Even More of Pauls Music

Last updated January 23, 2007 10:57

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Tuning the Organ at St Mary's With Eric and John Shepherd.

John and Eric Shepherd are restoring the St Mary's church organ and they took out some time to show my Dad and I how to tune a Pipe Organ.

John Shepherd showed me how to adjust and tune the pipes of St Mary's Organ. He has some special tools to open up or close the pipes the make them sound louder or softer.

The pipes have a tiny ring of metal at the top and John used a tool to push it either up or down to tune the pipe. Once he had touched the pipe he had to leave the pipe alone for 15 minutes to get to the same temperature as the rest of the organ and so it would sound properly.

Once the pipe made the correct note, he then either opened up the end of the pipe with a sort of cone shaped brass rod, or closed it down as he is doing in the photograph above with a sort of brass cup.

Once he had done this, John replaced the pipe back into its position so that Eric Shepherd could play and test the note.

I would like to learn to tune organs and do this as a job. It is great fun.