What makes a good Hammond player?

Understanding the Role of a Hammond Player

I think what makes a good Hammond player is a fundamental understanding in the difference between keyboard instruments and a Hammond organ.

The Approach Matters

It's the approach, I think, that differentiates your role in an outfit. In any kind of context, your role is usually quite different, and what you can contribute is quite different.

• You can't lift a chorus with a pad on a piano.
• You just can't add the same things.

You've got to take on a different role and understand that role. Rather than trying to recreate what you might already know on a piano or a keyboard, it's that fundamental understanding that is essential.

Who Should Learn the Hammond

Not everyone should learn to play the Hammond organ. People that really love it should. Hopefully, they're going to get the tools to truly understand the instrument, get the best out of it, and approach it in a way that utilizes all the amazing sounds you can get from this thing.

I think people sometimes don't make the most of it when they don't have that fundamental understanding. So hopefully they'll get that.

The Music Selection

All the tunes I've chosen, I chose because I love them.

• I probably have loved them for a long time.
• They're fundamental things that made me want to play, and maybe even want to play full time.

This music is very much from, I would say, the late 50s to the early 70s.

Historical Context

I mean, the Hammond, really, Jimmy Smith is the obvious kind of guy that popularized it in jazz before rock existed, you know, in the mid-50s, along with Bill Doggett and people like that before that.

But, yeah, I think this music very much is from the mid to late 50s until the early 70s sort of thing. And then synthesizers took over more and fell out of popular use.