Organ tunning/training

[jvhldb]

Does anynone have any suggestions on how I would find somebody to teach me BASIC organ tunning an maintenance in South Africa?

We have a lot of problems getting our organ properly tuned and the church decided that they will pay for me to do a basic course in organ tuning.

[dll927]

Depending on the organ, how "basic" do you want? Tuning and maintaining an organ of any size can be a matter of skill, patience, and plenty of time to spend on it. Some ranks, such as reeds, tend to need more attention than others.

Just out of curiosity, are there electronic instruments available nowadays that can accurately set the tones as needed? By that I mean tuning tones, not flute from vox humana. Surely they would be a fairly recent achievement, so it still goes mostly by ear.

It would seem that tuning something like a State Trumpet stop would require ear protection up there in the confines of the instrument.

[wljmrbill]

Some I know use electronic methods i.e. like occilscope, wave displying units... if they do not have perfect pitch or relative pich to ascertain pitches properly for tuning. and of course someone who can assist you from the keyboard. Not an easy job for sure. I wish you good luck as it takes hours, days and even weeks in some cases.

Maybe Panos has something from the VPO world that would help you out.. I do not know why using a VOP instrument might not aid you in tuning your ranks. A thought.

[jvhldb]

Depending on the organ, how "basic" do you want? ........

We get a lot of cyphers in our organ due to dust (the organ tuner says they only do a major cleanup every 15-20 years, but ours haven't had a good cleaning in 23 years) and we often have pipes that go out of tune due to temperature changes. Getting the tuner in means R2,000 or more and a wait of a couple of weeks.

My metronome has a tone generator and a frequency detector in. We've used it on a couple of occasions to tune the trumpets (with a butter knife) after tipping the bat dung out.

At the moment the ranks are not tuned to each other either, but are tuned seperately by ear by the tuner. We can only use 2 ranks in conjunction with the piano. The piano is always in tuned to conert pitch and the rest of the ranks on the organ are nearly a quarter tone out if compared to the piano.

It was suggested that I re-tune the organ with the metronome/tone generator, but I'm scared of doing this without first finding out how to do it and getting the proper tools.

The major cleaning and misfirring relays I'll rather leave for the organ builder to sort out.

[wljmrbill]

Can always do what alot of churches/places do..do not use the piano and the organ together... as in many cases maybe A=440 is not used in organ tuning anyway. Another thought. If you can I would get the dust and bat dung etc out of the pipes and the chambers without stiring up the pot so to speak. Of course temp. are a problem in many areas of the country. If you do not have the necessary equip.to maintain an even temp. this is a constant problem which usually means twice a year tunings at season changes. Perhaps someone can give you info on links/text/videos etc on the subject. Good Luck my friend.

[ggoode.sa]

Hi Johan,

Organ tuning is dependent on temperature, so tuning your organ to concert pitch in summer (Oct in SA) will mean that you can play with the piano when the days are nice and warm. Come winter (unless your church has excellent temperature control), the organ will be out of tune with the piano, unless you 'tune with the seasons' as some churches do (which means touch-up tuning 4 times a year).

The principals of organ tuning can be learned from reading books, but you would really need the experience of an organ builder to show you the proper tricks of tuning each rank... some are more simple than others. Do a search on YouTube for 'Tuning Pipe Organ' and you'll get a general idea of what is to be done.

If your organ tuner has already indicated that some of the ranks of the organ cannot be tuned to A=440 then ask him how close they can get. As long as your Principals can be tuned to A=440 then your other ranks can be tuned to 'Celeste' with the Principals and the whole organ will be closer to what you need.

Your other option is to tune what ranks can be tuned to concert pitch, and then add virtual ranks using MIDI technology and a computer connected to a bank of loud speakers in the organ chamber. The technology to do so has matured nicely in the last few years and DIY options exist. See http://zionorgan.com/Organs/Opus1/Zi...nnerOrgan1.htm for an example of what can be done.

I can put you in contact with a few organ builders here in Gauteng... let me know if you'd like their telephone numbers.

GrahamG

[jvhldb]

Thanks very much for the info. Some of the pipes in each rank are close or on concert pitch. If we can get the rest of those ranks tuned properly we will have enought stops to use the organ with the symphony orchestra and piano.

We don't have good temperature control in the church so the organ is "supposed" to be tuned every 3 months, but we're lucky if we can get it tuned more than once a year.

Thanks for the tip about youtube, it looks like I'll be spending most of my spare time watching online videos for the next couple of weeks.

I'll appreciate it if you can send me the contact details for the organ builders in Gauteng, maybe one of them will be prepared to show me the basics.

[ggoode.sa]

Hi Johan,

I have sent you a private messages with the contact details.

YouTube is a wonderful resource for seeing possibilities and gleaning tips. Remember that you can also post questions for the people that have made the videos available!

All the best,

GrahamG