, or having to find funeral music at very little notice.  Very often, we are on our own, with no support from choir or other instrumentalists.  This can be lonely and, for beginners especially, quite daunting.

The purpose of this blog is to give us organists a chance to comment and exchange views on various organ-playing topics.  Although Forth in Praise is part of a Roman Catholic archdiocesan liturgy group, organists’ concerns are common to all denominations, and all organists are most welcome to take part in the blog, beginners especially so.

Evelyn Stell, the blog editor, convenes the music advisory group attached to the Liturgy Commission of the RC Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh. She has been an organist for 43 years, of which the last 34 have been spent at St Michael’s RC church, Linlithgow, Scotland.

The Organists Blog will replace the existing Forth in Praise Organists’ Newsletter, which goes out by email.  If you would like to be notified by email whenever there is a new blog post, please contact Evelyn at evelyn.stell@forthinpraise.co.uk with subject heading ‘notify organ posts’.

More posts will go up shortly and the Forth in Praise team looks forward to reading your comments.