From how few local young bands even have ANY kind of keyboard player that I've seen in my area, I'd have to say the average age of ALL keyboard players is going up, here in the US!

Sometimes one of the guitarists will have a little 37 note arp player or something like that for a few songs, but I've definitely noticed a downward trend in keyboard playing. Good news for me, of course! I'll still be playing in bands until I croak at this rate, with no-one to replace me and push me aside!

Guess every cloud has a silver lining!

Its not a downward trend per say to the elders....its really that there are so many MORE CHOICES for younger people to make music versus what we had which was essentially take lessons and learn how to play an instrument of your choice.....today its What? take lessons?...thats too hard dad.......I'll run down the Guitar center and buy some DJ gear and pump out some club music to a level beyond any human ears can withstand or heck I'll go make a few bucks down at the local gin mill on wendneday nights with my karaoke machine yeah!! Additionally the kind of music younger people like is very difficult to do on an arranger KB...why? because they weren't made on an arranger KB and instead they want to use the right tools for the job...cant blame them for that....with ALL the different types of music out there today and when the whole world listened to basically the same thing is sadly
now-a-days just a memory. Find your musical Niche and enjoy it your whole life.

I sure wish we could encourage more young people here in US to use arrangers...what Fun tey are!
And they ae good for any genre of music..not just 'home on the range'!
The schools would be a great place to start.

Too late Lee the ball has been dropped about 35 years ago on that idea.....too late now ....what will be will be embrace it jump on-board the "Que Sera, Sera" Train and enjoy the view .....we're doomed!!!....watch the news sometime ...it's nuts out there....sad but true.

Sit down at your KB, put your headphones on and
"Make The World go Away"

I'm so disgusted now ....gonna go to Atlantic City Casinos and enjoy life tonight !

That's encouraging to hear, guys. I'm 67 and bought my first arranger (a Roland E38) 12 years ago, so I was in the throes of youth at that point.

(Edited to say that I was replying to Bachus, Ian and Gunnar Jonny.)

I'm 61, and I started using an arranger for playing gigs around 1983 or so...it was a Yamaha PS-55.

That would make it around 28 years ago, which would put me at 33, fairly young for an arranger buyer...I was very interested in them a few years before that, but they weren't quite adequate with which to do a gig...the PS-55 had PCM drums, which were very realistic, although there was no On-Bass (for slash chords) and the right hand sounds were still analog....I remember it a very nice organ sound (with a neat symphonic effect, something like a B-3's chorus-vibrato), and a really expressive French accordion...pianos were mushy, and the strings were...er...rather "stringy".. Most of the sounds weren't realistic versions of their name-sakes, but they were very pleasant to listen to.

The styles were basic and fairly usable...I think they numbered a staggering 16!

Man, compare that to a new Tyros4 or Korg PA3X..."You've come a long way, baby!"

Ian

I guess it just goes to show... Learn guitar and you can get laid, learn keyboards, and it's the '50 Year Old Virgin'...!

I know that's an exaggeration, but before we lay it ALL at the feet of karaoke machines and DJ gear, remember that there appears to be NO shortage of young guitarists, drummers and bassists.

Oh, hang on! Maybe THAT is why there are so few young arranger players?



(There wasn't an emoticon for bass player, so I used the next best thing!)

This is not a scientific study, but take a poll of WHO works more among:
1)keyboardists
2)guitarists
3)bassists &
4)drummers

Solo, bands, whatever - #1 will be employed more than the other 3 combined in today's market. Sad, but I believe it to be true.

Well, I don't know where you've been playing keyboards, my friend...

Ian

It was different when I was younger, Ian. Keyboard players were rock GODS! Ian Lord, Keith Emmerson, Rick Wakeman, Billy Joel, Jerry Lee Lewis, none of us had problems back then!

But can you point to a 'sexy' male keyboard player dominating the charts any more? Can you even name ONE keyboard player in a chart band of today's kid's age?

Kids take after what they see NOW, not how things used to be, or they'd ALL be playing piano like Liszt or Chopin (the rock gods of their day!), or Lord and Emmerson.