Morgan (MEDTIMEMAGIC – drums/organ)
SPB: What nonstandard tweaks have you made to your kit setup to ease playing organ at the same time? (Feel free to walk us through your whole setup and include pics and/or videos.)
Morgan: If only I could find a way to make playing the organ and the drums at the same time easy! I play the organ with my left foot, so I have to turn my hi-hat stand at an awkward angle so I can get the organ in close enough that I can reach all the pedals.
The low C and D on the organ end up being really far behind me. I have to turn my leg at an awkward angle to reach them, and the high C and D are sort of hidden behind the hi-hat stand. I have to sneak my foot behind the stand to reach them.
I got a lightweight DW hi-hat stand a few years ago that has a flat base rather than the standard tripod base you see on most cymbal stands. The flat base definitely helps to keep the stand out of my way a little better.
I built my drums myself and they are all sort of awkwardly large in size. 26"x22" bass drum, 14"x9" snare, 15"x10" rack tom, and 18"x18" floor tom. My cymbals are also all very large 16" high hats, 2x 22" crash cymbals and a 24" ride. Because the 15" rack tom and the 16" hi-hats take up so much space, I already had a very wide stance; The organ pedals then end up sitting pretty far to my left side. It works, and I can get to everything, but it does make it basically impossible for me to play on anybody else's equipment. And with all of our amps it can get pretty awkward trying to fit all of our stuff on small stages.
One other thing that made it easier to play the drums, organ, and sing at the same time was getting a headset mic. Before I had the headset, trying to fit a mic stand around the organ, and still get it to a place where I could reach it to sing, as well as reach all of my drums, was impossible.
The next thing we want to get to make playing easier is a roadie.
Instagram: @bedtimemagic69
Facebook: ealbedtimemagic
https://bothdogs.com
