i did not know that being a minority accounted for anything. I am a minority in so many ways other than as an arranger playing musician but its just water off a ducks back for me. i will keep on making good music regardless.

I appreciate everything that Chas has said in terms of how he sees arrangers in terms of the classic view of music making but as always , the caricature of a talentless old man gets pulled out to illustrate a point all the time . Why always pull out lowest form or example of musicianship to illustrate the use of aranger keyboards ? Thats just so tunnel visoned. i can gaurantee you that the majority of keyboards that have been sold in the world ,whether aranger or otherwise are played by people with little more than a basic understanding a level of chords and melody and less than that in skill level.

And for most thats exactly where they stay.

In fact i would bet that for almost any instrumnet of any category ,you will find that most owners progress little further than the most basic understanding of simple chords and melodies . I would go further and say that most pianos (at least in the UK ) that are privately owned serve more purpose as a side table than as a musical instrument !

so just how would society be better if there were less arranger keyboards in the world ? Does anyone believe that if we got rid of arrangers there would be an increase of keyboard/piano players or guitar players or other forms of musician ? almost certainly there would in fact be less musicians in the world however you wish to grade them . that to me would be a terrible terrible thing.

Chas is right that TOPL Arrangers are bought by and large by old wealthy men but this is because they can afford them !! However the budget instruments are almost certainly purchased by parents for their children and grand childremn who cant afford or dont have the space for a full sized weighted keys piano. I teach keyboard and i know that most children graduate to piano from affordable arranger keyboards.All the childrens schools that i have ever been to that teach music at all , start on a keyboard , typically arranger style .

If these were not available with their easy play functions there would in fact be less musicians that progress to a full piano in the world.

What i see time and time again is the focus on the easy play functions and the complete ommission of the sophisticated music tool that most TOTL arrangers have become. The caricature that keeps being wheeled out as an example of an arranger player (even if accurate) does not define the legitimate musical tool that an arranger is.

seeing the musician ship of someone like Marco Parisi, Peter Baartmans, Arnauld Delauney , Martin Harris just illustrates the point that it is the musician that defines the musical instrument and validates it as a legitimate music making tool and not the instrumnet itself.