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The Organ


Jazz Kat

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Seriously, at a recent rehearsal they sat her down just like that, and out came this very interesting chord voicing! Then she held down a series of chord clusters, to which Randy and I played along freely with. Sounded like some lost late-60's Larry Young or something. B-)

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Seriously, at a recent rehearsal they sat her down just like that, and out came this very interesting chord voicing! Then she held down a series of chord clusters, to which Randy and I played along freely with. Sounded like some lost late-60's Larry Young or something. B-)

What can I say... she's a natural.

I wish we had recorded that. She was laying down some deep shit. :)

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I've also recorded my 2 young kids at the piano when they were really young. The left hand voicing part always fascinated me, as well as the odd melodies. At that early stage they are true improvisors!

Now of course my son is a 10 year old guitarist into Linkin Park and all forms of rap.

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I've also recorded my 2 young kids at the piano when they were really young. The left hand voicing part always fascinated me, as well as the odd melodies. At that early stage they are true improvisors!

Now of course my son is a 10 year old guitarist into Linkin Park and all forms of rap.

Yes, it takes a professional musician a lifetime to achieve what 2 year old kids have already, freedom w/o preconcieved ideas. Kids can play some pretty cool stuff. But then again, try to get them to play Jingle Bells and you're screwed!

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Mike, that is such a cute picture! I think there is one like that with my two eldest sisters, sitting at my dad's B3. I'll have to see if I can find it.

:)

Such a cute little guy!!!

:wub:

Thanks Jim. And of course, the love comes back at you and your little one. Perhaps they'll be the Shirley Scott and Lonnie Smith of THEIR generation!

Speaking of family photos, I've got to find one of my oldest sister, she played the electric organ in church when I was growing up. (I think she had a 60's flip hairdo and braces).

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I'm not an organist, so I don't know. When I read a little article with a really long quote from Jimmy Smith saying how he hates when organists are too lazy to use the pedals, I got to wondering what they were even used for. What exactly do the pedals do?

At the risk of repeating some of the same information (or slightly different) presented here, it might be useful to have a look at:

http://organfreak.tripod.com//bass.html

Scott's page collects a number of different insights, with examples, into kicking bass on one single page -- it was helpful to me a couple of years ago, even though your ears will be the final primer on the subject, especially on deciding if you want to bother doubling all your lines on pedals on each and every chorus.

Maybe not so much new content we haven't already heard here, but a different presentation style, for sure. I love Joey D's remarks on tapping in (one of?) his Keyboard Mag interviews: "Sometimes, at the end of the night, when my leg gets tired, or on a blues, I might just tap one pedal" (or something like that). The truth may be somewhere in between, for a lot of guys anyway, not necessarily Joey, who I'm sure can do whatever he wants technically.

John Patton, for example, seems to use (I'll have to check on which cuts of which albums) a LOT of footwork more frequently than almost anyone I can think of -- I mean the actual doubling of lines such that your ear can tell which notes are being played and when. At least that's what I hear. Sounds fantastic -- a great sound, but definitely not the only sound possible (although it's the one I'm most interested in at the moment).

For a really special out-front lesson, if you have the RVG of "Grantstand," check out the cut "Green's Greenery" -- one chorus of Jack McDuff playing just bass with nothing else going on, medium-up. Nothing fancy, but you can hear for yourself what's going on.

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Oh, I'm gonna get that one soon. The organ seems the most interesting instrument of all, standard instruments used in jazz settings.

I think what would be cool if organists used the organ as like another instrument. Example-bass. Yeah, you got the bass lines bassists use, but I was thinking this the other day. That organists could have two solos. One doing an organ solo, (on the keys) and two, imitating a bass, and have a second solo, completely on the pedals, and lower the notes. Just a thought....

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You mean like a contrapuntal thing? Sounds hard!

Don't miss Bob (Bobby) Jones's playing on some of Bobby Millitello's records -- he'll actually, during his solos, play all the bass on his feet and comp LH for his solos. It's an odd sound, but it's worth hearing. Since I live in Buffalo I've thought about trying to get some lessons from him if I get the time to devote to learning a new thing. The suggestion Scott Hawthorn gives for an "organ bass" record, Groove Holmes's "Soul Message" is a good one, as well, if you're interested in really learning to distinguish the manual and pedal tones by ear.

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I've actually seen DeFrancesco do bass pedal solos.  Very cool and very hard.  I've seen Dr. Lonnie Smith do them too, but in a totally different way.  He actually gets down beneath the organ and plays the bass solo on the pedals with his hands.

Nutball!   :P

Yes! Crazy.... Jim, sounds like you could do bass pedal solos with the way you get around. I've seen people do them but more in a "gimmick" way. Not actually taking choruses of bass pedal solos on different uptempo tunes, ect. usually it's a bass pedal feature on a medium funk tune (I do this sometimes but just out of feel, not something I sit and work out. Couldn't make it interesting for 10 choruses).

Still, I always hear people talk about...pedals, pedals, pedals...people have pedal fascination. But 90% is still left hand bass. Not easy at all to get that steady pulse in your left hand and flail away with your right. People seem to not understand that and don't give that ability the respect it deserves.

Pedals can be learned. Left hand bass is either you're born with it or not imho.

Edited by Soul Stream
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