I love Ludwig von Beethoven's music. Thanks to my piano teacher I was able to study and play some of Beethoven's sonatas, but his symphonies are my favorite. Today I found an interpretation of Beethoven's fifth symphony played on an electronic dual keyboard. I've never heard of this brand, may be one of you have, but in case you're curious, here is the youtube link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCED5cVnxxY&ab_channel=MarcoCerbella


Enjoy,
Gerry

You have never heard of Yamaha Organs, (Electones) this is where all their arranger keyboards span off from in the 80s, with the organs starting decades earlier.

He has been featured before and is a great player; however Beethoven is quite popular in organ circles so you will find plenty of renditions on You Tube if you do a search.

Thanks for posting

Bill

Thanks Bill!

Wow, I am impressed! Anyone that can play with both hands and their feet has my utmost respect!

WOW Incredible playing. And the work it took to get the correct sounds and what hand plays what part is amazing. wonder how long it took him to put it all together.

My thoughts exactly. How did put this together? A published written arrangement?
His own arrangement? Either way, very impressive playing skills and sounds.

I know the first movement of the 5th symphony quite well, he didn't change anything, it's quite the original arrangement as taken from the orchestral score. If he really plays EVERYTHING live, of which I'm not entirely sure yet, it must have been very difficult to change the registrations so quickly and so frequently, sometimes even within a bar, to cover all strings, woodwinds, brass etc.

One of the advantages of a dual-manual organ with pedals is that you can have at least five voices available at all times. The registration buttons are immediately above the keybed and easy-to-reach. There may also be toe and heel switches on the swell (expression) pedal that can be operated subtly, you wouldn't see it unless you're really looking.

He might well be using some MIDI but it's amazing what a skilled organist can accomplish live!

Yes he is using the pedal footswitch to go through the registrations that he has set up, (Pretty much all organ players do it if they have that facility on board and most instruments from the 80s on do) and if you look closely at the display you will see the registration numbers increasing as well as the lights between the manuals changing..

Bill

By the way, that's a technique that a lot of arrangers can do, setting up a series of registrations and stepping through them with footswitches. As long as sounding voices don't get cut off, it can be quite magical!

I set up a large number of my songs that need more than a simple sound change like this, with Performances for Intro, Verse, Chorus, Solo etc.. The advantage of this is the freedom from thinking about anything other than the music..! As arranger players, we often cripple ourselves musically trying to do everything on the fly, change sounds, change variations, change splits, cue fills, juggle flaming knives!

Yes, setting it all up in advance takes away a hair of the spontaneity of it all. But as this Beethoven clip shows, what you gain is equally if not more musical. And, when push comes to shove, aren't we playing MUSIC. not pushing buttons???

Organ players and arranger players should not be compared. Feet going, left hand one thought, right hand another; and they are changing sounds. Before registrations they made all their manually. Wow!

When I first start going to the organ concerts in Orlando, Florida, I fell in love with the organ. I bought a used Wersi Delta 500 organ. This was my dream, it never happened, I was not willing to put in the time to learn --- I had to earn a living.

I bought a Yamaha Psr ???? and added a synth keyboard. The Yamaha was the master.

With all that behind me I am excited to have a arranger keyboard with all the buttons. Those buttons help me select everything I desire/need. I would hate to hear what I would sound like without them; I would have to call up talent which I do not have. (smile)

Just my opinion, John C.

I, like many of us, were organ players before the advent of arrangers. I was never exceptional, but was music minister for several churches for fifteen years, and could hold my own with mostly Rogers organs. I, also played Hammond B-3's in night clubs and restaurants in the 70's.

Then, things seemed to change in the music world. I stopped being a church player, bought the first Rhythm Ace for my B-3, that the restaurants in the area had seen. I saw, eventually, that the organ was slipping, and went to arrangers and vocal.

It is sad, in a way, I had to prostitute myself for public acceptance. I still love the beautiful music of the organ, with the pedals and lower manual playing counter melodies.

I have my SKI and a 13 pedalboard, at least.

Bernie

There’s no reason the choice to use an arranger stops you from playing as much as you did in the organ days... Add a set of pedals and a dummy manual, even a mid price arranger utterly blows away most organs from the 70’s. Push comes to shove, you can do it with pedals and one manual and a boatload of splits!

My goal has always been to play as much as I ever did when playing in real bands with no sequencing... I used to play full organ but always felt, even back in the 70’s that all it was was a way to undercut a real musician out of a job. It is it’s own art form in a way, and the best organists can elevate it to greatness, but I’d always prefer to hear great organists play with a rhythm section rather than solo.

The instrument doesn’t define the player. You can play with two hands and feet on anything... Defining the ‘arranger player’ as someone that CAN’T play like an organist is doing some of us a disservice! 🎹😎