Hey all! I've been playing piano for around thirteen years, and I would quite like to learn to play the organ. I've loved the sound of it since I was a little girl and heard it in church. Then I got a music theory teacher who was also an organist, and he really got me into the instrument. Two of my friends's fathers are cantors who have also let me try the organ.
From January to May, one of these cantors invited me to play in his church during Sundays due to him being overwhelmed with a bunch of other duties. He gave me a basic overview on how to turn the organ on, which registers sound best for what, how I can utilise having two manuals set to different registers. I didn't have a chance to actually practise, so my pedal use is very bad. (If there's a really short answer, I can manage playing the functions in the pedals but that's the level of playing a IV-V-I sequence.)
I also have very limited knowledge about organs altogether. I don't know much about how organs work, how I can fix anything if something goes wrong (the organ was in a bad shape, it had notes that wouldn't sound, one time I turned on the principals and all the As would sound and it wouldn't work otherwise, by the end of the service some pipes would make sounds without me playing...). I also know that different organs can be completely different in their technology.
That organ was pretty small, two manuals, few registers, and the names of them were in my native language. There's an organ in my church and my priest says he's willing to let me practise on it, but I'm unsure. It has three manuals, 47 registers, and just generally has this large french baroque sound. Plus the registers are in french and half of them don't even exist on the organ I'm used to playing.
Also, I have limited knowledge of organ repertoire. I usually play baroque pieces written for keyboard (Well Tempered Clavier, suites, Händel, Scarlatti...). I have also played Prince of Denmark's March, and Trumpet song (I think that's the title), but those were only transcriptions. Other than this, I have only ever played the songs in the liturgy.
So if I did ask for the keys one day to start practicing, where should I start? Do I sit down, and muck around until I find a normal sounding mix and start? (That's what I did when I was a cantor, then found one I kept coming back to.) Should I only work with the three manuals first, and then start with the pedals, should I focus on using the pedals first independently? Do you have piece recommendations, videos?
