I play solo but prefer to play with other musicians when possible. I can sing alright, but I wouldn't want anyone to have to hear sing for four hours:) Same thing with leads and improvised solos, I like having some variety that another player can bring. I love the flexibility of an arranger KB in that I don't have to play the song the same way every time. If I'm lucky enough to hire a couple of players, we can really stretch the tune by open sections for solos.

Here's some recent gigs I've done with some other players. Totally unrehearsed. Recorded by patrons on their cell phones...

In the first video we are playing at roof top bar in downtown Dallas. The song is called called "Ya Te Olvidaré" which we normally play as a ballad but some dancers requested a salsa. My wife is singing, Manuel Castañeda who has played with some big Tejano acts like Little Joe and La Familia is on sax, my good friend from college Efren Guzman, is on percussion. He plays with several symphonies and jazz groups here in Texas, and has toured and recorded with some major Mexican acts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIfARkPgDiU



Here's we are playing at street party in Plano, Texas. We're doing a Selena song with a reggae feel. My wife is singing, another old college buddy from University of North Texas is playing percussion, same sax player, and my 12 year old daughter is on violin. Sorry about the feedback, it's kind of hard being the sound man and playing keyboards and singing all at the same time, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0SqQq_Dvyc&t=41s

If anyone has some examples or thoughts on playing arranger keyboard with other musicians, please share. Thanks!

Great videos Paul.....It depends how you are going to play with others ...most experiences with an arranger is that other musicians have a difficult time trying to follow a computer driven device like a style depending if it's a drummer, guitar, etc, etc, where you would shut off the drums in a style or whatever,......playing with an arranger kb in a band situation just using it's great sounds can work well also, Piano, organ, strings, guitar, etc,....like you are the keyboard player in a band, etc, an arranger kb is a very flexible instrument although you don't see it used very often in bands on stages all over,....why? who knows?....probably just the "Aura" of it sends subliminal "home player" messages to pro keyboard players etc, etc, ....but we know better right?..

The biggest problem I encountered when playing with a band is tempo. Now, when I played with highly skilled, trained musicians, which was only once a month for a couple years, timing was NEVER a problem. These guys were right on the money, even when the drummer couldn't make it and the keyboard drums were used. They never missed a beat, yet they had incredible style.

As for your singing, this takes time and lots of practice to become a good singer. It doesn't happen overnight, however, you can get some help if you are willing to seek it out. Most community colleges and some regular colleges, offer voice classes, and the course I took was called "Voice And Articulation" really provided me with lots of improvement during that six week course. Everyone said I was a pretty good singer before I took the course, but shortly after, they said I was a great singer, which of course, added to my already inflated ego.

First and foremost, the course teaches you how breathing at the right time makes a huge difference when singing. This is followed by articulation of each and every word. I hear so many amateur singers on stage and TV that slur their words while singing that in some instances I cannot understand a word they sing. This is just awful. Diction is an integral component of vocal quality, both when singing and speaking.

The course also teaches vocal control, which is of paramount importance, again while both singing and speaking. This is right out of the handbook for radio newscasters. Essentially, you learn how and when to place emphasis on certain words, how to end a phrase and when when and how to raise and lower your singing/speaking volume without using a proximity effect of the mic. I learned to do this early on as I was a newscaster for a local radio station and learned from some of the top newscasters in the business. And, this turned out to be highly beneficial when I switched to a headset mic, which I also used in the newsroom.

I had the honor of playing with the Zim Zemarel orchestra when they played some smaller jobs in Baltimore, locations where they brought in six to eight pieces. I played both the keyboard and guitar, using the keyboard mostly as a piano and sometimes the drums. My friends Jerry and Elsa Burns played with Zim at the White House on the south lawn. Jerry said it was the scariest job he ever performed and also the hottest. Everyone in the band was required to wear a black tux, the job was in mid June and the temperature was near 100 degrees with 90 percent humidity. They did 2 solid hours with the full band and back then Elsa was the vocalist. Zim passed away a couple years ago and everyone in this part of the world misses him dearly.

Here's a vid of the orchestra shot during a battle of the bands:



One of the keys to success with singing is using a high quality, hyper-cardiod or super-cardiod mic, one that has good feedback rejection. The next thing you must do is properly set the effects, reverb, delay, echo, EQ, etc... All of these electronic enhancements make a huge difference in your overall vocal quality and you should utilize them to their fullest. The end result is incredible and believe me, the audiences will notice the improvements.

Good Luck,

Gary

I have heard Paul sing on several occasion. Trust me, he doesn't need lessons! He's a great player too and plays drums, keyboards. . . whatever. His wife sings great too, and she is prettier that Paul!

Thanks Don! I do train my voice almost everyday and I can get through a four gig just fine without pain, but I meant it's nice for the audience to have some variety. but If the venue can't afford over $200 then they will get just me....


Also Don M, I know you have posted some real nice stuff with some guitar players. Maybe since your mainly doing private events now, you might want to another player or two?

As far as "locking in" with an with the auto accompaniment, luckily I've worked with musicians that have no timing problems. They do sessions and live shows all the time with clicks and sequences. Recently I did a gig with my prs 950 to my left of a nice Steinway Grand and I hired a really great jazz bassist. I used the drums patterns playing very little and some times the guitar auto accompaniment too.

Drummers (at least the ones that actually study the instrument) are used to playing with a click. Just look at that 13 year Japanese girl drummer that we saw here on Synthozone last week. She had no problems playing along with the track.

Gary, the Jim Z Band sounded great! When you played your keyboard with them were you using any auto accompaniment with them?

Paul, it would be great to work with you. I don't have much booked right now. I'm doing a couple of nights a month at Ernest's and I have a reunion in Oklahoma to do in July. I've been enjoying taking it easy!
I can get to Dallas anytime you need me though!

Yeah you almost never see arranger keyboards used on stage, especially in any kind of band situation. Most of the musicians I've worked with on gigs where I bring in an arranger get a kick out of it. They asked me all sorts of questions, often wondering how I "control the track"
Many times they are surprised that it wasn't a pre programmed track. Arranger KB are a great tool and I'm glad I discovered them right here on SZ! A total game changer for me!

Now that would be great! I actually have done drums/percussion with a fellow keyboardist/ SZ member "Tye" He plays an Audya 5 and as good as those drums sound, some live drums and percussion "on top" help the groove sounded even groovier! Plus I guess the live drum/percussion gives a good stage presence. Maybe it helps with some of naysayers that think we're just doing some sort of karaoke show!

Well someone is too blame for the masses not too know more about arranger keyboards....Why do you think it's more popular as a home instrument versus a pro stage keyboard like synths?

Yeah I wonder too. I can understand big touring acts not needing them because they can afford a complete band.... I think some closed minded musicians just kind of cringe when they think of those supper cheesy auto accompaniment from the past. At least that's the way I thought before I discovered the modern day arranger.

But I do see arranger keyboards in all sorts venues and events when I visit Mexico. I've been told arrangers are found on stages in Europe too. Not sure about Asia and other parts of the world.

A really great keyboardist here in Dallas who was hip to arrangers told me that he thought the reason why they haven't caught on in the States is that Americans musicians love to create. Look at all the US styles that have caught on world wide (Jazz, Rock, County, Blues, Big Band, R&B, rap....) What he meant was if your going to create a groove/style or even a song from scratch. a workstation or other type of platform would probably be the way to go. As great as arranger keyboards are they do of course have their limitations.

You see more arrangers in one block in Mexico than in an entire city in the U.S., as a rule.
I know of only one other guy playing one in the Shreveport metro area. A few years ago there were several, but most have died! One exception I almost forgot. One of the Mexican restaurants uses guys from Mexico quite a bit. They all play arrangers, most of them quite old, such as early Korgs, and PSR 2000s, etc. They usually are just here for a short while and then disappear. Maybe they go back to Mexico? Every one I've seen there has been really good.
There is just nobody promoting them or demonstrating them. I get a lot of people, many of them musicians, who are interested in what I'm doing, but even when I explain it they don't really comprehend. It's very common for someone to ask if I do my own tracks!

Also, I think the general public has come around to enjoy and appreciate a scaled down performance with just guitar or piano and vocal. At least here in my travels here in the States when I go to hear solo and duo acts , it seems pretty rare to hear guys using tracks and drum machines. That seemed to be the norm for years but I think that has been changing, at least in smaller venues that don't have a dance crowd.

So true about Mexico! Some of best arranger players I've met are Mexicans. There is guy in my wife's home town that was a big rock star in the 60's singing Spanish language covers of American Rock N Roll hits, and now he plays on the patio of a chicken joint. He plays an old entry level Yamaha, but he plays and sings so great that you forget he's basically playing a toy. He can sing and play like Nat King Cole and of course he kills the Latin stuff. Nice guy, I invited him to my in laws place and we jammed all day! Another guy I meet, lived just a few doors down from my in - laws. He used a prs 900 and muted the auto bass and played his own parts with pedals. Amazing player! For a few bottles of tequila he taught everything I needed to know about my Tyros. Good times!

I have sold three arrangers to my friend Angel Campos in Mexico. He bought PSR8000, PSR2100 and Korg PA3X. He has a cousin who lives in South Texas and I get them to him and he takes them across the border.
I also sold a PSR 2000 to one of the guys playing at the Mexican Restaurant in Bossier City. He had one that he had worn out and wanted another one just like it!

In my neck of the woods, I’m the only arranger player around that I know of. Most local venues are college bars, with solo or duo acts on guitar doing original material, or small combos playing either blues, or styles that I can’t describe----because I don’t know what it is. Most of the wedding receptions and big events seem to go with large R & B, or funk bands from the bigger cities around. I’ve had good luck adding a great woodwind player, vocalists, and, occasionally, a drummer, none of which have problems with arrangers. It’s nice having a special niche that arrangers can provide, especially for small dinner/private parties, receptions, and the like, where larger bands would be overkill for those particular events.

I've used my Arranger with a band but as just as keyboard doing LH Bass/ Organs & Piano. Also just Organ and Piano with a different band.
No Arranger players here. One band called Ross2, a husband and wife team uses one. The husband just changed to a Yamaha 710 from a BK5 but just uses it for drums which he heavily edits. Along with that he does LH Bass and Piano. The wife uses a Keytar and plays the he** out of it doing guitar, brass, and synth parts. They both sing. My favorite band here.
Keyboards in general are not big here at all.

Paul, when I played with Zim, mostly at a local restaurant in west Baltimore called Kibby's, most of the time I played the keyboard as just a piano, which I'm not very good at, but he thought I was. Most of the time he had a drummer with a minimal rig, but there were times when I used the keyboard styles with most everything nulled out but the drums and one right hand voice. He had a vibe player from the US Navy Band that was absolutely sensational, and IMO, better than Lionel Hampton.

When I was at the Palace Las Americas in Cancun, they had an arranger keyboard player on stage every night at the shows, even when the big bands were performing. He was using a Yamaha, but I never could see the model number, just the name off to one side and it had a black case. I'm thinking it was a PSR-5700, which was a fantastic arranger keyboard when it came out. Just 35 styles and about the same number of voices, but the sounds were fantastic, especially the piano and vibes voices.

Now, I have not heard you sing, but I have heard your wife sing on several occasions. She has a great voice quality and she interacts very well with the audiences. The reason I offered the information about the voice lessons at the colleges, is because at the very first part of your post you said no one would want to hear you sing for four hours. Maybe the would after the lessons - I don't know. When I was in Nashville, I came across a lady that offered articulation and diction courses for up and coming singers. During her career, she worked with a huge number of the nation's top singers and had rave reviews from them all, including Elvis.

All the best,

Gary

I use my arrangers in my band, but can't use auto acomp because only half can keep time with it. To be fair, this is a senior band with hearing issues. However, I am the foundation, as well as major soloist, so the people know full well I am playing, yet when I do my own songs for specials and breaks, many think my KB is a damned jukebox, and all I do is push a song selector button and the rest is Karaoke or MP3. I, sometimes, pull a Gary tutorial for the uninformed, but it is a losing battle, and as long as the audience enjoys my music it remains just a vanity issue.

Exactly Bernie all we are to them is someone who is operating an AUTOMATIC Gizmo that makes some kind of music.....if your a good singer it will OFFSET the stage presence suedo DJ persona giving you a better credibility when they know your singing to some kind of musical background be it playing some kind of instrument, backing tracks, or whatever....
sadly no body cares how it's done,.....as long as you produce music for them to dance, listen, enjoy, they are happy and who can blame them young or old.

Also it helps if the audience can see your hands and you have a good stage presence. Try not to let big binder or laptop block the audiences view of your hands.

No offense taken at all Gary. Even the best singers in the business work with vocal coaches. I was just listening to an old interview with Sinatra and he was talking about his teacher who was an opera singer. Tony Bennett says he studied the Bel Canto technique as a young man and continues to practice those exercises daily.