page_title: Thomas Organ Company
section_title: Color-Glo system
hierarchical_section_title: Thomas Organ Company / Features / Color-Glo system
caption_attribution_description: Thomas 2001 (1976)
context_page_description: The Thomas Organ Company is an American manufacturer of electronic keyboards and a one-time holder of the manufacturing rights to the Moog synthesizer. The Company was a force behind early electronic organs for the home. It went out of business in 1979 but reopened in 1996.
context_section_description: Another innovation during its heyday was Color-Glo, an instructional system which illuminated the keys of the manuals (and therefore their corresponding notes in reverse relief) from behind with fluorescent lights. The lower manual had black, green, and red colored bands behind the notes necessary to play a second-inversion C, a first-inversion F and a root-position G. The C, F and G pedals had colored bands across their tips corresponding to the chords. The idea was that a rank beginner could create music simply by following the very simple music books that featured lettered noteheads and color-coded chords. "Matching the colors" was sufficient to play full-sounding four-voice chords.
  Thomas's three-volume course Color-Glo Plus: A Sound For Everyone introduced "three simple rules" that allowed for more chords, by changing the pedal notes and/or specifying a manual note to raise or lower. The chord's letter name indicated the pedal to play, while as before, the color-coding specified the basic C, F, or G chord shape on the lower manual. Note name stickers were provided for the pedals. These extended rules allowed for chords such as (black) Am7, +A7, and ⁻Cm; (green) Dm7, ⁺D7, and −Fm; and (red) Em7, ₊E7, and -Gm. The height of any + or - before the chord symbol showed which note to raise or lower.
caption: Thomas 2001 playing
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