From aschwartz@baaqmd.gov Fri Feb 20 09:14:25 2004
Subject:Re: The story with Hammond pedal tones

In my experience, there is only the narrow top tier of organ players
who can play pedal bass with a dexterity even approaching what you
can do with the left hand. Jimmy Smith, Lonnie Smith, etc. What I
know for sure is I'm not one of them, not even close. Of course,
there are good reasons why people play pedal bass even if it isn't
going to make anyone forget Bootsy Collins. But if its just a cool-
soudning "thunk" that you're after, you can create that by midi'ing
the left hand to another sound module, which should allow you to
create all manner of percussive "thinks" "thanks" and "thunks," maybe
even personalizing your sound a bit. That's what I do with my CX-3.

Adan

> > When I played pedals and
> > heard others, way back in my non-clone days, they had a decidedly
> > fatter, almost sub-woofer, contact 'thunk,' different than
playing
> > the 'same' (?) notes on the lower manual.
>
> That's why you'll see jazz organists play bass lines with their
left
> hand on the lower manual, and pat the pedals with their foot to get
a
> brief burp or thunk at the beginning of the note. It doesn't even
> matter what pedal they hit - it sort of serves the same purpose as
> key click. I watched Joey D play the other night, and while he
would
> occasionally kick pedals by playing the real notes, that was only
for
> brief 2 or 4 bar spurts. The rest of the time he would rest his
foot
> on the footrest and tap the same pedal in a staccato manner while
> playing bass with his left hand.
>