I get the same pleasure out of every keyboard instrument I play, the key layout is obvioulsy the same ...2 black 3 whites and so on, all the time my fingers are touching that time honoured configuration the instrument is of no real consequence! its the music I produce from my own ability thats important to me not the way the internal electronics of a particular instrument processes the sound.

My Friday night is on an 88 key Yamaha digital slab, and I am starting to really like the job. At first, I missed my rhythms and harmonies ( this thing has only USB! grrrrr ), but I altered my repertoire a little, and changed my mindset alot, and I treat it as a new entity now. I use very litte effect on my mic and this forces me to be more expressive with my voice, and aids in clarity when I speak, which I do more often in a piano-bar setting.

I still discourage singers from sitting in, but I encourage the crowd to join in from their seats as a group. This is a better way to stay in control of the pulse and energy of the room for me.

I don't know if I enjoy it more or less than using the 800, but it's a rewarding job, where I get to sing more intricate story type songs, and I sure don;t miss some of the boring dance tunes that I used to need to play to keep a crowd. Ahhhh, life is good !

The day they come out with an arranger that sounds and plays as good as a real drummer, the day they come out with an arranger that sounds and plays as good as a real bass player, the day they come out with an arranger that sounds and plays as good as a real guitarist...

That's the day I'll go solo and not look back.

In the meantime, any of you that think your arranger DOES sound and play as good as a real musician... I'm sorry, but you just must not have ever played with any good ones

Let's put it this way... Do you think that the keyboard parts in your arrangers styles play better than you? Most of you will probably say 'not'. Sure, they keep good time, but they have no inventiveness, no imagination, and most of the time, can't even do decent voice-leading, yet alone spontaneous reharmonization. And they ALWAYS play it the same way, every time you call up that style...

And yet, some of you are SO happy to play with drum, bass and guitar parts that suffer from exactly the same problem. Most of us can tell an arranger being used in a song as soon as the Intro stops, and the loops begin. That isn't how it is supposed to be. For the arranger to be a viable competition with a real band, not economically but 'musically' (you know, that thing that we musicians are supposed to care about ), a lot of this 'dumb robot' behavior has to be programmed out of the OS's we currently have...

In the meantime, I'll happily keep using arrangers... Got to feed myself, after all But I'll NEVER try to persuade anyone that it is 'better' except in that one area.

MONEY...

Let me rephrase:
The day already came when:
**Using the drum machine got me through jobs that would not allow room or volume for a drum set
**I've been playing my own bass lines for 30 years, as do many legit organists - the arranger bass just frees up part of my brain to be more creative in other ways - presentation, vocals, solos etc
** (Cover your ears, Nigel)
Don't even get me STARTED on guitarists - by far the hardest instrument/player to control in any band I ever worked in.

Give me players that stay in tempo, in key and SOBER ... and I'll rethink some of my solo jobs. The simple fact is: Many poor attitudes were responsible for diminishing band sizes, NOT technology or DJs.

How many times do band members hang out with their girlfriends on break, go to their cars to get high or drunk, take too many liberties with the time clock ... no thanx - in the world of full time music, which I am no longer a slave to, the smaller and tighter the ensemble = the MORE work. It's simple math.



I do love good players, but I hate trying to deal with attitudes, egos and drama on stage, and I have never been in a band that wasn't LOADED with all three. Since I went solo, the bills got paid, the clients got satisfied, and the music industry got a little bit richer.

I'll be the first to admit - yes!

So, playing in a band means dealing with people who are:
Unreliable
egotists,
drunks,
womanizers,
lazy,
too loud,
unable to keep tempo,
unable to learn new material,
too expensive,
have I missed anything?

Only the arranger keyboardist has somehow escaped/surmounted all these human faults that plague the ordinary unwashed musician.
But even they, the arranger keyboardists, aren't flawless. Nay! Their shortcoming: sanctimonious self-righteousness regarding how much better they sound than a live band; how much more professional and entertaining, the unnecessary burdens other musicians are.

I think I've about summed it up, yes? Slight hyperbole perhaps to make a point, but not so far off in premise.

Unable to sing harmony parts correctly
Unreliable equipment
Never has anywhere to hold practices
Quits at the drop of that hat

Lets not forget years ago pre computer age there wasn't any arrangers.....so bands were the norm. Not so today...too many alternatives for the talented KB player.

Just my opinion, but I don't consider an arranger keyboard an alternative for a TALENTED KB player. In fact, just the opposite. Before you lash back, think about it.

chas

I LOVE a good band, but I'd rather hear and watch a good soloist rather than a bad band. In my experience, there are more mediocre bands working than mediocre solo KB/vocalists.