No, this isn’t a search for extra-terrestrial life, but just a pause at the six-month mark to wonder whether anyone actually reads this blog. Anyone, that is, except my husband, my son and a crowd of Russian spammers whose comments in the Cyrillic alphabet are neatly filtered by the website.

If organists, especially the beginners at whom the blog is aimed, are reading with (dare I hope it?) any interest, this isn’t reflected in the number of comments, which is a great pity. I really would like to know if the blog material is helpful or not. Critical comments would be welcome, as would a note of any subject which readers, especially beginner organists, would like discussed.

It could be that organists do read the blog and do want to comment, but are afraid of being identified, especially by their priest or parish, a totally understandable fear! Or they may be apprehensive that their email addresses will be published on the web, also understandable, spammers being what they are. I can assure everyone that addresses will not be published, and if you want priests and parishes kept at bay you can always use a pseudonym. Or you can email me directly at evelyn.stell@forthinpraise.co.uk with any remarks, telling me whether or not you would like them published.

I’ve created a little group of links at the top right of this page, under the heading ‘About’. They include links to the main Scottish organist bodies, and also my own credentials. Very shortly I’ll add to this section a detailed note about the commenting process. Then perhaps a comment or two might come rolling in.

Or not. It could well be, after all, that there is no-one out there.

No-one at all.

Just me, my family, and Ivan, Boris and Piotr.

Alone in the universe.

Never mind, I’ll keep going anyway, because it’s really quite fun.

Me (agitatedly): … but you can’t possibly be getting married on that date!

Groom (patiently): I assure you I am, and I‘m asking if you’ll play the organ for us. What’s the problem?

Me (in horror): I’ve booked the church for the whole day for a SCOTS training course!

The groom was polite but very definite. He had booked the church well ahead of us and all the wedding arrangements were made. I took his phone number and said I’d get back to him.

SCOTS is the Scottish Churches Organist Training Scheme (more details for those interested are in the ‘About’ section on the right of this page) and at that time I was on the committee. We had organised a number of training days, but had never experienced a major clash like this.

First, I checked with the church and found that a simple error on their part had caused the double booking, and the wedding definitely had priority. They were very sorry. Apart from grinding my teeth, there was nothing I could do there. Then I went into a huddle with the rest of the committee. Already more than 20 people had booked, and our leaders were two former cathedral organists. This particular show had to go on.

Looking again at the situation, we realised it wasn’t that bad. The wedding was in the early afternoon, so we could have the church all morning and in the late afternoon as well. And the church hall and piano were available to us for the rest of the time. But then someone – it might even have been me, I can’t remember – had the brilliant idea of incorporating the wedding into the training day. We decided to make the main theme of the day ‘Playing for Weddings’. Our leaders were up for this, and cheerfully agreed to put the theory they taught in the morning into practice in the afternoon.

The couple were then offered the free services of two cathedral organists for their wedding, if they would be happy for all our course participants to sit at the back of the church, complete with name badges, to observe the proceedings. They were delighted; it would certainly be a wedding with a difference.

And it was. The voluntaries were of course spectacular, while the accompaniment of the hymns showed more than any amount of lecturing how to get the best singing out of a small congregation (swelled by our trainees, of course). But the main tour de force was undoubtedly an extended and imaginative improvisation, needed because the register-signing appeared to be going on for ever. We had great difficulty refraining from giving our leader a round of applause as he finished, exhausted.

And here are the happy couple with all their organists:

(Same message as before to experienced organists)

Following from last week’s post, here are some photographs of organ stop groups. See how quickly you can spot the diapasons and the flutes.

The first one is from a very straightforward pipe organ (the Salicional is a string stop, and the Twelfth a mutation).

Next, part of an electronic.

Diapasons 8′, 4′ and 2′ are there, but the word ‘diapason’ doesn’t appear at all. Note the consecutive numbers running across the top of the stops. These can be helpful if you just want to note a setting without thinking it through, but you don’t learn anything from them. The important numbers are the 16, 8, 4 and 2 at the bottom. Also note the ‘II/I’, second from the right. This is a coupler.

If you are in a showroom trying to assess the potential of an electronic organ, it’s a good idea to take with you

• one or two rousing hymns
• something more thoughtful like ‘Dear Lord and Father of Mankind’
• a quiet voluntary
• a strong recessional voluntary
• the SCOTS chart of organ stops from the blog post of 8 January 2010.

Always check out the diapasons and flutes first. If their sound isn’t right for what you want in your church, go no further and turn to the next instrument. If the sound is OK, have a look at the other stops – reeds, mutations and mixtures – which we haven’t gone into, using the chart. Try reeds such as Trumpet or Oboe as solo stops against, say, flutes on the other manual. Listen to the string stops. Try each mutation and mixture on top of one or more basic hymn or voluntary settings. Test out the couplers.

Lastly, as I’ve said before, avoid unnecessary gadgetry. What you don’t need are automatic rhythms, non-organ voices (e.g. orchestral or jazz), recording facilities or any other similar gizmos. They don’t help in mainstream church services, and they add to the price, sometimes quite considerably. There is usually a much simpler model, and if the supplier hasn’t got one in stock for you to try, it is worth either waiting until he has, or finding out which local church has one installed and asking to try it.

And finally, just to demonstrate that nothing changes, here are the Great and Pedal stops of my own 1874 instrument, which is not a large one. The Gamba is a string stop, and the Bourdon is the only Pedal stop. But diapasons and flutes are all present and correct.