Is anyone actually READING my posts..?! For starters, I have NEVER said word one about whether anyone is a 'REAL' musician or not. You are projecting your own insecurity onto this conversation if that's what you think this is about!

All I have posted about is the audience's PERCEPTION of reality or lack thereof.

And I play arrangers 100% out in public, whether solo or in a full band. I certainly have no problems feeling guilty about using them! But I also don't have a problem acknowledging what we commonly see in audience attitudes when we use them solo or duo, etc.. Back in the 80's, a full band coming out of a few keyboards was a novelty, karaoke had yet to be a common form of entertainment in the US, and acts like Howard Jones or Thomas Dolby were ruling the airwaves with little more than a Fairlight and a rack of other keyboards..!

But technology has caught up to us to the point that the common man can do what we do (or what he THINKS we do!) himself on his laptop or iPad, and all of a sudden we find guitarists (who play something the common man KNOWS he can't do!) ruling the roost in the solo market.

Now, don't get me wrong... there IS still a market for what we do (we are still making a living, aren't we?) but as many point out, it's a lot harder these days, and we often find ourselves doubling as DJ's (which most guitarist acts don't tend to do), something we never had to do much, in the past.

All I'm trying to point out is how this may nave happened, and what audience perception is of us, and how we got here...

Nobody is any LESS of a musician for using an arranger, but audiences' PERCEPTION of our musicality (or lack of it!) has taken a step backwards, despite the reality of it all.

The fact that arrangers have gotten better and better, and often truly approach (or even use!) real audio hasn't helped, IMO! As they sound more and more like the real thing, the audience gets closer and closer to thinking they ARE the real thing - only a karaoke track, not a real band! The only way to persuade them that you are still playing is to make sure they SEE you playing your butt off.

I personally don't like putting laptops, iPads, books, music stands (if I can help it) or other gear on top of the keyboard. Make them SEE that the large majority of what they are hearing IS what you are playing and you can make that reconnection. Strip away EVERY style or SMF part that you can play, strip away every OTHER Part that isn't ABSOLUTELY necessary to supporting the groove, and you get a chance to reconnect with them.

But I'm afraid the old arranger paradigm of holding down a chord and playing the melody fairly basically (even if you do change sounds around each section) no longer commands the attention it used to. We need to work harder and harder to unconvince the audience we are simply a karaoke act...