Friday, February 19, 2010

Laughable disaster

Wednesday was Ash Wednesday. I was asked to play a service, a friend of mine needed to find a sub quickly and I of course said yes.

My right leg control was simply awful. Driving there was more challenging than I liked, and when I played the service, my right foot would mash three (or more) notes at once. Not good. Some of the worst organ-pedal playing I've ever done. In my life.

So bad that it might have made me decide that my organ playing days were over.

Except... the organ was so horrible. In so many ways. A Hammond, an old Hammond at that; an awful old Hammond. Instead of the American standard concave radiating pedalboard, something that makes pedal playing vastly simpler for me, the Hammond's pedal board was flat. And the action was unbelievably low. And squishy. And the pedals stuck. A lot. All the time. Even when you only pressed down the one pedal you actually wanted.

If it hadn't been a church service, and one to start off the penitential season at that, I would have busted a gut laughing at the instrument. And at me, trying to coax music out of this organ-shaped turnip.

So... it was pretty darned funny. It was pretty darned horrible.

Which, I suppose, says it all about MS. In far too many ways.


No comments: