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Who plays bass when JPJ plays Keys?


ogre

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It's really not such an amazing feat (feet? lol!). Anyone faniliar with a church organ will be familiar with the array of foot pedals one has. It's just a matter of applying the pedals to reproduce the sounds of different instruments.

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The church I used to go to was extremely cavernous, with a pipe organ in an upper balcony that had to be at least 30 feet wide. The old man who played it was also my music teacher in school. He would lead a few Kumbaya type songs from the ailse, then climb a ladder to the organ and jam out during communion. The whole place shook from the ultra deep bass notes he could produce with the foot peddles, all the while he improvised what almost seem psychedelic melody on the keys. I wasn't into the actual service or prayers, but his performance made it worth going each week. When he passed away, they never found anyone who came close to playing that organ anything like that. I think that's why the live versions of No Quarter entrance me so much, he was that good...

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The church I used to go to was extremely cavernous, with a pipe organ in an upper balcony that had to be at least 30 feet wide. The old man who played it was also my music teacher in school. He would lead a few Kumbaya type songs from the ailse, then climb a ladder to the organ and jam out during communion.

He played Kumbaya on a church pipe organ? Wow, that's different. Normally they're ripping out Bach or something else thats suitably Baroque...

Amazing Fact: 250 years ago, a church organist was forced to have a very good relationship with his bellows operator.

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I would say Barogue would describe the organ playing he did - except when we were supposed to be praying, he would wander from any strict composition. Kumbaya and other traditional songs were sung before the organ playing. The only way to reach the organ was to climb up a ladder to the balcony - if there was a bellows guy, he must have hung out up there the whole time? This is a really old stone church - I got married there, but we had a harpist.

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My brothers wedding was last week, I'm trying to learn how to play the keyboard part on my bass. I need a F/X pedal though and i also had my little Casio keyboard on the floor and played some of the bass parts with my toes. Well they had the organ at the church, and i had to jump on. I remembered most of the notes and i did try it on a keyboard before. After a minute, i had it going real good with the bass pedal underneath pounding away. My guitarist wanted me to learnno Quarter on the keyboard, but we both agree that the Tool version may be better to pull off.

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So was there a "bellows guy" on your organ?

They don't have bellows guys anymore...

A bellows guy was responsible for pumping the bellows....the bellows are the big air pumps that push the air through the pipe organ and allow it to make a noise. That's whay it was necceassry for the organist to get along with "the bellows guy" (or the Calcant, to be exact) because if they didn't get along, then the "bellows guy" would stop pumping and there would be no more noise from the organ...

Nowdays the air is pumped by electric motors.

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I figured that - but there must some old organs that still inlist a bellows guy, just for the nostalgia?

Most old organs are still able to be operated by a Calcant, but I'd say pretty much all of them have motors now, so I don't know, I guess in some authentic recordings they hire the calcant

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I have a question. If you have seen How The West Was Won then you have seen something quite currious. There are times when you watch John Paul Jones and he's got a telephone on his keyboards. What is it doing there? And what was the phone number? That is all.

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I have a question. If you have seen How The West Was Won then you have seen something quite currious. There are times when you watch John Paul Jones and he's got a telephone on his keyboards. What is it doing there? And what was the phone number? That is all.

JPJ actually answered that question a couple of years ago on his own forum:

"The phone on the Yamaha GX1 appeared one day during rehearsals and never left. It never rang..."

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  • 3 weeks later...
I've noticed on live concert footage that, during Misty Mountain Hop, JPJ is playing keys but I can still hear a bass guitar in the audio. Who plays this? Can't find it in the credits.

Because it's bloody John mate! Ask Ray manzarek of the doors... they never had a bass player.

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