I've read this thread several times, trying to keep an open mind, which in my case may be somewhat difficult.

OK, after perusing the posts, the bottom line is most entertainers using keyboards cover the front of the board, and all the nasty looking wires, with some sort of banner that advertises the performer. Consequently, no one can even see the keyboard, let alone the color. Additionally, no one in the audience can see the tiny icons that are etched under the keys, icons that are essential to those creating styles from scratch.

Let's be realistic about this. No gives a damned what color your keyboard is--period. Your audiences want to be entertained, and if you cannot do this you should take up professional golf, basket weaving or some other form of creating recreational income. The audiences don't have a clue what you are doing, many think you are either a DJ or Karaoke guy, and they're quite happy when they hear the songs they enjoyed listening to when they were 16 to 25 years of age.

A few years ago, I had the privilage of attending a Harry Belefonte concert at the Joseph Myerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore, one that was absolutely fascinating. He had a keyboard player that was surrounded by four keyboards. Every one of them was different, all were different colors, ranging from bright red to silver, and some had wild custom color paterns that resembled tiger stipes. The bottom line is this guy was an incredible performer, playing two boards at the same time, switching back and forth to the other boards that had been set up with various voices, and he provided more entertainment that anyone could imagine. Do you think that anyone in the audience of several thousand really had any thoughts about the color of his keyboard? Do you think for one minute that they wondered whether or not he had onboard speakers? Do you think anyone in that audience cared if it had 61 keys, 76 keys or 88 keys? HELL NO!

At the end of the night I could hear people talking about how wonderful the performance was, and especially how incredible it was to see the person playing four keyboards at the same time. It was an incredible, very entertaining evening, and I for one learned a lot about audiences--they just want to be entertained. If you can entertain them, they could care less about the color of your keyboard, the number of keys or anything else that someone may perceive as a professional keyboard. I sincerely believe that a professional keyboard is only as good as the performer using it.

Cheers,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy