BROADCASTS.com

This question was sent by Jay and Pauline. They are responding to my blog post from yesterday about playing with pointed high-heel shoes. I talked about when one lady, beginner organist, came and tried to play with high heels and pointed toes. And at the end of it I asked what our listeners think, should she keep trying to adjust to the difficult of playing with these high heels and pointed toes, or should she just get a pair of real organ shoes. So Jay responded with following message:\n \nI think it\u2019s better if she (or anyone) can get closer to a \u2018real\u2019 pair of organ shoes. I\u2019ve found that it\u2019s more difficult to learn and remember good pedal technique, when you\u2019re changing shoes constantly on which you play pedals. It\u2019s better to have some consistency. \n \nSome people may not have the funds to purchase great organ shoes, like from the Organmaster site for example, especially students. I don\u2019t have a \u2018genuine\u2019 pair of Organmaster shoes either. I\u2019ve thought about purchasing a pair of those, but just haven\u2019t yet. Mainly because I had an older pair of shoes that I just had resoled\u2014just had a leather sole and a higher heel put on them, and they work fine for me. Cheaper too! In doing that though, you need to make sure that if you just replace the heel, that the rest of the sole is leather, or at least not rubber. Something that will slide easily on the pedals. \nThat\u2019s my two cents worth.\n\nAnd Pauline writes that she plays organ shoes less. So she writes:\n \nHi, I play organ shoeless. Because when I took organ lesson before we\u2019re not allowed to wear shoes into the studio. And at home we also don\u2019t wear shoes inside the house.\nAnd after so much practices without wearing shoes, I felt more comfortable without shoes. I can feel the pedals better. 1st day I played in church I also took off my shoes. So I m a naked feet organist. In your opinion what do you think? No standard or just being natural.