Let's say you consider yourself a capable piano player.
Let's say your priesthood leaders decide what the ward really needs is an organist.
Let's say you're called as the ward organist — and you've never touched an organ in your life.
Suddenly you're entering a realm of no sustaining pedals and a multitude of stops.
Are you wondering what a stop even is? Are you picturing the giant pipes at the Tabernacle staring you down? Don Cook has a cure for that. He has seen many pianists "petrified" at the thought of having to transition to organ.
Cook, a BYU music professor, was teaching a pedagogy course to three graduate students studying organ. They were determining a project to embark on and didn't want to do just anything: They wanted to do something that would matter.
Cook had already created OrganTutor, a piece of software and accompanying workbook to help pianists transition to playing the organ. He wanted to take this idea one technologically savvy step further.
"We decided to throw away everything and start fresh," Cook said. "All our preconceptions about what training courses were? Gone."
The result of this teaching transformation is The New LDS Organist: twelve lessons, free for the taking, packaged in a series of podcasts and printouts.
Each podcast can be listened to right at the organ by way of an MP3 player. Combined, the podcasts make up over four hours of instruction — some lessons lasting five minutes, some lasting thirty.
Cook and his students' hard work has caught official attention: LDS.org's music page now links to The New LDS Organist as a music aid.
The biggest problem Cook is facing, however, is that many people don't understand what to do when he says, "Download these free podcasts."
"A lot of people have never worked with podcasts," he said. "I think the audio medium was the way to go since you can reach so many people with the Internet. It's just getting them to be unafraid of the technology."
Once that's understood, anyone can have the MP3 and the packets within seconds — all you need to do is click, save, click and print.
Cook has received a lot of positive feedback from individuals as well as organ instructors. Cook tried it out in two different training courses: Of the 15 people that signed up, 13 stayed with it.
"That's pretty good retention," Cook said.
After being surveyed, the number one reason why participants stayed in the program from start to finish was because they could learn at their own pace.
"If they're too busy, it's not like a class where if you miss, you have a hard time catching up," Cook said. "You can listen to the podcasts and practice at your own speed. You can do as much or as little as you can when time is available."
While the 12 lessons help get a new organist onto his or her feet, they were created with the hope training will continue with actual face-to-face lessons in the future.
"We refer to it as an 'emergency preparedness' package," Cook said.
There are 25 simplified hymns included in The New LDS Organist: closing, opening and sacrament. Essentially an organist could have four weeks worth of songs prepared before they have to worry about continuing their training.
"Our hope is they will get hooked," Cook said.
Go to the Web site organ.byu.edu/newldsorganist in order to download the podcasts and print a free 56-page packet containing all the handouts needed for the lessons, as well as the 25 simplified hymns. In addition to several no-cost options, the Web site offers a no-frills MP3 player with the lessons pre-loaded and a printed packet for $35.
e-mail: eschmuhl@desnews.com