My personal opinion:

The arranger keyboard was always designed by manufactures as primarily an instrument for the home user; (There basically all the easy play features of an organ in one box with more sounds added) therefore to try and prove otherwise is quite fruitless.

The only people who look down on arrangers are other musicians, which as they account for less than 1% of an audience you might as well just ignore them and concentrate on the rest of your audience who couldn’t care less what instrument you are playing.

Constructive criticism of a performance is the best feedback any musician can have (You don’t have to be able to play an instrument to provide constructive criticism) and can only make the performer improve further.

Calling a performance c***, or praising a poor performance serves no useful purpose as it will either cause the individual to give up, or make them think they is better than they are, which will always be counterproductive.

As mentioned above the audience couldn’t care less what instrument you are playing they are just there for the music, so just produce your best and enjoy yourself, that way everybody goes home happy.


One of the biggest annoyances for me when listening to arranger play, are the same into/endings, style variations etc. being used by a lot of arranger players, as when I go out to listen to music I want to hear the performer not the machine, (The machine should be secondary to the performer, not the other way round) thus the use of all singing all dancing styles are a big turn off for me, however keep the backing instruments to a minimum (Or create your own personal Midi backing) and really play your heart out using all the limbs available to you is what for me makes a great performance. (One of the biggest performance increases any arranger player can do is to add a set of bass pedals and expression pedal, then use them to their full potential, as it really adds life to the performance as well as looking great)

Remember a good performer is recognisable by their style of playing, not the instrument they are playing.

Some will agree and some will disagree with the above, which is why I say it is purely my personal opinion.

Enjoy whatever you play

Bill