In January, I will be celebrating 10 years of posting content on this blog. Some years have been more productive than others. I think there were years that I posted almost weekly. Other years, you could count the number of posts on one hand.
Ten years ago, my children were young, and they entertained me endlessly with their music. Now they are all grown, I don't have as many opportunities to record them playing. A couple of them jammed together tonight, and I should have played with them. They asked me to, but I worry that I slow them down. I worry that when they play with me, we play songs I know - and those aren't the songs they know and love. But as a listened to them - I realized, they weren't just playing their songs. They were still playing the songs I raised them on.
I've been spending a lot of time playing on my own. My favorite instrument is the organ. It is like having an entire symphonic orchestra at your fingertips. I've written a bit regarding the struggles I've had maintaining a full organ in the home. In my last blog, I wrote that I finished the revamp of my big organ and everything was good to go. The problem is, I think I love fixing organs as much as I love playing them. I stumbled across a listing for an antique pump organ on ebay. That got me thinking, and I started to look at other listings. Joseph told me he had a three day weekend and would be willing to drive anywhere to pick me up an old reed organ. I tried to resist, but the Saturday before Labor Day, I had an urge that I REALLY wanted a pump organ and this was the only opportunity I'd ever get. By Sunday, I had a Victorian Style pump organ sitting in my kitchen. #thankyoujoseph #huntergatherer
I cannot believe my dumb luck -- or Gods tender mercies. This organ is in incredible shape. A couple of stops were not working. Yesterday, the girls and I opened the back of the organ and were able to problem solve and fix them all. I love my electronic instrument, but there is something about playing a live wind instrument. The mechanics of it are amazing!
Pump organs were popular in the United States from approximately 1850 to 1910. The manufacturer of this organ, Milwaukee Netzow, stopped making organs at the turn of the century as pianos had become more popular. I have a lot of work to do to learn how to get this organ to sing. The video below is me trying a non-legato touch. That is the touch I use for pipe organs, but as this organ has a quick note decay, I think I will start playing legato pieces on it. (Mobile Link: https://youtu.be/e_XJTvcGOBE)
