# How do people learn to play unusual instruments (like a church organ or a carillon)?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-learn-to-play-unusual-instruments-like-a-church-organ-or-a-carillon/993055>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Tags:** music\
**Created:** [November 13, 2023, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-learn-to-play-unusual-instruments-like-a-church-organ-or-a-carillon/993055 "2023-11-13T05:50:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 12

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2023, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-learn-to-play-unusual-instruments-like-a-church-organ-or-a-carillon/993055/12 "2023-11-13T10:45:56Z")

</div>

In this post I talk abut a carillonist who has his own portable one. With vids even:

> [@The reign of King Charles III of the United Kingdom](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-reign-of-king-charles-iii-of-the-united-kingdom/971232/819):
>
> This fellow makes the rounds of RenFairs and such. I’ve heard him many times and have a couple of his CDs. In the vid yo can see how he operates the machine. And it’s small enough you can see how the whole thing works. It’s permanently built on a small flatbed trailer. Sometimes he plays in parades which is here I first saw/heard him rolling down the street. Interesting chap to talk to too. [Cast in Bronze - Carol of the Bells - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGR4Lj8cpYs)

So that’s one way. Just practice in your garage like all the other teenage grunge band wannabes. 😁

  

As to church organs I’ll suggest that although each instrument is unique, they’re only unique-ish. The ideas are consistent. A common electronic organ for home use has 2 keyboards. Each of which can be set by various switches to make different _types_ of sounds. And which switches are generally set once before beginning the piece and leaving them that way. Sometimes a quick change is made along the way, but not often.

A church organ with 4 or 5 keyboards is just more preset sound sets to work with. It’s still only played 2 keyboards at a time, jumping from one to the other now and again over teh course of some, not all pieces.

The foot pedals are simply another set of keys delivering yet another sound. And of course have their own set of knobs and switches to set up.

So overall I’d separate “configuring” the instrument from “playing” the instrument. A lot of what’s hard about playing music is the real-time nature of it. The keyboards themselves are the same, or very nearly so on every keyboard instrument. The configuration process differs largely, but that doesn’t have to be done in real time.

Bottom line:  
Kinda like driving a rental car, the specifics of starting the engine, adjusting the seats & mirrors, and setting the HVAC & audio is unique, but once you’re actually in motion, they all drive about the same for the things that matter moment to moment.

---

_[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-learn-to-play-unusual-instruments-like-a-church-organ-or-a-carillon/993055)._