I have posted this in the bar but it was suggested that I move it to here so here it is.

Ok I now play piano but I am thinking of moving back into playing arrangers and I have what might be a subjective question.

I come from a self taught background of arranger playing where you plonk down 3 4 or a 5note chord with the left hand and then only move your hand when the chord changes I know that this is the easy way to play and I am now interested in how do you play your arranger.

Do you program the left hand chords then play lh and ph parts over the top. Do you inprov a bass part etc.

many thanks

tris

born2die,

“I come from a self taught background of arranger playing where you plunk down 3 4 or a 5note chord with the left hand and then only move your hand when the chord changes I know that this is the easy way to play and I am now interested in how do you play your arranger”.

I feel what you have written above is one the more difficult ways to p[lay the keyboard.

I always use an instrument sound with my left hand. The left hand complements the right hand – Guitar in the left hand sometime strumming while the right has a flute. Strings with my left hand, Violin with my right.
Brass with my left hand, A sax section with my right.

This is organ type playing, it adds more of you to that playing. There are times when I use the left hand to back my singing leaving the right hand for fills.

IMHO, John C.

Tris -

I prefer to play left hand chords and use the arranger band that accompanies it. If you keep progressing on chord theory, you will find ways to use your right hand to make the sound very full. IMO the "band" offers enough versatility and fullness to make the song complete. Your imagination is the road to success. I'd say continue on as you're doing

zuki

I play like John C. I find that I can use left hand sounds like brass eg, to go with say, saxes, to make the style closer to the original song I am playing.
Bernie

I play piano to begin with so I simply play a piano or organ or combination thereof (elect wi strings, etc.) and just play like I'm playing a piano with full scanning and the keyboard recognizes and does chord changes... of course I lead praise and worship so I'm singing for the most part... no need for lead except an occasional piano or organ solo...

Jeff

I play the entire chord structure with my RIGHT hand as if there were no other players in the band. If I use the arranger, I thin out redundant parts and still play the entire chord/melody with the RH. Much of the night I use a manual left hand bass tone and no arranger. This way I am ALWAYS in control of the chords, passing tones, alternate bass lines etc. The arranger is in the background, where it belongs.

as a Jazz-oriented player, I'm using an arranger differently
from most: I'm muting everything but bass and drums
exept when i want to add some spice by having some brief
guitar strumming on a bossa nova or brass riffs on a swing style, or a little bit more of the full arrangement
(rarely all of it) for a funky blues or 50's oldie or latin
salsa /mambo etc..but just for spice, I never do 2 tunes
in a row with fuller backgrounds, makes me feel kind of
like i am 'canned"..that's why I don't use smf's either.

sometimes i'll mute the bass too and play a lh bass
line of my own. i never use the muted left hand and hold
down a chord. i always have the full kb working. If I'm
using a rh sound that it makes no sense to have across
the full kb (muted tpt, flute, etc.) I'll put a piano or rhodes
or guitar or organ sound in the left hand. never strings in
lh, i prefer to layer the strings over piano or others, not
have it leftside.

I find putting the bass on inversion all the time results in
a better harmonic bass line for me, maybe because my
voicings are instinctive and not always conventional. I also
find i get better results when I set the chord recognition to
full kb rather than just left of the split point. one of the
drawbacks to this is my kb's won't play ensemble in the
right hand unless the recognition is not full kb.

i never say i'm a 1-man band. i say I play keys w/rhythms
(plus vocals and sax) or 1-man jazz trio for certain gigs.

Obviously, my approach is not going to work for those
who want to duplicate hit tunes as close to the original
as possible, or want to sound like a full band all the time
------------------
Miami Mo

[This message has been edited by keysvocalssax (edited 05-27-2007).]