Hi Donny

I do not see where the disagreeement is. Scott obviously does not think the prejudice is justified. I think I remember some of Scott's earlier posts where he used to play in a group or at least with other musicians and was concerned in that context about the image the arranger keyboards have. Anyway, there are going to be gigs that accept arrangers and those that will not. I image once the PSR9000Pro gets around, the latter group will shrink some more.

Scott

On the designer name thing, I would cover all my keyboard brand names--I mean the ones that ask for free advertising on their backs. If Roland, Yamaha, Korg, Kurzweil do not pay you to advertise for them, why do it? I find it distracting to see manufacturers names flashing in my face when I am really interested in the artist and the music.

I Have alot of Drunks and some sober ?? people looking over my shoulder at the screen of the X1 looking at at the words of the songs good fun but when the start to press a feww notes while I'm holding or hoppin on a C chord I get some weird chords -- thankfully I was sufficiently rested last night so enjoy the crack . They are all impressed but I take the original point. We in ireland Have a strong tradition of arrangers (dangerous word here - in some cases "justifying singing a lot of patterned songs re freedom). We however have quite alot of people saying "Sure That Thing will play itself and in reply I turn off the hold button to hold on to my ego best regard Pierce in Ireland.

Hello all,

Oneday, I was performing to group of friends and relatives. They were impressed to say the least. But few started to throw comments like this, "look at the wonderful technologies of how you can get a machine that plays itself without the need of knowing music."

At this point -thankfully I am an excellent acoustic piano player- I turned off the auto-accompaniment and gave them long solo complex piano performance where my both hands were flying left and right...that made those smart-mouth listeners humble a little. *s*

SK880user,

Good going. I'm sure you showed those smart mouthed listeners a thing or two with 'all' of your fingers flying

You hit on exactly my point! I really hate it when people assume that technology has replaced any need for musicianship skills.

What the technology does is provide keyboard musicians with 'more options' like the ability to make live spontaneous changes similar to playing with a live band: spontaneous drum fills, key modulation, ability to throw in chord substitutions, style changes, and adding an extra chorus if the audience is feeling pumped, etc. The technology does "NOT" replace the keyboard skills needed to create professional level music. Yes, one feature of the arranger keyboard allows players of limited keyboard skills (one finger chord) to produce acceptable music, but the higher level of musicianship you possess, the better (and more professional) you will sound. There really IS a difference!

The beauty of the arranger keyboard is that it gives keyboard players of "all" levels the opportunity to make music.

Make music and be happy,


Scott

California (SF Bay Area), USA

As these are the only places I gig now and then, you can also do what I do, as it is afterall amongst friends and family -)

Let the biggest mouth play themselves with the selve playing keyboard , and have some
fun!

Fred

Hi all,

I too demo'd my PSR740 for the wife's family at Christmas. The comment was "look you don't have to do anything it plays itself." At that point I invited my brother-in-law to go ahead and give it a try if it is so easy. He declined. Why is it that if you use a live bass player and drummer you are a musician but if you use an arranger it's karaoke? The real drummer and bass player are playing the parts for you just as the arranger is.

It is only the uninformed who make stupid comments like ones we've all heard.

Regards,

Tom

hey Tom,
I hear ya on the comments. BUT a stupider one is when people won't pay you what you want to play live saying " Why so Much? Your only One Man" but they will pay some "DJ" TWICE as much to play tapes and cd's all night at a Wedding blasting away like crazy!!! Then they complain about the affair and leave early due to the Volume, Type of music especially for the older people, etc. etc. etc. Oh Well, enjoy your ear plugs I tell em :>)

Donny

I am beginning to wonder if some of you good musicians aren't being too defensive. The comments that the keyboard seems to be playing itself may be less of a denigration of your skills than a hope that they (the unskilled) could make music with an arranger keyboard. This type of thinking should be encouraged, first of all, because it is true, and second, it might sell more arranger keyboards, which means more attention to the arranger market by keyboard manufacturers.

The fact is that someone with no musical ability or skills can play a good accompaniment on an arranger keyboard with less than an hour of training. (Just hit C, F, G, in that order, changing chords everytime that blinking light (tempo indicator) indicates a new measure. But once that is accomplished, the neophyte will soon realize how much more the skilled keyboardist can do with an arranger keyboard. So next time someone says your keyboard seems to play itself, encourage them to get their own. Just an opinion.

My thoughts on wedding DJ popularity:
Some audiences want to hear the songs 'exactly' as they remembered it on the original hit record/CD. No matter how much arranger keyboard work goes into emulating the original, we will "never sound exactly" as the original record did anyway (thank goodness!).

I don't like to be negative but the fact is, musical taste and appreciation (in the general population) has dropped dramatically over the years (no support for music programs in the schools, etc). A lot of the public take music for granted, thinking it's like turning on a radio. Easy on, easy off, turn it up, turn it down. I've spent years developing my craft and pour out all my "heart and soul" musically so if all they want is to hear the music exactly like the record,let them go with the DJ or turn on the radio (cheapest way to go). I think this is why most of my gig venues are geared to an older(over 40)audience because they grew up in an age before MTV.

Thanks for letting me vent, I feel much better now.Time to head off for my "appreciative" senior retirement community gig now and get home early too

Make music and be happy,



Scott

I absolutely agree with you.
This is exactly what I am doing,(After I had my fun!)
In fact some of them bought an arranger and even took lessons to read notes!
Hence I never did that.. I even cannot read notes!
I never use one finger chord's by the way, but make the variations of chords with five "fingers" ( I know one is a thumb)
There's no single finger mode I know off , that able's making all major/minor/6th/7th/9th chords etc....
As this was 33 years ago the way I teached myselve playing a piano (transposing chords from my guitar to the piano) the arrangers are the perfect solution for players like me.
I love them!
Fred
whooo this is very very offtopic....