organ layout?

Question

how does an organs keys lay out on the board? like on a piano it goes CDEFGAB. help? how does an organ work?

I play guitar and piano

Answer 1

My answer refers to church pipe organs. I am a pipe organ builder & church organist.

The keys on an organ are the same layout as a piano. Most pianos have 88 notes - eight octaves. Organs usually have 61 note keyboards (5 octaves) and 30 note (UK) 2 1/2 octave pedalboards. Pedalboards have just the same note layout as a piano or organ keyboard, but the big wooden keys are played with your feet. Wheras piano music consists of two lines, the top line is for the right hand & the lower line is for the left hand, organ music has a third line of music printed under the left hand stave for the pedal part.

Basically there is an organ pipe for every note of every 'stop'. The stops are the different ranks or types of pipes that are available on an organ. These stops vary in pitch & sound. If you select an 8' stop, then the pitch is the same as that of a piano. Middle C will threfore sond exactly the same pitch, for example. An 8' stop simply means that the lowest pipe (Bottom c) is eight feet in length. A 4' stop sounds an octave higher, 2' an octave higher still. The ability to play at several pitches at the same time on an organ is highly desireable & this build up of different pitches is called a chorus. Stops have different sounds too. For example, a 'Stopped diapason' has a flute sound. a 'Dulciana' has string-like qualities, and an 'open diapason' is the basic sound you expect an organ to sound like!

An electric blower provides a 'wind' supply; this is stored & regulated in a bellows. The pipes live on a 'soundboard' also known as a 'wind chest'. When you press a note on the keys or pedals, a mechanism opens an air valve called a 'pallet' & lets the wind flow into a section of the soundboard where the pipe you want to play is situated. Depending what stops you have selected will then allow the wind to enter the desired organ pipe(s) and the note will sound.

Organs are known as the 'king' of instruments & are exceptionally complex in their construction. Organs have been around for about 2000 years, and in the current form for about 1000 years.

Richard Shireby (uk)