Electric Musical Organs

Making Sweet Music With an Electric Organ

Electric organs are musical keyboard instruments that use electricity to mimic the sound of traditional pipe organs and other instruments. Check out the listings on eBay to see a highly varied selection of many electric organs. They're available new and second-hand at a wide range of prices.

Electric organs have evolved so much over time that virtually the only part that is recognisable is their standard music keyboard (called a manual in organ terminology). The three main types of electric organ are:

• Electric pipe organ: This is the simplest and oldest type of electric organ. By pressing any key on the organ’s music keyboard, an electric fan directs air through an associated pipe to produce a musical tone of a particular pitch.
• Electronic organ: Every key on the keyboard has associated electronic circuitry to produce audio tones of the required pitch. These organs are often large, freestanding or stand-mounted keyboard instruments for playing on stage or at home. Foot pedals enable extra bass notes.
• Digital organ: A digital organ is an electronic organ that uses digital, rather than analogue technology, to produce a wide range of tones and a huge range of functions. These include recording your performance, adding intelligent chordal and percussion accompaniment, and the ability of the organ to be controlled by a computer.

Touch sensitivity, which enables you to control the volume of each note, depending on how hard you press the key, is a very important feature as it enables you to play music with a wide range of dynamics. The cheapest organs may not have that feature. Another basic feature is the number of keys that the organ’s keyboard provides. The more keys you have, the greater the pitch range. Many larger models have two-tiered keyboards.

While nothing can replace a real music teacher, many electronic organs provide in-built tuition exercises via a small LCD screen. The tutorials can train you to develop many skills, such as quickly locating any notes shown on the music staffs, repeating musical phrases by ear, or playing in strict time along with a virtual metronome.

If you’re considering buying an electric organ, you may feel more comfortable choosing from well-known manufacturers with long, electric organ-building experience. These include Yamaha, Farfisa, Hammond, and Lowry. However, as the eBay listings show, you can also find many lesser-known manufacturers producing great electric organs for sale at very competitive prices.