Clinics are set up at the local store in town...I bring in a Tyros, PSR-S-series, and sometimes use a CVP that is in store stock.

The instrument's displays are put up on a larger screen, and questions on the instruments are invited, and I usually give a style editing tutorial.

Demos are usually just me playing and showcasing features, a bit like what Martin Harris does (although he plays much better than I) on YouTube.

I generally have a singer or two present to showcase the vocal harmony...sometimes it turns into a Karaoke session for a while...it's all presented with humor, detail and fun...fun being the most important aspect.

Sometimes we'll combine the two with the clinic following the demo, and sometimes we set everything up in a church hall, or auditorium to show how the Stagepas perform.

I was trained many years ago by Claude Dupras when we were still selling Electone, and I modified the format for arranger keyboards.

Ian

PS...I should mention I spend an evening with the staff, or the keyboard persons, and we go through demo techniques...lots of times I learn quite a bit from them.





[This message has been edited by ianmcnll (edited 09-22-2010).]

Ah...Marketing....you go to the shop to assist in selling instruments.

OK, I see...and that is great as it does sell instruments.

After listening to your work over the last few years and your detailed knowledge...it's no wander that Yamaha sells lots up there in your neck of the woods.

If you were doing the same using Korg PA's there would be lot's of sales of those.

The Clinics are what is MISSING most places, and when the stores here stopped doing them with organs...that was the end of the era.

How many people typiclly show up?
What age group?

Lee S.

Lee,

Most of the independent and chain music stores in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. put on clinics for every type and brand of instrument made. I've seen advertisements for drum clinics, guitar clinics, keyboard clinics, you name the instrument, and there has been an in-store clinic put on during the past couple years. And, in every case, there's usually a pro player that is sponsored by a manufacturer.

The clinics usually feature not only demonstrations of how a particular instrument performs, but additionally, technical tips that often apply to any brand. I saw a guy in a local music store showing young brass players how to properly clean their instruments without damaging the pads. He also demonstrated the proper way to install reeds and showed them ways to check valve contact with the valve seats.

Guitar clinics are very frequent in this part of the world--often once a month. Martin, Fender, Yamaha and others put on incredible in-store demonstrations showing proper ways to tune guitars so they didn't go out of tune so often, ways to protect strings from corrosion, neck adjustment, you name it.

Lots of younger folks attending, and sometimes they're accompanied by some old farts like me. I think the reason they bring the old farts, though, is because they are the ones with the money.

Cheers,

Gary

Yes, I suppose it is "marketing", but it sure is fun, it generates a lot of interest...even the "other" brand arrangers being sold in the store benefit.

The sales staff get a good idea how to showcase an arranger, and many times, I have learned more than a few tricks from them.

I did the same type work for Roland using the E-series, especially the E-70...I met Luigi Bruti, who was doing the launch of the E-70...he is a fantastic accordion player, and he even had an accordion midi'd to the E-70...Flight of the Bumblebee was one of his demo tunes, if I recall. Awesome!

He may still work for them.

Clinics usually attract about 25-50 people, mostly between the ages of 40 and 70, although there are sometimes quite a few outside that range.

Clients are generally retired, good pensions, former players (accordion, organ, synth, piano) and are generally advanced home players wanting something to do to enjoy their spare time.

I also get quite a few guitar players, usually pros, that want a midi orchestra, but want to make their own SMF...a few are song writers, and the styles really help doing quick, but full, demos.

One guy I sold an S910 to last year, is a fiddle player.

I do the four Atlantic provinces.

I have never played a Korg arranger...well, to be fair, I did play one of the old 61 key I-series many years ago...I remember it had a great sax sound, and the styles could be re-voiced very quickly...you could have a rock band doing a big band style, for instance.

Generating interest, good presentation and follow-up is what sells arrangers.

Ian

Finally...

Got little to do with sound, capability, and size...

When 'generating interest, good presentation and follow-up' was applied to home organs, the same kinds of people happily bought 600 lbs. behemoths that NEVER got moved. When it is applied to 'piano-based arrangers' (your definition, not mine!), people are happy to play big heavy 88-based arrangers.

In YOUR area, it is being applied so 61 note arrangers, but, with your talent, if it was being applied to just about any OTHER variant of keyboard, you would be saying whatever you sold was the OBVIOUS thing that company should be making...

I am sure you could sell refrigerators to the Inuit, but that wouldn't necessarily prove that that's what they NEED the most!

Harp all you like Diki...they ain't makin' a 76 note TOTL arranger.

Ian

And aren't you ECSTATIC about that, Ian..?!

Careful, that lack of empathy is starting to show...

Not really Diki, but I am serene.

I go with the flow, one day at a time.

I know you're having a difficult time accepting Yamaha's decision to remain at 5 octaves, and I am sympathetic, but I am also realistic, and I hope you realize that no amount of your hooping and hollering, or badgering will change the company's policy or direction.

If you must do some soapboxing, why not start a campaign to force Roland into making a replacement for the elderly G-70?

You, by your own admission, aren't exactly enamored with Yamaha's smooth detailed sound, so why not crusade the company whose arrangers you like and support?

It's simply awful seeing you so frustrated over a company whose products you don't even like.

Peace,

Ian

Wrong, on so many counts, Ian...

I have long told you that there is much I admire about Yamaha arrangers, and that its' sound would be the perfect compliment to certain types of gigs, that SA2 technology is amazing, Mega Voices raise the bar for style accuracy, Guitar NTT's make strummed and picked parts way more realistic, and the list goes on and on.

I have also said many times I would buy an S910 76 in a flash... I don't get where you think I am so anti-Yamaha. If I wouldn't buy one even if they DID make a 76, I certainly wouldn't go through this painful process with you...

There is no-one at Roland posting publicly on any forum about arrangers that I know about, or trust me, he would be getting the FULL benefit of my writing! But you have chosen to be the public apologist for Yamaha Corporation, so you get the benefits that accrue with that mantle.

I guess the difference between us is that, if there were something that you wanted Roland Corp. to do, and it didn't impact what I needed from them, I would join in and AGREE with you, and be as frustrated that your needs were being ignored. I have NEVER felt that everything Roland do is just peachy perfect, and anyone wanting something they don't do is an idiot. I get that impression from you constantly...

I might also add that before ANY new feature is added to an arranger, there is someone crying out for that feature, and there is someone else saying that feature is totally unnecessary. But AFTER that feature is added, mysteriously, its' detractors suddenly turn out to be not NEARLY so concerned about it. In fact, many adopt it enthusiastically...

The squeaky wheel gets the grease, the mouse gets eaten by the owl. I know you are getting frustrated by my single-minded emphasis on this issue, but has it ever occurred to you that your rabid defense of the defenseless position is what perpetuates this discussion..? By positioning yourself as the Yamaha apologist and defender of the faith, you automatically make yourself the target of whoever has issues with Yamaha's illogical decision to ignore this market segment, or any other Yamaha niggles, to be honest.

But, were you simply to show some sympathy, some empathy, and leave excusing Yamaha's policies to Yamaha, this back and forth would have quit ages ago. You'd like to see a newer, better G series, I'd like to see a newer, better G series... not really all that much to get worked up about. But were I to take you to task for wanting something Roland are not doing, and coming up with transparently false 'reasons' to justify their actions (all the while, you know I don't REALLY have any inside knowledge anyway), and that might be a recipe for the same thing going on here.

While Yamaha continue to make 76 arrangers, but refuse to allow their TOTL technology to be used by them, I guarantee I will continue to berate them for doing this. And I am doing so because I WANT ONE!

Good luck.

Ian