My Hammond Organs
July 27, 2024
Organs were common in homes in the 1970s. The trend started when Hammond introduced its Piper organ, a one-keyboard instrument that was fairly easy to play. In fact, that’s when my desire to learn to read music started.
After the Piper, I had a two-keyboard Hammond organ—the keyboards are actually called “manuals.” These organs also have a full octave of foot pedals. The picture is blurry, but it is the only one I could find.
My dad became addicted to organs and constantly traded up. One day, he called me and asked if I would be home the next day. I said, “Yes.” He said, “Good because you have a new organ coming.” It turned out to be a Hammond tone-bar organ—that’s the one that produces the true Hammond sound. I was thrilled! That was my dad! Over the course of the next few years, I had one or two more Hammonds until one day, I decided to trade my organ in for a piano. And that was that!