Greetings and welcome to my A440 Music website!
In this introductory article, I’ll share a little background about myself and my musical interests.
I was born in 1966 – the year when England won the World Cup. Sadly, my interest in football is very limited. I’ve only ever been to one major league football match in my life, although you could say I’ve been twice. It was my first and last football match. I just don’t understand 22 grown men arguing over 1 ball. Just give them a ball each to play with!
When I was in school, I soon realised that anyone learning to play a musical instrument would have their instrument lessons timetabled to co-incide with the sports lessons. Perfect! I had to choose between football or music. I chose to learn the violin. This was a mistake I regret to this day. If I could turn back the clock, I would have definitely chosen to learn clarinet. So for the next few years, I impersonated a person strangling a cat whilst trying to blame the awful screeching sound on not having enough resin on my bow. My only fond memory of learning the violin is that wonderful aroma of wood mixed with horsehair and amber resin.
Moving on, the 1980’s were fast approaching when I was introduced to the world of electric organs. Oh my! What wonderful sounds were coming from these technical marvels with flashing lights. The home organ was so much more versatile than granny’s badly tuned piano. I fondly remember the Kawai DX900 which had 4 sound effects. Tap the button marked “Thunder” and you could find yourself in the middle of a sonic thunderstorm. The button marked “Wave” immediately transported you to a sunny, golden, sandy beach with the sea gently teasing the shore.
Then there was the Yamaha D85. That funny, little key 3rd manual seemed essential to be able to play the Star Trek theme.
The Conn 652 which in its day was a wonderful theatre organ sound. A sound of it’s own, but completely within the sonic sphere of theatre organs.
The Hammond C3 which sounded wonderful in the working mens clubs when part of a “combo” with live drummer and guitarist alongside. Even if it’s pedal tones sounded alarmingly similar to a farting bull.
Soon, rapidly advancing technology took hold. The Lowrey MX1 and Gulbransen Equinox 380 were unleashed onto the world. Big, powerful sounds with fully orchestrated backings in any style you could imagine! Swing, March, Rock, Disco, Rumba, gee even the Cha Cha and Tango!
For me, there was just one problem. One little niggling thing stopping me from buying one of these wonderful instruments for myself. I didn’t have enough money. For instance, the Lowrey MX1 had a retail price of £13,950 in May 1981! That was enough to buy 3 1/2 Ford Cortinas! Or a house!
By the 1980’s Sir Clive Sinclair introduced his ZX81 computer. Radio Shack was an American retailer who owned a Tandy shop in most towns of the UK. Casio were becoming experts at miniaturising things. Yamaha and Technics were dominating the world with their home organs. The 1990s saw the public’s interest in home organs quickly diminishing. The public had realised that home organs weren’t an investment and that the one finger chord systems with full orchestrated backings were useless if the organist didn’t keep up with the tempo and press the right keys, in the right order, at the right time.
Fast forwarding to today, technology has continued to run ahead at a rapid pace. There is now much interest in church organs, theatre organs are still popular and pop musicians are often touring with original Hammond organs! Flipping Heck, you can even buy a brand new Leslie 122 speaker cabinet with valve amplifier!
I never completely fell out with organs, but now is the time to rekindle my interest. And so, my project is to build quite possibly the ultimate home organ.
I am blending the old sounds with modern technology. Join me in my quest to build The Ultimate Home Organ!
Will you be inspired to build your own home organ? Will you make your own customisations? Whatever your budget? Whatever your style?
