Learn to Play an Organ for Your Own Enjoyment

Playing the organ for your own enjoyment is great and it can be kind of a hobby. I took lessons early in my marriage and have been playing for many years. The first lessons I had were with a nice gentleman who played organ and the accordion. I never knew these two instruments were similar in the keyboards, tone, etc. I learned a lot about music from this man such as some little tricks for when you make a mistake and other musical wisdom he was willing to share.

Then later in my life after we moved to New Mexico, I decided to take lessons again as I was getting out of my habit of playing the organ every day. This time, I had a lady for a teacher and she also taught me a lot about music in general. She told me to never stop playing if I made a mistake in the middle of a song. She said I should continue as if nothing happened and probably a lot of my audience would not have noticed.

My favorite kind of music is Christian hymns and even some about 'jolly old Santa Claus.' The contemporary Christian music is also good, but it is difficult to find that kind of music where the melody is played on the upper keyboard and the pianist plays chords on the lower keyboard. The effect is almost the same as when one plays specific notes as on the upper keyboard. I started to learn both ways - with and without chords, but somehow stopped my lessons again. This time I kept practicing and enjoying every minute.

When I play the organ now, it is like a kind of prayer, especially when I play the hymns of my religious faith, and even when I play some contemporary Christian music, as many of those more recent songs are beautiful also.

It is so difficult to find the organ music as I like to play (with chords), but I keep trying. One lady at our church gave me some music for the older traditional hymns and they are mixed with all other kinds of music. I may go back and try learning to play the organ with the left-hand notes on my own without a teacher or chords.

Sometimes I play the organ for family gatherings and also for friends and they all seem to enjoy my music. So, maybe my music isn't so bad after all.

Source: Personal Experience and Knowledge