Playing the bass pedals on an organ

[Hugh-AR]

Playing the bass pedals on an organ

When I had my first organ (the Farfisa Balmoral) the young man in the shop who sold it to me was a boy I used to teach (Maths) and he had just come out of a Music College. He said to me that the pedals on these 'Home Organs' are very short compared to a Church Organ and don't come under the seat you are sitting on. So you can't 'toe and heel'. Here's a video showing 'proper' footpedals on an organ and how to play them.

Quick Tips for the Beginning Organist - Beginning Foot Pedals



The next thing he pointed out was that the pedals on a Home Organ are a lot closer together so it is difficult to play them with a 'flat foot'. If you did that it was likely that you would also hit the note next to the one you are aiming for. Which brings up something else with these Home Organs. On a Church Organ the bass notes are 'polyphonic' ie. play two notes together and both will sound. Not that you would do that very often when playing the pedals as you're not trying to create 'harmony' in the bass. The bass pedals on a Home Organ are 'monophonic' ie. they only play one note at a time .. and that is the higher of the two you are playing. So if you are using a 'flat foot' and hit the note above the one you are aiming for as well as the correct one, only the higher note will play. Which will be the wrong note!

And another thing. There are not as many notes available for you to play on a Home Organ. A Home Organ will typically have 13 notes (ie. one octave, as this number includes white and black notes).

From Wikipedia:
Pedalboards range in size from 13 notes on small spinet organs designed for in-home use (an octave, conventionally C2–C3) to 32 notes (two and a half octaves, C2–G4) on church or concert organs. Modern pipe organs typically have 30- or 32-note pedalboards, while some electronic organs and many older pipe organs have 25-note pedalboards.

So what the young man said to me was, "Play the pedals with the ball of your left foot (not with the flat of your foot), don't use the right foot (that is controlling the expression pedal), push your left knee over to your right (which will keep the ball of your foot directly over the note you want to play), and with the short pedalboard you should be able to get to all the notes you want to play."

And he proceeded to play a boogie-woogie bass line at speed.

The Boogie-Woogie Bassline

Although there are many variations, the basic boogie-woogie bass pattern is a two-bar pattern using quarter notes. The bassline ascends and then descends strongly outlining the notes of each dominant 7th chord in the blues progression.

The basic two-bar pattern goes: | Root-3-5-6 | b7-6-5-3 |

Now I'm sure you 'real' organists will have something to say about all this! Tony, Don, Ken? It's just that this is how I've learnt to play my pedals .. but I have noticed that professional organists who come and play for our Weston-super-Mare Organ and Keyboard Club never seem to play with their knee over to the right, or play on the ball of their foot.

Please click on POSTREPLY and let me know your views!

Hugh

[Rev Tony Newnham]

Hi

The quick answer is plenty of practice. I learned on a church organ so was taught to use a full pedal board, toe & heel and so on. Navigating the pedals is by feeling for the gaps between the sets of sharps & the groups of 2 or 3 sharps - but after a while you just know where the notes are. My organ teacher refused to have a light on the pedals, so there was no option of looking, especially if the church was dark. At one time I was regularly playing 9 organs with 7 styles of pedal board, including this early 1820's example! Look closely - it runs from G-G!

There are tutor books out there if you want to develop the technique - and it is possible to "toe & heel" on some spinet pedalboards if the keys are long enough. Years ago I came across a book about playing organ pedals, which identified various areas of the foot that could be used for (very) advanced playing. I still occasionally use a couple of them.

At the opposite extreme, there are those who say you should only use toes for Bach & earlier music (I disagree, and recently evidence has come to light that Bach may have used his heels!)

For many players, especially those coming from playing piano, the biggest hurdle is to stop your left hand also playing the bass line.

If all goes well, I'm planning to record a piece for our church anniversary next Sunday that involves playing the pedal in octaves at times, and also a couple of other tricky sections. Wish me luck! I'll try & set up a 2nd camera and do some fancy editing if I have time.

Any specific queries then just ask.

Every Blessing

Tony

[kens]

Hi!
To add to Hughes comments my EL700 has 20 keys on the pedal board. These I play mainly with the ball of my left foot. However for any notes above middle C I have to take my right foot off the Volume/Expression control and use it to reach the high register pedal notes. The volume of notes played on the manuals at that point, can, to a certain extent be controlled by using the after touch settings. I use 3 stave written music as a guide, adding extra as the mood takes me. In classically written organ music the manner of using feet on the pedal board is indicated in the form of a V pointing right, left or upwards. Heel/toe/ sole. It is possible to use this method with spinets like mine but rather difficult as the pedals are shorter. Some of the pros manage it.
regards Ken S.

[Hugh-AR]

Tony has now done what he said he was going to do and has put up this video on YouTube. He is playing his Viscount Envoy 35FV digital organ and has put an insert into his video showing him playing the pedals. This shows clearly that he has bass pedals that come right under his seat, and it shows how he 'toes and heels' his bass.

Nun Dankett Karg-Elert

[Hugh-AR]

Now here's a novel way to play the pedals on an organ. Use them to play the melody!

[Rev Tony Newnham]

Hi

Melody in the pedals is pretty common in some genres of classical organ music - indeed, I've heard a few theatre organists do it for short passages. I've got a few pieces that I play sometimes that do this. Perhaps the most "fun" one is a Chorale prelude by the great J.S. Bach on the carol tune "In Dulci Jubilo" (Good Christian Men, Rejoice is one translation). Bach realised that the melody worked as a canon (think Tallis' canon, that many of us will have learned at school) - so puts the melody in both the top part, and the canon on the pedals, with a 4ft stop, so it sounds in the tenor register. He then writes a running accompaniment that is a canon in itself, played by both hands (plus the r.h. melody of course). I managed to get it up to scratch & played it as a solo in our carol service last year. (Sorry - no recording - maybe next Christmas!)

As if that isn't enough, some, mainly concert, organs have a "pedal divide" facility. It acts like a keyboard split on a keyboard, the lower octave or so (the split point can sometimes be set) plays the pedal stops in the normal way, and the upper section can be coupled to one (or more) of the keyboards and used to play another part. I've not (yet?) come across this facility, and I'd have to really work to be able to use. I did read though that concert organ, playing one of the Soussa marches, used the facility to enable him to add thee piccolo counter melody (played with his right foot) whilst playing the bass line with his left foot & the melody & accompaniment on the manuals. The mind boggles!!!

I did find a video of the Bach Chorale Prelude that I mentioned above - played a heck of a lot faster than I can manage!

Press the back-arrow after watching.



Sickening.

Every Blessing

Tony