My opinion

1-Do whatever makes you happy.

2-Do what it takes to make your dollars.

3-I like playing with styles --- my left hand has an instrument assigned so that I am not just triggering chords but adding another dimension to what I am playing. And I do use chord substitutions and some single leading notes with my left hand. Now there’s two hands at work.

4-Having said that I find that there are many songs that sound better with a SMF. They have become popular not just because of the melody and lyric but they also have lines that are very much a part of the song. Impossible for me to do that unless I have the music and then it would never come off right.

5-My big complaint about SMF is that you are playing with a recording, and that’s a fact, it never changes today or tomorrow. That has to effect how I sing or solo – To believe they do not have an effect on your singing or solos would be to deny the fact that a different band or musician or keyboard makes you feel different, that means I perform differently. With a live band we never played the same song in the same way. We are not without feelings and feelings are what music is about.

Enough of perfection and who is right, they all have a place, and that place is decided by the player’s needs, what they are paid to do, their insight, and their talent. As for me, I love it all, and that took me a while to admit.

Wow, that was good – So every ones is right, as it should be.

John C.