Baritone horn was my 1st instrument . My family did have a piano in the house . I would always tinker on the keys . I have not had any formal piano lessons . I am self taught .I was singing in bands by the age of 14 .
I started paying arranger keyboards back in 1987 .The 1st was a Yamaha PSR70 . I bought a Yamaha X4500 ( pSR4600) to use in a band . Than I bought an MS60 , X1 and soon the SD1 will be sent . Dano

Hi
my first instrument was a guitar. I played in a couple of bands and played with some friends once in a while.
Of course playing guitar all by yourself isn't that much fun, so I bought a Technics KN-100 (?) in the late 80's. Then I bought a picture book with the harmonies and began practicing....
Next was a Technics organ I don't remember the model# . I really liked the idea of having a whole band at my fingertips, ready to play when and what I want.
I had to sell everything when I came to the US and lost completely touch with whats out there. Then I saw a Casio KB in a store and I thought to myself: " maybe a fun little toy to play around with".
Next came a Psr-530, Psr-8000 and of course the Pro
For those of you that I might have lost along the way, I shall recapture: Guitar, Keyboard, Organ, Keyboard.... who Knows?
Eric

I had piano lessons, but then let it slide, then after a few years I got involved in playing in a church music group. I used my Ensoniq SQ1 because it was portable, but unbeknown to me I was slowly programming it to emulate an arranger eg left/right splits, drum patterns. I then acquired a Hammond tonewheel T-500 which got me into chords, then eventually a friend lent me his PSR8000 and I found out what I'd been missing, this put the various pieces of the jigsaw together and was soon followed by the purchase of a PSR740.

It all started in a rural hospital in Mississippi, back before they had all them electric contraptions. I worked the nightshift in a ward for vegetative and comatose patients. The only way to tell if they were having trouble breathing was to go up to each patient, but I was lazy and wanted to spend time picking at my acoustic while the ward was empty at night.

So I came up with the genius idea (At least I thought it was so) of sticking an instrument in each patient's mouth. I put a harmonica in one mouth, a clarinet in another, a slide flute in another, a whistle in another. Then it was easy to tell who was breathing! My supervisor liked the idea so much I got a raise. I would spend the night picking the guitar to the music these patients were making, and I'll tell ya. You never heard music so good!

I wanted to do an act on the road, but my supervisor wouldn't let me take these guys. So I had to develop a one mand band. I played organ pedal with my right foot, a fretless bass with the toes of my left foot, I played an organ with my right hand and electric guitar, Stanley Jordan style, with my left hand. I inserted a marraca into my orifice and when I gyrated, I had some percussion.

I travelled all over the South, made some good money. The only problem was that I was getting headaches from slamming my head against the cymbals.

I went back to the hospital because I missed the music I was making with my comatose friends, but by that time, they had intensive care units and there was a new supervisor. Times change.

My headaches seemed incurable until a voodoo doctor in New Orleans told me about arranger keyboards. I realized I could get all of these sounds just using my fingers. Holy mole! What a miracle!

Beakybird,
Your "Southern fried" story sounded 'finger pickin' good.

I started to play drums in a band when I was in the 9th grade. I was also playing the guitar. While in college, I joined a college band to play the bass guitar. Somewhere down the road, I started to play electronic keyboards. After playing in bands for more than a decade, I loved to have a band at my finger tips than playing alone and turned to arrangers.

Hello,

Still new to this board (this is like my third post).

I started acoustic piano lessons when I was 10 (this was 39 years ago) and after 6 months I could see the direction the lessons were taking me was purely classical. I finally quit because I wanted to play pop music (or whatever passed for pop at the time).

I learned basic chord changes by having someone teach me how to play Cole Porter's, "More", found I could play almost any song I heard using the chords from that same song, and then pretty much figured out the rest from there over the years.

I got into songwriting in 1975, and one of the big things about it is producing an acceptable demo to send out to publishers/producers, etc. Most other writers have demos that sound like records, although at a cost of $250-$300 and produced in professional studios. I could not afford that, yet needed to remain competitive, and finally discovered arranger keyboards.

I went by the local Yamaha store one day where I had bought one of their acoustic pianos a few months prior, and the guy showed me the new PSR5xx line with the latest auto accompaniments. I was blown away, did not know such a thing existed up till then. So I plunked down $550 for a new PSR510 (didn't want the disk drive, what a mistake that was) and I was on my way.

I still have the 510 today, still plays perfectly, still looks new (never left the house), and just got a new 740 a few weeks ago.

Thank God for arranger kbs.


------------------
Regards and Aloha,

Charlie

Might sound silly, but the first instrument I played was a recorder (must have been very young), anyway I didn't really like it and stopped after two years.
A few years later (still very young) I remembered buying a Casio (SA-something) keyboard at a local toy shop.
Years later I bought my first "real" arranger keyboard, a Yamaha. I liked the idea of being able to play so much different instruments.
And that's how I got into playing an arranger keyboard.

- Dragon -

As It's been over 'nine years' since this thread was initiated, thought it worthy of bumping to the top again. Would love to hear from more Sz members on how they got into arranger keyboards. Please tell us your story.

Nice to see you back Scott.
Just a wild guess here...but I think Archivist fits your internet personality.
Like I said...just a wild guess.
Eddie

Oh yeah...my first arranger was a Technics, can't remember the model number. But, I got it for its integrated drums. Looking back, it really was cheesey...but it got the job done for those days.