|
|
|
|
|
|
#481307 - 11/21/19 05:58 AM
Is an Arranger Keyboard a Musical Instrument?
|
Senior Member
Registered: 07/21/05
Posts: 5386
Loc: English Riviera, UK
|
I was pondering the other day (And things have a habit of just popping into my head) as to what makes something a musical instrument, and I came to the conclusion that it is something that can be played by someone and that produces its own sound, E.G: An Oboe has its own sound, a piano (Whether acoustic or electric) has its own sound, an organ has its own sound, (Pipe or electronic) a drum kit has its own sound, a synth has its own sound (An FM synth has a different sound to a Wavetable synth and so on) etc., etc. but what does an arranger keyboard produce of its own, yes it can emulate many instruments and allow the player to arrange them as they see fit, but it produces nothing of its own, so is it a musical instrument or something completely different? and if it is different, is there any point in comparing an arranger keyboard to a real musical instrument. Look forward to uses (And anyone else) views on this, as I am in 2 minds about it.
Bill
_________________________
English Riviera: Live entertainment, Real Ale, Great Scenery, Great Beaches, why would anyone want to live anywhere else (I�m definitely staying put).
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
#481314 - 11/21/19 06:26 AM
Re: Is an Arranger Keyboard a Musical Instrument?
[Re: Dnj]
|
Senior Member
Registered: 09/21/00
Posts: 43703
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
#481318 - 11/21/19 06:43 AM
Re: Is an Arranger Keyboard a Musical Instrument?
[Re: abacus]
|
Senior Member
Registered: 07/21/05
Posts: 5386
Loc: English Riviera, UK
|
The question is What sound does an arranger keyboard produce of it's own that is not a copy of something else, other instruments have their own sound and are not copy's of other instruments, so what is the arranger keyboard sound, we all know what a piano is, an organ is, an Oboe is etc. but what is the unique sound of an arranger keyboard that is not a copy.
Bill
_________________________
English Riviera: Live entertainment, Real Ale, Great Scenery, Great Beaches, why would anyone want to live anywhere else (I�m definitely staying put).
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
#481335 - 11/21/19 08:12 AM
Re: Is an Arranger Keyboard a Musical Instrument?
[Re: abacus]
|
Senior Member
Registered: 03/02/06
Posts: 7143
|
The question is What sound does an arranger keyboard produce of it's own that is not a copy of something else, other instruments have their own sound and are not copy's of other instruments, so what is the arranger keyboard sound, we all know what a piano is, an organ is, an Oboe is etc. but what is the unique sound of an arranger keyboard that is not a copy.
Bill Any sound you create with the on board edditors... You can go really crazy on some arrangers like the pa4x where it comes to creating your own sounds... even the Genos is okay for that... The same discussion could be about todays organs and stage piano’s .. The power of an arranger keys these days, is that its a synth, which allows you to create both authentic sounds, as well as emulating sounds... If you want to cattegorise all the above instruments, they are synths. Which means an instrument that allows you to create your own sound... hench, synthesis.
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
#481343 - 11/21/19 09:13 AM
Re: Is an Arranger Keyboard a Musical Instrument?
[Re: abacus]
|
Senior Member
Registered: 12/01/99
Posts: 12800
Loc: Penn Yan, NY
|
(disclaimer: no wikipedia used - posted actual memory) When I was studying music (at Temple in Philly) in the 70s, they taught us that there were 4 groups of "instruments". They were: Percussion - things that need to be struck to make sound (piano is part of this group) Woodwind - things that use wood to manipulate air to produce sound (early flutes were made of wood, so they are in this group) Brass - things that use brass to manipulate, and amplify air to produce sound, and Strings - obvious description. My first question was ... "What about a Hammond organ?" Is that NOT an instrument? The books at the time all said no, because it didn't move air. The tone wheels use electricity to spin, and create a sine wave that is sent to an amplifier, and the "sound" comes from a speaker, thereby not creating the tone, itself. Without a speaker, and amplifier, it is not capable of moving air. Early pump organs, may complicate this argument, but the simple truth was - in order to pass that course, I needed to say that there were only 4 groups of musical instruments. I wonder what they are teaching today's music students? With all the cyber, and virtual sonic choices we have - what's real, and what's "memorex?" (there's an OLD memory, huh?) Food for thought.
_________________________
No longer monitoring this forum. Please visit www.daveboydmusic.com for contact info
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
#481383 - 11/21/19 01:58 PM
Re: Is an Arranger Keyboard a Musical Instrument?
[Re: saxxman]
|
Senior Member
Registered: 12/15/99
Posts: 2029
Loc: Ventura, Ca, USA
|
According to Wikipedia...”A musical instrument is an instrument created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument”. In my 5th semester of Music Theory, one day our professor told us to begin making music with whatever tools we had. The class was slow to respond. A couple people started tapping pencils on their desks. One guy grabbed the trash can and started bongo'ing on it... someone got on the board and reluctantly started scraping chalk... Several folks were just taking it all in with wonderment. Then the professor went to the blackboard and wrote "Everyone must participate!" Then, some people started raising their desks 2" off the floor and dropping them back down...one guy started opening and closing the venetian blinds. Several people started clicking their fingers while others clapped. Me and another guy had a rehearsal to go to so we departed the room - and on the way out we added to the music by slamming the door so hard that it blew ceiling tiles loose and jammed the door. That was the last time we did that exercise. But it was musical! I sat in a crowded coffee shop in the mid 80's when someone started a rhythm pattern with his coffee spoon on the table. it took only about a minute and the whole coffee shop started in doing rhythms in different ways. That lasted for about 2-3 minutes. Than it abruptly stopped, everybody started laughing and went back to their busyness. Great experience ... Eric
_________________________
Genos, PSR-S970, TC Helicon VoiceLive3, Mackie 802-VLZ3 Mixer, 2 Bose L1 Pro16, Electro-Voice ZXA1 Subwoofer
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
#481395 - 11/21/19 02:54 PM
Re: Is an Arranger Keyboard a Musical Instrument?
[Re: Eric, B]
|
Senior Member
Registered: 10/15/05
Posts: 1433
Loc: Niceville, FL USA
|
I sat in a crowded coffee shop in the mid 80's when someone started a rhythm pattern with his coffee spoon on the table. it took only about a minute and the whole coffee shop started in doing rhythms in different ways. That lasted for about 2-3 minutes. Than it abruptly stopped, everybody started laughing and went back to their busyness. Great experience ... Eric
Eric - yep, it's amazing how people can join in! Once on a long bus trip with the USAF Band, someone started opening and closing the ash trays on the seatbacks in our fancy cruising machine... there were about 40 of us on the bus. It was late at night and dark in the bus... then many others started joining in, flipping their ash trays open and closed in different rhythms...it went on with the cacophony growing for about 3 or 4 minutes before our bus screeched to a halt and the poor driver got out of his seat and said "One more click of the #@$*# ash trays and I will no longer be your driver". HA HA. Can't blame him but it was fun too! We all got quiet for the rest of the trip!
_________________________
------------------------------------- Randy
PA4X, SX900 (Baby Genos), Roland U-20, L1 Compact, Way 2 Many Saxes
"My computer beats me routinely at chess - but it's NO MATCH for me at kick boxing!"
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
#481435 - 11/22/19 06:01 AM
Re: Is an Arranger Keyboard a Musical Instrument?
[Re: Stephenm52]
|
Senior Member
Registered: 10/15/05
Posts: 1433
Loc: Niceville, FL USA
|
Nice story...
But was it musical? Or Rythmical?
Randy, Love that story about the ash trays and the bus. Lucky for your group that the driver didn’t ask you all to get off the bus and walk the rest of the way. Bachus - good point! Neglected to mention it above, but as I recall, the vocal majors in the class started humming and scatting a little too, which added to the "music". It was an interesting day in theory class. Steve - in the good old military band days, we had a single driver who drove for us everywhere we went. We all loved the guy and he loved hauling the musicians around and being a 'roadie'. It was a gravy gig for someone assigned to the motor pool on base. Rally can't blame Scotty - probably very hard to drive a huge bus at night with all that clacking going on. By the way, to help w/the boredom, we took a magic marker and wrote numbers by each the lugs on the front right wheel. Then we taped an arrow on the 12:00 position... and took bets on which number would come up at "next stop". Ha ha. The fun days. Probably played 10,000 hands of "Hearts" on that bus.
_________________________
------------------------------------- Randy
PA4X, SX900 (Baby Genos), Roland U-20, L1 Compact, Way 2 Many Saxes
"My computer beats me routinely at chess - but it's NO MATCH for me at kick boxing!"
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|