A 'General' piston is one which will instantly set up combinations in all departments i.e. Solo, Accompaniment and Pedal.

A 'Divisional' piston is one which sets up a combination on one keyboard only e.g. it will change a sound on the upper manual without changing the pedal or accompaniment settings.

Walt has done a good job in bringing together almost all the vast number of registrations mainly created by George Wright. This is an interesting study, however many of his combinations do require large instruments with up to the minute specifications. Certainly over here we have few such instruments. In any case for those new to theatre organ registration my personal coaching to most home owners first includes extensive appreciation of individual voices. This is because I believe you must have an inner feeling for the sound of a stop before you in fact dare to use it with anything else. My starting point is just to identify all the Tibia pitches for the right hand and all the Flute pitches for the left hand and really work on the hundreds of possible combinations these provide. Only then do I introduce those I coach to 'Flavouring' the tibias with one or other of the many other voices they are gradually getting the feel for.

Bearing in mind the above, here are a few suggested registrations, any or all of which could form the basis of setting up pistons.

UPPER MANUAL (SOLO)

1- UM Tibia 8 -

2- UM Tibia 8 & 4

3- UM Tibia 16 & 4

4- UM Tibia 16, 8 & 2

5- UM Tibia 16, 8, 4 & 2

COMPLIMENTING LOWER MANUAL ACCOMPANIMENT COMBINATIONS TO ABOVE

1- LM Flute 8

2- LM Flute 8 & String 8

3- LM Flute 8 & 4

4- LM Diapason 8

5- LM Diapason, String & Flute 8

Adding flavours which nicely contrast with the above - volume range P - F.

UPPER MANUAL (SOLO)

1- Viol 8 & Tibia 4

2- Tibia and Saxophone/Vox 16 & Tibia 4

3-Tuba and Tibia 8

4- Tibia 8 & Vox 16 & 8

5- Tibia 16 & 4 - Krumet/orch. Oboe 8

6- Orch. Oboe 8 & Tibia 4

7- Tibia 8 & Glockenspiel

8- Diapason 8 & Xylophone

9- String & Vox 16 & 8 Tibia 4

10- Viole, Viol Celeste & Vox 16, 8 & 4

11- Tibia 4 and Oboe 8 (Trem off on oboe)

LOWER MANUAL (ACCOMPANIMENT)

1- Flute 8 & 4

2- Diapason 8

3- Flute and String 8&4

4- String & Celeste 8

5- 8 Diapason 8

6- Flute 8 & 4

7- Flute 8 & 4

8- Flute and String 8&4

9- Diapason 8

10- Flute 8 & 4

11- Flute 8

Fuller and brighter sounds F - FFF

UPPER MANUAL

1.. Tuba and Diapason 8 No Trems

2.. Trumpet and Tuba 16 & 8 No Trems

3.. Kinura & Krumet 8 - Tibia 4 (K no trem)

4.. Tibias 16,8 & 4 & Strings 16 & 8

5.. Tibias 16 - 2 &Trumpet and Diapason 16

6.. All Tibias & English Horn 16 (no EH trem)

LOWER MANUAL

1- Flute and String 8&4

2- Diapason 8&4

3- Diapason 8

4- Diapason and String 8 & 4

5- Diapason and String 8 & 4

6- ) Tuba, Diapason String 8

So you see I have a slow, step by step approach, which keeps everyone fascinated at the great variety which is possible. Without realising it they are having their ear trained to listen and steadily we move on to combinations which are particularly useful for particular styles of music.