5 ways to play like larry young

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5 Ways to Play Like Larry Young

Jon Regen

URL:http://www.keyboardmag.com/article.aspx?id=122131

Organist Larry Young carved out atruly unique path on the holy Hammond B-3 organ. His modal, JohnColtrane-esque approach was a totaldeparture from the soul and jazz organ

styles that had dominated the airwaves of the ’60s and ’70s. Young’s playing (andsubsequent recordings with legendarydrummer Elvin Jones) influencedcountless organists, including LarryGoldings, Sam Yahel, and myself.Though Young died in 1978 at the youngage of 37, his solo work—as well as hiswork with artists such as Miles Davis,

Tony Williams, and even Jimi Hendrix—continues to inspire players around the globe.Here are five ways to make your playing Young-er! - by Joe Bagg

Click thumbnails for larger sheet music images. Audio examples follow.

1. Bass Lines Ex. 1a illustrates a typical Larry Young organ bass line over the first four measures of ablues in F . Set your organ or clonewheel’s drawbars to 83 8000 000 on the lower manual.Young would often reinforce his groove with drummer Elvin Jones by alternating betweenthe root and fifth of the harmony in his bass lines, as seen in example Ex. 1b. You canhear this on the song “Zoltan” from Young’s classic Blue Note album Unity. Thesimplicity of this type of bass line helped offset the syncopated rhythms Young wouldsometimes play with his right hand, as in Ex. 1c. Use drawbar setting 80 8000 006 for theupper manual.

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Audio examples:

Larry Young Ex 1a•

Larry Young Ex 1b•Larry Young Ex 1c•

2. Fourth Voicings Larry Young pioneered the use of fourth voicings on the organ.McCoy Tyner had famously developed them on piano, but Youngwas the first organist to make them a staple on the Hammond B-3organ. Ex. 2 demonstrates how to integrate these voicings with threecommon chord types: major seventh (using the Lydian mode),

dominant seventh (using the Mixolydian mode), and minor seventh (using the Dorianmode). Use drawbar settings 84 800 0000 for the lower manual and 88 8000 000 for the

upper. Add third harmonic percussion and vibrato/chorus at Young’s preferred setting of C1.

Audio example: Larry Young Ex 2

3. Comping Ex. 3 shows how to use Young-type voicings in the context of achord progression. Some of these voicings have an added note ontop. Young often did this in his right hand to fatten up his sound,since his left hand was usually busy walking a bass line. Play both

right and left hand parts on the lower manual using drawbar setting 83 800 0000. Onceagain, set vibrato/chorus to C1.


4. Solo Lines Another technique that Young adapted from McCoy Tyner and John

Coltrane was the use of pentatonic scales in improvisation. Ex. 4a shows a C minorpentatonic scale, which one might use over a Cmin7 chord. If youbreak up the pentatonic scales by playing the pattern in Ex. 4b, youend up with a melodic line of perfect fourths. Ex. 4c is a solo lineover a Cmin7 chord. Use the same drawbar settings as in Ex. 2.

Audio examples:

Larry Young Ex 4a•Larry Young Ex 4b•Larry Young Ex 4c•

5. Putting it Together Ex. 5 is an example of how to integrate all these elements over ablues in F . Notice how in measures 8 through 10, the fourth voicingsare broken up for use as a melodic line. This is one of Young’strademark tricks.



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Joe Bagg is a renowned pianist, organist, and educator from Los Angeles. He hasperformed with Bobby Hutcherson, Larry Coryell, and Madeleine Peyroux, and his latestrecording The Joe Bagg Organ Trio will be released in late 2010. Bagg teaches at CitrusCollege and Fullerton College. Learn more at joebagg.com.

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5 ways to play like larry young

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