That wouldn't have been much of an advantage, since he was deaf for a great portion of his life. Besides that, a musical genius like Beethoven never needed anything like that. Composers like him had the supernatural gift of "hearing" an entire orchestra play while he wrote it. This also explains how he could go on composing even without hearing a thing later in his life.

Skills like the one Beethoven posessed, are gone forever. There are no composers around anymore that could write music the way the "old guys" did, often not even using a piano but "just" a harpsichord.

Well, it may be clear that I have a deep respect for people like Beethoven. And of course you meant it as a joke, but really, there is no arranger in this world, nor will there ever be one, that will turn anyone into Beethoven. Far from that, even. Since playing an arranger may be "serious business" for some of us here, to me it's nothing more -and- nothing less(!) than playing along with a precooked backing band. WHICH IS FINE, and hard enough as it is, but don't let anyone ever think that playing an arranger keyboard will make you a great composer

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Roland EXR-5 user - http://www.exr5.tk