Matching Your Instruments

Hello again,

It is now the eleventh of January in my part of the world and I am gradually getting the hang of the reduced visibility in thr right eye. It will be nice when the headaches end.

Now, as an avid organist, I have always been aware of the styles and registration ideas that other organists use. In the early days of the 1970's, organ voices were a little bit "suck it and see." Being a Lowrey fan at this time, my favourites were the fantastic String Bass and Bass Guitar pedal sounds, the Marimaba which at that time was a twin mallet repeat style and the Clarinet, which had this deep woody sound when played with reverb. (I was at a Hammond Demonstration in Bolton where the organist was no other than Bryan Rodwell. He made the Hammond sound fantastic but when a asked him for a Clarinet demo he admitted that the Lowrey one was far better at that time).

You have to match your particular instruments actual sounds to the right melodies, and I suppose that this also goes for the keyboard players, BUT if you play the right piece with the right instrument then you can let peoples imaginations takeover to fill in the gaps. It is all a question of feel and atmosphere.
As an example, an old trick on the Lowrey Citation Spinet, was to play Amazing Grace using the Upper Cello with Lower String Accompaniment and have on reverb but as you play, hold down the Glide Pedal, which bent the whole organ tone back half a tone. This gave an impressive BAGPIPE effect and if AOC was utilised it was great, especially if a Slow Waltz Rhythm was used with that melody.

Well that is all for now.

I have attached this video of Yours Truly playing Stranger On The Shore on the Clarinet, made famous of course by the legendary Acker Bilk.

Bye for now

Robin