Addicted to the leslie switch??

[humblehands]

My Fellow Organists:

I am new to LGM and loving every minute of it.  My Dad taught me some Baptist Organ while my friends taught me some COGIC organ, and now, I'm putting every lesson learned, including lessons learned from LGM into a big ol' pot to produce my style. 

In watching so many organists over the years, I wonder are they addicted to the leslie switch.  I mean do you really need to keep adjusting leslie speed every 2 seconds?  For some organists, the horns barely slow down before they switch it back to fast.  I wonder if it's just a thing to do (it looks like you are really working the instrument ), is it a habit, do you really need to switch it so often to achieve the sound you want, or do you just have nothing better to do with your left hand.

Your comments please

[SupremeSaltine]

A lot of times I'll use it very quickly on/off like you mentioned.  I think a great sound is when the leslie is cycling up or slowing down before it reaches full on fast or slow. 

[kas]

I'm not addicted to the leslie switch at all. My own style does not warrant me turning the switch every two seconds. Many times--esepcially when I'm playing one of my compositions as an organ solo--I'll leave it on slow, to give it that "Catholic," mideval sound. Then, there are times when I'll switch between fast and slow in contemporary gospel--but not to the point where I look like I'm about to break the switch.

[BimmerFan99]

I think I'm a bit addicted to it.  Now that you've mentioned it, I'm going to make it more of a habit to listen carefully to what I need from the Leslie rather than switching it back and forth all the time.  I think I inherited that from the organists I've watched play over the years.  One particular organist flips it back to fast just as soon as it slows down, which really doesn't give the bass rotor to even get to a slow pace.

One interested problem, though, is that the main organ I use has a Leslies 21H, which has no slow speed.  Stopped rotors are  little too dry for me..  I must prefer playing slow, meditation tunes to on slow and not off.  The only offset to this is the bass rotor on this 21H takes awhile to stop completely.

[Muziqmann]

NO YOU DO NOT NEED CHANGE LESLIE SPEEDS THAT OFTEN. Sorry I yalled but I've been saying that for years.  It is not mandatory flip the leslie swith as much as some people  do.  Most mature and seasoned organist see that as a sign of immaturity. 

[Mysteryman]

Either you are trying to burn the switch out or its because they like hearing the leslie come on. Its like being fancinated with a light bulb and switch.

[bishopcole]

My Fellow Organists:

I am new to LGM and loving every minute of it.  My Dad taught me some Baptist Organ while my friends taught me some COGIC organ, and now, I'm putting every lesson learned, including lessons learned from LGM into a big ol' pot to produce my style. 

In watching so many organists over the years, I wonder are they addicted to the leslie switch.  I mean do you really need to keep adjusting leslie speed every 2 seconds?  For some organists, the horns barely slow down before they switch it back to fast.  I wonder if it's just a thing to do (it looks like you are really working the instrument ), is it a habit, do you really need to switch it so often to achieve the sound you want, or do you just have nothing better to do with your left hand.

Your comments please

WELCOME TO LGM!!! Bishop Cole

[Big_Al]

Occassionally, use the switch. BUT this is what I hate. Someone, manage to steal the knob to my leslie switch. I get the knob replaced and by the end of the month, its gone. That's weak.

GOD Bless

-Al

[bishopcole]

Occassionally, use the switch. BUT this is what I hate. Someone, manage to steal the knob to my leslie switch. I get the knob replaced and by the end of the month, its gone. That's weak.

GOD Bless

-Al

Hey Al, I haven't talked to you in a minute but I see that you are "STILL DA MAN" now you already know how to fix that problem...BLACK ELETRIC TAPE will do the trick!!  Bishop Cole

[ES7Mike]

I randomly use the leslie switch, I just go off of internal pulse.

[bishopcole]

I randomly use the leslie switch, I just go off of internal pulse.

Well Mike, everybody is not as talanted as you are!  Bishop Cole

[porkpiepoppa]

GET THE MELVIN CRISPELL BROOKLYN STYLE DVD  he explains when you are suppose to use th leslie swithch REALLY well he even shows some examples

[PapaRooskie]

My favorite part of the sound of the leslie is the transition between slow and fast speeds.  Sometimes when im doing an up-beat song, I'll do this thing where i turn it every few seconds to keep that sound going, but i only do it for that sound.  The rest of the time (most of the time)  i try to   **coordinate it with my phrasing**

[RMS2003]

SupremeSaltine:
I have to agree with you on that one. Occasionally when the leslie is sitting on slow I'll switch to fast and then immediate switch back to slow. I guess there's no logical reason why I do that, I just like the way it sounds.

BimmerFan99:
I usually like the stopped rotors dry sound. Just an FYI on your 21H. The amp has no brake circuit to literally brake the motor so it would slow down more quickly, so it just simply coasts down until it finally stops. This takes a while especially on a well oiled motor. I actually like this.

Mysteryman:
I really like the sound when you first switch to fast the the rotor hasn't reached full speed. It has a good sound to it. Oh and I liked your comparison to the light switch, hehe.

Big_Al:
Why would they want your switch knob? Kinda weird that someone would steal it, lol. I can't possibly imagine what they would need it for. Surely they aren't losing their own knobs that often. 

Finally to the OP - humblehands:
The best way I know how to describe is, it's just a method of playing. I do it for the sound. Certain parts of songs sound good when the leslie is transitioning b/t slow-fast or vice versa. It's not mandatory, but you're the organist and whatever sounds good to you is what you should do. Someone said it shows a sign of immaturity. I'm not sure that's necessarily true. Organists both young and old do it. But like I say, just do what feels and most of all, sounds right to you.

[KurzLand]

I am new to LGM and loving every minute of it. 

WWWWWWWWEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLCCCCCCCCCOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[organ man1990]

Me??!?!?! I'm like brotha SupremeSaltine... I like the sound best when it's at that transitioning state. Because when it's on fast for so long...I get irratated because the sound is annoying. And when it's on slow for so long, it sounds kind of boring and plain. I REALLY like most, the transitioning of it going fast to slow. But I really don't think that flipping the switch all the time shows immaturity. Because therte's a WONDERFUL Organist who switches back and forth all the time. He sometimes play with us at my church. But I kinda gotta habit because I swith it at least every 5/6 seconds. Itr's Juz YOUR OWN STYLE. that's all that matters.

[Bronzee]

All u flip switchers out there. I like hearing the sound also. But, I won't switch mines on my vk8moudle that must..I try to control my fingers.

[GroovinB3]

LOL!!! this thread is too funny.  i'm sooo addicted to the switch it's not funny.  i actually never really paid too much attention to the fact until i was at my friend's church this past sunday.  evidently his switch went bad so he (who has like 20ish organs stacked up at his parent's house)  put another one on.  well he wired it backwards so the switch is turned ON when it's to the left and OFF when it's to the right.  so i'm playin' and mentally i'm thinkin' the motors goin' fast so i go to switch it and i'm like 'agggghhhh' !  it went on like that for the next half hour.

another bad habit that i had for the longest time on the organ was playing the expression pedal with the tempo.

when playing along the organ sounded like:

i lOVE YOU I Love yoU I LOve you lorD TODAy beCAUSE You!  stinkin' ha lar i ous

[fireballxl5]

New to this website.  At risk of sounding foolish:

One secular thought about successful public band performance psychology  is  creating "tension" with the listeners (crowd).  If you create "tension", you engage the listeners.  Creating tension can be done by many means such as total silence, noise, suprising, deceiving, boring, puzzling....  Once you have engaged the listener, you have got them on the train and you can now take them to the next station.  You resolve the tension with the intended musical or spoken message.

For example The "Phantom of the Opera" musical stage show does this by having the first 7 minutes with poor lighting and poor audio.  You are thinking to yourself, "man, did I pay real money to see this?, I can't see, I can't hear,,, get me out of here..." You strain to see, you strain to hear,,, Then all of a sudden,,,,Boom, off go the blinding fireworks, the organ plays thru the million dollar PA, and the chandelier lights, rises and then you are hooked for the next 2 hours.  You want to see what happens next.

Our mission as church organists is to engage the listener in the music to take them to the next level.  I routinely use many techniques to create tension with the congregation.   The leslie rotor offers one tool for the organist to create tension in the music.  It also offers a way to communicate to the listener that a change is going to occur,,,(key change, verse, chorus, ending,).   Thus use of the switch is situational and depends on the piece.

As an example of interplay between sound & psychology, see an interesting write up on film sound at:
http://lavender.fortunecity.com/hawkslane/575/theory-of-film.htm

[Cm9_Ed]

Occassionally, use the switch. BUT this is what I hate. Someone, manage to steal the knob to my leslie switch. I get the knob replaced and by the end of the month, its gone. That's weak.

LOL!! I've never seen a organ that had a knob. I have cuts on my thumb right now from leslie switches! I saw a cat wrap his with duct tape to prevent cuts. Leslie knobs are a luxury these days. If you have a leslie knob, you have a tricked out organ, so to speak LOL. Maybe someone oughta do a show like pimp my ride with church organs. They would spend most of their time puttin on leslie knobs fixin foot pedals.