Nord User Forum

[ZeroZero]

I can play piano. Anyone know how to get to know the instrument?

Reading the manual is what eating newspaper is to good food. There seems to be various "well known setting" and the use of the controls seems more art than anything. Is there any visual help with this please

Z

[orcoaffamato]

You can start watching this demo:

Watch on youtube.com

[pablomastodon]

Generally speaking, keyboard instrument manuals are designed to acquaint the reader with the features and controls of the instrument. They are not intended to teach the reader the art of making music. The best way to get to know any instrument is to play it, just as you presumably spent some significant amount of time doing on a piano. Same rules apply. Let your fingers and your ears be your guide.

As for "well known settings," your favorite internet search engine can probably guide you to numerous websites and reference materials which will actually detail specific drawbar settings for nearly every popular organ song ever recorded. Of course, there may be divergence of opinions on some of these...

Bless,

Pablo

[Spider]

Isn't the use of the controls on your piano (keys and pedals) "more art than anything"?
Did your piano come with an included piano teacher with 10 years of prepaid classes?
How many hard years of study and practice did you put in your piano technique?

You have to be prepared to do the same with the organ, as it's a completely other instrument, the only thing it's got in common with the piano are the black&white keys. And even those are quite different, actually.
The playing technique is totally different, for the most part exactly the opposite of a piano: sustaining vs. decaying notes, unweighted keys vs. weighted, expression pedal vs. sustain pedal, monotonous sound vs. velocity sensitivity, need to unlearn to use your weight and strength, and instead play as light as possible, barely touching the keys... without even mentioning the thousand tricks that the B3 has to modulate the sound, each of them requiring its own technique to master: drawbar settings (and real-time changes while playing), vibrato, chorus, percussion, leslie speed, overdrive...
Oh, did I mention that instead of a single one, you have two keyboards to play, well make it THREE if you do things the proper way and add the pedalboard?

It's WAY more difficult to master than the piano... as I'm discovering the hard way, I am too a piano player that is painfully and pathetically trying to learn organ.

I'm afraid there are no easy shortcuts.
Hunt the web for video tutorials, don't be afraid to ask in the various forums, but most of all practice.
If you can find a good teacher, don't miss the opportunity!
And note that many renowned players give Skype classes, you can be sitting in your living room with Tony Monaco (just to name one) on video teaching you Hammond technique... the Internet is truly an amazing thing!

[ZeroZero]

Of course your all correct. I intend to work hard. BTW I can improvise freely on keys. It's a C2

I guess what is throwing me is that there are tow instruments to learn - simultaneously. First there is the C2, then the Hammond.

I was hoping to get a few tips about classic drawbar settings (like JImmy Smith's three out style). I should like to know my way around gospel settings.

I have a 700NX and mess around here too but that's another tale.

It gets confusing I want to play not think.

I want to be able to control the fizz and bubble -well.

Help



Z

[pablomastodon]

There may be a few tidbits about classic drawbar settings in this forum, but the lion's share of such things will be found in websites relating to traditional Hammond matters.

Bless,

Pablo

[ZeroZero]

Thank you for the reply. I think there maybe 'core' drawbar settings - 'must knows' if you like. If anyone care's to chip in I would be grateful

Z

[pablomastodon]

a very nice topic on drawbar registrations (don't miss the excel file!!!)
nord-stage-forum-f3/drawbar-settings-suggestion--t562.html#p1896

a nice thread from the friends at keyboard corner
http://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthread ... /2682142/1

and this is a HUGELY useful didactic resource
http://www.dairiki.org/HammondWiki/DrawbarRegistrations


but keep in mind that even the perfect drawbar-C/V-percussion setting will probably leave you disappointed.
Those are the foundations of the sound, but it's only a small part of it after all. Most of the "fizz and bubble" is given by the playing style: for example, coordinating the use of the expression pedal with changes in leslie speed is a HUGE part of the sound.
Generally speaking, you have to get used to the idea that, as opposed to the piano, much (if not most ) of the sound is not produced on the keyboard but by the other controls. You will have your hands and feet busy all the time, and mostly NOT on the keys!
Even when you're actually playing the keys it's a totally different game, the keys are light and unweighted and have an instant trigger, allowing for lightning speeds that are unthinkable on a piano... going back to a weighted keyboard after a session on the hammond feels like being stuck in glue!!!
And there are so many techniques that are unique to the Hammond: palm smears, "machine-gun trills", staccato playing to make the percussion come out or legato playing to suppress it... all these things make up the iconic "hammond sound" as much as (or more) than the mere drawbar and C/V registrations.

Remeber - Don't think that because you can play piano, you know anything about organ. You don't.
You're learning a totally new instrument, with all the difficulties and frustrations that come with it... but also with all the excitement and discovery and satisfaction.

As I told, I'm totally sympathetic with you because I'm in the same situation, a slow heavy-handed elephant of a piano player that's been trying for the last couple of years to get some decent sounds out of my clonewheel, and only now I'm slowly starting to get a grip on it.
Be patient and hold on, the results will come... sooner or later!

[Marlowes]

to give you an idea, I find this one of the most amazing examples of how the hammond is so much more than just "playing the keys".

Watch on youtube.com

Notice how he's constantly changing the leslie speed (when he strikes the halfmoon to his left), playing with the drawbars and most of all working the pedal... you can't see his right foot but I'd bet it didn't stay still for a single second!

If you played exactly the same notes without using the expression pedal and constantly working the drawbar settings and leslie speeds, the performance would be totally dull and inexpressive.

On a real hammond (or if you have the pedalboard) your left foot is playing bass, so it frees up your left hand for changing settings on the fly without leaving too much of a void in the music.
If you don't have a pedalboard you can change leslie speed using a foot switch, so your left hand can comp or play left-hand bass lines.
This doesn't solve the problem of changing drawbar settings etc, but if you can at least control leslie speed and expression pedal without moving your hands away from the manuals, it's already a big help.

By the way, I don't even hope that I'll EVER come even close to this level... Cory is a monster, one of the most accomplished young guns around right now.
Long way to go...

[neolithic]

Great video - inspirational! A lot of what you said resonates - thanks Spider!