KEYS
WHY I’ M NOT AN ORGANIST | David Pfaltzgraff
My Instagram algorithm knows me well. These days my feed is a constant stream of 1) funny videos inspired by links my wife sends me and 2) clips of live music featuring musicians I know I will never be nearly as talented as going absolutely crazy on their instruments. While both of these content types can be a delight, I do feel I learn a bit more from the second category. And one of the surest sights to stop me mid-scroll is someone seated behind a Hammond organ.
If you’ re not familiar, it’ s that big, wood box with two keyboards, a wide range of drawbars, switches, and most of the time a range of foot pedals as well and in the hands of the right player- it positively sings. For an instrument with no velocity sensitivity, I’ m always blown away by how expressive, musical, and versatile this classic organ can be when it’ s played right.
I find what those players can do to be truly inspiring, but I would never, ever consider myself to be an organist, nor aspire to be one. I’ m a keys player. Today I’ d like to explain why I think there’ s a difference and why I’ m okay being one and not the other.
PULLING LAYERS, NOT DRAWBARS
I’ ve written here before about the role of the modern keys player being just as much about the sounds you choose to layer as it is about the parts you play and whether you use hardware or software it’ s rarer than ever for a worship piano player to‘ only play piano’. Instead, we’ re layering in pads, leads, textures, arps, and in some cases even synth bass.
Classic Hammond-style organ features its own, perhaps more original form of layering. Pulling out the organ drawbars introduces harmonic complexity and timbre changing in a way that’ s completely unique, but the outcome is similarmore sonic space or less, at your fingertips, all depending on how you choose to mix them together.
As a modern keys player, I pull layers in and out, not so much drawbars.
ONE HAT OR THE OTHER
When I play worship keys at church, I’ d say I have a piano sound in the mix ninety percent of
the time or more and one of the most important elements of a great worship piano sound, in my opinion, is its dynamic range. To be able to pull back my playing and have the piano naturally soften, settling into the background, or digging in hard and hearing the piano pop out in the mix. These nuances are determined by the strength, or‘ velocity’ of my playing and it’ s one of the main reasons I nearly always pick the‘ piano’ role over the organ. A real, Hammondstyle organ does not respond to how hard you play the keys- instead, a single volume pedal located at the feet is used to swell the sound in and out on demand. It’ s a similar effect in some ways, but the practical application is fundamentally different from playing piano parts expressively.
What I’ m getting at is that they’ re two fundamentally different playing techniques that most often step on each other’ s toes if you attempt to overlap them.
WHEN I FAKE IT
Those are a couple practical reasons why I don’ t often choose to‘ pretend’ to be an
106 August 2026 Subscribe for Free...