Hammond Organ Technique

jeremykeys · Post by **jeremykeys** » Fri Nov 22, 2013 8:17 pm

A synth or un-weighted keyboard is definitely easier. I've taken to using my 61 key Roland midied to my Kronos 73 for recording organ.

billbaker · Post by **billbaker** » Sat Nov 23, 2013 12:56 am

From a playing standpoint I think one of the hardest adjustments is to play as if the keys were not velocity sesnsetive (they're not, on the organ); especially difficult if your synth's organ patches are. having said that , a synth (vs weighted) action helps a lot in supporting a playing style/technique closer to organ.

I mostly do comping organ stuff with my band rather than lead and with that I think I try to do more moving blocks; harmonically I'm trying less for smoothly transitioned pads than for something along the lines of big band brass section ala Count Basie. I have no fear of big chords and open spacing but with organ I also keep in mind that there's not much call for rolling arpeggiation of chords 'cus there's no appreciable decay in an organ's sound as there definitely is in comparison to a piano.

I'm very aware that there's no sustain pedal - I think the "one finger pad while 3 move" advice may, in part, help to make up for that lack. The other half of that trick is to pick the right note to sustain.

BB

jeremykeys · Post by **jeremykeys** » Sat Nov 23, 2013 1:39 pm

Another thing is "palm smeers". Where you slide from on e chord to another using the part of your hand closest to your wrist. I find that doing that on a weighted keyboard can be quite painful if you are not careful but it certainly adds to the realism.

karmathanever · Post by **karmathanever** » Sat Nov 23, 2013 4:05 pm

Hi KevinH

Been checking out the Keith Appleton videos on YouTube.
His website says that these are samples - just wondered if his actual DVD lessons are longer.
I am happy to view YT but if the DVDs have more then I may well order them.

Thanks

Pete

jurason · Post by **jurason** » Sun Nov 24, 2013 9:32 am

I am glad that this thread is kept alive...very helpful.
Tony Monaco's website looks great. To me one of the best uses of a picture of the subject and the according links. Cool sound guaranteed.

I am looking for organ players that do not fall into the sound universe of Jimmy S, Joy D., etc. Of course I love their sound too, but they are featured a lot all over the world.

One of my favoured players in terms of sound right now are Baby Face Willette
and Milt Buckner.

Hope my post makes sense in this thread. Not to sure. In my view sound is a very important aspect in Hammond Tec.

SanderXpander · Post by **SanderXpander** » Sun Nov 24, 2013 10:20 am

Definitely. As pianists and perhaps primarily workstation players it's often become routine to select a nice sounding Hammond patch and play the part with that. Now that there's machines like the Kronos with full drawbar support, it's easy to stick to that and "pick a patch", forgetting the sound controls are right there in every organ patch. I'm also a pianist/synthesist at heart and feel I can fake my way through band Hammond playing pretty well, knowing a couple of cliché's but no more than that.

But when I got my first clonewheel (an XB1, still have it) I sat down with it, hooked up a second midi board and tried to really learn the sound. A lot of this is lost in a loud band, but learning the sounds you can make even with just the drawbars is awesome. There's a lot more there than "bright or dark", some are more dissonant for instance (or rather, there's a major third that sounds dissonant when you play chords). And then all the combinations sound different. It really helps to get a good view of this, and an actual Hammond player will often constantly vary this during playing - this too is part of his sound, it's not just the static signature solo patch. Not pretending I'm an expert by the way, but I found it inspiring to practice this way, forcing myself to "play like a Hammond player". Add some YouTube demo's and you should really be able to make great improvements.

Oh another thing a Hammond player tipped me off to; usually for comping on a real Hammond you don't use the bottom two drawbars, cause they're way to overpowering. We don't usually notice this in a workstation since we just turn down the volume knob or turn up our other patches. But it can make a big difference to the sound. Instead, open them for when you're up for a solo, then move up an octave on the keyboard.

KevinH · Post by **KevinH** » Mon Nov 25, 2013 5:51 am

karmathanever wrote:Hi KevinH

Been checking out the Keith Appleton videos on YouTube.
His website says that these are samples - just wondered if his actual DVD lessons are longer.
I am happy to view YT but if the DVDs have more then I may well order them.

Thanks

Pete

The DVD he's advertising is just a compilation of the 50 short YouTube lessons that he posted, in case you want them all in a single DVD. The contents of the DVD is the same as the YouTube videos.