Yippee! After waiting for over 32 years, I finally have a fullsize organ in my house for practicing. What a blessing!


Now, I can just walk down the hall to practice whenever I want. No more sweating in the church sanctuary in the summer, or freezing in the winter. This is just wonderful!

I'm glad I took the time to do the walls and flooring in my living room before the organ arrived. My living room has now turned into a music studio! :)


I took photos of the organ delivery, to show how it all happened.

Everything on the truck:


Unloading:

Inside the house, I'm waiting for the organ to come in:


Outside, the guys are discussing how to maneuver the organ through the front door:


It's in!


Cover removed:


Here's the bench!


Arranged the way I like:


Pedals attached, and powered on:


Complete! In this photo, I had already spent over an hour practicing on the organ, so I was taking a knitting break.

I started learning to play the organ when I was 15 years old. I was already a working church musician, and had the church organ available for practicing. For the past 32 years, I've worked as an organist or pianist at several churches.

In all this time, I've had to practice all my organ pieces at church. This was always a seasonal thing, because churches don't keep their sanctuary heated or cooled all week long. Practice time has been a "get it when I can" thing, before or after church services. During the fall and spring, I've been able to practice a little more often, but never long enough.

Usually, after practicing a couple hours, I wanted to keep going, but the drive there and home added more time to the event. So, I had to stop, turn off the organ, put away all the music, and save my practice time for later.

I've always dreamed of having a real, fullsize organ at home, so I could practice as long as I want. I've watched the auctions on eBay, the listings on Craigslist, and asked around at churches. Usually, I could not afford the instrument, or it just wasn't the right kind. Most of the ones I found didn't have a full 32 pedalboard.

But, now my wait is over. I just won an auction for a Baldwin C630!

The Wanderer

Last night, I decided to try writing a piece of music. I've been a musician for almost 40 years now, but have only written a few simple songs. But, I've been hearing an orchestra playing beautiful music in my head since I was a little girl. I've often wondered what would happen if I tried to get some of that music out of my head. So, last night, I sat down at the piano, grabbed a handful of manuscript paper, and just started playing and writing it down. I went through a few sheets of manuscript paper, and finally ended up with one simple piece for piano. I'm calling it "The Wanderer".