David_A

This morning I practiced on the pipe organ at our church for a couple hours and recorded two of the things I was playing. The first file includes an abridged version of Bach's choral prelude "Wachet auf" and a brief excerpt from his "Little Fugue in G Minor." The second file is a Christmas song: "Hark the Harold Angels Sing." The organ has a few quirks (probably due to the two direct lightening strikes it has received and the fact that it is pretty old) and I haven't quite learned how to work with them yet (you can hear a few places where certain pipes in certain registers sound kind of inconsistently or have a slight delay, especially the "trumpette" pipes in "Hark the Herald Angels Sing"), but I'm really enjoying learning to play this incredible instrument.

The third file is a piano improvisation I did a couple of days ago on my keyboard. I was playing around with some blues at the time. I don't really know much about any of the theory or structure behind blues, I just know what they sound like and was having fun with some ideas.

David

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“Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.” - Ludwig van Beethoven

 

Cirrus_Minor

I planned on listening to this sooner, but I've been busy. Firstly, again, I can't tell you how jealous I am that you're able to play an organ like that. I can only imagine how incredible and powerful that would feel.

I'm listening to the first organ piece right now and it's really nice. To be honest, it's possibly even my favorite thing I've heard from you (though that may be because I'm more partial to organ than piano). Very beautiful. The ending was extremely nice as well, when it picks up a little.

The second organ piece is also very nice. The organ has such a full and beautiful sound to it, I can't get enough of it. Very nicely done.

The bluesy piano piece is also very nice, you put a very good bluesy touch to it. Very, very good. I really enjoy this. If I didn't know better, I would've thought you were very much experienced in playing blues; it really captures that blues feel incredibly well.

EDIT - I also love the type of lick you use at about 4:26 and again at 5:00; beautiful.

glider007

To be honest, I love the organ sound better than the piano so I can't be objective
All three pieces were very beautiful. Congrats!

David_A

Thank you Cirrus_Minor and glider007, I'm glad you liked them. I have been trying to get a good recording of Bach's Toccata in D minor but haven't quite found the right registrations yet where all the pipes that I need will sound correctly, but I'll post it when I do.

Now that school has started back I haven't really been able to find time to get in a practice on the organ very much, but I'm hoping to get in every couple weeks. Probably the biggest thing I need practice on is the pedals; it's quite a jump going from focusing on two lines of music on the piano to three on the organ, and then playing one of them with your feet.

David

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“Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.” - Ludwig van Beethoven

Cirrus_Minor

I don't doubt it. Good luck.

Aqualung

You sound like you're having such a great time learning how to use that organ. That's so cool and must be really fun. I agree with Cirrus that you really seem to have taken a good grasp of a genre that you haven't formally studied. You have an incredible ability to play in all sorts of genres. Good job.

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Here we go. Mushu cereal for breakfast with duck sauce.