Guidelines for pluSWOne volunteers

Who to recruit

Any girl or woman of your acquaintance. If she already plays a keyboard instrument and / or has shown some interest in the organ, that’s ideal, but not essential. If the recruit is under 18 years old or a vulnerable adult, please follow local guidelines regarding safeguarding in your place of work or worship. In the UK this means that a parent/guardian must be present throughout and physical contact is to be avoided.

How long should the demonstration be?

The ideal length of the demonstration is 30-60 minutes.

What to include in the demonstration

We recommend focusing on experimentation and keeping speaking to a minimum for a fun and memorable experience. Here is one possible structure, but please do your own thing if you prefer!

Explain that:

The sound results from air vibrating within pipes
The air comes from wind which is provided by an electric blower (show the recruit how to switch the organ on)
The organ has hundreds of pipes. Stops are provided to stop them speaking uninvited. (get recruit to experiment)
Stops are displayed in columns or rows, each of which relates to a different keyboard. (get recruit to experiment)
The pedals are arranged as a keyboard, too (get recruit to experiment, maybe picking out a tune)
At this point, most recruits are usually happy to explore what everything does on the console prompted if necessary by your questions. If they can play a piece, great, otherwise you might prompt them to play notes which make a familiar tune. Most new organists are fascinated to discover how easy it is to play loudly! Help them to observe that the organ is not touch-sensitive, and that the sound sustains evenly for as long as they like
At some point, play a piece or hymn to them, ideally using different manuals and changing stops
Show the recruit how to switch off the organ. This is alarmingly easy to forget if you plan to continue using the organ after your recruit has left!

We also recommend this video from SWO member Anna Lapwood, either to help your planning or to share with your recruit afterwards.

If the recruit wants an organ teacher

If you are unable to provide lessons yourself, please encourage the recruit to complete the Royal Collage of Organists Find a Teacher form.

After the session – very important!

Take a photo at the organ console. Follow safeguarding rules if appropriate: in the UK this means that you ask the parent/guardian’s permission first, offering to take only a back view if preferred
Ask the recruit for one short sentence encapsulating what they thought about their experience
Send the photo and sentence, with details of your location to annemarsdenthomasswo@gmail.com

Photos and comments will be uploaded to the pluSWOne webpage.

Thank you very much for taking part in pluSWOne!