Nord User Forum

[tacitus]

HI, all,

Finally bought my C2D and am just getting to know how to drive it. Being a pianist of no great ability (I'm a proper musician on woodwinds), I'm sort of OK on the keyboards themselves and beginning to get a glimmer of an idea about how to go about it. This isn't my first organ, since I have a vintage Yamaha YC25 combo - two manuals and bright red top. I've gigged with that but only in a rock band so I've concentrated on displaying the super-cool red top and all the draw-stop-lever thingies that Yamaha's have. So although i have the bass pedals for this beast, they don't go out for rock band gigs as I'm too busy posing ...

Anyway, since I'm about to order the pedalkeys 27 for the Nord, I'm going to have to get to grips with pedal work. What I'd treasure is some decent advice on getting round the pedalboard - look or don't look, type of practice regime, etc. - and any other tips for making the transition from manuals only to the whole shooting match. I expect I'll mainly be using the pedals for classical organ music - I"m a trained music reader, so that's where I think it's likely to happen.

Any pearls of wisdom, then ?

[JoeCool]

Hi,
if you want to play classical organ music with pedals, the way to learn this is playing the choral book (don't know how it is called in english, the old church songs they sing in european church music). Normally they are played in 4 voices (parts?) and of course the lowest is played on pedals. Go very slow in the beginning.

[vanderhill22]

I learned using the Roger E. Davis "The organist's manual" book. It has a fair amount of pedal technique information in it. Definitely geared more towards classical/hymn tradition but the basics are all there. I'm not any good with hammond pedal technique though, anything rock/gospel/funk I refer the the fountain of knowledge that is YouTube.

[tacitus]

Thanks, guys,

I have numerous hymn books in four part harmony and you can be sure I'll be having a stab at that, Joe. Just wondered if any of you found a particularly helpful way of getting to grips with the pedals without losing it on the manuals. I suppose slow and careful for as long as it takes, so I'll give that a go. I have some graded pieces where the pedal notes are fed in very gently from just a couple of notes in a whole piece up to continual.

Vanderhill, I just looked at the Davis book in Amazon and it seems quite dear, so for the moment I'll try to find the ancient Stainer tutor which I have somewhere - it's been waiting decades for this moment! Not that I wouldn't spring for it if I really need to, but I still have hardware to buy ... .

I've sort of told myself I won't look at my feet right from the start. I say that because over the last couple of years I've gone from being a chronic hand-watcher to something like able to play without looking. It was desperately hard with nearly 40 years' bad habits to undo, but I'm about there now. It'd be silly to go through all that again on the pedals.

[JoeCool]

I read somewhere that Jimmy Smith put a big piece of paper on the wall behind the organ and marked the positions of the pedals on this paper, so he looked at that paper, and not at his feet, to hit the pedals. Well, good idea. Sometimes you may have to look down anyway, especially if you have to make a quick jump.

[rippinux]

It's great that you elected to learn the pedals. Take it slow. there are numerous methods. Most Jazz organ players do most of the bass line on the lower manual, & just percussivly 'tap' a certain pedal at the beginning of each beat. That's ONE way. Learn that one, it's good for the walking line. But what about when you want to change a drawbar,tap a pre-set, crank up the overdrive, etc. then , you need that left foot to pick up the slack, keep that line going. You need to be able carry that line on. take slow tempos, swing maybe, & practise tapping root & fifth, in 2/2 or 4/4, either repeating root - fifth, root - fifth, or stepwise. Latin stuff ? practise root & fifth , with a syncopated feel. learn to carry the line one bar with the foot , then the left hand carrying the line ( lots of pa-chant grace notes) & the pedal in the one-note percussive style. practise it until it's almost SEAMLESS. Carry that line is the single most important thing an organ player does. if necessary, get a used drum machine off ebay. My favorite is the Boss 660. Start slow, & gradually raise the tempo. Kick pedal bass lines is something you could practise all of your life. The best player of dedicated pedal bass lines is JOE BUCCI. That b Dennerline is good, too. But Bucci SWINGS !
Also, get the Mark Vail book, BEAUTY OF THE 'B'. Both Moe Denham, & Larry Goldings give great advise on kicking the bass.

[rippinux]

Once you get the pedals down, a whole new world opens up to you . You become a Human Rhthym Section !

[tacitus]

Ah, the advice is coming in now! Thanks for all that - I'm waiting for the pedals to arrive, probably early next week by the look of it (though I get the pedal case tomorrow ...).

I've decided to go really slow and keep it as simple as possible to begin with so I have a chance to build my confidence. I did wonder at the wisdom of using a parallel board to play classical, but in fact having looked at more baroque instruments and other smaller, older, classical organs it seems to be quite common, so I'll have a good go at it.

I've got Beauty in the B somewhere, so I'll have a look at that, too. It's all getting quite exciting. I think this will be the first time I've bought a complete 'set of parts' in one go instead of doing it bit by bit and failing to get everything because some of it goes out of production before I can afford it all. At the end of play, I'll have the C2D, soft case, ALU stand, music rest, half-moon switch, pedals and case for pedals. I'm fed up with bodging the last few bits after a promising start, so praise to my late father who put some money away for me and my sister; which has just appeared to our total surprise.

[Mooser]

Gosh, tacitus, are you going to get a rotary speaker, too? It sorta goes with. Many people like the Leslie 3300.

[tacitus]

Mooser, I'd really like a 3300, it seems to be the weapon of choice for most serious C2 (and XK3 series) users, and would be plenty loud enough for anything I want.

Depending on how the money goes I may well do it, though I am a bit tight for storage at home just now, and I wouldn't want to part with any keyboards to make room for one ... I have another chunk of cash coming in, but I've got to be careful only to spend it once! Meantime I figure that the sim is fairly OK, and I have a Sonorous rotary speaker and multiple kilowatts of PA as well. If my equipment store was bigger than 6' square I'd fit one in somehow, I guess.

BTW, I've now got everything except the pedal board itself. The ALU stand and the soft case for the pedals certainly indicate a substantial bit of kit. I hadn't realised the ALU stand comes with its own soft case, as well, making three cases to carry the whole organ, and not counting the stool.