For me,. music has always been a conversation. You talk to the guitarist, he talks back. The sax player picks up on the conversation, adds something new, all of a sudden the conversation goes somewhere you didn't expect, and your ears and attention pricks up.

You don't get that with an arranger...

Don't get me wrong, it is an amazing tool to make music with, you all know how much I love mine! But I don't look to it for inspiration, or to give me musical purpose. It looks to ME to make the inspiration, to work it so that it doesn't do the same damn thing every time you call up the same damn style...

Many of us here are retired from playing fulltime, or amateurs. But are still playing with a tool designed to assist you make something that SOUNDS like real music... but it isn't. There's no conversation. Just a monologue.

If you are looking to find a purpose in playing, I suspect you are going to find it getting out and playing music with real people again. You probably started music like that, and if you have the time for it now, seems a good thing to end up doing it that way, too... Rediscover what made making music the obsession that it became.

This last year has found me primarily playing in bands, rather than doing duos or solos, which has been my main thing for, on and off, the last decade or so. And my playing and my commitment to making the best music I can has never been more firm. I was starting to treat playing as a job. But now I'm back to treating it like a calling.

If your arranger is starting to pale a bit, don't spend $5000 trying to simply get a more elaborate arranger. It won't solve the problem other than temporarily (you can get used to anything!) because it STILL, despite sounding better, is still NOT a conversation. It's a one way street, musically. You do all the talking, it just listens.

Find some musicians to play with that have something to say to YOU... Bet you you'll come up with something new to say back.