From jake92028@yahoo.com Sun Nov 02 09:31:26 2003
Subject:Drawbar Registrations

When someone requests organ drawbar registrations for a song, it's
nice that someone else may know and provide the info, BUT: This most
often means the player hasn't done their homework and/or practice
with the drawbars in order to develop a feel for the tonal variations
they can create. I would go so far as to say - if you can't play
using only the drawbars and are dependent on presets, you haven't
learned to play a Hammond/clone organ (yet?).

For example, a typical Hammond/clone 'Upper' manual: Compared to a
piano, which drawbar is middle C? What's the interval or octave
separation between the drawbars? What's a Fundamental and a
Harmonic? Where, musically, are all nine drawbars in relationship to
each other? What's the range or 'zone' of each drawbar compared to
the others? Which drawbars cover the entire range of the keyboard and
which drawbars don't? To include percussion, what's a 2nd, what's a
3rd; what notes do they represent, which drawbars are they 'the same
as' once you know the 'middle C' drawbar?

If you know these facts, then have practiced manipulating the
drawbars (while practicing) until each drawbar's separate sound and
the combined sounds of all their variations are familiar to you up
and down their keyboard range - you'll almost never have to ask about
a drawbar registration again. Then your only test might be that
Hammond clones have differences in sound in the area of overall
brightness, drawbar signal strength 'curve' from zero to 8, etc. You
can get 'the' sound you want with single notches up or down on
the 'right' drawbars, once you're mentally and sonically in sync with
them.

Your 'almost never' drawbar questions, once you've learned to play
them, will be more about a subtle tone variation you can't quite
nail - as above, could be as little as one notch of one drawbar - but
someone else's ears have got it. Once you're a drawbar player,
presets become what they should be - a convenience only and a target
you can 'morph' from.

(Rev) Walter ...it's Sunday, so cut me some slack #;-b~