Exactly what the home entertainment organ players said when they were told home entertainment organs were dying out, however as predicted they became a niche market, just like arrangers will. (You can’t stop progress or how things change with later generations)

Bill

Lets look at this closer, Bill. We still have animal skins stretched over wooden frames (drums), I think guitars have been around for a couple centuries or so, I clearly recall reading about flutes being carved from hollowed out, wooden sticks about the same time man discovered fire. Around 1400-1413 the earliest known S-shaped trumpet was developed, which was later followed by the folded trumpet and slide trumpet. It was out of the slide trumpet that the trombone developed around 1450. The violin, viola, and cello were first made in the early 16th century, in Italy. The earliest evidence for their existence is in paintings by Gaudenzio Ferrari from the 1530s, though Ferrari's instruments had only three strings. Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann is often cited as the inventor of the harmonica in 1821, but other inventors developed similar instruments at the same time. The Greek engineer Ctesibius of Alexandria is credited with inventing the organ in the 3rd century BC. He devised an instrument called the hydraulis, which delivered a wind supply maintained through water pressure to a set of pipes. The hydraulis was played in the arenas of the Roman Empire.

Bill, all of these instruments are still in existence today in one form or another, and will be around long after we are both dead and buried. Same goes for the arranger keyboard. It's just another new, and often exciting, musical instrument. To my knowledge, NO musical instrument has gone by the wayside. And, there are still at least three major retailers in my part of the world that sell those very expensive home organs and they sell a lot of them. Every musical instrument has a niche, with no exceptions. My song loves to play his solid body guitar, though at times he will sit down at the PSR-3000 I gave him and use it for a drum machine while playing the guitar.

Bill, do you still play an arranger keyboard? If so, why?

Cheers,

Gary

Very well described,
And the top model arrangers get a little more flexible and with every update..

ROFLMAO - I needed that!

Nice mix of responses. I read all of them, and....gave thought to all of them.

There is no correct conclusion to ANYTHING discussed that is arranger related. We all see the product from different angles. And THAT is what makes for a healthy discussion.

So, again, you all have something well thought out to add to the brew in this ongoing saga of the arranger keyboard.

But I need to emphasize the qualifier in what I wrote. And that was....

"What will kill off arrangers for people like ME"

I've been playing arrangers since 1980 when they were still in the embryonic stage. I know some of you go back that far too. For those who don't...the styles in those days were simple but well-thought out. They didn't need any "touching up." If you heard a paso-doble style, you'd think you were in Spain at the bullfights, a cha-cha would make you want to get up on your living room floor and tear up the carpet, a Tango just plain breathed fire, a Polka would make you want to put a classified ad in the paper seeking a polka partner, and so on.

Your suggestions about taking a style and modifying it and tweaking it and eventually owning it is correct. MY problem is three-fold: time, time and time! Music branches out in so many directions now you don't know which road to take. I practice piano 1-2 hours every day and there are many a day I say to myself at the start...."what do I work on today?" Walking bass, Jerry Lee Lewis riffs, substitute jazz chords, boogie woogie, learning a new song, and you get my drift I'm sure.

The double whammy for someone like myself is I find in most modern day arrangers, the styles have strayed so much from authenticity that they drain my creativity. They don't inspire me like they used to back then. And you need inspiration to make great music.

It's really too hard to explain. But it IS something I have thought about for quite a while now. Arrangers will always be around but NOT the styles like they had in the old days.

Oh, and one more thing. Even if I DID have the time to tweak a style, I could never get it done as professionally as a good "old school" drummer would....not to mention the bassist, etc

It’s like the chicken and egg. If you don’t put in the time to practice and explore the instruments capabilities, how will you ever know how good it can sound or how realistic you can mimic a bass or drum just like the style makers do ?

As you practice piano sometimes two hours a day how about just adding 20 minutes a day on replicating a drum track or groove ? See how far you get. It doesn’t take long to develop that skill. Then move on to perhaps a simple baseline. See how that locks with the drum pattern that you made. Try and replicate your favourite still from scratch

We always make time for the things we really want . I have never seen that rule broken .

What will kill arrangers as they currently exist is the death of the user base (old fogies) which is inevitably happening. The manufacturers will have to change the product to fit the needs of the younger player. There is some evidence that they understand this when you look at the Genos which is being marketed as a song writing tool with Beth Nielsen Chapman and others. IMO, they will need to make a system of "mix and match" styles using the touch screen to allow the user to very easily create new styles. That would differentiate the arranger from the workstation enough to make it a viable seperate entity.

I sure hope not. In 20 years, my 53 year old son will be an old fogie, same with my 49 year old daughter. What categorizes an old fogie? Old fogies will be around till the end of time. With luck, everyone will eventually become one - I did, though I've been playing an arranger keyboard since I was in my late 40s. For me, it really changed my musical life and I suspect that will be the case with anyone that decides to delve into the inner workings of an arranger keyboard as a serious musician/entertainer.

Up to that point I was a singer/guitar player with a 5 piece country band, we played weekends, mostly at American Legions, Animal clubs, VFWs, etc... None of us made enough money to cover expenses, but we had a lot of fun. There were times when I would pick up the M-Honer for certain songs, the mandolin for others, I tried the fiddle, but was not very good at it.

Along came the arranger keyboard, I tried one out at the local music store, fell in love and never looked back. The rest is history. Now, after 30 plus years, songs still pop into my head and when I finish this breathing treatment and the dizziness wears off, I'll be at the keyboard trying a new rendition of The Nearness Of You. Yep, it's an old song, but I'm going to try a new spin on it. When I finish, I might post it here.

Good luck, from an old fogie,

Gary

I sure hope so Gary! Looking forward to hearing it!
I am on the list of those musicians/entertainers that have played several instruments over many years, and when I played my first arranger, I was in love, and never looked back!!!

Play On!