Donny just about hit the nail on the head about a DJ mentality that's out there.

We live in a time of instant gratification with just about anything and everything 'on demand'. So people think you can just press a button and play.

In large part some of the reasons for this can be levelled at midifiles which are essentially 'press a button and play', and, as mikeathome1 mentioned, starting a midifile and walking away from the keyboard is gonna kill your credibility stone dead. I can only suppose this is done for those types of acts that like to wander around schmoozing with the audience with a radio mike. That's fine in itself, but fer crying out loud don't do it with a keyboard. If you're a karaoke act, then use a bloody karaoke machine.

Add to this the average sales guy in a mall music store who bashes out a one-finger version of In The Mood upwards of 30 times on a Saturday afternoon and you have a combination of some very powerful factors why arranger keyboardists just can't get no respect,

I've had, and no doubt so have many other forum folks too, people come up and actually say that I only press a button and play something, whereupon I say to them, okay YOU press a button and play ME something. Usually it never fails to bring on a sheepish grin from them and they walk quietly away. I'd like to have added 'with a new respect for what we do', but no, they're just walking away back into that instant-everything society.

As UD would say . . . arrrrrrgh!!!!