Nord User Forum

[tacitus]

Generally you would set accompaniment on the bottom manual for comping and have something a bit brighter and probably with the percussion on the top manual for lead stuff. It's not set in stone but that's a start.

Compared to the piano, if you use an 88800000 or 88880000 sort of setting, chords played lower down will become a lot more congested. You can get round that by moving your comping up an octave or by not using so much (or even no) 16' tone. Again, as I said above, you can use much more open chords on Hammond and the harmonics will make them sound great, where on the piano they sound a bit bare. Try to run with the sound of the instrument if you can; if you do everything I said at once, you'll pretty much turn your B3 emulation into a spinet model!

I'd certainly go with the advice to keep it simple for the moment. But you will need to put some work in on the volume pedal to get dynamics. I still find that the biggest leap from piano to organ.

[ZeroZero]

Great advice - I shall be taking it simple - currently expermimeting with Band in a box and my ears too

Z

[craigmill]

"my left hand is almost sustaining chords all the time and solos or moving chords with the right hand"

I just started using the Hammond organ patches, eg. Jazzy Organ on my Nord and I find that when I play chords in the bass it sounds very 'muddy' - should I spend some time adjusting the drawbars etc or use another Hammond organ patch?

Thanks

[tacitus]

You can do either; as long as you end up with the sound you want it doesn’t matter. One easy trick is to move both hands up an octave to lighten the texture. Generally in harmony it works best to widen the gaps between notes as you go further down, so playing up an octave helps quite a bit. You can also try playing mainly thirds and sevenths in the left hand, roots in the pedals if you have them or redistribute those notes a bit to simulate that effect if you don’t.

We’re all brought up thinking of 4-part chords, especially pianists - almost everything up to the mid 20th century does it. When you only have three parts, you have to work a bit harder to make the harmonies clear and to get your fingers round the notes some chords will come out a bit more open. If you play 4/5-part close harmony like a big band, you will need to lighten the registration a bit (and to make it sound a bit less like a theatre organ and more like a rock or soul organ. But while Hammonds became popular because you CAN do that (and put the bass in too), that’s no reason why you should do it. If you happen to play with a band, we’re back to the ideal one-armed player: let the bass play the bass, the guitar play chords and then put your solo on that. Next verse, the guitar plays the solo and you comp the chords, preferably above or below the guitar so your frequencies don’t clash so much. Less is more; you can do a blues solo on two notes if you’ve a mind to (and if you haven’t a mind it’s safe ...).

Hope that’s useful!