Joey Defrancesco Work Song

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Kum Verna

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Aug 3, 2024, 5:39:41 PM8/3/24

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Find 750 of Harry's solo piano arrangements and tutorials at
These arrangements are for teaching solo piano chording using Harry's 2+2 harmony method.
Harry was the Technical Editor of Mark Levine's "The Jazz Theory Book" and helped develop "The Jazz Piano Book."

I catch myself rocking in tempo and try to snap out of it. Yes, listen to Joey D for dynamics. One thing I like to do is knock the pedal back in soft passages and slowly pull out the brighter drawbars on fast rotor. You can really wash the background, making the guitar or lead singer stand out. I also use it to punch out certain notes during a solo.

1) I think I follow you: "I find that the slight swell comes up from under the percussion that way. Just a bit punchier and less obtrusive. Make sense?" But what does it mean "comes up from under the precussion"?

3)When using your P90 to play the Rhodes in your Electro 2 do you notice the velocity scale is not quite perfectly suited? "Hard" touch is too low, "Medium" barks a little too easyily and "Light" barks way too easyily? Is there another velocity scale available in the Electro that is more suited to being controlled by the P90?

Also, the Hammond expression pedal is not a volume pedal in the traditional sense. It actually cuts cetain frequencies more than others which is what makes it so effective as a means of expression. The usual volume pedal on a clone just cuts the whole thing.

First, let's get our terms straight. On an organ, it's generally called a "swell" pedal. Expression is a perfectly good term too, though. One difference between volume and expression (in MIDI terms) is that volume changes the loudness without changing anything else. Expression changes "how loud you're playing", which can change the instrument's timbre. On a Hammond/Leslie, MIDI volume controls the volume after all other processing. Expression controls the output of the organ going into the Leslie. So, if the Leslie is set up nice and hot, you'll get lovely distortion and limiting (tube effects) as you push down on the swell pedal.

In fact, one of the great things about organ that makes it different from guitars is that we can start out a beat quieter and go louder, contrary to what the guitars are doing. So, esp. for Blues, I find I back off at the start of measures or chords and press in towards the end, to give the other guys more space for their attack, and to pick up the slack as they fade. It's a bit like the way folks will throw in tasty little licks between vocal phrases.

On many drawbar settings, the overall volume of a hammond changes dramatically as you go up and down the keyboard, due to the "wrapping" effects where high drawbars would be too high so they get substituted using the tonewheel an octave lower, etc. (There's a hammond-geek term for this but I can't remember it.) Anyway, sometimes I'm using the pedal actively just to keep the overall level even.

More often, though, I'm listening very carefully to the rest of the band, looking for dramatic moments to fill or underscore, or places to back off and let them sound out. Do this consistently and they'll start to get the idea, BTW, and sometimes give you a bit more room too.

Another very common and nice trick is to push the pedal downish while not playing, dig in with a little right-hand cluster or riff, and immediately back off on the swell. This gives it more bite. Often I'll play a short chord and immediately drag my fingers down the keyboard as I do this. It's fun and not too hard with a little practice.

The one that seems like it should be the easiest, but I'm still trying to get right, is the use of the swell during a palm swipe. There's the traditional up-to-chord swipe, where you slide your left hand up and just as you get there, hit the chord with your right hand -- sounds like you slid right into the chord. This one doesn't usually require a lot of clever pedal work.

But there's another technique where you simply slide up and back down -- usually very quickly, almost more of a percussion instrument purpose, usually to echo a very dramatic peak in the vocals or lead guitar, making it more dramatic. For this one, you want to push down as you slide up and then back off as you slide down. Sounds real easy, but I'm still waiting to hear the nuance I hear the gospel pros use like:

PS: These techniques work great on Native Instrumetns B4, and probably most of the newer, accurate clones. Swipes sound terrible on most general-purpose synths (no "voltage robbing") and older clones like the OB3. So unless you have a fairly authentic sound, don't bother trying to figure out what I'm talking about!

3) I don't control the Electro from the P90, in fact I've never thought of doing it. I use the Electro in situations where I don't bring the P90/CX-3 to a gig. The Electro's latest OS has an adjustable velocity setting, which for that keyboard - I'm not sure whether that would translate into receiving MIDI messages. Interesting to try, wouldn't it?

I'll have to try an EV7 Now I'm using a Kurszweil pedal and it stinks -- not smooth, short throw, way too much action right at the bottom, etc. But still it beats the crap out of no volume pedal at all!

Or look at it this way. If you're playing guitar, your volume pedal is usually before the amp (rather than in the fx loop). So as you push the pedal down, not only do you get more volume, but you also get more distortion.

MIDI Volume is the "master volume". The amount of distortion stays the same as you get louder and quieter. MIDI Expression (on an instrument like Native Instruments B4 and presumably any good clone) is like that guitar volume pedal, and you get more distortion as you get louder. This is typically what I like. For the first 2/3 of the pedal travel, it just sounds louder. For the last 1/3, it doesn't get so much louder, but breaks smoothly into overdrive to get the nice crunch sound for rock and hot blues.

I went through a bunch of midi volume/swell pedals with my VK. I finally went with an audio signal Ernie Ball. That's what I use on my pedal steel so I was used to it. The steel requires a similar treatment as the organ. There are a lot of good tips here. Joey D has always looked down on using the pedal in time. But, I tend to feel it is something that is dependent a lot more on the song than a set-in-cement rule of thumb.

But, hey, I'm a rebellious chap and like to break new ground. I tend to approach my instruments as living, breathing oragnisms of emotion. The pedal steel and the hammond are alot alike in their ability to respond to our emotional expressions.

This 27-year-old Phoenix native made it to the Top 5 this year on "American Idol," where Katy Perry responded to his audition, a gritty rendition of "Blame It on Me" by George Ezra, with "You're got one of the most unique voices I've ever heard in my life."

Luke Bryan was just as impressed by that audition, telling Cota, "I mean, I think you have your thing like Johnny Cash does," and adding, "I want there to be a 'No Country For Old Men II' and you sing every song."

Guitar-playing vocalist Nathaniel Strake and his bandmates are about to make good on the promise of the six-song concept EP, "Daffodil" with a full-length effort titled "Wilderness, the Villain" that follows in the cinematic footsteps of their previous release in anthems bursting with emotional intensity.

You can definitely hear what made him say such a thing in the course of the Runner Up's six-song debut, especially in the soulful funk-rock swagger of "I Came to Play," a contagious opener whose chorus hook speaks to the pop sensibilities that could go on to be their calling card.

Jazz Times once hailed DeFrancesco as "the best B3 player on the planet." And you'll find no argument against that claim on DeFrancesco's new release, "In the Key of the Universe," which features saxophone by free jazz legend Pharoah Sanders.

That same year, Miles Davis invited the young musician, whose father is Papa John DeFrancesco, to join him on a five-week European tour, which led to DeFrancesco playing keyboards on one track on Davis' "Amandla" album.

DaDadoh says, "This record sounds like Lenny Kravitz if he grew up listening to Taking Back Sunday and AFI. This record sounds like Blink-182 if they were raised in Memphis, Tennessee, and listened to Three 6 Mafia all the time."