Let's face it, majority of arranger players are home amateurs, and they'd rather let instrument play by it self then actually learning to play an instrument. For some reason it's easier to learn all of the combinations for two finger chords than taking the same time and learning actual chords. And "transpose" button came out of heaven .
Unfortunately I don't think it will get better, I think it will get worse. We will loose even more features. They will dumb us down even more and we will still like them and we will still buy new keyboards thinking this one will make us a better player.
There is no reason to blame these companies, it's all our fault. Just like with everything else in life.
Unfortunetly, much of this is true!
In my work as a clinician over the years, it was actually rare to find an arranger owner who knew how to edit styles, even the most basic approach...which is why I spent some of my clinic time showing how relatively easy it is to make your own.
Still, the majority of users will prefer to
buy new styles (or try to get them free), and many trade up to a new instrument just to get a few new accompaniments...often styles they could have easily made themselves from the existing styles on their previous instrument.
Those using the instrument like several of our SZ'ers (playing pro on stage) are the
minority...as you say, the arranger buyer is usually a
home player, and, therefore, the instrument is designed to be easy to play, with effortless to obtain (and fairly impressive) results...very few will want to customize, and of those who do, the majority won't stay with it for long (and the hard core tweakers will buy a synth).
That's why I keep going to jam sessions; to keep up the playing skills that don't get used much on the arranger...it's easy to get lazy and let things slide.
However, the arranger (especially one as elaborate as my T4) is still a major tool for my needs...a veritable Swiss Army Knife, in my opinion.
Ian
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