Hello all,

I must apologise for not continuing this blog since August 2010 but we had a major earthquake in September of that year  in Christchurch and then after smaller shocks we had a killer earthquake on 22nd February 2011. (The total number of earthquakes we have had runs into the thousands).

Since that period we have spent a lot of time clearing up and fixing our properties. I can report that I got a new Technics organ. (well new to me as it is 18 years old)   It is my dream organ a GA3 which was top of their range before thay stopped making organs. I had played one on stage at the amateur organ festival in Morecambe England in 1994  (Which was when mine was first purchased.) and I said at that time that I will one day own one. Well I now do. I received it on the FIRST ANNIVERSARY of the 22nd February Earthquake. In that time I also welcomed a newgrandson into the family, and his first Birthday is next Sunday as I write this.

I have created  a new music blog for you to follow as this will be probably my last entry in this one.

The link is below

How To Enjoy The Magic Of Music.

Please use this new blog as t will have a lot of videos, music liks and great articles in it. I hope that you will comment on it or email me with requests or ideas.

My thanks to you all for your past support.

  Best Wishes

                          Robin

Good To Be Back

Hello again, it is good to be back.

I apologise for the delay since my last article, but I have been absorbed in a charity event that my Daughter Jenny and her husband Robert have been organising to raise money for the local Neo-Natal Unit, to commemorate what would have been the first birthday of their son

Leo. (my Grandson), who passed away after three short days of life.

For those who are interested, the link to their web-site with all the details is. www.fortheloveofleo.co.nz

Right back to organs. By sheer chance, I was talking to Richard Hore, who plays as many of you know, a Technics GA3. Richard is a fantastic person, and I am having a get together with him very soon, at his house or mine. Now for all of those amongst you who struggle sometimes for your music to sound as you want it, do not give up. Richard who is a very sort after organist, is BLIND. He is a brilliant musician and played two pieces the other day specifically for me. One was "Take Five", and the other "Caravan."
Both difficult for the best of us. He was superb. Why is he so good. Because he does not give up.

Richard is a great friend of top UK organist Chris Powell, who is playing one of Richards pieces "Cavatina" on his radio show in the UK soon.

I am going to leave you with one of my favourites, "Speak Softly Love" from the film The Godfather., played in my own special way. Enjoy for now, and I will tell you the tale of how I learnt it in my next article aswell as the results of my day with Richard Hore.

"Speak Softly Love"

Bye For Now


Robin

It's Christmas Time Again

******** It's Christmas Time Again ********

Yes it's Christmas time again, and I am gearing up for the festive season with my birthday on the 20th, my Granddaughters fourth birthday on Christmas Eve and of course Christmas Day. For those who follow Robins-Organs, I must apologise for the large break since the last article in May. My Grandson Leo James Matthew, was born in early May, but passed away through lack of kidney and lung development, after three days in an incubator. It was a difficult time for the family and I had to give my support to those around me for a long time. Well, Christmas music is all around again, and I have to say that there is a great variety of carols, and songs to get your teeth into, or just enjoy. I have two new videos her for you. One is a Rhumba entitled "Mary's Boy Child" made famous by Harry Belafonte (and don't I wish I could sing like him). The other is what should be a Christmas classic, called "Stop The Cavalry" and was an original piece by Jona Lewis in the early 1970's (and yes, I checked the spelling of his name). For those who know the lyrics, you will appreciate the opening and closing content of my video pictures. This piece for those of you who love dancing or playing for dancing, is a great March Polka, and so makes a great Barn Dance.

Try it.








In both pieces you will hear the use of instrument changes, including Saxophone, Trumpet, Solo Flute, Flutes, Strings, and Voice. You should also be able to pick out the changes in Reverb, Sustain, Fast and Slow Tremolo and Celeste. I will have more new pieces on You Tube in the next couple of days, and a new article here before Christmas Day.

Have a Safe and Happy Christmas wherever you are in the world.

Best Wishes.

Robin

Playing With Your Own Style

Hello there, yes it's me, I am back.
Well I haven't actually been away, just side-tracked a little. between, family, writing for Ezine Articles, and increasing my "You Tube" music videos to 18. On top of that, I have got my glasses sorted out, for the first time since my "Detached Retina" operation on Christmas Day, so I can now see things clearly out of my right eye.

Mind you, three weeks ago, I developed a yellow spot on the right eyeball in the vicinity of where they put the needle in my eye on Boxing Day , when the put a gas bubble in the eye to relocate the Retina. It looks like the yellow head on an inflamed pimple. Last week, the Eye Clinic after examination think that it is a reaction to the band that they put in my eye, to fix the Retina problem. All good fun, but it does not stop me playing the organ.

I have now placed some very interesting links on this Blog. The first of which takes you directly to my You Tube channel, It is
"Robins Music Performance Videos" and this IS the actual link so you can access it from this article. The other links are to my Ezine Articles Author page, and the others, well let's just say that they are a bonus to all readers of my blog, so have fun with them.

Now on to the more serious stuff.

Whilst I have not been adding articles to my Blog, I have worked hard on presenting some of my, let us say ,older pieces of music on You Tube. I am chuffed to little mint-balls with them, as I have got seven 5-Star Ratings, and one 4-Star Rating out of eighteen videos. The last one of these is Telstar, which I originally played for my wife, who loves it. Whilst I cannot say that it is anywhere near as good as the Tornados version (my favourite) I tried to capture the essence of what it was all about (Telstar being a satellite, launched many years ago into space.)

The recording that is on You Tube is one of my older recordings done on the Yamaha HC4. Before I had the Technics GX5 I had a Lowrey Coronation, but I could not record directly off it, and volume and distortion are always a nightmare when trying to use a microphone with a big organ. The Yamaha with a little tweaking of adapters went into the computer and from there I managed to record a few goodies. Included in this batch, is "You're The Only Good Thing That Happened To Me" Ghost Riders In The Sky" and "The Lady Is A Tramp".

I use my own interpretation for them and I have to say that I was as always inspired by the rhythm and accompaniment sounds of the organ, which then sent my performance direction towards the final sound. I used to use these particular pieces to show off the organs capabilities, and "The Lady Is A Tramp" which is in a medley with "Memories Are Made Of This" was always my opening piece when playing on my own or with my percussionist son, John, at my live performances. I also use this one when playing the Technics GX5, as it is a good Quickstep.

If you are a keyboard player or an organist and you are trying to get your head around Rhythms, Style, and Accompaniment then listen to others playing and note their interpretations. It will help you. Do you copy the styles? Ell, I used a similar style to Harry Stoneham (The musician for many years on the Mike Parkinson Show in England) when he did "You've Got Your Troubles." I played that in his style, in the background, at a Lowrey Organ demonstration that he was doing, on what was then, the biggest Lowrey available, whilst he was signing autographs. I seem to remember that I got a smile from him.

Another example that is actually on You Tube, is "You're The Only Good Thing That Happened To Me" on which I used the style of the brilliant organist Steve Lowdell, as used on his album "GEMS". Whilst I love Jim Reeves, and his rendition of this beautiful song, Steve Lowdells interpretation is fantastic. The background Accompaniment to the Waltz rhythm, lends itself to this piece of music. funnily enough, my Technics GX5 Waltz rhythm and Accompaniment does not, even though it is ten times the better organ.

From this, you can see that there are no hard and fast rules. As I have mentioned before in other articles both here and on Ezine Articles, you can make the music fit around your own abilities. If you do this, than the standard of your musical output WILL IMPROVE, without you stressing out about it.

As a final note, I have always looked at other organists, both professional and semi-professional, and thought that I am not as good as them, Well maybe I am not BUT to others who do not play, I can sound fantastic, as I have seen from the comments made on You Tube. I am accepted even though when I hear the mistakes that I have made, I cringe, so you see, if you stop yourself from playing to others, you are not doing yourself any favours.

GO ON GET PLAYING

Bye for now

Robin

Rhythm Part 2

Rhythm Part 2

Welcome Back to my articles on Rhythm. As a quick reminder to you, the main function of this group of articles is to look at the problem facing many musicians of modern electronic keyboard instruments, when to use a background RHYTHM.

Let's bring logic in here.

If you are set up with a nice Flute or Tibia setting and are about to play "The Lord's My Shepherd," you are generally looking for the slow smooth flow of the music, generating a feeling of peace. Now, in most cases that is right, but DO NOT be frightened to experiment. Hymns can be looked at as religious Folk-Songs. Many Folk-Songs are great to a background rhythm, and before any of you think I am anti-religious, I love singing hymns, attend church, have played the organ in church before now, and ran services.

Perhaps we should look at that favourite, "The Christmas Carol."

Now I have mentioned this one already in my article on Mood, My Dad bought an LP record at Christmas, in the late 1960's called "Tijuana Christmas" by the Torero Band. It was brilliant, containing fast moving Christmas Carols with good Latin style rhythms, plenty of trumpets, marimbas and tubular bells. It was so good, that Granada Television in England, used it as the background music for their Christmas TV Program adverts. I still love it after all these years. A classic piece off this, is a real goody "Good King Wenceslas". It is played around a real Latin Swing rhythm, and sounds fantastic. I have attched it to this article and when you listen to it, it gives you that get up and go feeling, and yet you can still sing to that, Dah-Da Da Dah-Dah Dah-Dah-Dah-Dah-Dah, Dah-da, Dah-Da, Dah-Dah. And you will enjoy it. After all, isn't enjoying music what it is all about?

Also remember that once you start playing with an automatic rhythm, it does not mean that you are stuck with it. For example, on my video clip of "Frosty The Snowman" which is on my You Tube Channel, and on this Organ Blog, you will see me apply a subtle rhythm change part way through, to the Swing rhythm that I am playing with and some Fill-ins to allow registration alterations. In this particular case, it allows me to change the dynamics of the playing style, otherwise, in a long piece of music after three or four verses, you can sound boring and repetitive to yourself, as well as those listening.

The subject of Rhythm will be continued again on my next article, because once you get the hang of it, you will gain confidence in yourself.

Finally, do you have to have the Background Rhythm all through the piece of music?

The simple answer is NO.

I often play the piece of music "How Soon" and start with no accompanying background rhythm, playing it in a easy moving Slow-Foxtrot style, then after the first verse, I bring in a Rhumba rhythm with its delays and pauses, and as if by magic the feeling of the piece has changed.

NOW JUST BEFORE YOU THINK THAT EVERYTHING I DO IS WRITTEN IN STONE.

I also do the same piece "How Soon", starting with no background rhythm, in an easy moving Slow-Foxtrot style and then after the first verse, bring in a Swing rhythm, which gives a more aggressive style to the piece, and just to really blow your minds, I often START it in a Rhumba Rhythm, and then bring in that aggressive Swing rhythm. That is the beauty of the Electronic Organ, and other multi-voiced instrument

Bye for now, see you soon

Robin

Rhythm Part 1

Rhythm Part 1

That age old problem facing many musicians of modern electronic keyboard instruments (and note that I am including Digital Pianos and Keyboards here) is when to use a background RHYTHM.

I am lucky in that sense as I can always feel the natural rhythm in the music, and can play either way easily. Being a Ballroom and Latin American Dancer also helps. (That was how I met my Wife). The problem is that Automatic Rhythms can make life so easy, at least that was what I thought in the early days of playing a Thomas Organ with Color-Glo (Yes I spelt it the American way as that was how it was on the organ).

That wonderful Ta-Tat-Tat-Ta, Tat-Tat Ta ,Tat-Tat-Ta, taking you past the Tick-Tick-Tick-Tick of the trusty metronome was a real boost. Suddenly on the organ as you tried to do the basic, Pedal-Chord-Chord, Pedal-Chord-Chord. Pedal-Chord-Chord, on your Moon River Waltz, the music gained more depth and a certain richness, as the tempo was steadier. Fine you say, BUT, what happens when you want to stop the rhythm, or re-start the rhythm. You see that is where a live percussionist (Drummer for the uneducated!!!) is different, as he or she can slow down, pause stop, fill in, restart or just adapt to the mood of the music and the musician they are accompanying. Mind you as my son is a percussionist with a Ludwig Drum kit, that can raise a WHOLE LOT of other problems.

So, back to rhythm. Many people can tell the difference between a Waltz, with its 3 / 4 timing, that is a constant 1-2-3 fitted into every bar of music (A bar being 4 beats hence 3 / 4 time) and a simple 4 / 4 time such as a Swing. The problem is recognising the various other rhythms. The list is large and includes Rhumba, Tango, Samba, Bossanova, March, March Polka, Dixie, Ballad, Slow Foxtrot and Jazz Waltz, to name but a few. Now I have to say that, over the years, different organ manufacturers have tinkered with rhythms on their products and having played many different makes of organ in my younger days, I have my favourites. As far as my own organs went, on the Lowrey Citation Spinet, I loved the Mambo, and Go-Go (you could also mix the rhythms on this). On the Lowrey Coronation it was the March Polka and Waltz. On the Lowrey MX1 it was most of them, on my current Technics GX5 it is the Bossanova, March, Rhumba, Cha Cha. , Jazz Waltz, Swing and Tango.

My answer to your selection problem, is listen to an example of the music being performed by somebody else such as an orchestra or rock band, whilst having your eyes closed. Listen to the rhythm and musical movements, then while you are still thinking about the melody, place your rhythm section on and listen to all the variations of each rhythm pattern that is similar to your piece of music. Adjust the tempo (speed) as necessary to match the one in your head, then listen for the one that most matches your memories of the piece. Believe me, there is no easy answer.

As an example, I love playing the piece of music "You're The Only Good Thing That Happened To Me. I have the Jim Reeves version but I was lucky enough to meet that great Organist Steve Lowdell, and he plays is beautifully in a smooth Waltz style on his Cassette/CD "GEMS". Now the Waltz rhythm on my Technics GX5 is fine, but the accompaniment to the Waltz is nowhere near as good as on my old Yamaha HC4 (Which I have now donated to my son and his wife following their recent marriage.) Although the Waltz rhythm itself is thin, the flowing arpeggios of piano that go with it, compensate dramatically.

I will finish this now by saying that this subject of Rhythm will be continued on my next article and on my Organ Blog, and I hope that I have given you a few things to think about. Remember, ROME was not built in a day.

My Link for you today is from my You Tube site

It is I Love You Because featuring a Swing Rhythm

See you soon

Robin

Setting The Mood

Sometimes, when you are listening to music, you hear the same piece of music by two different musicians, and one you like, the other well, it's only so so. The question is why?

Is it that the one we like is technically better? (No not necessarily)

Is it that we prefer the musician or musicians performing it? (Again
not necessarily)

The answer in many cases is MOOD.

Mood is something that sets the feeling of the piece of music. As you
listen for example to Ebb Tide, you can almost expect to hear the
waves lapping the shore in the background. You may remember the
sweeping strings on many Strauss waltzes. If it was done by electric
guitars, would it feel the same as you danced romantically with your
partner? I think not.

Do not get me wrong here. As an organist, I am a great one for playing
pieces of music in completely different ways. I was influenced greatly
in this when my Dad bought an LP record at Christmas, in the late 1960's
called "Tijuana Christmas" by the Torero Band. It was brilliant,
containing fast moving Christmas Carols with good Latin style rhythms,
plenty of trumpets, marimbas and tubular bells. It was so good, that
Granada Television in England, used it as the background music for
their Christmas TV Program adverts. I still love it after all these
years.

If you set the stage so to speak by having instrument sounds that link
to the music, then you can get away with murder in your playing
quality, because the mood is right. I used to play the Skye Boat Song,
and Amazing Grace on the good old Lowrey Citation Spinet organ, by
using the Reed/String tab down for Upper Keyboard, have Reverb on full, Vibrato on full and hold the Glide pedal in.This caused the organ to bend its overall sound back half a tone and gave a surprisingly good BAGPIPE sound. Yes, it was good. You could also do the same trick with an 8 foot flute tab, to get an authentic sounding Calliope (Fairground type organ for those who do not know what that is)

So, back to mood.

For today's attached piece of music from me, I have given you a link
to a little gem that I have put on YouTube.

I am an avid Western Fan. Fantastic films with great soundtracks, (The
Horse Soldiers, The Big Country, Shenandoah, The Magnificent Seven,Gunfight At the OK Corral The Alamo {John Wayne version} etc.) great TV Western shows (High Chaparral, The Virginian, Cheyenne, The Lone Ranger { that one was actually The William Tell Overture} etc.,) The mood of the music involved can give you a feeling of quite, noise, tension, of Indian attack, of flowing water and many other things. I especially like the soundtracks of Dimitri Tiomkin who did many for the films of director John Ford.

If you can imagine that instruments out in the wild west tended to be, Bow Fiddle, Guitar, Harmonica, Banjo, Fiddle and the occasional Accordion and so sounds were limited. In my presentation/ interpretation, you will hear the sounds that set the mood for the piece.

See what you think and send me an email or comment with your views.

You Tube Link

I hope you enjoy it.

Bye for now,

Robin

Playing For Dancing

Hello there,

A hectic time this month as our son John got married on the 14th February to a fantastic girl called Anna. As a wedding gift to them I have given them the trusty Yamaha HC4 organ. It is funny how music can play a large part in our lives. John and Anna were both involved with a performance of South Pacific many years ago. They did not know each other then, as he was at a boys high school and she at a girls high school. It was a combined school presentation. John was the percussionist and Anna played the trumpet in the orchestra.

Well I am only on a short note today, but I feel that a quick mention of playing for dancing is called for.

I actually met Susan my wife at Ballroom and Latin American Dancing lessons. playing the organ to a rhythm helped me with timing and a knowledge of the different rhythm patterns.

I am giving you a link here to one of my dance pieces. Enjoy it. It is called Let's Cha Cha Cha.

Let's Cha Cha Cha

In my next article, I will go further into this subject .

Bye for now.

Robin

Learn To Play Music Without Reading Music

For many people, attempting to play an instrument of any kind is a nightmare. First you have to learn to hold it, manipulate it and/or sit at it properly. Finally you have got that right, but then you have to ask yourselves the BIGGY? 'What do I play, and does it mean that I have to try and understand those little black tadpoles that seem to be going up or down, long black-barred climbing frames, with some of them even holding hands with each other."

The answer is NO.

As a musician who plays by ear, I feel that for many of you out there who are struggling to get to grips with your instrument, some helpful hints, tips and advice, may make the difference between you starting to enjoy yourself at your new found pleasure, or you placing your unwanted instrument on eBay, due to frustration at not having made any headway in learning.

Now before you think, "Oh Yeah, and what does he know" My Son is a percussionist, my daughter a Professional Jazz Singer and Teacher and my Son-in-law, a Professional Jazz Guitarist, who manages a music shop, and YES, they do all read music. The difference between us is that they all learnt basic music at school and then had lessons. I didn't.

"Why do I play by ear you may say." Well I had two brothers that were much younger than me. They had Recorder lessons in school. As mentioned in a previous blog, in about 1972, my Dad (bless his soul) decided in his wisdom to buy a brand new Electronic Organ for my two brothers and myself, to learn music on. You see in his childhood, he lived in a two-up, two-down terraced house As it was a large family of TEN, he slept in the attic/loft and as a kid, and that was where he tried to learn the violin. Needless to say, he did not and so although he loved to listen to music, he was only able to play by ear. You see nobody actually helped him to do even that. For you in today's information ridden Internet World, Help is only a click away.

As they say " Do not fear, Robin is here"

Music lessons at school for me had been basically singing from song books (words-only). I had no idea of basic music theory, but I had a vague idea about organs as my Godfather was a semi-professional musician who played the organ in clubs. When I visited his home I listened and watched as he played his late sixties, Lowrey Holiday Organ

The reason that I I play by ear, is that I have great difficulty in reading music. If I tried to read a piece of music, I would memorise the melody and then only follow the chords. Pretty soon I would have those memorised to. This does allow me to play many things straight off the top of my head. Dad and Mum often liked melodies and songs that we had no music for. As I mastered the two keyboard organ with bass pedals, they would ask if I could play certain tunes for them. I found that I could, be it a hymn, a march, a folk song, Waltz, Rhumba, Rock and Roll, slow or fast.

So what is the secret to playing by ear? My answer is, if you can hum it or whistle it, you can play it. Maybe not perfectly at first, but that will come in time. The more you play a piece, the easier it gets. I played regular charity sessions with a professional organist, and he would shoot over to me as I finished playing a piece of music hoping for a copy of it as he could only play by reading the music. He was disappointed as I played by ear.

My advice to you now is to make a start on playing by ear and follow on with further help such as this.

Finally, pick something easy to play in an easy key and try that first. My starter was always "God Save The Queen" Being English, I knew both words and tune. I did it in the key of "C" which was good for my instrument, and it was not to long.

Always have confidence in yourself, and remember when you are playing, that if "YOU ENJOY IT" other people do not matter. The ones who comment or criticise the most, are those who cannot do it themselves.

Bye for now,

Robin

Yes I Like Church Music

As an organ lover and someone who enjoys singing, I do love Church Music, You know hymns and carols. It is veryeasy to shut your eyes and imagine singing the hymn as you play(And yes, I often play with my eyes shut. I will cover that in the near future).

The organ wuth its wealth of Flutes or Tibias, is the one instrument that can add much variance to the melodies. Use of Reverb, Chorus/ Chorale/ Lesle Speaker/Tremelo, with fast or slow speeds can bring life to the music as you play. Sustain, and a really deep Bass Pedal sound fills it out nicely.

I am attaching yours truly playing my favourite Hymn. I hope you like it.

I would also like to thank, those people who have given me a 5 Star rating for one of my Utube pieces..

Bye for now

Robin

PS. If you want to request a piece played, I may be able to help you.

The Funny Noise

Dear All,

You will have probably seen or heard my attached videos here in previous articles, or on youtube at 2009RobinC. Now how many of you have heard a strange creaking noise in the background.
Well funnily enough I had mentally ignored it as I recorded the music, but on listening to them I was astounded at how loud they were.
Well you will all be pleased to note, that it was actually my good old trusty Technics organ stool. A couple of the legs had very slightly come loose. Never mind, a 17mm socket and ratchet soon fixed the problem. It does however lead nicely into the next part though. Recording yourself (or trying to record yourself).
I like may people out in the wide blue yonder, can have an absolutely great playing session, and actually sound fantastic, sometimes even to others, BUT.

As soon as we hit the record button on the organ, cassette recorder , video camera, or even the computer.
Woomph. It all goes wrong.

Well, you will be pleased to know that this problem hits even the best of them.

I was lucky enough to be at a presentation by John Walker, a professional English Yamaha Organ Demonstrator. He was talking about his recordings (Cassettes and CDs). He said that what happens is that he gets everything set up in the recording studio. Lights, Sound Levels, organ Settings etc, then,

AS SOON AS THE RECORD BUTTON IS PRESSED.

IT ALL GOES WRONG.

So friends, when you are down in the mouth, and thinking that you are a failure, remember the great John Walker's comments, and chin up. It is just perseverance. You will get there. Remember if you do not try again, then you have failed.

I will perhaps place a John Walker Track on this site soon. He is brilliant.

Well that is it for now, Be back soon.

Please add your comments or ideas, and feel free to email me.

Robin

Matching Your Instruments

Hello again,

It is now the eleventh of January in my part of the world and I am gradually getting the hang of the reduced visibility in thr right eye. It will be nice when the headaches end.

Now, as an avid organist, I have always been aware of the styles and registration ideas that other organists use. In the early days of the 1970's, organ voices were a little bit "suck it and see." Being a Lowrey fan at this time, my favourites were the fantastic String Bass and Bass Guitar pedal sounds, the Marimaba which at that time was a twin mallet repeat style and the Clarinet, which had this deep woody sound when played with reverb. (I was at a Hammond Demonstration in Bolton where the organist was no other than Bryan Rodwell. He made the Hammond sound fantastic but when a asked him for a Clarinet demo he admitted that the Lowrey one was far better at that time).

You have to match your particular instruments actual sounds to the right melodies, and I suppose that this also goes for the keyboard players, BUT if you play the right piece with the right instrument then you can let peoples imaginations takeover to fill in the gaps. It is all a question of feel and atmosphere.
As an example, an old trick on the Lowrey Citation Spinet, was to play Amazing Grace using the Upper Cello with Lower String Accompaniment and have on reverb but as you play, hold down the Glide Pedal, which bent the whole organ tone back half a tone. This gave an impressive BAGPIPE effect and if AOC was utilised it was great, especially if a Slow Waltz Rhythm was used with that melody.

Well that is all for now.

I have attached this video of Yours Truly playing Stranger On The Shore on the Clarinet, made famous of course by the legendary Acker Bilk.

Bye for now

Robin

Oops and a A Happy New Year for 2009

Well first of all I have to say Oops. I attached the wrong file to my last post and so there was no sound.
I am sure that you will all forgive me as I am working with my left eye only since the detached Retina operation.

Please acccept my apologies for this and try the revised attachment below.

May you all have a Happy and Prosperous New Year

Robin

Twas Christmas Day In the hospital

Well fellow organists, guess who had an emergency operation on a detached retina at 3-30 on Christmas Morning?
Yep. Me.

Well I have to say that as I was carol singing with my wife at our local community carol Sevice on Christmas eve afternoon, the vision in the right eye was suddenly getting worse as a rather large black area moved up from the lower left vision area. By 8-15 inb the evening I was persuaded by the family to go to thehospital. They took one look, and rang the on-Call specialist who came over from the Carols By Candlelight service in the City. I was earmaked for an operation at 1 in the morning but other operating room cases moved me to 3-30 am. I awokw after a general anesthetic was used to put me out for the Op, and they had stitched up two teras in the retina I believe. At 4 pm on Christmas day, I given a local anesthetic and they injected Gas into the eye.
Now on 29th December I am typing this with a rather amusing gas bubble floating arounf in the little vision I currently have in the right eye, BUT it is a lot better as I have just got back from a checkup.

Unfortunately it hindered my organ playing a fraction, so here attched is an older one of my playing called Blame It On The Bossanova, a melody that my wife and I used to dance too.

The tree is ours

Enjoy

Best wishes to you all for 2009

Robin

A Merry Christmas To You All

Well it is the 22nd December.
The Turkey is defrosting, the dried chestnuts are soaking and I have time for a quick play.

I hope you all enjoy it.

Robin

Playing For Christmas

Well, it is that time of the year again, and I have dug out the list of Christmas music that I play. It is a combination of Carols and songs that I like and generally if my memory hold up, can play. Unfortunately being and "Mr. I Play By Ear", I am once again, left looking at the list on occasion thinking,"How does this melody go", or I am half way through a piece when I suddenly run into a completely different tune, or forget completely and stop. (See and you all thought that reading music was a bind).

I have to confess that I am a Christmas Baby. My birthday is on the 2oth December, and my Granddaughters is on the 24th December. She will be three next week, I will be Mmmmm, old enough. As an Englishman and living in New Zealand, I have kept up our traditions here and after much searching, s till manage to have Roast Turkey dinner, Chestnut Stuffing, and Cranberry Sauce followed by home made Christmas pudding with Brandy Sauce. I also make the mincemeat for the 12 dozen (yes 144) Mince Pies that my wife Susan bakes.

The first photo here is of the old faithful organ, with the Christmas tree in the background. I find it helps to have achristmas feel around you when you are playing the organ at Christmas. It helps put that elusive feeling in that identifies your style from others.

Well I will leave you with a quick picture of our lounge. Many of the Christmas decorations on the fireplace were made by our children over the years. It is imp[ortant that Christmas is a family time.

Bye for now.

Have a great Christmas.

Robin

Entering The Organ World

Since about 1972, I have been interested in organs. My Dad (bless his soul) decided in his wisdom to buy a brand new Electronic Organ from a dealers called Hesseys in Liverpool for my two brothers and myself, to learn music on. You see in his childhood, he lived in a two-up, two-down teracced house (with an outside loo) in the Anfield Area of Liverpool. As it was a large family of TEN, he slept in the attic/loft. I believe that that was where he tried to learn the violin. Needless to say, he did not and so although he loved to listen to music, he was unable to play the organ, except by ear, and in that he struggled.
The organ he purchased was a small Thomas Spinet organ, with two keyboards, bass pedals and Colour-Glo (Color-Glo in its American spelling). Yes, the keyboards lit up with the notes, and the Chords C, F, and G where coloured to match the accompanying self-teach organ course.

Now music lessons at school for me had been basically singing from words only song books, I had no idea of basic music theory, but my two younger brothers were learning the recorder at Primary school and thus learning to read music.

Now we all had a vague idea about organs as my Godfather Bert Jones, was a semi professional musician who played the organ in clubs around the greater Liverpool area. On the occasions that we visited his home we had listened and watched as he played his Lowrey Holiday, a late sixties model before the introduction of built in Automatic Rhythm. We were amazed at the sounds that it could produce and the variety of instruments available. The best we had had as kids, was a very old second hand Chordette chord organ, and Dad had a mini piano Accordion on which he fudged around.

Needless to say I was hooked on organs.

Dad upgraded after a year to the then brilliant Lowrey Citation Spinet,(model GAK) with Golden Harp, Automatic Rhythm, and built in Cassette Recorder, and that became my life on the organ for around 7 years.

Other organs that have been owned by me include:

Lowrey Coronation
Lowrey MX1
Yamaha HC4
Technics GX5

I still have the Technics and Yamaha organs and yes, I have played many more makes,types and models over the years. I would stick my head into organ shops in England, and try out organs the same way that others may go into car dealers to try out cars. In my much younger days, I was able to distinguish by its overall sound the different organ types, such as Baldwin, Gulbransen, Conn, Hammond, Yamaha, Thomas, Wurlitzer and Lowrey. Wersi, Roland and Kawai, came later in my travels and by then the basics of organ sounds had taken on near perfect instrument reproductions, but as in the case of one wersi I tried, a greater difficulty in getting the basic flute/ tibia sound to play.

Unfortunately, I play by ear, I have great difficulty in reading music. If I tried to read a piece of music, I would memorise the melody and then only follow the chords. Pretty soon I would have those memorised to. It does allow me to use flexibility in my playing style, but many is the time that I needed to read sometning and have been stuck. I do enjoy the organ, and many people say that i sound great and would love to be able to play like me, but I do know my own instrument and how to get the best from it. My worst critic is me.

I will however eventually attach an MP3 of my playing soon to this blog in the near future along with photos of my past organs.

We have all had times when we have needed to ask for help or advice about, organ models and features, playing styles, music types, repairs, spare parts and similar. Now as the organ disappears through the use of single keyboards, it is getting harder and harder to cater for our needs as organists, especially for me now resident in new Zealand.

Now maybe, just maybe through this blog, links and contacts can be formed by us across the world that fulfill our requirements.

Thank you for coming to my blog. Please feel free to contribute to it, or visit us again.

Best Wishes to you organists out there,



Robin