I was fortunate to have the ULTIMATE band experience ... I started playing music with a few guys in high school - played high school RnR dances, then moved on to college dances ... we added a bass player vocalist and we were together for 26 years, playing weddings and dinner dances ... became best of friends - closer than family - our wives too! ... 25 years ago a business move took me out of NY to RI and the band broke up a year later ... we lost the bass player a year ago, but the rest of us are still close friends ...

Using the arranger I have worked with a player who plays bari, tenor, flute, guitar, and blues harmonica ... and sings! ... I've also worked with a couple of other sax players ... I like the sax addition because it is not loud and brassy like other horns and it fits in well ...

t.

My reasons for using an arranger are very different from your "pro" reasons.

I always liked music. But for various reasons that really don't belong here, (read laziness) I never had the patience and never dedicated the time required to learn to "properly" (eg read notes) play music on any instrument. Thank God I have a good ear.

The first arranger I saw was a Panasonic (if I remember well), model unknown, around 1983. The disovery that this thing could play accompaniments was a revelation.

Next was a Yamaha PSS or early PSR, with about 15 different rhythms, and PCM drums, around 1987.

In 1991, one of the teachers in my vocational college was an "on the side" musician. A denture maker in the day, a musician in the night. Classically trained, (classical singer), he had a superb voice and a Technics KN-600 or something that blew me away. the sound and the realism was better than anything I had ever heard.

2-3 years later I got my Casio.

Why an arranger? For me, it is simply an easy way to play what I like, without having to learn to move my left hand much. 3 finger chords are OK and sometimes I can manage a 7th or two. The right hand plays a recognizable melody and that's it, I am having a good time. I may describe the arranger as the venerable "musical crutch" but that's what it is for me, and I am thankful they were invented. Better to have a wooden leg than no leg at all, right?

Tony, in your first paragraph there I thought you were talking about me. That's pretty much my own scenario right there.

Trident: I never learned to read the dots, either. Like yourself, I have been blessed (or is that cursed?) with a good set of ears. No matter. We all enjoy what we do here, regardless of how we do it.

Edited cos i got Trident's name wrong (oops!)

[This message has been edited by 124 (edited 11-18-2009).]

http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/dro0553l.jpg

Taike

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Bo pen nyang.

So did I - really and truly.

Also Nigel, this post by you - in reply to a rather unfair one in my opinion:

"Originally posted by Nigel:
If you didn't know then you haven't been around here much when Diki and Dnj's childish bickering hijacked numerous threads. 99% of people here are only too aware of what went down and why I gave us all a break from their antics.

And that is not to say that they are both not here ANYMORE. They are just taking a short hiatus from the forum and will be back.

Make sure you are fully aware of the facts before you start accusing me of "stupid" over moderation. Don't go off half cocked without knowing what went on. Many of the problem postings were removed at the time they became a problem.

In the 11 years I have been moderating this forum in this format I have been accused of under moderating a number of times by people that would prefer I was more hardnosed. This is the first time I have been accused of overmoderating. What on earth would make you jump to that conclusion? I always bend over backwards to let you all draw your own lines. It is only in the rare cases that people are incapable of doing that that I need to step in. And even then it is almost always a temporary suspension just to allow cooling off. But of course you already knew it was only temporary as I already said that in the posting you were referring to."


(This post) is yet another fine example of Nigel being articulate, assertive, and yet fair in tone and content.

I don't care if people see this as brown nosing, I honestly and sincerely find Nigel's replies and running of this forum in general, as the most mature I've come acrosss on the internet (I'm a member of at least 6 other forums) and again, I say this with all Sincerity, from my heart.