My Favorite Acting Stage: The Bar Chapter Three

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Read Chapter Two Here

I listened to the organ with my eyes closed and knew it had more pipes then the little church back home.
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Jane laughed asking if I was OK. I opened my eyes and saw the shadow of the cross on the building across the street. The side of the church facing me was so common I would never had guessed it was a church.

I asked what the band’s name was and when she was a little slow I asked if it was the Angels or maybe the Pulpit’s back room. She knew I had figured it out and told me the people were nice so I should be too.

I stopped and told her if she could get me a seat at the organ’s keyboard for a few minutes I would be so nice she would be sick.

She grabbed my arm and used a key to get in a steel door. As soon as it opened I saw the bass pipes and immediately walked to one and put my forehead on it. She asked if I wanted some alone time.

I asked if her pipes felt this way and she blushed and left me. I caught up and we walked into a beautiful church through another locked steel door.

I had just turned around to find all the pipes when the music ended. She started walking towards the side of the stage I guess you would call it.

I followed and said hi to several people coming out of what I assumed was the choir section. We went through a passage beside it and there was the organ keyboard.

I heard Jane say something and an older guy stood up and motioned me to sit. I was in heaven and I guess my grin showed I was in the right place.

He asked if I was doing a hymn or something else. Before I could answer he pushed some stops in and said we’d see.

I got settled and played some simple single handed hymn – at least I think it was a hymn. He pulled one of the stops out giving me more volume and I started Pachelbel’s Canon but he stopped me motioning me to stand up.

He pulled the pedal covers off and motioned me back down. I warned I had never played it with pedals but I practiced for a few moments, re-adjusted my seat then played the worse I ever had.

He smiled all the way through and Jane just sat there with a happy look on her face.

By the time I was nearing the end I had finally got my hands and feet working together and he had given me full bass.

But I was also hearing something else and Jane motioned to look over the divider and the choir was singing the melody notes.

I used to be the backup player for a small church back home. Their organ did have foot pedals but most of the songs I played were so simple I almost fell asleep. I practiced at least once a month and toward the end of every practice I always played rock or jazz or blues.

One evening the pastor asked that I give them an impromptu jazz concert when the main speaker was late. They asked me back several times.

But this was the first time I had a ‘real’ pipe organ under my fingers and feet. One of the singers asked if I knew some song and I asked her to sing it and I improvised until the older guy pulled the sheet music out of a cabinet and put it in front of me.

He directed us and worked the stops and turned the pages and I must say we did a grand job.

He asked if I would be around in the morning at ten. He thought the congregation would love that song. I did not even get to answer, Jane just smiled and said she was sure I would help them.

We did the song three more times then I met most of the choir. One of the younger kids jokingly asked if I could play some song and she hummed the first few bars and I started playing – one of my son’s favorites.

It completely blew her away. Then the old guy said I had come to sit for just a few minutes and two hours later they had kidnapped me. He asked what I wanted to play.

A friend playing guitar and I loved to play jazz during jam sessions. We had even polished a couple of songs but had yet to play them in public. One song in particular I played on an electronic B2. This organ could sound like a real B2 and the old guy did his stuff.

I started playing and loved it so much I repeated the song four or five times while trying different filters. Everyone liked it and applauded when I was done. The old guy told them I had written it – I wondered how he knew.

I helped him clean the keys and pedals and close the organ up. I thanked him several times and promised I would be early the next morning.

Jane kissed the old guy on the cheek and said, “Thanks Dad”, told him she loved him and we left.

She grabbed my arm to speed me up and told me we were half way there. I asked what she meant but she didn’t answer.

Read Chapter Four Here