Who here plays organ in church?

[Esaias]

Originally Posted by KeptByTheWord

LOL... well, I would love to help you, but it is rather hard to do on a forum. I would suggest you go online to Youtube and type in B3 organ tutorials, or runs, or whatever. I remember one guy being particularly helpful to me in the years I played the organ. He had some amazing runs and chords that could be played as fillers, and once you learned them, you could incorporate them into any key. I can't remember his name now, though.. sorry! But it was on youtube, so perhaps just spend some time on there seeing what you can find.

I play by ear mostly, and would just hear something, and then try to pick it out myself. Do you play by ear?

I play by ear, and both thumbs as well.

I have been looking at tutorials for keyboards, piano, organ (b3 especially), but I am not sure where to begin. I can play Chopsticks but I doubt that can be improvised into a gospel praise break. (ahem)

Actually, I was trying to find some advice on the basic approach to learning how to coordinate the left and right hands. I know if there are other instruments, an organ can be played right hand only (I keep coming across the 'less is more' axiom), but if the organ is doing most of the heavy lifting seems the left hand needs to play some bass (I don't have a genuine B3 with foot pedals and all that, so the left hand has to manage the bass).

I learned guitar this way: I took a few lessons and learned piece by piece actual songs. Once I could do them relatively okay I was able to make up my own chord progressions/changes, melodies, etc because I had already learned a basic repertoire of songs. Would that be a good way to learn keyboard/organ/piano? Learn several songs, note by note or chord by chord, etc, and then begin improvising within chosen keys?

It seems like it would be slow going trying to learn the 'grammar' of a keyboard, before ever putting words together to make 'sentences'. IE learning various scales, then various chords, keys, various progressions, then trying to somehow make all that presto change-o into actual music. After all, that is not how we learn to speak - we start by imitating words and sentences, then once we can talk and understand basic English we get thrown to the tormentors of grade school with their 'grammar courses'...

[KeptByTheWord]

The easiest way then to teach yourself the organ, or piano playing by ear would be to first practice picking out the melody with your right hand.

The next thing to do would be to learn the three major chords of each key, and to keep it simple, I would start with C, and then add in F and G. You probably need to find a book that teaches basic piano theory. That would be really helpful. Or you could just watch some tutorials... I just googled pentecostal chord tutorial and found all these links: https://www.google.com/search?q=pent...sm=93&ie=UTF-8

This one sounds pretty good:

[seguidordejesus]

Just pray and let the Holy Ghost guide your fingers. If someone complains, tell them they're carnal.

[KeptByTheWord]

I was not able to take lessons from Bro. Sibley, but I know many people who did take lessons from him, and learned to play through his teaching. I just found that he has a bunch of free videos on youtube. Here is one of them.

[KeptByTheWord]

Originally Posted by seguidordejesus

Just pray and let the Holy Ghost guide your fingers. If someone complains, tell them they're carnal.

Haha, yes, praying and letting the spirit help you does work too And about the person complaining... well, just keep praying, lol!

[Godsdrummer]

Originally Posted by Garbonzo

My wife is our main keyboard/piano player. She played the organ for years though. We have a Hammond B3 that gets used regularly. Love what it can add to a church service when (as Godsdrummer noted) played well.

Originally Posted by Steve Epley

We have a B3 Hammond can't be Apostolic without it.

I always get the models mixed up, but the B3 is usually the model of choice. But the M models with leslie speaker can give just as good of a sound as the B3 for less money. While the M models have built in speaker the addition of the leslie speaker make the difference and give it the sound of a B3 with the right musician.

As for learning to play, I have known many that have self taught themselves to play piano and or organ. The best advice I would think is to get a cord chart that shows you the fingering of the cords and practice those on the right hand until you can play them without looking. At the same time try to play by ear using those cords while listening to recorded music.
Add the left hand by simply using it to keep the beat with a cord octave progression. In other words play the cord then change to playing an octave.

[aegsm76]

I know several people who have learned to play in church from this website:
http://www.apostolicpraiseschoolofmusic.com/

I believe it has piano, bass, guitar and maybe organ.

[KeptByTheWord]

Originally Posted by Godsdrummer

I always get the models mixed up, but the B3 is usually the model of choice. But the M models with leslie speaker can give just as good of a sound as the B3 for less money. While the M models have built in speaker the addition of the leslie speaker make the difference and give it the sound of a B3 with the right musician.

As for learning to play, I have known many that have self taught themselves to play piano and or organ. The best advice I would think is to get a cord chart that shows you the fingering of the cords and practice those on the right hand until you can play them without looking. At the same time try to play by ear using those cords while listening to recorded music.
Add the left hand by simply using it to keep the beat with a cord octave progression. In other words play the cord then change to playing an octave.

Agreed GD! Playing along with recorded music is a great way to practice and pick out new progressions. A chord chart would also be very helpful to get yourself used to the chord progressions within a key.

Learning basic music theory and understanding the Circle of Fifths was also a big help to me in understanding how all chords and keys are connected.

[KeptByTheWord]

Originally Posted by aegsm76

I know several people who have learned to play in church from this website:
http://www.apostolicpraiseschoolofmusic.com/

I believe it has piano, bass, guitar and maybe organ.

That's pretty awesome. This site would be a big help to anyone trying to learn to play Pentecostal music with any instrument... thanks for sharing

[Esaias]

Thanks for all the info, folks!

(I'll be ready to do praise breaks at your churches in a week or two, I'm sure! Feel free to email me when you're ready! lol)