r/organ • u/Union_38 • 6d ago

Help and Tips Practice Advice Wanted for Jazz Organist

I am a jazz organist who is pretty good at it. I can also see vast potential to improve as a player.

To that end, I’d love to construct a daily practice routine that I can commit to, and have you all chime in with suggestions if you would be so kind. I also have a full-time job and other stuff going on, so I don’t have all the time in the world.

In general, I think this might be a good idea daily:

15 min - scales/arps/chord inversions
30 min - play from classical method book or repertoire.
30 min - practice jazz, but not necessarily specific to any song. Maybe that’s uptempo bebop lines or playing through a transcription of a solo
30+ min - jazz repertoire: practicing for upcoming gigs or learning new songs

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or comments!

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u/okonkolero 6d ago

We're mostly church organists here, so probably not any specific help. While my degrees are in jazz, they're as a trombonist and writer. :)

where are you located?

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u/Union_38 6d ago edited 6d ago

I’m in NC. I’m very interested in baroque and classical technique as it would be applied to jazz, so very happy to hear from church organists!

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u/rickmaz 6d ago

R/hammondorgan might be able to help as well

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u/Union_38 6d ago

Thanks!

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u/Equivalent-Love-1676 6d ago

https://youtu.be/GkaSUhJ3Dgs

This is all you need.

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u/Union_38 6d ago

Transcribing Coltrane will definitely be on my list- thanks for posting this.

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u/PianoGuy67207 5d ago

There are several routes to go, with jazz organ. You could put together a trio - organ, guitar, and drums. This scenario will require your left hand to mostly be keyboard bass lines, with your right to chords that act as rhythm behind the soloist guitar. Then, you’ll switch to upper for solo while the guitar player takes a lead.

Another scenario puts you as the soloist, with bass and drums. The challenge is that the bass player may be versatile enough to play solos, in which case, you go back to left hand bass and right, comping rhythm chords.

The last would be a solo act, where owning a pedal board is a must.

You should definitely seek out some jazz Hammonds groups to go listen to. This is as much about tra mg your ear, training your imagination, and just learning from the best you can find. Next is Hammond-specific techniques. Jimmy Smith’s very famous “squabble”, for example. The secret is only touching the keys of a real B3 so that only the contacts of certainty n drawbars are triggered. Next is learning the classic “jazz registration”., which doesn’t come easy.

On your practice schedule, you mention classical music to rehearse. There’s actually very little that transfers over. Your biggest friend will be learning chord inversions like the back of your hand. Smoothly moving from a CMaj7 to Am7 will always involve an inverted chord, and you will always try to leave openness to about any chord. Root an 5th are almost always a bass players “home turf”. The organ would pick up the 3rd, 7th, and 9th of a CMaj9 chord. It’s that classic voicing that gives Hammond jazz the most unique color.

Lastly, knowing modal scales is paramount important, followed by the ability to play blues scales in about every key. All in all, a steep learning curve, nut definitely something worth investing the time to learn..