what does a schlager stand for

It's the way you pronounce "Lager" as in beer, when you've had one too many! Gimme one more Schlager.

All kidding put aside here's what it is:
Schlager (German Schlager, literally "a hit") is a style of popular music that is prevalent in northern Europe, in particular Germany.
It is characterised by sweet, overly sentimental ballads with a simple and memorable melody.

[This message has been edited by Stephenm52 (edited 10-14-2005).]

Hi

"schlager" is the German word for something who is popular among the public,
i.e. songs or melodies or also other things who is grown to be a "hit" or
among the "Top of The Pops" at date or earlier on.
Also others things may be speaked about as a "schlager", such as popular
clothes or things.
Nowadays I hear the young ones say "hot" or "digg" about things we use to
say was/is "in".

Happy Playing
GJ

Schlager: According to contex used it can mean;Pop song,Hit Song,Vocal, Or just Hit.
Regards Gilbert.

That description sounds alot like Country & Wetern. - Scott

So a schlager, in front of polka or 6-8, would mean euro or german popular polka/6-8

Yes, that's right. And those kind of styles are very popular in Germany and countries in that area. Irish people have theyr sort of songs & music when at the pub taste the beer, so has the Germans and many others
Cheers.
GJ

I just wish that manufacturers would 'tailor' their styles more regionally. European arranger users (except UK, perhaps) are going to use the Schlager styles extensively, whereas, in the States, it's unlikely that you'd EVER use one of these.

HipHop, R&B and Country rule over here, but perhaps less so in Europe. I feel that arrangers would lose much of their 'Mom and Pop' image in the States if they would pack their keyboards with young, 'hip' styles (you can still load 'em up with schlagers if you NEED them!).

Fantoms and Tritons are flying off the shelves, mostly because they have little triggered loops of hiphop and techno styles. Anyone remember the Yamaha DJX series? Massively popular because of the rap and hiphop beats inside.

When are the 'big three' going to realize that their arrangers are more capable of this than the Tritons, etc.? Just load a PA1X or a G70 up with just HipHop and dance styles, rename it the 'Xtreme Beat Machine'(!) and watch the fur fly!

The big three have extremely capable voicing programmers for their Workstation lines - time to let them loose on the arrangers!

Hehe, guess that rules just as much "over here" too, and a "schlager" might be old as new, depend on how popular the song/melody was or is at the time it top the lists

Yeah, keyboard have onboard a set of "world wide" stylecollection, and happy us, it's possible to add and change those as we desire. (Myself I don't use much of the BigBand stuff who seems to be so poular (sclagers?) in USA)
That's good, is'nt it, then people in all ages can do just as they want, regardless to what taste and where from.

Happy Playing.
GJ

Well, EUROPEAN is a big word. Music varies a lot across the this part of the world. Although "Schlager" can mean "popular song" or something like that, it has a certain feel and arrangement that can be discribed as German popular music. Also in Holland, where I come from, this kind of music has fans, but it is in no way as popular on the radio for instance as in Germany.
Dutch radio is mostly English and American music and if the Dutch write their own music, even the lyrics are in English. In France that is different again.

I like hiphop, funk, R&B and Jazz. However, if I would take my keyboard to play in public places in my country, most people wouldn't like it. Jazz is not very popular in Holland. Most people don't know the Jazz standards anymore, largely due to politicians, who interfere with broadcasting (It almost sounds like Holland is a communist country, but it isn't - it is rather complicated to explain how it works in my country)
Fact is that because of this meddlesomeness by politicians, the programming changed very much over the years and I have seen Jazz, Country and some other music styles disappear from the air completely on the Public Radio. Commercial radiostations took over (after they were finally granted permission by our government to broadcast) but only people who like that kind of music listen to it. http://www.nederland.fm
Most stations are commercial. Only Radio 1, Radio 2, 3FM, Radio 4 and 747AM are Public radiostations. I often listen to Juize FM and Arrow 90.7 FM
Back to the Arranger keyboardplayer: I think that in my country you wouldn't make a dime by playing only Jazz, Hiphop and dance. If I want to perform with that kind of music I had better buy a DJ-set.

I wouldn't mind having more musical tools on the arrangers. But if there was more demand, those arrangers would be on the market. It is not for nothing that you have different keyboards. A lot of people who buy
the Korg Triton etc. wouldn't appreciate the styles that are in the keyboards like the PSR3000, so why pay for it?


------------------
drdalet

Hi,
I would have been lucky to have used 20% of the styles I had in my keyboards. Didn't stop me from collecting extra styles though, became a bit of an addiction.
I swapped over to a software arranger( OMB )now I just fix up and load the styles I want to use.

It's a pity keyboard manufacturers haven't come up with a design that would allow you to load banks of styles that you want , be it jazz, country etc and sounds to suit these styles ( again , there were many sounds that I never used in the keyboards) instead of having this " one size fits all" approch to keyboards.

best wishes
Rikki

where's Sheriff?
he can surely Know, he is German

My comments were based around the fact that, compared to Europe, arrangers sell poorly in the States. Workstations are king, over here. I would like to see that change.

I believe that until arrangers hit the shelves in the States loaded with the same kind of beats that are selling the workstations, they will always be relegated to being the 'poor' cousin, only fit for Mom and Pop's living room. This is a waste of a very intelligent keyboard design. I usually find that any of the top arrangers makes a FAR better gig machine than most workstations.

Faster to setup, faster to find good, appropriate sounds on the gig, and capable of going from being part of the band all the way to being the ENTIRE band on-the-fly....... something that no workstation can do (I own Kurzweil and Ensoniq workstations and ALWAYS prefer to take my G70 out if I can't have a at least a week of setup time for all the patches).

But boy! Do I have to be careful no-one hears any songs using the Beer-Hall styles or I'm laughed out of the gig!! I am just fed up with 80% of the internal styles being useless in the USA (unless you are playing old folks homes or Wisconsin! - just kidding!), but hold down one finger on a Triton or Motif or Fantom, and suddenly you are hip, phatt and phunky.

This is nothing against European styles......... whatever works for you is OK, but you would probably be pi**ed if the arranger of your choice came loaded mostly with Enkas and Keroncongs and had no schlagers!

I'm telling you............ first one out of the gate with a Hip-Hop biased arranger is going to CLEAN UP!! (In the USA, at least!!)

Dont kid yourself the Mom & Pop dance music scene is a major force to be reconed with