Hammond technique - slapping

[Vanyo]

I wonder if some of you fine gents have any advice on this.

 

I've seen some players play a chord in the right hand, and then do this syncopated tapping with a cluster of muddied notes in the bottom, maybe an octave lower, almost like playing bongos. It sounds really cool. I realise you need to have your rhythm chops together to make it work, but are there any settings you might suggest to get a nice gritty sound out of this trick? I'm guessin key click, for sure.

 

Thanks in advance everyone

[niacin]

the sound you’re hearing is the click produced as each of the drawbar selected tonewheels are triggered in sequence. the trick is you just want the percussive sound, not the pitched tone, or not much of it, so you tap lightly and staccato.

[Vanyo]

1 minute ago, niacin said:

the sound you’re hearing is the click produced as each of the drawbar selected tonewheels are triggered in sequence. the trick is you just want the percussive sound, not the pitched tone, or not much of it, so you tap lightly and staccato.

 

Thanks! I saw one guy doing it and it looked like he slapping three white whole notes, so it gives it a little mud, I think he was just slapping C-D-E all together, getting your hands syncopated well also helps bigtime it seems like.

[Baldwin Funster]

It's not that effective on clonewheels or at least I'm not getting it right. 

[Dockeys]

I usually engage the Leslie speaker as well when slapping. It sounds a little dull without it. As niacin said above the key is to slap lightly so as not to engage the pitches but more the percussion. More effective when you play clusters rather than chords. If you look up slapping on Hammond on YouTube there are a few demos. 

[D. Gauss]

google hammond tricks like "slapping", "scrubbing the dishes", etc. there's tons out there.

[Delaware Dave]

8 hours ago, niacin said:

the sound you’re hearing is the click produced as each of the drawbar selected tonewheels are triggered in sequence. the trick is you just want the percussive sound, not the pitched tone, or not much of it, so you tap lightly and staccato.

On a real hammond (and the Viscount Soul) yes as they give the drawbar partials, clonewheels you get the full note, which is a different effect. VB3 emulates the key click portion of the slap pretty well (better than most clonewheels).

[Stokely]

2 hours ago, Jr. Deluxe said:

It's not that effective on clonewheels or at least I'm not getting it right. 

Me neither but I kind of put it down to my lack of experience   I've seen some pretty good examples of this on various clonewheel vids over the years.  This is an old one on a CX3 by Tom Coster that has some of that technique.  He makes it look very simple indeed!

I'm thinking a top-trigger keyboard probably makes a huge difference, if you are trying this on a regular synth keybed you have to press the keys a lot further down.
 

 

[CEB]

You can still conga slap the **** out of a clone. Percussion, drive and use of a good swell pedal helps a ton.   Its ‘sort’ of like using a wah. 
 

ps - this is a different technique than what Coster is doing. 

[Stokely]

It's different from what his left hand is doing in the vid?  Granted, he's not hitting it hard like playing congos, but very obviously he's not picking particular notes in the left hand, just hitting groups of notes as percussive counterpoint.

Is there a vid showing what the OP is talking about?  I'm curious because I'd like to up my game in the "funky" organ playing dept.

[bjosko]

 

[CEB]

You can do that without the wah, but the wah is cool.   I Conga slap toward the end in a funky section of The Thrill is Gone when the background singers are sing 'Thril is Gone' :||

 

I have wah pedals out the wahzoo.  I think I'll take one to the Blues rehearsal place. 

 

[Stokely]

Yeah, my first thought was "gotta start using a wah more!"   In my case I don't have any actual wah pedals but I do have an FC7 that I haven't gigged with, and easy enough to map patches that have wah effect (usually by default on the mod wheel) to this pedal.

[TommyRude]

2 hours ago, Stokely said:

Me neither but I kind of put it down to my lack of experience   I've seen some pretty good examples of this on various clonewheel vids over the years.  This is an old one on a CX3 by Tom Coster that has some of that technique.  He makes it look very simple indeed!

I'm thinking a top-trigger keyboard probably makes a huge difference, if you are trying this on a regular synth keybed you have to press the keys a lot further down.
 

 

How cool is this?  Aside - notice that when he's talking in the intro, kinda low key, maybe a bit less interesting.  But when he starts playing, INSTANT stage presence! 🙂

[Outkaster]

It's funny this came up. I was thinking about this type of playing and I really don't do because piano is always my go to.  I have a B3 in the house from 1962 and as much as I play it I really think it's great that some people are so good at it.  It really is such a different instrument.

[niacin]

the key contacts that make that click sound trigger the drawbars from highest to lowest, so 1’ first through to 16’ last. If you pull the top drawbars out, they will sound slightly sooner, which means you’ll hear the pitch material sooner, so go for  some of the lower 5 drawbars. On my Hammond SK2 the second drawbar worked well for me. it can take a while to get used to triggering the click without getting the sound of the tonewheels as well, which you don’t really want. on the SK2, which is fairly tightly sprung, it was much easier than on my new SKpro which has lighter springs and less resistance, and is much closer to a real Hammond, but I’m still getting used to slapping lighter than i did on the sk2

[Old Music Guy]

IMHO, there is no better at the chop than CT

Squib Cakes

[mate stubb]

Slap the rail with your palm and let your fingers flop down on the keys from above. Keep notes short.

 

Lots of click. Sparse high drawbars which can tend to mask click.

[Old Music Guy]

This is my take. On a B3 there are 3 percussion settings: Volume (loud/soft), Decay (fast/slow), and Harmonic (2nd/3rd). Trek II aftermarket units offer variable attack, delay and volume, as well as a 5th harmonic. 

The sometimes overlooked aspect is that, on a B3, once the percussion is triggered by playing a note (say A) any other notes played (say G and E) while the A is depressed will not retrigger the percussion. So, fast is good. Sometimes I'll play a single note, low register, and do paradiddles with 2 hands. Pretty funky sound that triggers the percussion on each strike and no one knows exactly what your doing. Like magic  

In my experience, a normal volume setting, fast delay and the 2nd harmonic will give you a really nice chop, especially if you use the lower registers on the manual. This leaves your right hand free to add substance (whether soloing or comping) on top of the percussive pop.

You can also experiment with 2nd and 3rd harmonic selection. Allman vs. Smith for example. 

This is only my opinion. We all have different styles and takes on "our sound". But that's my go-to for comping. 

[niacin]

6 hours ago, CEB said:

You can do that without the wah, but the wah is cool.   I Conga slap toward the end in a funky section of The Thrill is Gone when the background singers are sing 'Thril is Gone' :||

 

I have wah pedals out the wahzoo.  I think I'll take one to the Blues rehearsal place. 

 

that’s a great idea, I’m gonna steal it 😎

 

Another thing with Hammond through a wah is to set the wah and treat it as a band pass filter, you can hear the effect on Clapton’s The Core on the Slowhand album.

[To B3]

22 hours ago, Stokely said:

Me neither but I kind of put it down to my lack of experience   I've seen some pretty good examples of this on various clonewheel vids over the years.  This is an old one on a CX3 by Tom Coster that has some of that technique.  He makes it look very simple indeed!

I'm thinking a top-trigger keyboard probably makes a huge difference, if you are trying this on a regular synth keybed you have to press the keys a lot further down.
 

 

 

Whoa, sounds very good. Never had my CX3 sounding as good as this. Wonder if they are the preset sounds present on the CX3 with his signature.

[SamuelBLupowitz]

A lot of folks have weighed in, but I'm giving my two cents anyway, as someone who played clonewheels for a long time before I got my A100 (and still gigs exclusively with clones).

 

I do think this technique comes a lot more naturally on a vintage electromechanical Hammond, much like a lot of the percussive idiosyncrasies of a Clavinet become much more apparent while playing the real thing. But in both instances, digital reproductions are able to respond to these techniques well enough that I try to play them like I would the real thing, if that makes sense.

 

On both instruments, when I do percussive, ghost-note stabs, I truly do not think about what notes my hands (usually my left, sometimes both) are hitting. I just "slap" the keys, generally white keys, and usually with my four fingers held somewhat loosely, letting them fall where they may. It's a very quick motion. I do agree that having higher drawbars pulled out and the Leslie on fast definitely accentuates the technique, and I tend *not* to do this on a percussion setting -- turning the percussion on kills the top drawbar, and I think the Percussion proper is more pitched and the note length is less controllable than with the percussion off.

 

Honestly, this is one of the things I do to add a little funk to my playing regardless of what keyboard instrument I'm playing. It's most natural on Hammond and clav, but I'll do it to get a little stank out of an electric piano, and (while the technique is a little more aggressive) I love a good Ben Folds-style percussive low-end smash on an acoustic piano, especially if I'm trying to build some intensity with my left hand.

[guzman]

On 2/26/2023 at 7:55 AM, Stokely said:

Me neither but I kind of put it down to my lack of experience   I've seen some pretty good examples of this on various clonewheel vids over the years.  This is an old one on a CX3 by Tom Coster that has some of that technique.  He makes it look very simple indeed!

I'm thinking a top-trigger keyboard probably makes a huge difference, if you are trying this on a regular synth keybed you have to press the keys a lot further down.
 

 

Thanks for posting this.

I like that right hand chord progression starting at 2:50 with the descending fourths.  I’ve made it my own.

 

As you were.

 

[bill bosco]

it can be done on a good clone , but i think it sounds better on the real thing . we used a '49 RT for years with a fat midrange that really

sounded like some kind of mad conga when you did those percussive slaps on it . 

[Outkaster]

1949 RT?  That was the first model year.  They are kind of rare.

[cassdad]

So, basic questions:  

1). Can one get a good facsimile of the “chop” / percussive slap sound on, say, a Hammond SKX Pro or a Hammond XK-5?  

2).  Is the key (no pun intended) to “chop-ability” of the instrument having a clone that has “click” and triggers different draw bars through key travel depression?  (Which none of my Roland nor Yamaha keyboards to date have done.)

 

I have never been able to get a valid “chop” sound out of any of my Yamaha keyboards’ organ sounds… and I’m a very percussive player…. and would love to be able to get that sound.

[bill bosco]

8 hours ago, Outkaster said:

1949 RT?  That was the first model year.  They are kind of rare.

yes it was , and for 16 years , knowing that we could have gotten something a lot newer  , i basically hated it . in that time though , did a lot of work on it . had a run motor

and a set of smooth draw bars from a parted out organ , a precussion unit and pre-amp from trek 2 . i also recapped it and pulled off a sucessful tonewheel recalibration 

 , ( which i'd never attempt again ) . 

[mate stubb]

25 minutes ago, bill bosco said:

i also recapped it and pulled off a sucessful tonewheel recalibration 

 , ( which i'd never attempt again ) . 

 

You sir are a steely eyed Hammond man. I recapped a B3 with a Goff cap kit (probably NOT tested for being in spec) and the result was uncomfortably shrill. I never took the recalibration step.

[Outkaster]

14 hours ago, bill bosco said:

yes it was , and for 16 years , knowing that we could have gotten something a lot newer  , i basically hated it . in that time though , did a lot of work on it . had a run motor

and a set of smooth draw bars from a parted out organ , a precussion unit and pre-amp from trek 2 . i also recapped it and pulled off a sucessful tonewheel recalibration 

 , ( which i'd never attempt again ) . 

OK I would imagine. The RT replaced the Model E for AGO specified playing.

[TommyRude]

good stuff guys, great info, insights and examples