Organ, Naturally

Yesterday I was still 'buzzing' with the news of son possibly playing the organ at School Mass.

Had to give some money to Mr G piano teacher because son had forgotten to do so (for his Scales book).

Mr G then explained that he suspects son is a 'natural' at playing the organ.

The other piano teacher and Chapel organist walked by and said, "O! We need more of those."

Mr G explained that son insists on 'swapping fingers' when he plays. Other teacher remarked, "That's very good."

This bit of information had no significance to me. I didn't have a clue what it means.

As I was already communicating with the man who sold us our piano (because we could not pin down the piano tuner) I asked him what the significance of 'swapping fingers' is.

A long response came from him, quite unexpectedly. If I could distil it, he thinks our son plays a true legato, linking notes without the help of a sustain pedal, which is very helpful because organists do not have a sustain pedal.

He went on to say it is a good idea to let him develop organ skills as soon as possible because organ-playing requires 'three-channel brain' (left, right hands and feet) while piano-playing only requires a 'two-channel brain' (left and right hand).

(That probably explains why I can play the trombone and flute fairly well, but cannot play the piano. I have a one-channel brain, methinks.)

If he does show any talent in organ-playing, the school will be very delighted, I'm sure. As they have not had an organ player for a long time.

Son also came home without any books to revise for exams next week.

"They didn't give us a chance to collect our books."

He seems so relaxed about the exams, to the point that I think he is TOO relaxed. Let's hope he copes with it OK all of next week, which means that his eighth (EIGHTH!!!) birthday will become a complete non-event.

He does have a cricket match to play on Monday afternoon and cannot decide whether to go for the Band rehearsal at lunch time. He's been practising his part (theme from Wallace and Gromit) really hard. But attending the rehearsal means leaving him with 20 minutes to queue up for lunch, eat it, change into PE gear, and get ready for the bus trip to the Away match.

We'll leave the decision up to him.