Got chatting to a number of Arranger Keyoard players at our local club and the thought struck me that the vast majority of them were retired. Good players - life experience and all those positive things, but where are the younger people ?. Our local "Technics Music Academy" evenings seem to consist of pre-teen children and the retired. People in the interveening years are all doting parents, not players. Good arranger keyboards (KN7000 and the like) are generally too expensive to be given to children so where are the up-coming young adults ?. Are Technics, Yamaha and the ilk doing enough to make keyboard playing "sexy" to attract the next generation ?.

What does everyone else think ?

Keith

Hi Keith,

Here is my 2 cents worth and I don't mean to create a stir over it.

First I'm not retired and won't be for another 10 year or so. I'm 53. Though I understand you may be talking about the 18 to 30/40 group.

I believe technics is aiming the 2600 and even the PR54 in that direction since they have a lot more "modern styles" than say Big Band although I don't see a much New Age.

But I also think that if that group of people is already out there playing away they might not feel comfortable in this forum because as soon a the 2600 style became available for the KN7000 comments were made about how bad and useless these styles were. Any while everyone has a right to their opinion it does say right away that their may be more that is needed in common than just having and playing a certain keyboard.

As Dennis Miller says, "That's just my opinion, I may be wrong."

The Best
Heather

I think that is a good point,Heather. I think we have to remember that only a small percentage of the members post.Bebop gave a percent but I forgot it. So how can you tell then how old the musicians relly are ?

Bernie

To stir the pot a bit more - for the past 20 years or so we've bred a generation that demands to be entertained, and are unwilling or perhaps too darn lazy to entertain themselves. "I'm bored!" is the moan, and they won't or can't do anything about it. OK, they'll acquire basic computer skills such as surfing, emailing use chatrooms but won't work at anything like learning to play a musical instrument whether it be a violin, piano or GA keyboard - after all you have to maintain regular practice sessions to be even reasonably competent.

Perhaps the type of tuneless music they like doesn't lend itself to being played on a keyboard..

I don't think the price of instruments is much of a deterrent - the price of used keyboards is within the reach of most parents, and I can re-call a time when many less well off parents would buy an ancient acoustic piano and pay for lessons in the hope of producing a prodigy.

Peter

I'll take a different approach on this one ... I think many of the younger players are still full of the dreams of 'making it' and are willing to play their music in smokey dance clubs and bars, and since they're playing with others, don't need arranger kb's .... We more experienced (dare I say older??? ) players are looking to satisfy our egos and the 'ham' in us (and there's nothing wrong with that) and make a few bucks by playing in 'nicer' venues, and since the market often doesn't allow for more than one or two players, we are the arranger kb players...
Onthe subject of young players, I was watching the 'TODAY' show last week and saw this 'new star' by the name of Michael Buble ... He sings standards and jazz tunes and the songs of Sinatra, Van
Morrison (Moondance), Tony Bennet and the like. .... he had a 5 - 6 piece group with him and he said the average age of the group was about 22 years !!! .... So some of the young players are ito great music...
t.

"Music"? I call it rhythmic noise, but then I am probably just an old fogey, who firmly believes that music should consist of songs with more than four notes and a beat that is repeated over and over again! (I guess there are sometimes more than four notes when a singer takes one note and warbles it to death up and down the scale.)And who ever told these modern "singers" that they can sing? It sounds to me more like screaming, as they eat the microphone and shout out lyrics that don't rhyme and are too often obscene. Wow, maybe I am getting old! If I have offended the younger set on the Forum (if there are any of you), I apologize Hmmm, it seems to me my parents said the same thing to me and my generation when the Beetles and Elvis, etc. came on the scene. I guess times do change, musically as well as every other way!

Ted

Do any of you folks out there want to turn green with envy? Take a few hours and pry yourselves away from TV when not playing your board. Go over to the local collage or high school and listen to their Jazz band concerts. These kids will set you straight up in your seat and make your ears bleed. Great stuff! Makes me want to call all the guys from our former dance band and get together again. One problem! Most of them are dead and that is why my keyboard is so valuable to me. I think Tony has hit the nail right on the head. I am still playing all because of the arranger KB. I gave one of my boards to my grandson who wanted something in his dorm room to practice on. Why? Because some of the other guys had them to work on in private. I’ll just bet when they get to my age and maybe before, they will be jobbing like me when not playing in small groups. Ruth and me just went to another younger grandsons grade school concert last friday evening. They had to hold it in the local high school facilities because there was too many kids in the music program to accommodate all the parents. Guess what? The grade school had a Jazz band! Not bad. Not bad at all! The grandson who plays the sax like me can’t wait to qualify for it next year. Also gave him one of my former boards because he asked. From what I see there are more young kids into music than there was when I was a kid. Not only that, they seem to be more proficient for their age than when I was growing up. What kind of music do I hear them playing? Much of the same stuff I play and of course some newer also. Like when I was younger, there were the weirdoes and will always be. The Rap type for a better word. When us older guys wonder where the young players are, the answer many times is we ain’t where they are, not that there is less. If your not there how can you see them? One other thought before I windup. Now that’s strange! Can’t seem to remember what it was.

Merry Christmas, Grandpa Doug

Hi All,

All of you have had something meaningful to say on this issue. I really enjoy reading the opinions of our members. Like you, Ted, I believe 99% of pop music is a wasteland of unadulterated noise polluting our environment. On the other hand, like you, Doug, I have gone to my nephew's high school to listen to him play saxophone in a first class jazz band - and it was the junior band! The school has a senior band and my nephew will have to reach a predetermined standard before being accepted into the senior band. The music program at his school is outstanding and they don't play pop music. Those kids are serious musicians and good!

Pop music, whether we like it or not (and I don't obviously), is here to stay. I have a severly disabled son who attends a Day Center. I went to the Center today for their annual Christmas disco. The so-called music (read noise) was deafening and if it hadn't been for my son, I would have left after three minutes of that deafening din. But those disabled men and women who were able to dance loved it. So it has broad appeal and the success of the so-called "pop stars" is further evidence of that.

There are probably many reasons why we are not aware of the young people who are learning to play keyboards, but I'm sure they are out there. My music teacher is teaching youngsters to play keyboards, and I'll bet lots of young people are enrolled in the Technics and Yamaha Schools of Music around the world.

Merry Christmas to All Here at the Synth~Zone.

Chuck

Hiya Keith
It's a shame really...
You asked a very intelligent question about a very straightforward marketing matter called 'lifestyle positioning' - it's all to do with demographic profiling; but I don't think any of the major producers of keyboards employ or take notice of anyone with that knowledge or those skills.
Very simply either by intent or by chance public awareness of your company and its products will 'position' itself in their minds as being useful for one type of thing or another and therefore appropriate to one type of individual or another - if you know what you are doing from a marketing standpoint you deliberately set out, by dint of your public activities to create particular 'image dimensions' for your company or product.
One may ask as an example - what are Technics deliberately setting out to do so that the public perceives their newest product the KN2600 to be targeting a younger audience?
Roger M

A question asked by Keith, Quote: “Are Technics, Yamaha and the ilk doing enough to make keyboard playing "sexy" to attract the next generation”?.

If it takes sex to attract the next generation into playing a keyboard I think the next generation is in deep trouble. I personally think the goddess of sex has already got some of this generation screwed up and is sending a lot of the next generation into the toilet from what I can observe. The broken families, the divorce rate, the confused and unhappy children not to mention the drug consumption trying to mask the unhappiness of the mess. What’s next? A little porno on the big beautiful colored screen of the technics keyboard? Maybe a little divergent sex rap music under the demo button? Sometimes I’m glad I only got a few more years to see the morals of the world crumble. I’m not a prophet but sometimes I visualize God going to the bathroom and putting his big hand on the chain, getting ready to flush the stinking pot.

Personally I believe the great strides taken by technics in developing their newest keyboards is what is going to be the driving force for attracting more players to them. I was talking to Bob Frazer, from our local dealership the other day. He said he doesn’t know where all the people are coming from to buy the 7000. Like there coming out of the woodwork, so to speak. Good thing some of the others are trying to keep up. Even Yamaha is improving some of their rhythms and trying to make their voices more realistic. Even their OS has improved to a point. I believe the success of keyboards lies in their coming into their own by great strides of improvement and not by becoming more sexy!

Just a few thoughts from an old guy that’s been around. Go ahead! Let me have it. Am I all wet? Tell me.

Grandpa Doug
And again, Merry Christmas to all!