And Gary... sorry if the discussion gets a little passionate at times. Price you pay, I guess, for BEING passionate!

You know, I don't really get the point of coming to a online forum, and then reining in what you want to talk about. It's a fair bit of typing (not my best skill!), time spent and thinking to get across whatever you want to say. If all I wanted to do was mumble a few platitudes and not really care one way or the other, why would I bother..? I could go down a bar and do that!

Look, I'm not putting down 'entertainers'. A LOT of you sing FAR better than me, and have your audiences very dialed in, great repertoires, strong work ethic, you name it. I give respect where it is due...

The trouble gets where a few decide that, as they now sound the best they ever had, it MUST be because they are a better musician than they used to. You have never come across like this, so please don't read any more into what I say than WHAT I say...! But get the latest, greatest TOTL arranger, whatever, and it makes NO difference to your ability as a 'musician'. But it can SURE make you a better 'entertainer', and there's nothing wrong with that.

Just keeping a level head, with the 'instant gratification' factor that arrangers give us all is important, I believe. Or, sooner or later, we start to convince ourselves we ARE better players than we used to be. Turn OFF your arranger and find out the real truth...

I do NOT believe in the 'too old to learn' excuse. That's all it is. Some of us keep learning, and growing until the day they bury us. And SOME of us use the crutch of the arranger to STOP. There's a great big wide world of music out there, and to miss out on it because you let your arranger do the work rather than learning to do it yourself seems such a waste...

Modern arrangers are MORE than capable of holding their heads high in a live band compared to WS's. Give music making with OTHERS a try, from time to time. It can be a blast! Just remember to be as tolerant of THEIR musical shortcomings as they are being about YOURS...