Nord User Forum

I have been playing church organ and piano/keyboard for many years.
Now I would also like to play some jazz/hammond organ sounds, but this is a special way of playing.
What's a good way to learn that? I'm looking for a tip in the right direction.
I have the Nord stage2 88

There's a nice book for the first steps: Dave Limina - Hammond Organ Complete, 2nd edition. It assumes that you have an original Hammond, though. So, you are a bit limited without 2nd keyboard and pedals. But you learn to use the drawbars, the expression/swell pedal (for dynamics), vibrato/chorus, Leslie (speed switching), bass foldback, glissando, trills, sputters, drone tones together with rock, blues, jazz, funk and walking bass techniques.

But I have no idea if all of those techniques work well with your keybed.

analogika wrote:A weighted keyboard is not really ideal for learning organ technique.

It's not even close to ideal. But... at least it's a start.

A few years ago I made that trip in reverse. After many decades playing a Hammond B-3 I got serious about learning the correct playing technique for piano, but all my other keyboards had synth actions. I didn't make much progress, even after getting a fairly decent hammer-action stage piano, until my wife surprised me with a Yamaha AvantGrand. Within a few months I became much more confident and comfortable on piano. Of course I can't take that beauty out on a one-night gig, but somehow it helped me over the hump and my playing improved on hammer action stage pianos, too.

Hopefully the OP won't have to find a real B-3 to make his trip from piano player to organ player!! (But that would be a "swell" way to do it...)

Thanks a lot to remind of that part of the game! Reduce chords, omit notes, listen to what you (and others) are playing. I didn't mention it as Paolo86 already is an organist - but it may be different as a lot of stops on the Hammond aren't just octave sounds (most stops on a church organ are).

I've never tried to play the organ solo. I'm only playing a bit in a band context. So no idea if there is a need of accompanying instruments. In any case, it can be done without a guitar at side - see B. Dennerlein, analogika et al.

It would be interesting if you and others might throw in another two or three words about your feeling/thinking while playing the organ.

thank you all for the replies. I understand that it works differently with drawbars than with registers on a church organ. I often see the answer to this question, look at the examples, but if you don't know what they do, you don't understand it either. Is it correct when I say that you mainly play chords? I've never played chords with piano and church organ, that's more for keyboard. I also understand that weighted piano keys are not the best for Hammond playing. I am considering connecting a midi keyboard for this. So the main question is, what is the basis of Hammond playing.

Hi Paolo,

the thing is that all what sounds good is good, no matter if it’s playing single notes in solos or 2- resp. 3-voice-chords, no matter if it’s holding chords or playing them in rhythmic patterns and so on. You will see that it is a very versatile thing.

You may take some famous recordings, such as „Made in Japan“ of Deep Purple and some others from Jimmy Smith, Booker T. or Milton Buckner, to find out what attracts you. If you then tell us one or two of your „favourite“ findings we would even better be able to force you in a good direction for both, sound settings and playing techniques.

Listening and trying to copy was my initial step.

Cheers from Germany

I know this thread is a few months old, but thought I'd chime in. In the 80's I learnt to play on a Hammond 2 tier organ with pedals (1 octave). My left hand was generally all about the chords, starting with triads & variations from the roots then adding the octave on the thumb when my hands got big enough. It was pretty simple stuff generally and just stayed around the same left hand side of the bottom keyboard with the odd arpeggio etc. As a result I've got a bit of a lazy left hand which was a pain when moving to synths/pianos etc. Often used walking bass on the pedals with the more jazzy stuff, and sped up the Leslie when hitting choruses or emotional highs. I've dreamed of replicating a similar setup with a Stage 4/midi keyboard/midi pedals/swell pedal some day.