Make Sundays Easier

You can find yourself so busy that you haven’t got the time to get better organised. If you did, you would have more time and probably more peace of mind - a luxury for many busy people these days

Here are a few tips that should help you become better organised, find more time, play better and be able to sleep on a Saturday night!

Easy music played well is more impressive to listen to than difficult music played badly. Don’t spend valuable time practising pieces that are too difficult for your standard, when you could be practising something that you can play with a little effort. That also applies to the choir’s music.

Make sure that the Vicar/Priest or Pastor gives you the hymns in advance (if you do not choose them together). There’s no shame in saying if a hymn is too difficult to play - especially if you have a lot of music to prepare.

Also, verses are often omitted on grounds of gender so make sure there are no surprises and you aren’t playing one more verse than the congregation is singing - very embarrassing!

If the vicar gets carried away on a chorus and wants to go ‘round again, have a signal agreed to aid communication - no, not that one!

It really is much easier to play hymns if you learn and use the pedals. Again, don’t play just with the left foot if you have a full pedal board, use both feet and heels and toes.

Registration should be organised into one stop changes ... that is be able to make dynamic and tonal changes by just the pull or push of one stop and of course a change of manual will do the same.

To sum up, preparation is the key to making Sundays a little easier, don’t be too ambitious and try not to allow other people to intimidate you - being a bit thick skinned is an advantage, however, I think most organists are quite the opposite if they are of modest ability.