I'm with DonM. He very well articulated my feelings about my approach to gigging. I could, and probably should, work on my skills, but my first aim is to pay my bills - I love music and entertaining and these tools allow me to make a living with what I want to do. The quality of the sound and the features of these arranger-boards-modules, along with a decent sound system allows me to compete with the swarming DJ's and Karaoke what-ever-you call-'ums.
Ciao,
Jerry

The intended question, and the existing problem...Do the tools we rely on become crutches?

And from what I see here...they do..

A crutch, is something that we come to rely on..to a point ..we can't do without...at least in our minds...And it does cause us to lose some skills that should be addressed..

I am not or was I knocking our tools..I use them all my self...but we should be aware that they could become too dependent..

As an example ..I always used fake book, and sheet music on my gigs...I didn't need them as much as they were there for confidence....that is a crutch..

About 20 years ago, I forgot all my music/fakebooks, on a gig with my young lady singer..Forced to "just do it"...we had no problems...relaxed and I think the freedom of "no" crutch made the performance better...That was 1990, and I still leave the books home...

I use/need lyrics for any vocals I do...this too I am sure has been a crutch for me.....but unlike reading charts, I cannot remember more than a dozen lyrics to songs I do.....So it will remain a crutch for me..

I more often than not prefer to play left hand bass..and cancel the arranger parts..It doesn't mean I do not like or use the "arranger"..because I do...but I believe, if we do not turn off the auto stuff once in a while...we will lose a skill or two..

I also know that the transpose button is a super feature..I use it too...but if we use it to change the tunes key to our comfort key...guess what, you will soon find you lost or do not have the playing skill you should have to play in all keys...even Db and B...

Great post Fran but sadly DJ's/Karaoke artists/One finger players/Mp3's/Smf's/Loop based creations/backing tracks/& playing in C via transpose/laptops out-rank the difficulty in today's world of learning how to play for real without the "crutches" & its ALL GOOD if it SOUNDS GOOD!

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 05-22-2009).]

That's fine Donny, but there are plenty of us, that should heed Fran's reminder, if nothing more than memorizing music, looking ahead at the lyrics, so as to make I contact, and wean yourself from over embellished acc to allow your left hand to come through.

Bernie reality is reality out there in the gigging world as a full time pro...to survive you need to pull out all the stops & use all the tools and as to what is needed to survive & make a living.....if someone is a weekend warrior only that's a different story. The technology is out there embrace it and prosper....people hand you a check with a smile after a gig is the bottom line.

have a great holiday weekend

I agree with the notion that we can become crutch dependent. Whether its equipment, effects, sheet music, whatever...Almost anything can be defined as a crutch. Mostly, I think its a matter of degree. Too much of almost anything can take away from a performance. If it doesn't get in the way, then its probably not an issue.

I use a Music Pad Pro...I do not memorize anything. Not once did anyone come up and say, "(Damn Bill, you're pretty good but if just got rid of the MPP, then you'd be really great.")

My main group of clients are Retirement Communities. I'm usually entertaining an older audience. My job isn't to give a concert but to stimulate the attendees. I've found a very effective way to really reach them is to provide some contrast within my program. Performing a few upbeat tunes with varying beats then dialing it down, dropping the auto accmp. and playing a nice old love song or a hymn is a great switch. Then coming out of that going into to something with a bigger sound is effective. Variety, even within the context of a single musical style, is almost always good for the performing musician.

On the other hand, the idea that you have to pull out all the stops to survive I think is hyperbole. Can you? Sure....Do you have to utilize everything that available? IMO, No, you do not.

There are members of this forum who can really interact with a smf and sound terrific. There are also plenty of guys who don't touch smf's (yours truly, to name one) and are none the worse for not using them.

I think as time passes, I will have to get more cozy with midi files. The audiences in RC's are getting younger and there's more & more of a demand for songs from the 70's and 80's. Given the construction of the pop music of that era, alot of tunes don't fit a traditional chordal structure. Tunes that use a lot of "lines" if you will just don't transfer well to an arranger as we know them today. That leaves us few choices.

Its going to be a challenge for us arranger based entertainers to keep churning out new stuff as the tastes in music follow the progressions of the 80's...

I think all performers should always be looking for ways to add creativity to their music. Some crutches tend to transport us right to our comfort zone, while others just don't matter...


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Bill in Dayton

[This message has been edited by Bill in Dayton (edited 05-22-2009).]

My main keyboard was and is the organ. Keyboards, synths and arrangers are adjuncts of that skill set, but they are not organs. I've picked up the piano for myself and now enjoy playing it as much as an organ, but I can't do things on the piano that I can do on the organ.

When I said that my keyboard skills support my vocals, I meant that I am no longer just an instrumentalist and not even called upon to be a soloist. I am, most of the time, an accompanist - for myself, a congregation, a choir or another singer. Because of this, my keyboard style is not flashy or full of interesting (cute) fills or arpeggios. I am certainly not a jazz master, although I am good at improvisation.

I feel many of the 'players' here have a style that is more in tune with solo playing. i play just fine, just not fancy and that is why a made the "I'm out" statement that I think Fran was originally referring to. Have I been clear on this? I hope so... it sure got long.

When was the last time any of you got in a band and played much?

Here is something that I don't think the arrangers help much with.. learning how to interact with a REAL band, listening to what's REALLY going on, and not what you think is...

Stopping your arranger for a few songs and playing a solo piano piece doesn't really prepare you for this. And calling playing a bit of a RH melody against a held chord in your LH 'expressing yourself' is a bit of a misnomer. The person that wrote the style, the person that programmed that SMF or the karaoke track is the person 'expressing' themselves You are merely slightly decorating (for good or bad) their work...

Play out more, get in a band, at least for fun, relearn what 'expressing' yourself really means, when you have no ARTIFICIAL crutches anymore, when you play with something that actually listens to YOU (for good or bad!) and alters what it is doing depending on what YOU are playing, and also relearn to adjust to THEIR adjustments...

The only crutch many of us have is thinking that playing with a fake band is really 'playing with a band'. They couldn't be further from each other...

If the individual views their "tool" as a crutch in the negative sense it is....for them only and the way they view others.

Sequencing allowed ANYONE to put in audio form a creation in their heads regardless of whether or not they could actually recreate it live. I don't view that as a negative....I view it as allowing more people to express themselves. Much of todays music is based on loops and sequences no one could play in tempo live...Does that make it irrelevant? I don't think so. The market doesn't think so. Joe piano bar guy does.But he is forced to cover those songs created by people who probably could not hold a stick to him technically.

Like PhotoShop allows for turning a mediocre snapshot with possibilities into a work of art, computers have opened up musical expression for those with little training and just like Arrangers have allowed a keyboard player to play drums and trumpet at the same time!!.

Bill has it right. Again, we're looking at the difference between musicians and entertainers. And we're talking about primary focus and degrees of importance.

We need both entertainers and musicians in this world and most of us have a mix of both skills. A good entertainer assembles a group of tools and does what's necessary to put on a show. A musician (at least one who values skill and musical performance more than entertaining ability) focuses primarily on musical skills, practice, etc.

I'm closer to the "musician" end of the spectrum, not because I make a claim that that is the moral high ground, but because I'm a lousey entertainer.

That's why I have a love-hate relationship with the arranger. It's a tool, but if I were to rely completely one it, I'd be the "tool", at least in my mind.

To keep my head on straight, only about 1/3 of my jobs are on an arranger. The rest are with a trio (either organ and guitar or piano and guitar) or a single on either just piano or guitar.

This keep's my head on straight.

I'm not impressed with many entertainers who are mediocre musicians. That includes some regular contributors here.It's just not something I'm interested in.

But, everyone needs to choose where they are in the entertainer/musician area and work to be the best they can be going down the path they choose.

In my case it's no mp3's or sequences of any kind and playing as much without the aid of arrangers and certain other tools as I can.

That gives me a sense of accomplishment.


Russ