You know, the situation described above is not the fault of the big box stores. If so many US consumers weren't so obsessed with going to extremes in finding the absolutely lowest price as opposed to accepting a fair price from their local dealer, and if certain manufacturers stopped selling their products at greatly reduced prices to the large chain stores giving them a huge price advantage over independent retailers, and if the independent dealers would stick to their own territory and discontinue shipping product out of state at a price lower that the local retail store who probably demonstrated the instrument in the first place, and...... There are a lot more if's that contribute to the problem.

The local independent retailer can hardly survive running his store by himself much less pay a decent wage to a staff of knowledgeable professional salespeople. And the practice by consumers of using the local retailer as a showroom for a mail order purchase is just wrong.

Learning to operate an arranger keyboard is just as hard as learning how to operate any of the so-called professional workstations. To expect a big box store minimum wage employee who is only there for the employee discount to sit down and read manuals and learn everything there is to know about the instruments he clerks, uh…sells, well it’s just not going to happen that often. Of course that is not a global statement. I will say that I have run into a number of employees at these types of stores that I consider professional salesman, but they are far and few between.

Many of the same people who complain about these issues are the very same people who are perpetuating the entire situation. Having been in this business for a long time, I think the problem started at the manufacturer level. As it became common for certain manufacturers to introduce (or re-package) products every 6 months or so, they had to come up with a way to clear the warehouses of the old models. In some cases the discounts on discontinued products were offered to all dealers, but the only ones who could afford to purchase the large quantities required were the larger stores. That introduced deep discounts to the musical instrument consumer and it has grown into the problem as it exists today.

Luckily there are some manufacturers that are doing their best to correct the problem by running their business in a way that will allow the independent dealer to make a fair profit in order to be able to afford a good staff of employees. But if the consumers don’t start changing their ways, then the efforts of these manufacturers will be for nothing.

Sorry if this offends anyone. But if you are offended, it is probably because you are guilty.

Then there is the question as to why arranger keyboards are not as prevalent in the US as they are in the European countries and elsewhere. Perhaps it is because here in the US, a large number of people playing arranger keyboards started when organs with auto-accompaniment were the all the rage and the usual method of play is to use the single fingered chord mode and a simple melody. This is NOT to say that there is anything wrong with that nor is it a global statement. There are certainly many arranger players here that are more experienced players and use the full capabilities of their instrument. But many times it is either electric chord organ technique or playing to SMF’s, mp3’s or Karaoke CD’s and just standing there singing or maybe plucking a note here or there. Again, there is nothing wrong with that. The important thing is if you are having fun and the audience is enjoying the performance.

On the other hand, arranger players in other countries tend to use the full capabilities of the instrument by playing full left hand chords while also using the pitch bend and mod wheels to add articulation to solo instruments rather than using built-in pre-assigned multi-samples for automatic (but not as desirable as doing it yourself) articulation. There are many younger arranger players who play in bars and other venues that have made the one man band idea much more accepted.

But as we here in the US keep moving along I am hopeful that arranger/workstations will take their well deserved place on the pro keyboard wall of every keyboard store.

Dave


[This message has been edited by WDMcM (edited 03-25-2006).]