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| Keywords: Magnus 890 electric chord organ.JPG Magnus Harmonica Corporation Magnus 890 electric chord organ This instrument creates sound by blowing air past reeds Circa mid 60's en wikipedia 2007-09-30 Armednuclearterrorist wikipedia en Armednuclearterrorist original upload log page en wikipedia Magnus_890_electric_chord_organ JPG 2007-09-30 13 57 Armednuclearterrorist 768×576× 203164 bytes <nowiki>Magnus 890 electric chord organ This instrument creates sound by blowing air past reeds Circa mid 60's</nowiki> ImageNote 1 157 253 148 38 768 576 2 __________________________B A S S___K E Y S_____ These keys play bass notes Like the other chord buttons on the panel these are arranged in the circle of fifths That's common in accordions and useful in that it tends to group needed buttons together for any given key signature Any song in a major key will mostly use the I IV and V chords and those buttons are grouped together when arranged in the circle of fifths For example songs in C major mostly call for C I F IV and G V and as you can see from the photo those three buttons are grouped together A song in A major would mostly call for A I D IV and E V and you can again see that those buttons are grouped together The circle of fifths order is particularly useful when applied to bass notes The root and fifth tones of any chord are the most important tones when playing bass and for any chord on this key panel the root and fifth tones will be adjacent making playing bass easy Examples G chord uses G D in the bass F major uses F C in the bass As you can see from the photo the buttons mentioned are adjacent Very few chord organs include bass notes and this normally limits the chord organ to being a toy because it's not possible to play a satisfying rhythmic accompaniment without the bass notes With the bass notes the chord organ is a totally different instrument and can make some seriously fun music The left hand can play a full sounding accompaniment in various rhythms like polka beguine ranchero and waltz Bass on an organ is normally played with the feet but this clever panel arrangement allows the thumb of the left hand to play bass That's easier than playing with the feet and also eliminates the expensive and bulky pedal board ImageNoteEnd 1 ImageNote 2 154 221 144 25 768 576 2 Chord buttons These buttons play chords and that's why this type of organ is called a chord organ This organ only provides two types of chords major white buttons and minor black buttons Fancier organs may additionally provide 7th minor 7th suspended and diminished chords Any piece of music can be played using only major and minor chords It will sound acceptable but not quite right if the music calls for some suspended diminished or augmented chords Lack of 7th chords is not really a problem you only lose a little additional coloration of the sound See the note attached to the bass keys for an explanation of the circle of fifths layout used A chord is three or more notes played simultaneously Major minor chords consist of three notes called the root the third and the fifth The root and fifth are the same between the two chord types but the third changes Memorizing the proper three notes for all 12 major and all 12 minor chords takes some practice as does playing the correct three notes with the left hand A chord organ makes it easy to play any chord with only one finger Another benefit is that the number of keys needed is reduced and thus the organ can be smaller The bass keys on this organ are far more valuable than would be additional chord types so it's a good tradeoff ImageNoteEnd 2 ImageNote 3 487 427 72 135 768 576 2 This floor standing chord organ includes a swell pedal so called because it can be used to cause the music to swell It's a volume pedal In this organ it will control the volume of all sounds the main keyboard the chords and the bass notes It works by constricting the amount of air flowing through the organ more air equals more volume Clever organists use the swell pedal to get many effects including swelling the music to cause an emotional swell in the listener causing the organ to seem to sustain notes and having the organ fade to silence at the end of a song It greatly adds to the coloration capabilities of this organ Some floor standing organs feature a swell feature that is operated with the right knee but this foot operated pedal is the same system used by big organs and most organists will prefer the pedal ImageNoteEnd 3 ImageNote 4 329 228 357 106 768 576 2 The main keyboard Called a manual in organ lingo this keyboard is used to play the melody and can also be used to play accompaniment during breaks in the melody Nicer chord organs feature a three octave main keyboard whereas smaller ones may only feature two octaves The keyboard is the same layout as on a piano but an organ requires a different playing style Piano is a percussion instrument that is controlled primarily by how you strike the keys An organ is controlled primarily by how you sustain the keys and you get the same sound no matter how hard or soft you hit them The chord organ is totally polyphonic so any number of keys may be sounded simultaneously The numbers above the keyboard are used for simplified chord organ sheet music which allows the musician to read music without having to know the names of the keys ImageNoteEnd 4 ImageNote 5 688 200 29 30 768 576 2 On/off knob Twist on/twist off ImageNoteEnd 5 ImageNote 6 300 133 219 35 768 576 2 Music light Lights up the sheet music on the music stand a useful feature ImageNoteEnd 6 ImageNote 7 113 198 201 24 768 576 2 Air vents A chord organ is essentially an accordion mounted in a box Instead of a bellows that the user pumps to blow air through the instrument the chord organ has an electric fan that provides air pressure Thus the chord organ sounds like an accordion The air vents allow the organ to exhaust air along with the sound The electric fan makes the chord organ easier to play at the cost of some loss of expression and some noise The fan makes a constant blowing noise whenever the organ is turned on If the organ is playing loudly this is not much of a problem but when the organ is played quietly or is sitting silent the blowing air adds undesirable noise An accordionist can get great expression out of his instrument by the way he pumps the bellows causing notes to swell and sing or otherwise articulate Another common accordion technique is to shake the bellows quickly causing a tremolo effect The swell pedal on this deluxe organ might be used to simulate some of that control ImageNoteEnd 7 ImageNote 8 602 349 102 17 768 576 2 This is probably the name of the dealer that sold this organ when it was new The large M on the chord panel indicates Magnus ImageNoteEnd 8 ImageNote 9 563 125 94 47 768 576 2 Wood case This deluxe organ features a wood veneer case making it very beautiful Most chord organs feature plastic cases ImageNoteEnd 9 ImageNote 10 635 413 61 123 768 576 2 This supplies electricity to the electric fan Although electronic chord organs do exist this one works by blowing air over sound producing reeds the same as an accordion An electronic chord organ produces sounds with tubes or transistors and is going to sound totally different This one sounds like an accordion; an electronic chord organ will sound like a normal organ The electronic instrument may feature additional capabilities like a drum machine or various voices from which to choose By comparison this organ has no such features and only has a single sound but some musicians prefer a physical or mechanical instrument sound over the electronic ImageNoteEnd 10 ImageNote 11 187 417 288 64 768 576 2 Decorative grill cloth This is for decoration only and makes this chord organ look like an expensive electronic organ In an electronic organ the cloth would hide a speaker but in this organ it's purely decoration The sound escapes the organ up at the top through the air vents ImageNoteEnd 11 ImageNote 12 191 69 211 60 768 576 2 Music stand and ledge A backrest for sheet music and a ledge to keep the music from slipping down The built in music stand and light are convenient but are of limited use because the light is only 4 watts and the sheet music ledge can not stand up to a large book Also there are no clips to keep the music from blowing in the wind and the stand can't accommodate sheet music taped 4 or 5 pages wide which would allow the musician to avoid turning pages ImageNoteEnd 12 Magnus Harmonica Corporation Electric chord organs Keyboard instruments Aerophones | ||||
