Rhodes piano

A Rhodes piano is a musical instrument, a brand of electric piano. Its distinctive sound has appeared particularly in jazz and rock songs of the last fifty years.

History

The Rhodes piano was invented in the 1940s by Harold Rhodes, and its principles are derived from both the celesta and the electric guitar. The action is similar to that of a conventional piano, but whereas in a conventional piano each key causes felt-covered hammers to strike sets of strings, in a Rhodes piano rubber-tipped hammers strike tuning fork-like constructions to sound the note.

Sound producing mechanism

The tuning forks themselves are "unbalanced" or asymmetrical: one arm consists of a short, stiff metal rod (essentially a stiff wire) called a "tine" which is struck by the hammer, and the other arm is a tuned resonator resembling a piece of metal bar stock, sized to sound the appropriate note. The actual sounded note is too soft to be practical, so each tine vibrates in front of an electric-guitar-style magnetic pickup. The pickups' output is fed to an amplifier which can be adjusted to produce the desired volume.

The sound produced has a bell-like character not unlike a celesta or glockenspiel. Because the instrument produces sound electrically, the signal can be processed to yield many different timbral colors. Often the signal is processed through a stereo tremolo (which was called Vibrato on the Rhodes front panel) effects unit, which pans the signal back and forth between right to left; it is this "rounded" or chiming sound that is most typically called a classic Rhodes sound, which can be heard on, for example, many of Stevie Wonder's songs. The preamp with stereo panning is included on the "suitcase" models; the "stage" models lack the preamp.

In the 1980s a set of Rhodes modifications done by a company called "Dyno My Piano" became popular: it made the sound brighter, harder, and more bell-like. It can be heard on many records from that time. When notes are played forcefully, the sound becomes less sweet, as nonlinear distortion creates a characteristic "growling" or "snarling" overload—skilled players can contrast the sweet and rough sounds to create an extremely expressive perfomance.

For a contemporary sample of a rhodes piano, see the Portishead song Roads, from the album Dummy.

Artists who played Rhodes

The Rhodes was particularly popular from the late 60's-early 80's, and many of its signature songs date from this period: The Doors' "Riders On The Storm", "Just the Way You Are" by Billy Joel, "Still Crazy After All These Years" by Paul Simon, "Babe" by Styx, "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life" by Stevie Wonder, "Peg" by Steely Dan, "Gotta Serve Somebody" by Bob Dylan, the intro to "Sheep" by Pink Floyd, and the theme from Taxi by Bob James.

Ray Charles played "Shake Your Tailfeather" on a Rhodes in the music store scene in the Blues Brothers movie.

The Rhodes was also used much in jazz-fusion throughout the 1970s. Chick Corea's album Light as a Feather and Miles Davis's In a Silent Way featured the Rhodes throughout the whole album. Joe Zawinul of Weather Report, Jan Hammer of the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Herbie Hancock also used the Rhodes. Steely Dan used the Dyno-My-Piano modified Rhodes on many recordings such as "Hey Nineteen," "Kid Charlemagne," "My Rival," with a phaser on "The Fez," and on most of their newer recordings.

More recently, the Rhodes has seen a resurgence in popularity and has been adopted by a number of bands, including Radiohead (heard most prominently on OK Computer and Kid A), The Appleseed Cast, Super Furry Animals, Bright Eyes, Eisley, The Arcade Fire, Vanessa Carlton, Secret Machines, Tori Amos, Wilco, Thrice, R.E.M., Hot Hot Heat, Cake (the Rhodes is in "Sheep Go To Heaven" in the background chords of the chorus), and Glenn Danzig of the Misfits. It has also seen a large resurgence in the genre of "Jam Bands," being used regurarly by Phish, The String Cheese Incident, Medeski Martin and Wood, Leyline and The Special Purpose. Heavily filtered or processed Rhodes piano samples have become canon for contemporary dance-oriented electronic music genres.

In addition, the Rhodes has seen heavy usage in hip hop—especially that of a more jazzy nature. This can be seen with artists such as The Roots, Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star, Blackalicious, Jurassic 5, A Tribe Called Quest, and others.

The Fender buyout

The Fender Guitar Company bought the Rhodes company in the 1950s, and produced the instruments for many years, in conjunction with Fender-designed amplifiers. The instrument is thus often termed a "Fender Rhodes".

The first Fender-Rhodes (sic) product was the Piano Bass in 1960, but no other models were produced until after the CBS takeover of Fender. During January of 1965 CBS bought the company, and shortly afterwards the 73-note Student Piano and Suitcase Piano went into production. In 1970 the more portable Stage model Mk I Stage Piano was added to the range, and in 1974 the brand name was changed from "Fender Rhodes" to simply "Rhodes". Rhodes at this point changed internally. The hammers were plastic, the pedestals were bare, (the felt was on the underside of the hammer), the pickups were a different shape, and the tine structure differed from pre-1975 tines. The resulting sound was described as "mellow", but in actuallity the sound was more "bell" like due to the missing midrange. 1975-1979 Rhodes pianos are known for their ease in regard to repairs and upgrades. The first Mark II was introduced in late 1979.

Also made for a very brief period was the Rhodes Mark III EK-10 which had analogue oscillators and filters alongside the existing electromechanical elements. The overall effect was that of a Rhodes piano and an electronic piano being played simultaneously; compared with the new polyphonic synthesizers being marketed at the same time it was far too limited in scope. Very few units were sold.

The final Rhodes electric piano was the short-lived Mk V in 1984, which is thought to be the perfect Rhodes due to portability, and tweaked design that avoids key/hammer bouncing. The Mark V Stage 73 was the last piano to be manufactured before the Rhodes Works shut down in 1985 never to reopen.

In 1987 the Rhodes trademark was acquired by Roland, but they only applied the name to digital pianos; they did not manufacture real Rhodes pianos.

In the early 2000s, the "Rhodes" name was bought back from Roland by one of Harold Rhodes's erstwhile colleagues, and new electromechanical Rhodes pianos may yet be produced.

The actual instruments are still quite common: they are sturdy,a bit heavy, and fairly easy to adjust and tune. Consumer-grade electronic keyboards usually include built-in "electric piano" patches that approximate the Dyno Rhodes sound with considerably more convenience but none of these is capable of the range of expression of an actual Rhodes piano, and many people and keyboard companies mistake the Dyno Rhodes for the unmodified original Rhodes sound.

More recently, both software and hardware manufacturers such as Native Instruments and Clavia DMI have developed sample-based emulations of the Rhodes piano. Because the emulation is based on samples of individual notes played on an actual Rhodes the software is better able to capture the idiosyncratic characteristics of the instrument than pure synthesis.

Models

Different models of the Rhodes pianos were manufactured, 73 and 88 note versions, the stage model, and the suitcase model which included built in amplifier and speakers. For a short time, a 54-key version was also produced. The first models to be produced was the 32-note PianoBass. This was followed by the Sparkletop or "Mark 0" (1965), Mark I (1970) and Mark II (1979) which was continuously improved and developed, but housed in the very same construction. In 1984, the last year of production, the Mark V came out.

External links

Rhodes Super Site
Roads on the iTunes Music Store

Electric and electronic keyboard instruments