The Dazed Keyboardist's Guide to Surviving the Catholic Bench

A handbook for classically-trained pianists who have been drafted into playing the organ and leading Catholic liturgies.

You studied Rachmaninoff at 3 am. You practiced your scales until your wrists ached. Nobody mentioned the organ. Or the incense. Or the page turns that arrive with no warning and no mercy. One day you're playing Chopin in a practice room; the next, you're on the bench of a centuries-old pipe organ while a congregation of 400 looks at you expectantly.

This guide is what your conservatory didn't prepare you for: a practical, slightly irreverent field manual for the pianist pressed into liturgical service. It won't teach you counterpoint. It will teach you how to survive the 11:00 am Mass.

Inside the guide

• Stops you'll actually useWhich pulls make you sound like a cathedral organist and which ones are there to trick you.
• Pedaling for pianistsYour feet have never done this before. A gentle, practical introduction to the pedalboard.
• The liturgy, decodedThe unspoken rules of the prelude, the offertory, the recessional, and everything in between.

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