"Well...I'm not into arrangers"
Uh, Shboom, did you notice the title of the forum? That's like going to a NE Patriot game and saying you're not into football, and the players aren't really that good anyway. But at least you could watch the cheerleaders.
Actually, a lot of the musicians around here look down on arranger players too. They usually look down from the audience though, while they tell themselves that with the help of four or five guys, and by undercutting my price, they might steal my job.
Hate to tell you how many "band" jobs I turn down because I don't want to take a cut in pay. And very few weeks go by without a guitar player or bass player or drummer telling me "if you ever need some help, give me a call".
Mercy, I hope more of you guys don't start playing arrangers. That WOULD be competition.
On a related matter, I've found that most trained piano or synth guys CAN'T play an arranger in the manner it is supposed to be used. They can't seem to keep the left hand still enough to just play chords. Not that that's good or bad, it's just an observation. It's truly two totally different ways of making music. I can play anything with the right hand, but my left hand only knows chords. . . and pitch-bend wheels, and fill, break, intro, ending buttons.
Now let's talk about the guys who use sequences all night long instead of playing.

DonM

[This message has been edited by DonM (edited 03-25-2005).]