Difference between piano and organ?
I play the piano and am familiar with what an organ is, but I would like to understand the differences between the two instruments. Is there a distinct style of playing for each? Can you play the same pieces on both an organ and a piano, or are there specific techniques that suit one instrument better than the other? It seems to me that they might be quite similar, so I’m curious to learn more about their differences.
10 Answers
There are two major differences. One is capacity, range of expression, and the other is mode of playing.
The piano is a percussion instrument, whose sound production is elicited by the striking of a mallet on a string. The sound thereby can be sustained for a progressive diminution of duration by means of a sostenuto pedal being depressed by ones foot.
The organ is a wind instrument, whose sound production is elicited by means of wind being blown thru a pipe(if a pipe organ- not familiar with other kinds) the initiation of which is caused by the depression
of a connected key. A key on an organ has a different engineering: it will cause the pipe to sound indefinitely as long as it is activated. But when unpressed, the sound production is immediately, and totally stopped. That of a piano as noted above, can be sustained for a limited amount of time. And on the organ, there are doors that can be closed, which make for a far off distant sound, and volume pedals for volume control; plus multipe stops for all kinds of different sounds, mimicking those of orchestral instruments or just about any kind of sound you can think of, on the older theatrical organs.
Wotan
Playing a piano and playing an organ require very different techniques. One of the most important differences is that a piano has a touch-sensitive keyboard and the organ does not.
A touch-sensitive keyboard allows the player to play a key loud, soft, or somewhere in between. On an organ, you would use a pedal that controls the volume. Keep in mind that the volume pedal works for the entire keyboard, and not just a single key. Piano keys have a decay, whereas organ keys do not, and again, you would use the volume pedal (but just for a single note). An organ key can be held indefinitely, whereas the piano key would decay.
Other differences are, the organ has bass pedals, which are played with your feet, multi-manuals, stops.
The pianist, Glenn Gould does a lot of Bach’s work on piano, which of course was not yet invented in Bach’s time. When you change the keyboard instrument, you must rework the music, so Gould is a good example.
The piano is considered a keyboard, a percussion instrument, and a stringed instrument. Many consider it an instrument unto itself, since it doesn’t fit just one category.
There are several significant differences between playing a piano and an organ. Yes, they are both keyboard instruments with the same arrangement of keys, but the similarity ends there.
A piano is a percussion instrument — expressivity is produced by hitting the keys harder or softer, and sustain pedals allow notes to keep playing after the key has been released.
The organ doesn’t care how hard you hit the key – the volume produced depends on the number and types of stops which are active and the amount of air blown throgh them (which can be controlled by a crescendo pedal). The organ also has no sustain pedal — once you let go of the key, the note ends. Those two differences account for most of the learning difficulties players have when switching between the two instruments.
Of course, the foot pedals, the different manuals (two or more), and the different stops just add to the confusion.
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A piano is generally considered a member of the percussion musical family, while an organ falls in with the woodwinds, electronic and even the brass families. The main difference between the piano and organ’s function during performance is percussion versus air power. Another difference between an organ and piano is the number of sounds each can generate. A piano’s keys can be altered somewhat to create a tinny honky-tonk sound. An organ, by comparison, can be altered through the use of pipes or electronics to sound like woodwind, brass and reed instruments.
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RE:
Difference between piano and organ?
I play piano, and I know what an organ is, but what’s the difference? Is there a different style of playing?
Do you play the same thing on an organ on a piano? I mean, it’s no different.
Jan 17, 2025
Organ predates the piano by a good couple hundred years. A Pipe Organ (the type you hear most of the time) is wind forced through a pipe making it the brass faimly and piano is a hammer hit onto a string. Piano is a percussion or string insturment. Listen to Bach’s Little Fugue in G minor to hear a great organ piece and piano you can hear basically anywhere anytime. Organs by the way are much much bigger when they are non electronic. the largest pipe of Bach’s Organ could fit a person in it.
Organ (music) – Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_(musi…
Piano – Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.ord/wiki/Piano
First of all, piano and organ is the same group of instruments. The difference between piano and organ is a piano only have piano song to produce while an organ can produce various type of sound such as guitars, bassess etc..
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