I know. I know I know. Fran in sunny florida I know. Many of my friends here in the north got it too. I thank my God I have not made friends with Arthur Ritus yet. About ten years ago they carved out my gallbladder. Still did not take all the gaul out of all my bladder or is it blabber. Ruthie says I have a warped sense of humor. If I have learned anything these past many years it is not to disagree with Ruthie. Besides being cut off for a while, the quality of food remarkably goes down. Anyway Bernie I know about the pedal being a great way to keep time. Very popular in some circles. Some people have found other uses for it also. My youngest daughter is an audiologist. I suggested she come over to some of the organ clubs I have attended. A great place to find new customers. Easy to pick out new hearing aid customers. Some of these people either can’t hear or play very loud so you can’t hear each other talk. Kind of a captive audience, so to speak. Now now Walt. Easy on this old guy. I only made some of those statements to get your goat and stimulate some conversation. And that it did. In case some of you in keyboard land don’t know, Walt had a business across the street from me for a number of years. Walt and my brother Jim, were kind of organ nuts at that time. Me? After digging in the dirt and chasing lawn mowers all day long I loved to shower, slide into my tux, adjust my bow tie, slide into my jacket, take my sax and clarinet in hand and blow my brains out half the night on the band stand. Ruthie? She took care of the six kids, bless her little heart. Which reminds me, valentines day is coming. Must remember to get her something red to smell and some sweets for her pretty little tummy, seeing I’ll be away evenings playing for some Valentine hilarity's. Wonder if Ruthie would like to come along. Think I’ll ask her.

Walt, thank goodness your far away now and can’t smack me in the chops. Just funning you. But you did get me out of my chair and move me over to the KN. Gave the digital draw bar button a firm push and with great determination played some organ stuff with the R1 and R2 plus L all set up with organ draw bars. No dynamics, pure hammond, thru and thru. Went up and done the same thing with the organ and accordion little silver button. All were touch sensitive. Next tested the sound explorer. Both the pipe organ and electric organ voices were all touch sensitive. I know most all the electronic organs have a button on them that nobody ever uses except me, that I have run across. That little never used button on the organs of today is called dynamics or something to that effect. The best detective of today would have a hard time lifting a fingerprint off that button. Nothing but dust. What about pipe organs? How are real pipe organs made? Only played a few of them in my lifetime. I know most of them have after touch. That is, when more pressure is placed on the key after the initial touch with the key is made, another event happens. Great feature. Now as far as sensitivity in relation to the initial touch is concerned, I have never really paid any attention to it. Just pushed the pedal to the metal to feel my body resonate to them big long pipes. Wow!!! Anybody know about touch sensitivity on pipe organs? Anyway the guys that design our keyboards really are sharp. What brains, all going in the same direction. Making things do what they did. Even keeping the old hammond draw bar organ keys doing what they always did. Make a noise. And I must say, a very pleasing noise to my ears. Brings back memories of many, many hours of blissful exuberance gliding around the roller rink dancing to the strains of its beautiful music. Now? Creaky joints! And the foot doing what the foot was used to doing. Getting me to where I wanted to arrive. How did Hammond think? Let’s give em a pedal to arrive at the expression they want to give to their music. Good idea! Now what should we call it? Expression pedal? Swell pedal? Good thinking. Expression pedal it is. Oh yes, the beginning of electric organs. Technics kept the faith. Kept the hammond draw bar organ the way the hammond draw bar organ was, and keep the electronic organs of post hammond vintage in their genre. Either use dynamics of expression with the fingers that make the music or delegate it to the foot. By default our boards are set to draw bar expression by foot and all others by touch. The latter can be changed but the former cannot. I wish it could. Maybe someday. Anyway Walt, as far as I have l determined so far, only draw bars are non touch sensitive on the whole keyboard by default. Hay Walt, I know your not a frustrated old organ player or that the pedal is not totally a piece of junk. Well, maybe old like me, but not frustrated. Walt, I only did a bit of exaggeration to make a point and stimulate ideas. Peace? I know you use the keyboard with auto backing most of the time as most of us do. That is why we bought an arranger keyboard in the first place. We all have our own way of using our melody makers and that is the way it should be. The first word in my thread was ‘expression’. Expression or dynamics. Expression or dynamics to the music we make. One way or another, or restated, how do you impart feeling or soul or life to your playing, the dynamics, so to speak. With foot or with fingers. Listening to all those 20 for 1 songs of the past months brought to my attention a few things to be noted. After all, the reason we are here is to squeeze out all the pleasure we can get out of our boards. One way is to know how to use them, to explore all the features, the nuts and bolts of the thing as some would say. Another source for extending our pleasure is in the sensitivity of the board itself. If I may remark on those 20 for 1 disks a few things got my attention and to me were quite surprising. The first was the amount and kind of rhythm styles used that were not native to the keyboard. That subject in itself deserves to be discussed and could be good for at least a months discussion on the forum. Another thing that surprised me was the proficiency of the mechanics' of playing. Many good technicians out there. Of course as in any endeavor, a few outstanding ones. However one noticeable observation I would like to express at this time is the subject at hand, the subject of this thread, ‘Expression’. Yes expression, dynamics, heart, feeling, soul, the ingredients that make you dance, tap your foot, triggers a tear or makes it swing. I say all this not to be negative but as a means of awareness ending in more enjoyment of our endeavors and of the people hearing them. Are we using our foot or our fingers to this end is the question. The means at our disposal. Does one or the other lend themselves better to this end? I would venture to say there are a great number of players out there that has never even given this a thought or even thought it of any value. Organ and keyboard clubs, player friends and now 20 for 1 disks all give credence to this observation. A profitable lesson that stuck with me since high school was this. Have a good tone, an awareness of what's going on around you, and project a sensitivity and emotion in your playing you will be successful as a performer giving much satisfaction to all. As a kid I had no great technical ability but had these simple things under control. Good tone on my sax, an awareness of the whole band and could express the mood and feelings of the song at hand in simplicity. Today we have an instrument with some of the finest sounds, play with some of the best backup rhythms and all we have to do is play the simple melody. Simple yes but it needs life, it needs expression. Give it some dynamics, some feeling. Listen to the disks, the 20 for 1 stuff.

Frank Benz. I like Frank. I like his approach to making music. Ever hear him play? One finger chords. Simple but beautiful. Ever read some of his posts? Let’s talk music, not so much hardware. Listen to what I did with the same thing you own. Express yourself with music and express your music. I like Frank! I like his attitude. I like the way he puts sounds together and expresses them. I like how he takes rhythms, combines them with sound cocktails and lays out his soul with music. Just a simple play for fun type of guy like us. Where are you Frank? Give us some of your thoughts on this.

Ad, your right. A hammond without a swell pedal would be total dullsville. Boring to say the least. On the other hand I do know some people who use the pedal for everything. As I have noted above our boards are not touch sensitive on hammond draw bars, but are on all of the other organs and voicings. What do you think about the other electronic and pipe organ voices? Do you use them in the default mode or do you turn off the sensitivity? Why do you think only hammond draw bars have no sensitivity while all the others do?

Grandpa Doug