In my experience, quite often, very accomplished players of the more traditional keyboard instruments like Acoustic Piano, Rhodes and Organ, buy (or try out) an Arranger Keyboard and have a difficult time adjusting to the different set of skills (especially left hand/chording) required to play an Arranger Keyboard in style play.

Often these accomplished players want to play the arranger, in style play, at or near the same level of proficiency as they already have on their traditional keyboard, or at least at the level of some of the more advanced arranger players here on SZ, but, for some reason, maybe something as simple as being set in their ways, they just don't get around to investing the time and effort needed to acquire these skills.

For some reason, organ players have an easier time adapting, probably due the similarity in the way left hand chords are played...many piano players have a real hard time keeping that left hand from jumping around too much and triggering too many notes, thus confusing the Style Engine.

There is a reason the average Arranger Keyboard has 300-500 styles and several chord recognition modes, as well as buttons to vary the style patterns being played...the instrument's main intended use is style play, whether it be for "live" play, or recording projects, although the instrument's sequencer and sound editing features allow it to play the role of a Workstation Keyboard as well.

So, unless the accomplished player (but novice to Arranger Keyboards) learns these skills, the instrument gets returned, is stuck away in a corner, or, at the very most, is used as an extra keyboard/drum machine/MIDI file player...hardly exploiting its full potential, and becoming more than a bit of a disappointment to the player.

So, as Spalding says above, it's not the keyboard, it's definitely the musician.

And, as far as the alleged "stigma" attached to the Arranger Keyboard...well, all I can say is that it's pretty bad if one would allow the opinions of other people (musicians or otherwise) to dictate what musical instrument they should or should not play.

Ian