Hi folks,

Has anyone here had any experience or seen an arranger KB player using a live drummer? I’m mainly talking about the keyboardist using auto accompaniment styles while playing with a live drummer.

In particular I’m curious as to if you muted the drum track or keep the drum track on and have the live drummer play on top of it? Did you send a click to the live drummer? How about monitoring?

Thoughts?

Years ago I did have a part time duo with an Arranger kb muted drum track and live drummer & this was with a few different ones, ...it was a nightmare, too slow, too fast, behind the beat, fills were off, endings, etc, etc, ... even with a click track, ...no human can compete with the clock of an automated computerized arranger kb drummer as in an arranger keyboard it just doesn't sync correctly and there are always problems, I get douche`chills just thinking of those times YIKES!! ....now playing with a live percussionist with an arranger kb is great and works very well..

Donny is right. A good percussionist "sweetens" things and makes the whole process much more enjoyable.

That being said, mot "live" performances have lots of tracks going on. Look at the drummer. Sometimes he's hitting his bass drum and double the notes are coming out. Or, he's carefully watching a red light by his throne, and has earphones on.

Same thing...just takes tons of practice. Wouldn't be worth the time for a OMB, but would probably work on a Taylor Swift tour.

R.

Yeah, I almost always work with a percussionist for Latin events. No problems what so ever... We do have a big event coming up and the club requested mostly
norteña and banda . Both styles use drum set rather than Latin percussion.
Anyways the percussionist I normally use also is a drummer. He’s toured and recorded with many top acts, is very experienced with playing to tracks ...
Anyways we’re going to rehearse before the gig to see if it works with the drum set.

I have on a couple of occasions and it worked well ...
I muted the drums and panned the bass to one side and placed a monitor next to the drummer ... The drummers were good and well experienced, and one - who was about 17 years young at the time - was excellent and later toured with Donald Fagan before Walter Becker passed away ...
As your percussionist knows your music, I don't think it will be a problem ...

Thanks for the positivity Tony! It sounds like you’ve worked some great drummers with impressive credentials! My percussionist/drummer buddy is a University of North Texas grad and was a member of their top jazz band the One O’ Clock Lab Band. He’s toured with Luis Miguel, Alejandra Guzman, Gloria Trevi and other big Latin acts. He’s equally good on Latin Percussuon, all styles of drum set, and orchestral percussion. He plays really great piano too. He’s very humble for such a musical virtuoso !

I used a drummer only once, never do it again. The drummer could not stay with the keyboard. As Russ says, a drummer adds to a song. He picks up the tempo and slows it down ever so slightly; it is not even noticeable. His volume changes accordingly. He is being asked to follow a beat instead of creating a beat; not fair to put that on a drummer.

When I was playing a single, I added electronic drums to my singing and guitar playing. It was almost impossible to add any feeling to the song. I was not leading; I was following. And here lies one of the major reasons for musician’s dislike of arranger keyboards.

I use a keyboard because have no other choice. What bothers me is that I am beginning to feel it sounds good. But inside of me I know I have lost something when I stopped playing with a live band.

Today I have come to love my arranger keyboard; it is the only way I can have a band surrounding me. My love has gone from freedom to express what I feel to creating what I feel sounds good.
This is not as bad as it seems, many are doing the same thing in other areas.

I love my keyboard, I love music, and I am contented a greater part of the time.

John C.
PS, I used a bass player once, that turned out pretty good.

Over the years I've had two occasions to play arranger with a live drummer. Once was awful for reasons stated above. The other time the drummer was excellent and stayed with my "bass player" perfectly. It was actually a fun night.
The first time was at an animal club in Texas where the manager asked me if I would let one of the members play with me for a while. I said sure if he's at least fairly good. Had to idea he was a drummer until he started dragging in drums. The only way I was able to make it work at all was to use my arranger drums and let him just fill in when he could.
The second time was at Ernest's. At that time I was alternating with another guy who played portable organ, left hand bass and right hand organ sounds, and used a drummer and sometimes a horn player. One night he got sick and couldn't come so they called and asked me to fill in. I didn't know the drummer wanted to play with me until I got there. No problem though, I just muted the drums and it worked great.
It all depends on the ability of the drummer to handle it.

ABSOLUTELY !!!

Hi - I have played with a live drummer (and bass and guitar) using my arranger keyboard - but I always have the styles OFF when doing so. In my solo and duo situations, I use the styles extensively. So for the "full band" situation (with drummer) I'm really using the keyboard as a keyboard only, no styles. I've occasionally (at a jam or practice) turned on the Style, to show the band a new song for example, and had the drummer drum along to it. It was OK but either he had to play quiet and let the style "lead", or it wouldn't have worked. I don't think I'd try it live (in public) w/o a lot of practice with the drummer.

I've been on a lot of cruises, and many times the big shows on the cruise ships have a 5-6-7 or so piece band, and for some very intricate shows, they have pre-recorded tracks playing also. I assume the drummer has a click as he's wearing headphone or in-ears. I also assume that the drummer has to be REALLY good at, and well-rehearsed at, following a click. For those shows, it is spot-on, very good quality, so the drummer has to be really good and very experienced at this kind of scenario. A casual drummer that has never done this before, would (probably) have trouble staying with an Arranger keyboard which is playing drums/styles. (just my thoughts) ...

Jim