How hard is it to play organ?
- Thread starter gogofast
- Start date
Doghouse
Well-Known Member
There's a few from that school aged from fifteen to twenty who solo and some much younger who play in the orchestra.
Eva Fenandez, who has recently left. Vocals and any saxophone you like. But mostly alto and soprano
Rita Payes, probably fifteen here, vocals and trombone.
Magali Datzira, vocals and double bass.
All four together, harmonising and scat singing vocals. Their regular pianist here is blind.
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The organ is considered the King of Instruments and there is a lot more going on then playing a piano but in the end, a keyboard is a keyboard. If you can play a piano, you can play the grandest instrument of them all, the mighty pipe organ
Now that's pulling out all the stops.
If you understand the registers (multiple keyboards) are for playing in different keys, that part is easy. All the switches you see are for making the organ sound like other instruments, you don't use them all. The big cathedral organs are the most complex instruments ever made or ever will be made. Huge compressors are needed to drive air for the system. I can play the intro to Bach's Tocatta and Fugue in d Minor and some of Van Halen's Jump but that's it for keys. I am a guitar guy to the core
My favorite organist? Virgil Fox no hands down. I like E Power Biggs also but he is a bit stuffy in his playing
I visited this gent regularly in tho course of rebuilding his two music systems back to playability in his last years, a couple threads in the McIntosh forum on the amps. While I was always interested in organs, he really got me interested in them. The Cameron Carpenter appearance in Nashville some years back he really enjoyed and got some autographed Telarcs.
He rescued restored and augmented/enlarged the "Mighty" Moller organ at the Fox Atlanta theatre.
http://www.atlantamagazine.com/news-culture-articles/the-phantom-of-the-fox/
https://www.google.com/amp/mobile.n...own-as-phantom-of-the-fox-dies-at-89.amp.html
Hope you don't mind some topical chit-chat in your thread.
Biggs, and of course our local celeb, Dr. Alexander Schreiner were my early intro into big organs. There was also a popular local eatery (The organ loft) built around a local enthusiast's ever expanding Pipe organ rescue rebuild.
Enjoyed Virgil Fox's Crystal Clear DtDs, and admit fascination with Cameron Carpenter's equally idiosyncratic approach to the organ and his perfectionism re pitch and tone via the "virtual organ".
http://www.marshallandogletree.com/opus-8---international-touring-organ?lightbox=dataItem-ijq631pf2
Biggs, and of course our local celeb, Dr. Alexander Schreiner were my early intro into big organs. There was also a popular local eatery (The organ loft) built around a local enthusiast's ever expanding Pipe organ rescue rebuild.
Enjoyed Virgil Fox's Crystal Clear DtDs, and admit fascination with Cameron Carpenter's equally idiosyncratic approach to the organ and his perfectionism re pitch and tone via the "virtual organ".
http://www.marshallandogletree.com/opus-8---international-touring-organ?lightbox=dataItem-ijq631pf2
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Assuming you don't play pedals, an organ is easier to play. The keys are much easier to press and on classic organs (e.g., Hammond B3) their pressure has no bearing on the sound. Therefore, your hands/fingers don't get as tired.
Also, as long as you hold the key, the note is sustained until you can find the next key. You can also get organs that do a whole world for you automatically simply by holding a key.
This is not to say that to play an organ well is easier than playing a piano well, just that physically playing it is easier.
Let's see... of what is shown (and not),
I first had the red Farfisa Combo Compact,
Then got the Wurlitzer electric piano,
Then got the Hammond M3,
Then traded the M3 and Wurlitzer for a full sized Hammond D with a Leslie 122RV,
Then I got a Sohmer console piano,
Then got a Leslie 147RV with Combo pedal,
Then got a Rheem Key Bass,
Then the Hammond was in a car accident and was rebuilt/cut down by Valley Sound custom with percussion added (one of a kind with the pedals still functional and all paid for by insurance),
Then traded the Farfisa for a Hohner Clavinet,
Then got a Moog Satellite synthesizer (worked there),
Then got a Vox Continental Baroque (worked there),
Then got an Electrocomp EML100 synthesizer.
Then got out of the business, sold it all, went back to college, got a degree in environmental biology, and am now a semi-retired consultant.
I'm guessing that you are quite a virtuoso on the phonograph.
mfrench
Addicted Member
Instruments that I have, but can't play:
Tenor banjo. Can't play it, but have it.
Kalimba thumb harp. I can actually make it sound right when I play african music with lots of kalimba in it (because it all sounds the same to me; probably terribly out of tune).
Train whistle from a wood block. Thats fairly easy to play.
Maracas - got those for those wild-eyed drunken bunny hop Conga lines.
Clay potato whistle - I can make it make a sound.
Tuning fork in an open ended resonating box, with mallet.
This all, ^^, to say,... thats why I record. I found out that I can play a microphone, silently, from the backside of them (stereo pairs).
At least I can capture the yummy musical goodness.
Tenor banjo. Can't play it, but have it.
Kalimba thumb harp. I can actually make it sound right when I play african music with lots of kalimba in it (because it all sounds the same to me; probably terribly out of tune).
Train whistle from a wood block. Thats fairly easy to play.
Maracas - got those for those wild-eyed drunken bunny hop Conga lines.
Clay potato whistle - I can make it make a sound.
Tuning fork in an open ended resonating box, with mallet.
This all, ^^, to say,... thats why I record. I found out that I can play a microphone, silently, from the backside of them (stereo pairs).
At least I can capture the yummy musical goodness.
^^^^Do you play any of those any more?
Do you wish you still had all of that classic gear?
When we bought our first house, there was a Hammond and a Leslie in the living room/dinning room. I was super excited until we couldn't work out a deal. So out they went.I reeaallly wanted that Leslie.
GJ
That, and the resale of a lot of PA gear/amps paid my way through college.
After I got married, we bought a Hammond H-324 with a Leslie and we had for ~10 years then donated it to a church.
These were the last of the tone-wheel models and incorporated a whole shiite load of features not included on a B-3 including 11 drawbars (instead of 9), and 4 pedal drawbars (instead of 2), with a drum machine, string bass, the works, etc.
We have a Casio 76-key digital keyboard.
Arthritis keeps me from playing much anymore.
gogofast
Addicted Member
When we bought our first house, there was a Hammond and a Leslie in the living room/dinning room. I was super excited until we couldn't work out a deal. So out they went.
GJ
Work out a deal? With the seller or your spouse?
Don't we all wish we had extra hours? I've gathered crap load of guitar stuff over the years and had to thin out last year. Gave away and sold dozen amps and guitars. I'm thinking that I'd have to stop working in order to play the remaining gear even once or twice a week. Plus, bike, hike, photography, do some woodworking, and other hobbies I thought I needed to have.....
