SOPP294: I create my own organ accompaniment for the mass setting

This question was sent by Andrew and he writes: “Mass for Fathers Day this morning went well. Parts of the Mass were sung to the Glendalough Mass by Liam Lawton. The school's REC (Religious Education Co-Ordinator) is a guitarist. I've rigged up a mixer to feed through the organ's amplifier and speakers. He puts his amplified acoustic guitar through it, plus a couple of microphones for the singers. He leads with rhythmic strumming, and he has a small choir consisting of students from his class who lead the singing quite well. I add judicious, unobtrusive organ support beneath. I create my own organ accompaniment for the mass setting, reading from the choral/keyboard score and blending the parts so that the soprano line of what I'm playing doubles the congregation's melody but I add other bits from the keyboard accompaniment to make it interesting. Playing only the SATB part or only the organ part doesn't work - it has to be an amalgam of the two. Some of the songs come with melody and guitar chords only, but fortunately I learned many, many years ago how to improvise my own accompaniments based only upon this material. In the end it was all OK. I don't choose the songs as that's not my job, but stylistically I can play just about anything that gets thrown at me. One of the songs was handed to me shortly before the Mass - I'd not seen it before, but it was dead easy - mostly based around the chords of C and G, with a D major chord thrown in here and there for good measure. The opening song was a bit of problem - at one point I was playing a G minor chord (as marked on the score) but my colleague was strumming G major!!! Also, he suddenly decided to cut the third verse of the final song and wrap it all up after just 2 verses, but I try to keep my wits about me at all times - I caught this just in time and was able to round it all off smoothly! Just as well I love theatre organ music as those keyboard stylings come in handy for some songs. Now I hope to get back to some of my own work.” Secrets of Organ Playing - When You Practicem Miracles Happen: https://www.organduo.lt