Rock Organ 101

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When I think of great rock keyboardists through the ages, I think of a LOT of players who could really wail on the organ. I’m talking about guys like Jon Lord of Deep Purple, Keith Emerson of ELP, Steve Winwood of The Spencer Davis Group/Traffic… I could go on.

These players took their traditional piano chops and brought them to the Hammond organ, adding a bold new colour pallete to music of the era and expanding the role of the keyboard in a rock band. So if you’ve ever wondered what your piano skills can do on a wildly different keyboard instrument, read on!

(Note: Even if you don’t actually own a Hammond organ, you can usually find an organ setting on most keyboards you may own, so check that manual!) 

The Leslie Speaker

One of the coolest things about the Hammond organ is actually less to do with the instrument itself, and more to do with the amp it was popularly paired with, the Leslie speaker. The Leslie features a rotating speaker within the cabinet that spins at two speeds: a fast speed and a slow. If you leave the speaker spinning on slow, the organ will produce a low continual growling texture to your playing. Flip the setting too fast and the sound will spin up into a wobbly vibrato sound. You can hear this sound distinction in the main riff from ‘Gimme Some Lovin’ by the Spencer Davis Group taught in this lesson. Notice how the sound immediately becomes more expressive when the Leslie is engaged. It’s every great organ player’s secret back-pocket weapon!

The Leslie/Hammond organ combo has become so popular over the years that many keyboards and digital emulations have a digital mockup of this sound built into the organ patch. You can usually manipulate this sound with the flip of a switch, mod wheel, or button on your keyboard, so check your keyboard settings to find out how to work with this sound.

The Drawbars 

Ahh the drawbars. You’ll be shocked to learn how important these weird little sliders are to the sound of the organ. They give the instrument even more options to create expressive sound and offer an important solution to one of the organ’s biggest shortcomings: the lack of dynamics of the instrument. Because the organ keyboard doesn’t have any velocity sensitivity (no louds and softs) you can use these drawbars to help your organ playing become more dynamic.  

The way the drawbars work on the organ is a beautiful thing. Essentially what they do is add overtones to each note you play. The further you pull the drawbar out, the louder the volume of the overtone. So if you want to play super quietly, all you have to do is push those drawbars in so that they are only a few settings out of silent. Want to really make the organ scream? Pull out all the drawbars to create a wall of massive sound. A master organ player can use these drawbars in various configurations to ‘sculpt’ their sound on the fly!     

Practicing With Organ Sounds

So now you know the very basics of what makes up the sound of the rock organ. The Leslie speaker and the drawbars are a unique effect for keyboardists to play with. Unlike the piano, an organ can manipulate it’s tone after you’ve played a note. This opens players up to a world of opportunities to create a unique sound! So find some organ sounds in your keyboard, or hunt around the internet for an old organ gather dust that’s selling for cheap. It’ll open your musical world wide up!      

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Jordan Leibel is passionate about songwriting, improvisation, and helping you become a creative musician! He’s worked as a composer for film, commercial, and theatre projects as well as a session musician and producer for recording work.