The Organ Forum

How does your spouse feel about you and your organ playing?  Does your spouse mind organs in the house?  Is your spouse better than you?  Does that bother you?  Non-musician?  I'm just curous.

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Mark Pratt

Hammond 820 at church
Gulbransen President at home
Conn 628 Rhapsody gone

Mark, 

That would be ex-spouse in my case. Kinda answers all your questions eh?

Best,

H101

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1955 Hammond RT3, HR40 & Leslie 251 wired as 147
1961 Hammond M101 (Thanks Chuck!)

To answer my own question; yes and maybe, sometimes no.  She didn't like the Gulbransen's modern cabinet.  She does like me being the church organist.  I think she would rather me mow grass than practice.  It's better if I include her even though she is a non-musician.  It's better if I practice while she's doing something she likes.  Her family stupidly disallowed her to be in school band so she never learned about music.  She has been singing and I've accompanied her with the accordion at church.  I"ve been helping her with the songs.  The biggest area of contention was the community band.  It requires band practice every Monday night. 

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Mark Pratt

Hammond 820 at church
Gulbransen President at home
Conn 628 Rhapsody gone

Since I am single, this is slightly off the Mark (very lame pun fully intended):    

It is my sad general observation that most non-organ folks are intolerant of both the space that an organ takes up and the large amount of sound that it can produce.  This includes organs in churches!  Since we have replaced our 16-rank organ by incorporating it into a 72-rank organ, I know that there are parishioners who would have preferred that we had kept the small organ.  Much more room in the loft for the choir, must less security, much less maintenance, much less concert-level sound.  What's wrong with just soft background music?

Fortunately, these negative folks are a minority; but those of us who love the 72-rank organ and wonder how we ever did without it are also a minority.  I fear that the majority of our parishioners don't really give a flying French Horn one way or another.  This is why the organ was privately funded; otherwise it never would have happened.

Audiophiles have a similar problem with their spouses accepting their large stereo (or home theatre) systems.  They refer to "WAF" which means "wife acceptance factor."  Oh well . . .

I have no spouse (I'm 18, in high school, and soon off to college) my parents don't mid too much, but, I don't have any truly organ shaped objects in the house, the closest I get is the upright piano, or PSO in Steinway parlence, but I get the feeling my parents think I play too many instruments.

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Once you can tie your arms into a pretzel and your legs into a knot, you've got it under control

I don't have a spouse. My parents don't seem to mind, the only instrument I have at home is an elderly upright piano. I do however, make sure that I don't practice at un-neighbourly times like late in the evening/night etc.

I don't have an organ at home - the Allen TC-3S is in storage (as it won't fit through any of our doors or windows). However if I did get it in a house of some sort, I would get someone to install some headphone output to it so that I could practice at all times of the time without bothering anyone.
 

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Currently own:
ALLEN TC-3S (#42904 - 3rd Feb 1971) with Sequential Capture System

Speakers:
x1 Model 100 Gyro Cabinet
x1 Model 105 Cabinet
x3 Model 108 Cabinet

Hammond101:

That would be ex-spouse in my case.

Best,

H101

WHAT SPOUSE??  Blissfully happy being single and intend to remain so, doing what I want when I want, which includes playing my organs. Don't want or need any baggage that may intrude on my lifestyle.

Cheers,

Ian

 

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"If music be the food of love, play on!" - William Shakespeare.

MenchenStimme:

Audiophiles have a similar problem with their spouses accepting their large stereo (or home theatre) systems.  They refer to "WAF" which means "wife acceptance factor."  Oh well . . .

 

I'm an audiophile AND an organist. I've yet to get an organ for home, but I do have a room dedicated to hifi, with various treatments on the walls and that kind of stupidity. If and when I buy a digital, it's going in the same room.

So yes, I have a very understanding spouse, although when I drag her along to organ concerts she uses the time to mentally balance her bank account and that kind of thing. 

My wife is fairly tolerant of both my playing and the space required by the organ. She is a pianist, so we have a piano taking up quite a bit of space in the same room. The organ does occupy somewhat more space, though. She has drawn the line at my adding any more speakers to the organ, though I'd love to let it speak through more of its available channels.

As to whether she plays better than I -- well, who's to judge? She plays the piano better than I do, but she won't even try to play the organ, so I can claim that one.

She's not very interested in going to organ programs with me, but I don't attend many anyway. If it's an organ that Matt and I have serviced or installed he'll usually go with me.

My wife and I do have an interesting musical collaboration in that we are a team at church, a church that enjoys hearing piano and organ played together. In fact, this is quite an enjoyable and interesting activity for both of us.

John

 

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Rodgers 890 at church.
Baldwin D422 at home.
Scads of old organs in the shop! H E L P !!!

My wife is very supportive and a non-musician.  I have a Conn organ in our home.  This organ is about 30 years old.  I haven't played it for several years.  I spend all of my practice time (8-10 hours a week) at church.  I have an old upright piano that my Great-grandfather bought new somewhere around 1910.  My youngest son plays that.  Both of these are in the library and I maintain that room. 

Yes, my wife is better than me on several issues.  No that doesn't bother me.

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Acts 2:38
Psalm 150 (KJV)

My wife is generally supportive of the organ. The only problem is that she seems to think that working at other tasks is more important than organ practice. Usually, there is not a problem with playing the organ except when she has a special TV show. With the pipe organ, the only way to play quietly is to use quiet stops, which in a home is not really very quiet. The organ console, listening room, pipe chamber, and sound mixing room occupy about 1/4 of the floor space in the house, so that I can say that she is quite supportive. The organ uses the entire living room space so that the family room is the de facto living room.

We do go together to some organ programs together, mostly theatre organ events as she is not much into classical music. She learned on an electronic organ and is not comfortable playing the pipe organ so that I am the only one who plays unless we have visitors.

The general answer is Yes! 

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Style D Wurlitzer Pipe Organ
http://www.bluemoonwalkinghorses.com/Style_D_Description5_rev2.html

Not married. My father loves hearing me play. My mother says my organ is a "Baby Hammond" (she grew up on a D152, so she's a bit spoiled). Nevertheless she doesn't mind, except when I play too loud (how do you play too loud on an M100???). All my wonderfully supportive siblings roll their eyes with about as much candor as a suicide bomber. Then again, I am the strange "middle child". All you middle children will understand! 

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First they came for the ABC consoles, then they came for the older consoles. When they finally got to the spinets, they were all gone.

My wife generally tolerates the organ and infact She and I bought a small 6 rank pipe organ then later a Wurlitzer D Special that we removed from a church several years ago.

 

I'm fortunate to have a wife who is supportive of my public activities on the organ (both church and concerts), and tolerant at home. Of course it helps that the organ room is close to the back of the house and the TV room in the front, with about thirty feet and several walls and doors separating the two. We have no children (besides five four-legged ones, and the church job pays a little more than half of our living expenses. We run three weekly paper routes together, therefore we have lots of time to get all the work done at home, and there is a lot of that, expecially during warm weather, as we raise a fairly large garden, and I mow two and a half acres.

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Mike

owner of an Allen MDS317 and working
on a custom digital using a Rodgers 220
console. I play a forty rank pipe organ on Sunday mornings.

Crozzyinoz, couldn't have said it better myself ! I think from what I fill my spare time with, playing the organ is the one with the best WAF. (trying to play the organ would be a better description)

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