All about our schools' project ...
We started in Autumn 2019 by designing and making a portable organ. Covid interrupted our plans but we will demo for the first time in Autumn 2022. We will be telling you what happened here!
In the meantime, watch the 7 minute video we made for the Royal College of Organists (below) and read about how we designed and built the organ.
Do you know of an organisation that would like a demo of this amazing instrument or would you like to have a go yourself?
Here’s a short video about the preparations for our Schools’ Project. Turn the sound up!
Getting started …
Children growing up today are likely to hear or see an organ only if they go to a traditional church service or visit one of the older concert halls. This means the majority of children will rarely if ever hear organ music and in some cases not even know what a pipe organ is.
This is about to change in North Hampshire!
Where will you find most children in term time? In a school usually with no pipe organ at their disposal.
We have decided to try an approach where we take the organ to young people rather than trying to get them to visit an organ. We are offering an organ workshop to GCSE level students in secondary schools. Already we have had a very enthusiastic response from Calthorpe Park School in Fleet and we hope for similar reactions from other schools.
Our offer requires a portable instrument capable of making a wide range of sounds – spectacular through to enchanting. After considering how this could be achieved we concluded that a two manual / pedals digital instrument designed and built by ourselves and using the Hauptwerk software program is the best affordable option.
Martin Barnes and I led the project. The next step (in advance of discussion with more schools) was to design and build the console around available keyboards and pedalboard so that the parts can fit into a mid-size car and each be carried by one person.
The details of the workshops will be put together in collaboration with the music staff of the schools. We expected to have the first workshops early in 2020 but Covid restrictions have caused a considerable delay. We will give updates when we have started visiting schools but in the meantime, please follow our preparations for this exciting project below!
Geoff Willis
Designing ‘portable’ …
OCTOBER 2019
How do you take an organ up a mountain? You make sure it’s portable!
Our mountains are schools where we will run workshops and demonstrations to the music students using a wide range of music with spectacular sounds. We decided that the console has to be portable so that we can be move it from an estate car into a music room and still be in a fit state to play it afterwards!
We started with some basic ideas of what the console had to do. Two manuals with a music desk, yes, but when you are busy talking enthusiastically to a young audience, selecting sounds to demonstrate needs to be quick and easy. So we will have thumb pistons galore – Divisionals, Generals, a Stepper and Couplers, as well as the Flush (General Cancel) for emergencies!
Designing for portability means sketching, measuring, and calculating weights of keyboards, pedalboards, wood and aluminium panels, computers and bits of electronics that make up the whole of the console. We ended up deciding to have two modules: a box for the Great manual with the electronics mounted behind the keyboard and a second box for the Swell that would locate on top.
Having all the electronic gubbins inside the console means there will only be a few cables to plug in and no boxes on the floor to get kicked or “borrowed”. It also means everything inside has to be strapped down with the essential controls accessible with minimal fuss.
We found the best way to work on this phase was Geoff sketching the bits and pieces then talking it through with Martin and Peter. Peter, my nephew and also his sister, Holly, have become so interested in the project that they have joined NHOA!
The first test of a good design comes when you try to make the bits and even more so when you assemble them. There is always something that won’t quite work the way you drew it. By the time you are reading this, we will have bought the keyboards, the wood and aluminium so watch out for the next installment when we will talk about the trials and tribulations of making stuff and fitting it together!
Keys and cases …
NOVEMBER 2019
After a lot of armchair and laptop research and armed with lists, dimensions and target prices, it was time to start buying some bits. The priority was to get started on the console so “bits” means keyboards, wood and aluminium.
We were given two pairs of keyboards but unfortunately one set had faulty contacts which couldn’t be repaired and the other set were too heavy. Many digital organ builders have used M-Audio keyboards – 61 notes and a reasonably firm touch. We found two refurbished by the manufacturer for a very reasonable price.
After undoing countless screws, we had the keyboards naked – out of their plastic enclosures. The electronic bits were disconnected – they won’t be used. So with some deep breaths, plywood and blocks of ash were marked out and cut on the table-saw.
The front of each key has to be cut to reduce the overhang and spacer blocks were made to go under the keyboard to ensure enough height for the thumb rail and pistons.
The case for the Great manual also houses the computer, audio pre-amplifier and the MIDI encoder. We will make straps to keep them in place when the organ is moved.
As well as making all the bits, we thought a lot about the sequence to put the pieces together. For example, most of the holes must be drilled before gluing things together otherwise there isn’t space for the drill.
Working from sketches rather than a proven plan means there are always details that only become evident when you have the pieces in your hands. For example, the audio pre-amplifier (red box) has volume controls. They will only be used rarely but where is the best place for the box so they are accessible? There’s no substitute for physically trying things out.
We will do similar work on the Swell case. There is a small display to install on the front and wiring for connectors so the Swell keyboard works with the computer in the Great case.
It is tricky to estimate how long each of the bits will take to make and install because it’s a unique design being done for the first time. The most important thing is that it’s well made for the purpose intended and the process is enjoyable! It is – so far!
Next time, we will show you the remaining parts of the cases, how they lock together for use and the neat way the electrical connections are made between them. Oh, and how thirty five thumb pistons can be wired without making a birdsnest!
Geoff Willis and Martin Barnes
Saw fingers …
DECEMBER 2019
Most projects are like you see on TV. Things start well but that would be rather mundane if they go on too long, so a difficult problem arises – either a set-up or for real. In the case of the organ for our schools project, there has been a real one.
I had an accident with the table-saw, resulting in deep cuts to the ends of the three middle fingers of my left hand. I think I am very careful with power tools but for some reason on this occasion I changed the procedure I have used for years and had a very rude awakening. Fortunately, the fingers are all intact and moveable but the accident has caused some delay in the construction work.
This time of year is a busy one for organists and everyone else so Martin and our other helpers have not had much opportunity to step in. However, while I wait for the scars to heal, there are still things that can be done.
To keep the costs down, we had decided to make, rather than buy ready-made, the one special bits of electronics needed: the MIDI encoder that scans the keyboards to tell the computer program what notes have been pressed. I have been able to do some soldering so the printed circuit cards for the keyboards have been wired up and tested – and yes, they worked!
We have mentioned before about the large amount of pondering that goes on before cutting and drilling can be done, even after sketches have been made.
It’s the details that take the time to work out but a lot can be done with a pencil ahead of the physical work so that’s what I’ve concentrated on. For example, the exact dimensions for the thumb piston rails, where to cut the ventilation holes for the computer, how to attach the swell pedal to the pedalboard, etc.
Next time we hope to tell you about the construction work we have caught up on and about a meeting with Calthorpe Park School to plan details of the first workshop.
Wishing you all an Exciting and Unscathed New Year!
Geoff Willis
Pistons and pedals …
JANUARY 2020
With the Caroling Season over, we’ve had renewed enthusiasm in tackling the myriad of small jobs that come with ‘design and build’ projects! The detailed ideas and sketches, prepared while my fingers were recovering, have been useful in reducing the ‘ponder time’ in the garage. So what sort of jobs are they? Well, a good example is the thumb rail. For the Great manual, it needs sixteen holes for the thumb piston switches. Drilling makes round holes and they have to be filed square – big enough to push the switches through but tight enough so they’re not sloppy. The rail needs painting to look smart. The contacts on the switches need wiring. That means soldering. It’s fiddly: colour-coded wires and tiny diodes that look like a little blobs of coloured glass with two wires poking out. Very satisfying when it’s done!
The Great console was in good state to show at the AGM on 25th January. Like all demos, an unintended little ‘feature’ showed itself: a cipher, just like a pipe organ! Something in the keyboard scanner is getting upset so that needs investigating. I had loaded an organ from Friesach, Austria that has a big German Romantic sound. Folks seemed quite intrigued but there wasn’t much opportunity to play the portable instrument on this occasion as the Emily Edwardian organ was a competing attraction.
We have also been working on the pedalboard. Its contact board was originally in the base of John M’s Rodgers console so that has to be attached to make an integrated unit. This has entailed some ‘bigger woodwork’ to make it robust but with little additional weight. We had preserved the very neat wiring and electronics card from the Rodgers organ. My brother, Adrian, a professional electronic systems designer, suggested we used what was there if it worked rather than replace it with something new. His advice came from years of experience of using parts where the suppliers have already solved all of the design and implementation problems so why risk creating some new ones! We still need a little software program on a processor to translate the messages the Hauptwerk program understands. We’ve written the program and it nearly works!
In the first week of February, Martin, Rob and I had a meeting with Calthorpe Park School to plan the first student session. We have agreed to give a presentation and demonstration to a whole class of Year 10 GCSE students followed by an interactive workshop with eight of them who are known to be particularly interested. That will be on 18th March.
Ross Walker, Head of Music, was very impressed with the Great console and the Friesach organ. He is very keen to have the organ featured in their Spring Concert to parents on 30th March. This will be in the new school hall with a high specification audio system. Ross is expecting one of his Grade 8 piano students to play something.
Exciting, or what?! Just got to finish the organ now. More tales next month.
Geoff Willis, Martin Barnes and Rob Goldfinch
Plans and priorities …
FEBRUARY 2020
Deadlines, deadlines! Projects only get finished by having them, of course. Now we have agreed the date for the first workshop at school, there has to be a day-by-day plan! At this stage, we know a lot more about the details so it is easier to make a list of the tasks still to be done to complete the organ. Estimating the time to do them is still a challenge because nearly every task is unique to this project so we have no history to refer to. Writing a timeline is one thing but another essential thing is to prioritise the tasks so that if we run out of time, the items that make the organ usable will have been done.
One of the tasks that took more time than we thought was the computer coding for the pedalboard. During many days of testing and making changes to the code, the pedal notes refused to play in the right order or in some cases, play at all! Eventually seeking advice from our extended team, we put that code aside, re-wrote what was supposed to happen and then thought of the simplest way to code it. Eureka! This time it worked first time so the organ has a working pedalboard.
Although there have been items still to be started, it has been very satisfying to finish off some earlier pieces. The thumb rail and pistons for the Great manual have been made for some time but still needed the flat ribbon cable to be made to connect it up. It was a straightforward task and very rewarding to find the pistons worked as planned. Small successes cause great delight!
The Swell console module has been easier to make than the Great. It has the same basic design but no electronic units so a lot less work. There is one significant difference: the Music Stand, which is mounted on top of the Swell. The same is true of the Swell Pedal mounting. In keeping with the whole design scheme, we have tried to make things robust but light, demountable and have a bit of style.
The portable organ has its stops displayed on a touchscreen. It’s important to protect the screen when it’s being transported so another specialist in our team got to work with the sewing machine. The shape around the stand was tricky but what a great result! The computer keyboard and the various cables also have similar stylish protection.
So we are nearly ready to find out how all the bits we have designed, made and put together match our vision of the portable instrument. How will it feel to play? What will it sound like? What is involved in moving it and assembling the modules and where will we store it all? We’ll have a first view of all these things to share with you next time. Stay tuned…!
Geoff Willis, Martin Barnes and Rob Goldfinch
The finishing line …
SATURDAY 7th MARCH 2020
It’s crunch time … a trial assembly of the whole organ. The main parts – the Great and Swell consoles, the pedalboard etc, have been working on their own but at this stage we need to know if all the parts will fit together physically, connect and work together electrically and how long it takes to assemble. When we go to school for the first session, we have 40 minutes from arriving at the music room to being ready for the students to come in and start the session.
Rikki had the “build script” we thought would get it all assembled and working. Martin and Geoff did the fetch and carry from the garage into the house and tried to keep to the instructions. They checked some options: was it better to attach the swell pedals while the pedalboard was still up on its end or after when it was flat on the floor? (The decision was the former).
So, how did it go??
Well, when the two manuals and pedals responded to the spectacular sound of the big German Romantic organ I had loaded, we were really pleased to see that the timer said 35 minutes!
Martin had a crafty play to make sure it really sounded like a fantastic organ – it did! Along the way, Rikki noted about a dozen ‘snags’ – things to fix before the school visit – but that was no surprise really. That day-by-day plan first written last month has really helped to prioritise and schedule the remaining tasks.
In the week we worked on the details of the demonstration and workshop. We wanted a structure to make sure we covered the important points but we realised it had to be flexible in case the students showed interest in some particular aspects.
Geoff has had two more meetings with Ross Walker, Head of Music, and the school’s IT Technician to make sure all the logistical and technical arrangements would work. For example, the audio output from the organ has to connect to the music room speakers through a mixing desk and the organ stop jambs displayed on the touchscreen need to be projected onto a big screen so the students would see the stops in action. Ross played the Great console and couldn’t stop smiling about the fantastic cathedral–like sound.
He did say that the school had decided to cancel the evening concert on 30th March due to the Coronavirus situation but the demonstration and workshop would proceed on 18th as planned.
SATURDAY/SUNDAY 14th/15th MARCH 2020
There are still a few remaining snags e.g. some thumb pistons not working. They took longer than expected to investigate and fix but there was time because there is enough contingency in the plan.
One last piece of construction was 36 white, concave discs made on the lathe and then to be glued onto the thumb piston push buttons.
Like most projects, all the essentials have been done in time and the organ is ready for Rob to get familiar with the instrument.
MONDAY 16th MARCH 2020
Rob sent a message to Geoff and Martin – he has a cough and might have had contact with someone with Coronavirus. After phone calls between us, we decided to postpone the demonstration and workshop scheduled for Wednesday 18th.
It’s very disappointing when a deadline is lost but on this occasion it’s beyond our control. Geoff called the Head of Music who was not at all phased and very supportive: many school events were being cancelled now. He is still very committed to the project and wants to proceed as soon as possible. He also has some exciting ideas for a Christmas concert with organ and his student hand-bell team.
So we have a hiatus in our ambition … but it hasn’t dampened our energy or enthusiasm. We just have to wait a bit before we can wow those young people with “The Orchestra at the Fingertips”!
Here is a clip of the stop jambs and console of the Friesach organ.
Geoff Willis, Martin Barnes, Rob Goldfinch