Bass Pedal Technique

[SamuelBLupowitz]

Spending more time on my organ technique these days, and it"s been really handy to have my old set of Roland PK-5 pedals â pre-quarantine, I"d been working them more regularly into my live rigs, not just as organ bass pedals, but also to trigger synths and samples.

 

Those Taurus-style pedals don"t seem to lend themselves to the traditional heel-toe technique. I"ve always wanted to be John Paul Jones, and I"m wondering if there"s a better way to be working on my left-foot fluidity on that octave of pedals, so I don"t just feel like I"m Rhino-stomping everything.

[ksoper]

This Barbara Dennerlein video shows her using primarily toes even though she has the real estate to do heel/toe. This approach could possibly be applied to a small pedal board though I can't say I've done it with grace. A real organ bench helps. You want to be high enough over the pedals so that you don't have to lift your leg.

 

 

 

[video:youtube]

[Mykhailo]

Spending more time on my organ technique, so I don"t just feel like I"m Rhino-stomping everything.

 

nothing wrong with a little Rhino when playing B3...(sorry, couldn"t resist, huge fan of this band, and their excellent B3 player the the legendary Michael Fonfara..)

 

[video:youtube]

[lightbg]

She also has the luxury of having a sustain generator built in to her cabinet. On a regular tonewheel there is no way to sustain, just on/off switches, so heel and toeing becomes a necessity.

 

Jake

[lightbg]

FWIW, I shot this 9 years ago when I got my PK 27/s for my C1. Again, no sustain, but the heel and toe does make it sound like a fingered Hammond bass than an oom=pah tuba.

 

[video:youtube]

 

Jake

[lightbg]

Another thing that helps a lot is substituting flatted 5ths in your bass line to keep the sound moving. Most people play a ii-V-I as Dm7-G7-C. Think about how much foot travel that involves. I use Dm7-Db9-C which means I have 100% sound going on through those changes merely by rocking my foot. Also, don't always insist on playing the root on the 1st beat. Keeping the bass line moving is more important that correct notes. Think like a bassist and you'll get the idea faster.

 

Jake

[lightbg]

I can't believe how bad the resolution is on a 9 year old video, so I did another. Hopefully this will illustrate my pedal technique more clearly. I do tend to play naturals with my heel and accidentals with the toe, but that's not ironclad.

 

Here's the latest effort:

 

[video:youtube]

 

Jake

[Tom Williams]

She also has the luxury of having a sustain generator built in to her cabinet.

Jake

I think it's even better: a mono sustained bass synth voice. That way note 2 doesn't bleed over onto note 1. That doesn't reduce her amazing talent though!

 

Also, I'm pretty sure she has excellent classical training (i.e., she plays a custom hauptwerk at home), and as I recall (almost 50 years ago) that's done almost exclusively with both feet's toes.

[Tusker]

For me, the technique (in a non organ keyboard rig) is all about stool/bench height. If that"s wrong, it"s rhino stomping time. (Love that expression)

[SamuelBLupowitz]

Spending more time on my organ technique, so I don"t just feel like I"m Rhino-stomping everything.

 

nothing wrong with a little Rhino when playing B3...(sorry, couldn"t resist, huge fan of this band, and their excellent B3 player the the legendary Michael Fonfara..)

 

[video:youtube]

I appreciate the introduction to Rhinoceros as much as the bass pedal tips... to hop on one of my most frequent soapboxes, so many of the mainstream rock bands in the late 60s and early 70s all wore their Motown influences on their sleeves, especially bass players, and this track is certainly no exception. That pocket is what separates the grown-ups from the children as far as I'm concerned.

 

Guitarist sounds like he's copping Jimmy Page a bit there on the solo!

[Mykhailo]

Bass player was Jerry Penrod from Iron Butterfly.

[Outkaster]

Damn Jake awesome playing man. That B-3 sounds great!

[pinkfloydcramer]

Very timely thread for me, as with the current downtime I am spending some time every day on the A100 pedals. If I can learn that skill I intend to use it for a one-man band type thing- chromatic harmonica in the RH, LH for chords, bass on the pedals. Would also be great just to play simple things on organ like Pomp and Circumstance, Whiter Shade etc.

 

Curious- do you foot pedalers mostly rely on muscle memory? Knowing, for example, how far to move your foot to get to a 5th (or other) interval from where you are? Or is it more a matter of positioning yourself on the bench the same way and knowing, with confidence, where each individual pedal is? I don't hear too many clams from people playing pedals so I assume most have a good degree of confidence.

[mate stubb]

Curious- do you foot pedalers mostly rely on muscle memory? Knowing, for example, how far to move your foot to get to a 5th (or other) interval from where you are? Or is it more a matter of positioning yourself on the bench the same way and knowing, with confidence, where each individual pedal is? I don't hear too many clams from people playing pedals so I assume most have a good degree of confidence.

 

I copied my first organ teacher's habit of finding the gaps in the black keys by feel. Then you will have B and C under your left foot and E and F under your right. After that, I rely on muscle memory to reach intervals from there. I never got 100% effortless with my technique, but then I only seriously did it for several years.

[CEB]

I suck. I can only play pedals if I take my shoes off. ð¦¶ð»ð¦¶ð» And I look down too much.

[lightbg]

Curious- do you foot pedalers mostly rely on muscle memory? Knowing, for example, how far to move your foot to get to a 5th (or other) interval from where you are? Or is it more a matter of positioning yourself on the bench the same way and knowing, with confidence, where each individual pedal is? I don't hear too many clams from people playing pedals so I assume most have a good degree of confidence.

 

I line up exactly over the middle "C" on the pedals, and make sure my right foot is all the way to the right edge of the expression pedal so I don't collide with it when reaching for an Eb with the left. I basically feel after that but almost always heel the naturals and toe the accidentals, and my pedals look like hell from middle C down, so I obviously don't do much classical playing, and really suck on an AGO 32 board.

 

Jake

[SamuelBLupowitz]

Curious- do you foot pedalers mostly rely on muscle memory? Knowing, for example, how far to move your foot to get to a 5th (or other) interval from where you are? Or is it more a matter of positioning yourself on the bench the same way and knowing, with confidence, where each individual pedal is? I don't hear too many clams from people playing pedals so I assume most have a good degree of confidence.

For what it"s worth, the Hammond book I"ve been working out of recommends keeping your left foot at the Ab pedal when your leg is resting, and that position has been helpful for me in navigating without looking for the first time ever. Again, though, I"m using a 13-note Roland pedalboard, not a real Hammond pedalboard.

[Dnsmo]

... I obviously don't do much classical playing, and really suck on an AGO 32 board.

 

Jake

I guess it depends on what kind of pedal board you're used to playing. I find that a concave AGO 32-note is MUCH easier to play than the flat 25-note radial boards found on most Hammond consoles. For one thing, the spacing is better. I like the 32-note so much than I acquired an AGO pedal board from an actual pipe organ that was later MIDI-fied and now resides under the keyboard stack in my home studio.

 

Dennis