__________________________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.

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.

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.

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.

On/off knob. Twist on/twist off.

Music light. Lights up the sheet music on the music stand, a useful feature.

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.

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."

Wood case: This deluxe organ features a wood veneer case, making it very beautiful. Most chord organs feature plastic cases.

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.

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.

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.