"Accompaniment Pipes"

Next instalment on pipes; 

This time I have taken the front and top off the organ  to show a few more pipes.

Moving up the scale, from the five bass pipes, we have the eight accompaniment pipes. These are placed down each side of the organ; there are three on the left and five on the right. Again, these are “stopped” pipes and also some have to be angled to get them in the case.

These usually end up playing chords associated with the bass pipe, which had been previously been chosen in to be in harmony with the melody.

The eight pipes (from lowest) are:- Db, D, Eb, F, G, Ab, A, Bb.

Now, I won’t list all the keys, possible chords, missing chords…etc….but I will give an example of how, even with only 8 notes (of the sequence of 11), we can sound a very large percentage of chords to accompany most popular melodies.

Again, I’ll choose the Key of Eb.

    Triad major tonic   Eb, G, Bb.

              minor 2nd      F, Ab,  C,            (C from bass or melody).

              minor 3rd      G, Bb, D.

              sub-dom.      Ab, C, Eb.           (C from bass or melody).

              dom 7th         Bb, D, F, Ab        (Ab = 7th).

              minor 6th       C,  Eb, G.           (C from bass or melody).

The only three notes missing are E, F# and B. These would only be required in “unusual” chords. (eg  Gmin6th or  Ab7th !!!!).

 I know we cheat a bit with note C, but it is OK to use the highest bass pipe C, or the lowest melody pipe C in the chords.