[HAM] Non keyboard chops

[William Mark Bristow]

---Brent wrote -

Anyone have a specific (non keyboard) instrument that they listen to to get
their chops for Hammonds?

---snip

Having had formal classical and contemporary piano lessons and some organ
lessons on an M1 as a kid -- over the years I've had to listen to bass
players to learn bass lines and adapt them for organ.  I also listen to the
brass sections (horns of all types) and duplicate some of their phrasing and
licks.  On ballads, I love recreating string sections.  We had a wonderful
flutist work with us for years - and I learned to recreate some of her sound
- runs and phrases with the lower Ab tibias preset - or a similar drawbar
setting.   

In the Gospel world, today for me, that covers everything from acid rock to
black gospel to southern gospel and high church hymns.  I have listened to a
good deal of classical pipe organ and can create some of that feel with a
Hammond.  You need the live volume of a couple Leslies (or more) for that -
miked Leslies don't fill the room with all the reflections and reverb.  Some
things I do require background scoring to drama.  I listen to movie scores.
If done more like a pipe it doesn't sound so soap-opera-ish but more like a
modern Phantom of the Opera.  And it's fun, especially if we have guys who
can play by ear and improvise with me in the band.

I am blessed also being able to play by ear, so after 40 years I can usually
hear a piece and "see" the scoring in my head - or at least enough to adapt
to my purposes.

Sometimes I'm leading with the Hammond - sometimes I am just playing licks
with a band - sometimes I am kicking bass.

I love playing with a good jazz guitarist or sax player - and echoing or
"trading" licks and phrases back and forth.

William Mark Bristow