From aevett1@yahoo.com Sat Dec 10 10:06:31 2005
Subject:Re: Terminology and technique

A good question, Lou...

I've been playing clonwheels for about 3 years now,
and organ parts on synths for many years prior to that
that, but I didn't start to get the hang of the
'gliss/smear' thing until about 5 years back (I
started on piano, so I'm still catching up in the area
of 'B3' playing...).

In reading the responses to your question so far, I
find that for the upward slides I'm doing the same
things as the others have stated. Sometimes though, I
may do a 'cross hand' (hand/palm swapping) slide
that's broken up; so, there's often a rhythmic feel to
that type of move - depends on the song, where I'm
going with the slide, etc. While I've seen other
keyboardists use similar moves, I've developed mine
more by trial and error;..guess it comes from all
those years of cross handed arpeggios on the piano,
plus listening to/watching Matt Rollings work with
piano glissandos (Much of my current live work is in
Country & Country/Rock - which is now full of B3
parts, a very good thing, IMO.).

One issue I haven't seen adressed yet is that of the
downward gliss/slide, usually at the end of a piece. I
watched a couple of veteran organ players doing that
several years back, and immediately wanted to learn
it: it sounded great and looked good, too. The way
I've been doing that (learning again by trial and
error) is to wait until the final drum hit/crash is
imminent, play my final right hand chord (or
cluster...) with the drum hit/crash, then slide
quickly down the keyboard using the side of my right
thumb. It usually sound like a 'trail-off' on the
final 'hit'; and, in my current act, the drummer
typically follows that with a 'stadium' roll off after
that...

How do the rest of you do this type of slide ? I've
been using my right hand only, but it seems that
there's something missing from the end of the slide
that I'm not quite getting - kind of like a 'follow
through' on a golf swing. I tried an additional left
hand, short slide up, but that added extra sound - not
good...So, it's more of a visual thing. Is there
something additional to be done with the right hand,
or is there a left hand trick I'm not aware of ?
We're probably not talking about a playing technique,
here - it's a bit of theatre; but, it's looks great
when I've seen others do it.

Thanks....

Allan Evett

--- Lou C wrote:

> OK, I'm new to playing organ, so I get to ask the
> really newbie questions. What is it called when
> sliding across the keys (in either direction) ending
> in either a single note or a chord? I have heard it
> called a "gliss", "smears", and "wipes". What is
> the
> most popular term for that? Gliss might be short
> for
> glissando which I think is travelling up or down
> from
> one note to another, actually the definition is, "A
> rapid slide through a series of consecutive tones in
> a
> scalelike passage."
>
> While on the subject, is there a best way to do the
> gliss or whatever it is called? Palm, side of the
> index finger, back of a finger (scratch keys?), you
> guys who have been doing that for years should have
> a
> preferred way. If I listen to "Smokin" by Boston,
> he
> does some pretty fast ones and I would be really
> curious to know his method.
>
> I have to (read that as I GET to) do a couple of
> these
> in a song this Sunday at church. I am doing OK with
> the ways I have tried, but can't help but wonder if
> there is a more correct way.
>
> Lou
>
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