Now, I know Medeski, Martin, and Wood aren't everyone's cup of tea, but this video seemed too good not to post.

The video gives a nice look at John's drawbar technique, which I find to be pretty inspiring. The Hammond solo begins at the 2:09 mark.



Feel free to post other videos or audio clips that showcase nice drawbar work.


-Rich

after watching this, its the first time I ever looked over at my electro an thought "man, that thing isn't even that great"

drawbuttoned...

lol great ending.....

Yeah, scottasin, that's pretty much what I still hate about my Electro. I mean, I love everything else, but I really miss drawbars.

John Medeski is just a freak of nature though. The stuff this guy does live is from another dimension or something. My buddy had front-row tickets to their show a couple of years ago and I got to go with him. I was completely blown away by his playing.

--Dave

After a second listen without watching the video, im not sure how effective it is. Its seems more abstract then intentional.

5:10 made me laugh out loud

Excellent!

Thanks for posting this. Not generally a fan of much of their music that I've heard in the past, but that was indeed a great organ solo and I enjoyed the whole thing quite a bit.

MMW RULZ!!!

Thanks for posting. Really enjoyed it.

LMFAO at the end!

LOLOL!!!! Great tune, really bitchin' organ solo, and what an ending!

Yeah, this is where my Electro2 and I fall out. The night I finally got to take my B-3 to a gig with my current band, I felt liberated. I love to work the bars when I play, those buttons are a pain in the rear. I just can't warm up to them at all, and I've had the thing for over a year.

That was cool. I agree Mogut. A lot of it seems "not intentional" or practiced. But some of it could be useful to borrow. Yep,tried it on my E2. A player could never move those simulated button/drawbars fast enough. I just spent the summer recording my band. It's nice to know everyone yells fxxx at the end of a song.
- Karl

just push the random button on the nord, to do this guys technique

Yeah, I've been running into the same wall with the E3. Fortunately, I just got got delivery of Outkaster's Voce drawbars yesterday! I'm still waiting on my event processor, though, so they're not talking the same language as the E3 yet.

Nice clip, RichieP_MechE!

I love MMW, and that was one really nice organ solo ... I want to know what he was doing at 3:53 .. that squirrely little riff was mighty tasty.

I'm a big fan. Saw them twice and Medeski's left hand was always on drawbars or on the Clavinet to support the groove. His settings and hammond sounds are awsome IMHO

If it means a lot to you (and it does to me) get a Voce V-5 or similar drawbar unit and a midi solutions event processor to map the cc#'s. Now I have physical drawbars for my upper manual settings on my Electro 3 and only use the buttons for the lower manual. Has made things much nicer for me. I did already own the drawbars, though.

I loved the technique, and didn't find it unintentional at all.

Very intential actually. Some of it sounded like opening a filter - ala wah pedal. I liked the solo as well and found it musical.

Awesome clip Richie, thanks for posting it!
Regards,
Joe

There's a guy I think who is on the Electro Yahoo! group who is building drawbars for Electros. He hasn't started selling them yet, but has posted videos of them working. They look pretty cool. They get their power from the MIDI bus (at least on the E2. One delay is he's trying to reduce the voltage requirement so it will use bus power on the E3), and are live. That means the lights are in sync with the drawbars, and when you switch back to organ mode, the drawbar position matches.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp5ZX0FVk4E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz2PC_NfB5o

Great clip! I'm a big Medeski fan, but this is the first time I've been able to really focus on what he's doing on the drawbars, I find it a very expressive and intentional approach. On one of Joe Doria's instructional vids, he talks about how hammond playing feels like "pushing buttons" at first, but eventual it becomes expressive technique, I think this was a good example of that.

That's a great video.
Unfortunately B3 lovers w/o a crew have to use different instruments.
I just wanted to let guys know who have Nords that there are other ways to use drawbars besides the one handed techniques.
There's these DSP cards called Creamware that have an awesome B3 Physically modelled. Their synths. mixers and effects are excellent too, but a 300 Luna or a 500 Project card from ebay used is a wise investment and here's why.
First the sound is authentic, the Rotary is pretty good for an EMU but I am an X Hammond player and use a Pro3t so I get pretty close to a B3 sound.
But w/ the B2003 model one can use a CC Device that has 8 virtual faders.
Each fader can be attached to a virtual drawbar.
Each fader also has 3 controls. One for starting point of the fader ( drawbar ) and one for the end point. Then the curves can be chosen, linear, linear R, Exponential, Exponential R, Logarithmic, and Log R.
Then there's the lagtime which is the showstopper.
You end up ganging all of these to an expression pedal. On top of the expression pedal is a velcroed footswitch pedal.
You push forward with your heel and swell the drawbar combinations to go from where you start to stop, the footswitch is easy to step on while moving to control the speeds. But the beauty of this is the global Lag time can be used also. This means while we are busy using both hands to perform, a fast stomp on the expression pedal activates the controls and even though you just stomped the pedal from all the way back to forward the lag time still controls the destination times for the drawbars. It's pretty awesome to use live. If I knew how to post pics I'd show you, but trust me, I am an old B3 player and when I lost management the B3 was nothing but a problem. The Anvil case lid was pulled off and the b3 rolled out on stage and it seemed so easy. But w/o a crew you're dead in the water.
I also use a MIDI solutions F8 to have 8 1/4" pedal I/O's.
I use 5 of the footswitches to change keyswitched string and horn articulations.
Don't know where you guys gig at, but at my jobs 2 hands are used or you are looking for work.
It's a challenge I rose up to years ago when I started doing showrooms and lounges again, I had it made when I was just a keyboard guy and had management. In the lounges I am expected to cover horns, strings and even Guitars.
It's true, the shittier the jobs and the less pay, the harder we have to work.
I often dream of making a cut out of myself and getting Cubase to play everything while I bang waittail cocktresses............ooops, I meant to say Cocktail waitresses.....a Freudian slip....

I like that technique. Varying the sound so wildly makes the instrument sound more "alive".


Like a...a guitar?


(*Awaits flames*)

For quite a while now, I've had a Nord Electro on my GAS list. I'm starting to get cold feet though listening to all you guys bitch about the buttons... I never did that much real time diddling with the drawbars on my B3, but I did change my settings fairly often - like 4 or 5 times during a song. Suppose I wanted to go from 888850023 to 888888888 quickly for emphasis and back again which is basically just a grab and pull/push operation on a B3, would I have to sit there and watch the LEDs ramp up and down on the Nord or is it pretty responsive?

It's pretty responsive, but you could always store drawbar presets too & those are really quick to grab.

Those drawbar movements are completely intentional. He knows exactly what he's doing. I do something similar if the mood strikes, moreso when I'm playing with a bassist.

The first time I worked with John he was playing an Electro. He can get similar sounds out of it. Taleanted guy.

Chester Thompson is still one of my very favorites.

The Electro buttons take some getting used to, for sure, but they're pretty responsive. You have replace the sort-of push/pull grabbing technique with "button mash" technique. Still would prefer drawbars 100%, but the buttons are very usable IMO.

Get an Xk-3C. You won't be dissapointed.

Well a bit of crow sandwich is in order. After listening to this vid on decent speakers I can hear the more subtle aspects of John's drawbar technique. Still I estimate that it takes about a half second to get the Nord drawbar all the way out or in, so you could never do all of this on a NE2/3 without a midi drawbar controller. Don't get me wrong. I love my NE2. It sounds so good, I can't stop playing it.

My apologies John

- Karl

Personally, I think those movements aren't conscious ... they are in muscle memory ... much as velocity control is for a pianist. It's really nice to see someone playing in that zone.

You can do drawbar stuff on the electro that is impossible on a B3. (The rhythmic clicking thing would be similar to Josef Z hitting the octave +- buttons, or Tony B hitting the Prophet 5 preset buttons with one hand while playing with the other.)

It's a different statement, but it's good if it's used in the service of the music. imo

You can do quick tonal changes with a B3 using the presets. It's been done. Its even easier on the new ones since you don't have to actually re-wire a matrix in the back to set the presets!

I read an interview with Medeski once where he urged would-be organ players to fully understand how each drawbar changes the sound. Once you do that, he said, you could sculpt anything you wanted.

He knows exactly what he's doing.

Glad everybody liked the video.

How's he switching the Leslie? I see the half moon switch but there's times when the speed changes and he's got both hands on the organ. He makes some gestures that look like he might be switching with his forearm or elbow, but it doesn't appear to me that he'd be able to reach it. Maybe he's using a foot switch?

Wow! Im just now discovering medeski martin and wood... Youtube stuff is great

Finally got around to watching this video. Killing! I enjoy his creativity and musicality, definitely all about the moment.

I sometimes use the forearm, or if playing in the lowest octave, the palm of the hand.

I thought I would enlarge on these comments, because they are so easily misunderstood.



Medeski rocks. I like that his approach to tonal control is not studied, but integrated into his personality. I also love that he is doing 2-3 levels of musical development at the same time in his solo. (tonal change, call and answer, etc.) Even with other instruments, he subsumes technique into the flow of the moment.



I can't offhand think of something the electro interface makes easier than the B3 (maybe it's pulling 8, 2&2/3 and 1&3/5 out while pushing 4 and 2 lol, maybe it's the rhythmic aspect). But someone will invent something.

I am trying to encourage people with electros to find what uniquely works on their instrument. Just as the B3 players who were given something different from a pipe organ ... did.

Somebody compared this to an electric guitar, which has precious little tonal control inside it after the note is struck ... yet has developed an evocative idiom and techniques, many of which use external devices.

Treat your instrument (any instrument) as though it has a unique purpose. Only then can you find it's purpose.

Wow I've never heard of these guys but that was fantastic!

Me either.... how lucky are we to be discovering them for the first time...