Congratulations.
Now we come to stage two.
Shall we spend around £50 a roll and buy music for it?... or
Shall we try punching it ourselves?
I had no trouble in deciding what to do as I had an elementary knowledge of music.
Understanding music is definitely helpful, but I would say, not essential, as you can learn a lot of things as you go along.
Once you have decided to have a go, there are two paths that you can take.
One is to arrange straight from the sheet music....this is ok if you play another instrument and already have a collection of music. You will of course need more than a single line as for solo instruments (ie clarinet, trumpet, flute etc.) Piano music is best although I have arranged from guitar music and keyboard music, where the later give the chords for accompaniment.
The second way is, if you do not have access to sheet music, to arrange on the computer using standard software like "Cakewalk" or similar. These programs use MIDI files for the tunes and can be found all over the web. Nearly all are in the public domain and many sites will allow you to download the files provided they are for private use. There are strict rules applied by the music industry once you want to start selling copies. (which I personally don't)
I now arrange using either of the above methods. I started off with the sheet music method but after a time switched to downloading when I did not have the score of the tune I wanted.
A word of warning.....you cannot just pick 'any old' tune you fancy and expect it to fit on a 20 or 26 note scale, we are a bit limited. To get started it is best to practice with a simple, short tune.
Two reasons for this, one, it is more likely to fit into our small scale and you won't have any missing notes to worry about and, two, if it is a short piece, you will not have wasted hours marking it all out, punching it all up and then find out it sounds awful.
So, start small and build from there. I know, I have a large box of early attempts. The 1812 overture was not meant for 20 pipe street-organs!!
Children's music books are a good starting point and also hymn books are a good source.
They have simple tunes usually with three chord accompaniment and more important, you will find that vocal works have a range not un-similar to that of our organs.
If you can 'sing it'.....it has a good chance of being transposed and arranged for our limited scale.
The key of the original score does not matter. We are going to transpose it, up or down anyway to fit the organ......the key of Eb is the only one case where you will get away with 'as written'.
Try to avoid tunes with too many accidentals......you will not be able to play them all and tunes do not sound right if you miss notes out or put in wrong alternatives. Believe me...it's true!
Always try to choose a tune that keeps moving......you know the sort of thing. Jigs, dances and marches. We need people to stop and listen and enjoy. Avoid music with long, sustained notes...we don't want it to sound like the 'drones' on the bagpipes!
Enough for now.....I have a sore forefinger!!
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