Black keys only

By Vidas Pinkevicius

To many organists, playing the pedals is like walking among snakes. They constantly look at their feet to avoid them. If for a second they would look up, they would be instantaneously bitten by a viper.

"So, you played an Eb in the D minor toccata. Now I will bite you."
"Please don't bite me, Mrs Viper. I will transpose the entire toccata to Eb minor."

I think there might be a cure for this habit to look down. What if the organists placed a real snake on the music rack? That would surely fix their attention.

The only way to cheat her and put her to sleep so you could look at the pedals would be to play something in the Pentatonic mode.

"Where do you think you're looking at, young man?"
"Aren't you supposed to sleep now, Mrs Viper? I'm playing black keys only now!"
Your Jedi-mind-tricks work only on feeble-minded. I'm the black mamba!"