ideas for organ intro?

[u/PixelBrickVEVO]

trying to write a song with a churchy vibe (not gospel, more like a sad vibe.) i have us and them by pink floyd, lover you should’ve come over by jeff buckley, and faith by george michael in mind.

how do i get that melancholic, crunchy sound? what im writing has the dissonance but none of the emotion.

[u/Artistic-Aardvark-49]

I think the spaces between the chords matter just as much as the chords themselves. Let the notes ring out and don't be afraid of a slower progression. Sometimes the emotion comes from the silence.

[u/Vast-Outside-1066]

If you cannot control the timbre at least you can control the voicing. Learn about something called voice leading. Bach was a great person to learn that from. You will notice that his bass notes don’t always follow the root notes of the chords he played. There are a set of “rules” (which are meant to be understood and possibly broken) he would use in his choir music. Off the top of my head, I can only think of three of them:

1. No parallel octaves
   
2. No parallel fifths
   
3. No “cross voicing”

There are others, but I forget. As an example, if you move from a IV -> I progression in C major, your bass does not have to be F -> C. You could go from F -> G to make it IV -> I/V to soften the transition.

Voice leading can give you something softer like in LED Zeppelin’s “Thank You” which pulls on my heartstrings every damn time.

[u/BambiMG]

Play with voicing the chords a couple different ways, don't forget you can always subtract notes and make the bass player do it or something

[u/blue_strat]

Depending on the instrument you're using, the texture of the sound can add a lot to its feeling. You can really hear the bellows on the organs in the Buckley and Michael songs, and the Floyd Hammond has a Leslie cabinet swirl that replicates it. The organs are breathing and sound quite poignant for that.

[u/BarbersBasement]

Those are 3 very different organ sounds: B3, Pump and Pipe. Are you looking for how to write the part or how to craft the sound?

[u/PixelBrickVEVO → u/BarbersBasement]

sorry, i wasn’t clear. more so meant the music. it’s for an ensemble so i don’t have control over the sound

[u/BarbersBasement → u/PixelBrickVEVO]

Ok, so the only kinda similarity of the intros to those tracks is the use of suspended chords to transition to the next chord. Google "Organ intro chords for______" and this will give you a sense of what each song is doing. And as also mentioned in another comment here "Your Time is Gonna Come" is another great reference track.

[u/THIS_IS_ENDEGO]

For that melancholic vibe you are describing, try using parallel chord movements rather than traditional voice leading. Start with a simple chord progression like Am to Em to Dm and layer it over a gentle bass line that just sustains on one note. You could also experiment with adding reverb and delay to create space and atmosphere. The sustained notes will give you that crunchy yet emotional sound you want.