Best Electric Keyboard Organ, lets you perform in church as well as clubs

An electric keyboard organ is a perfect alternative for those who have grown up playing organs. This is your chance to own a keyboard instrument that can create the lovely Hammond sounds and pipe organ sounds of yesteryears.

Best Electric Organ Keyboards

Here are some of the finest electric piano organs available. We know that you won’t settle for anything but the best.

Clavia Nord Combo Organ

Hammond Electric Organ

• Hammond Electric Keyboard Organs
• Clavia Nord Combo Organ
• Accessories for your electric piano keyboard Organ

Organ Keyboards: Buying Guide

Use of Organ Music

You can find the use of organ music in the following:

1. Classical Music
   The organ has always had an important place in the history of classical music with several composers composing for this keyboard instrument. However, over time, the piano started becoming more popular compared to the organ.
2. Soap Operas
   Some of the more melodramatic serials (that were made few decades back) used organ a lot for providing the background music, and also for their opening and closing theme songs.
3. Rock Music
   Rock musician’s love the sound of church-style pipe organs and you will find these sounds used occasionally in rock music.
   
   
   
4. Sporting organs
   Not many would know (especially those who are not from North America) that in the US / Canada, organ music is commonly associated with sports, especially baseball and ice hockey.

Types of Organs

The more common types of Organs include:

Pipe Organs: Includes church organs, chamber organs, theatre organs, and other pipe organs

Reed Organs

Electronic organs: Includes Hammond and other electronic / digital organs

Acoustic Organ
The Organ is one of the oldest musical instruments associated with Western music. Though primarily associated with churches and cathedrals, they are found in cinemas, theatres, schools, concert halls, castles, and even some houses.

And though their digital keyboard counterparts are becoming more popular, several companies still make new historic instruments, and several festivals, concerts and competitions still take place to showcase new talent as well as promote organ music recordings.

Structure of a Music Organ
The music organ basically consists of a keyboard instrument with one or more divisions, each of them having its own keyboard.

The pipe organ is among the biggest musical instrument that exists today. Depending on its size, its made up of hundreds or even thousands of pipes that make different sounds at different pitches. The small pipes make high sounds (treble) and large pipes make lower sounds (bass).

How is It Played?

An organ is usually played using both your hands as well as the feet. The pipes are played using the keyboards, and the player makes use of stops to control which sets of pipes make the sound. To create grand and thrilling music, organist use lots of stops, whereas to create a calm and sweet atmosphere, only a few stops are used.

The player may also use the pedal-board to play additional notes; it’s basically a keyboard that is played with the feet.

Traditional Organs No Longer Practical
Do you recall seeing the huge pipe organs of yesteryear, maybe in some movie or if you have visited some famous cathedral? Though you may still be able to spot them in some of the churches, most of the churches don’t have them nowadays. And the reason of-course being that not everybody has the space, acoustical environment, and the finances that is required to investment in a pipe organ and maintain it later.

Having said that there are still many who would desire a instrument that will give the best organ sounds with the ability to apply some great effects.

A lot of music lovers have also grown up listening to music with heavy usage of organ sounds, which because of their unique sound still continues to be used in a lot of genres of music.

Why Invest in Electric Keyboard Organ?

Nobody has the appropriate space, environment or finances to buy an acoustic pipe organ but modern day version of these organs are competent enough to produce some mind-blowing songs.

If you are one of those who just can’t resist the organ sounds and want to lay their hands on a keyboard instrument, which offers you the best organs sounds coupled with some cutting edge technology, then you should consider an Electronic Keyboard Organ.

It is an electronic keyboard instrument which is influenced from harmonium, or pipe organ and theatre organ. An electronic piano organ combines all the features that are available on digital keyboards, besides giving you authentic organ sounds.

Besides giving you authentic organ sounds, these piano organs are quite portable. So you can easily carry your electric piano organ to the Church on every Sunday mornings.

And since these have different variations of organ sounds, electric piano sounds and many other effects, you can even perform at clubs on weekend nights with the same instrument.

Electronic Keyboard Organ – More Features
Hammond and Nord are the more popular brands of electric organs out there and offers plenty of features. You get electric organs that sound like the B3 (with the simulator ofcourse). You also get various Vox organ sounds, Farfisa organs and Pipe organ sounds.

Most of these organs are flexible enough to let you place a lower manual just below your main keyboard. And you also have the option to connect an optional organ accessory such as a bass pedal keyboard transforming you into a totally versatile player.

Most Hammond organs also let you connect the popular Leslie speakers (known for their ability to create special audio effects). You can also find real tube pre-amps (not simulators) on some of these boards so that you can use the overdrive controls to create some truly unique sounds.

Can You Expect a Good Resale Value for An Electronic Organ?
While classic organs (similar to acoustic pianos) will retain value several years down the line, unfortunately that’s not true of most home electronic organ. (and it also applies to many digital pianos as well). The fact of the matter is that most electronic organs, especially spinet/home type organs will have little or nil value (exceptions being Allen and Rodgers classic organs).

But then, why are they so expensive if their resale value is virtually nonexistent?

Well, that’s the case with most electronic products nowadays. The latest laptop or smartphone may not fetch you anything in resale value couple of years down the line. Its the way the market is working at the moment, especially for digital and electronic products. There are many households who have these electronic organs and falsely believe that its going to fetch them thousands of dollars. However, the sad truth is that there is no value to it other than what someone is ready to pay for it.

More Classic Organs

Yamaha d85 electone organ
Made in 1977, the Yamaha D85 Electone organ features three keyboards and has an auto-accompaniment section that plays simple rhythms. So basically you can play an entire orchestra from one instrument.

The Yamaha Electone D-85 organ has a built in speaker and a fully polyphonic keyboard. The two bottom keyboards have full sized keys, whereas the one at the top has mini sized keys.

The organ may look like a complex instruent because the various sections on it, but you will get used to it after playing around for some time.

In the video below, you can see how the D85 works.

Beautiful Noack Organ at the UC Berkeley Hertz Hall

Over the years, with change in church services and the preference of music, organ music is no longer as popular as it once used to. However, there are some who are making sure its not yet a dead instrument, and want people to hear this beautiful music instrument.

The Noack organ was recently setup at the Hertz Hall in UC Berkeley and replaces an electronic organ. The old organ was fine, but because of its electronic action, it was more suited to 20th century music, and not for classical stuff written by composers like J.S. Bach in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Mr Moroney, a music professor at Berkeley and organist and harpsichordist, and responsible for the organ’s installation and tonal finishing, is happy with the installation of the new organ and feels that its mechanical action allows for great range of dynamics.

Here’s how this beautiful organ sounds like.

Learn to Play the Organ

Being a keyboard instrument, the electric organ will require similar skills that is required to play the piano or the keyboards.

You can buy a few introductory level organ books to brush up on the basics if you wish.

However, if you plan to learn to play an acoustic organ, you will have to take lessons from an experienced teacher.

Here are some top organ books that you can consider for your library.

• [easyazon_link identifier=”0393954617″ locale=”US” tag=”keytarhq04-20″ cart=”n”]The Organists’ Manual: Technical Studies & Selected Compositions for the Organ [/easyazon_link]
• [easyazon_link identifier=”078643998X” locale=”US” tag=”keytarhq04-20″ cart=”n”]Understanding The Pipe Organ: A Guide for Students, Teachers and Lovers of the Instrument [/easyazon_link]
• [easyazon_link identifier=”0486416860″ locale=”US” tag=”keytarhq04-20″ cart=”n”]The Practical Organist: 50 Short Works for Church Services (Dover Music for Organ)[/easyazon_link]
• [easyazon_link identifier=”0486430790″ locale=”US” tag=”keytarhq04-20″ cart=”n”]Complete Organ Method: A Classic Text on Organ Technique (Dover Books on Music)[/easyazon_link]
• [easyazon_link identifier=”0486435822″ locale=”US” tag=”keytarhq04-20″ cart=”n”]A Treasury of Organ Music for Manuals Only: 46 Works by Bach, Mozart, Franck, Saint-Saëns and Others (Dover Music for Organ)
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• [easyazon_link identifier=”0486452867″ locale=”US” tag=”keytarhq04-20″ cart=”n”]Easy Organ Christmas Album: Seasonal Classics for Use in Church and Recital by Bach, Brahms, Franck, Pachelbel and Others (Dover Music for Organ) [/easyazon_link]
• [easyazon_link identifier=”0193751240″ locale=”US” tag=”keytarhq04-20″ cart=”n”]The Oxford Book of Christmas Organ Music [/easyazon_link]

Notating Organ Music

Many students hate reading music for the piano as it’s written across two staves. But in the case of organs there’s a third staff as well because you can also play notes using the pedals.

An organ has both manuals as well as pedals, hence organ music has come to be notated on three staves.

The music played on the manuals is similar to what you find for most keyboard instruments (written on the top two staves), and the music for the pedals is notated on the third stave or sometimes, to save space, added to the bottom of the second staff.