From mayer@csi.com Fri Aug 09 16:02:26 2002
Subject:Re:( Was Woodshedding. ) How hard is the organ compared with.............

--- In CloneWheel@y..., "rotosphere2001" wrote:
> > very interesting instrument.
snip

...playing the organ
and/or clone to be the most difficult of pastimes. I find that I
> generally sound better...
and snip again

I've played piano for 40 years, electronic pianos for 20, synths for
10, accordion for 5 and clones for 2. Hammond folks talk about HAS
and I, most certainly, have K(eyboard)AS.

People have alwasy credited my pianos for touch/sound sensibility.

I always loved that Hammond sound, coming of age when it exploded
onto the scene. While I always played the piano, I didn't own any
portable gear during the Rhodes/Clav/Wurli/Farfisa/Vox and early
synth era. I always thought that stuff was pretty cool, but I had
other fish to fry then.

My musical life exploded when I got a Yamaha pf10 in the early
eightys. Finally, I could take my own keys wherever. Awesome! As
a budding jazzer, I took that piano into a local organ club for open
jam where Papa John welcomed me and said he enjoyed playing it
himself. He's one great guy and would invite me to sit in on the
house Hammond whenever I stopped in. I always declined as I had no
organ chops - that pedalboard, that gas pedal, two manuals, the
drawbars, those tablets - I had no clue.

Funny, because my high school age piano teacher later was the
organist at Three Rivers Stadium. There was a beast next to the
piano where I learned about chords and inversions, modes, etc.

The accordion opened my world further. Even with a portable, you
gotta schlep it somewhere and set it up. (That the pf10 has
amplified output saves a bunch there.) The jam in the other room is
really happening, but you're set up here. I became a mummer
because I knew it would force me to learn the Stradella bass system,
altho' I'm mostly a right-hand accordionist.

Which brings me back to organ chops. I think we already know that
most yank clonewheelers don't do pedals. But we do glisses and
smears that aren't part of this pianist's vocabulary.

Drawbars to this guy are something I'm getting familiar with, and I
have a 17 key pedal board into my XK-2. (Thanks, again, for the
user manual, Lon. Gotta love this list!)

All my life, my touch have been a huge part of my sound. On that
dental molding Hammond curve, they don't mean very much. Note
precision? I remember Papa John saying one time that he just went
up and grabbed some keys, and that man grooves as well as anybody
alive today except his kid. Joey may not accept my exception.

I find expression pedal to be natural, I have a tendancy to bounce
in rhythm - I think that's ok. I haven't done enough pedalboard
work to talk about it, but, as a jazzer, it's gotta become part of
my chops; need that woodshed. I don't know my way around my two
clones as much as i should, maybe because I need to get the Italian
lyrics for 'Tu Vuo fa l'Americano' down better for the next gig;
more woodshed.

And the mummers will be marching again in a month. Twice a week
rehearsals - and the horn players carry lyre books; not this guy;
woodshed.

Yeah, my clones are more complicated than my melodica. But all the
instruments need you to give them enough attention to their
characteristics to make them your own. If you're young, poor and
inspired, you'll learn to play the hell out of a single axe. That's
awesome!

I conclude: Hammond/clone's no harder than any other axe; just
different. If you're a serious musician and the beast/clone's your
focus, it's no harder than sitar.

Charlie