Originally posted by Diki:
I'm afraid that VERY few OMB's used much sequencing prior to SMF's and the Canvas, etc..
What was done with CV gates and the like was usually more of a studio tool (due to the glacial load up times they took). Back in the early eighties, you saw a lot of guys using drum machines, but sequencing was pretty rare on the gig until the late eighties/early nineties...
There were a few Oberheim DMX users, but on the whole, until the MIDI sequencers got good, it was more common to see a guy with a drum machine, and LH bassing his brains out (I was one of them!).
More of us should try this, just turn off EVERYTHING except the drums, and play like that. You learn a lot more, a lot faster (including starting to realize just how BAD arranger bass lines are - they never LEAD into a chord, they always FOLLOW them around... a huge difference!), unless you are simply trying to SOUND as if you can play, rather than actually playing!
BTW, speedy chops in more than three keys does NOT make you a better player. Understanding how to do more, with less does, IMO. And that is one of the LAST things any arranger is going to teach you!
You want to learn to be a player, and how to interact with the arranger's parts? Learn how to do it with REAL PEOPLE first, then take those skills to the arranger. Because, the other way around, the arranger isn't going to teach you a damn thing. It's just going to spoon feed you, and do it all for you. 
And that, my friends, is karaoke in a nutshell... 
Whether you want to admit it or not.
[This message has been edited by Diki (edited 10-21-2008).]The idea is one does not HAVE to be a player to create self satisfying (and sometimes others) music. This angers many studied musicians. My wife HATES Karaoke. She views it as a threat to her financial gain. But thats technology in general.
As an Art form it's purely choice whether to become a master pianist or a simply a piano player. SOme people don't care to become the best players, they just want to make music and thats why Arrangers are marketed to HOME users, I am a home user. I write. I don't care to learn to read anything but chords, I learned scales becasue they help when improviding but melody is intuitive for many. Just play a chord progression and some can come up with many meloldies that will fit. I want to write the best song I can. I will leave the rest to the Arranger or an Arranger.
I find myself in the "hack" category. We have a Yamaha Baby Grand here. I.m bored with it after 10 minutes, Because I cannot play well or long enough on it to really make it sing. My wife can play it for hours.
The Arrangers however inspire me to create music using what I know; Its that inspiration I am buying in an arranger.
Most very successful songwriters write some lyrics and Melody. Period. Neil Diamond, James Taylor, etc none of them can or need to arrange their music. Neither of them have mastered their instruments. They call in David Foster, Michael Omartian, Maurice white...and they in turn bring in players to flesh out the melody and create the final product. Thats how I explain it to those who believe it cheating.
Neil did not write the orchestration for Johnathan Livingston Seagul..He played the chords E A D and sang the melody....JAmes did not arrange Fire and Rain...I have no less respect for them as I do a real player like Billy Joel or Stevie Vai.
Others take pride in their playing rightly so, and spent the long tedious hours playing Hanon and scales, exercises etc. I respect them. I have worked with them and glad they can read my charts. But given a choice I would rather have a player who can hear the music and play it from the heart then someone who can sight read and needs every dynamic symbol to create a sense of living breathing music. I would rather they get off the charts and bring themselves into the mix. Thats what keyboard arrangers do. for me. They take me out and bring something else in. Sometimes I like it Sometimes I don't and redo the part.
Like sequencing it's a time saver. Like a sequencer Garbage in, garbage out. However without sequencing I would have had to play the parts using both hands take after take over and over again which over the years would have made me a far better technical player.
Keith Emerson was the best I ever heard technically. I saw him up close and personal and could not believe his chops....He almost made me quit playing all together, LOL
I guess in a nutshell I do KNOW what I don't know and cannot do but have no reason to seek it out due to the tools at hand,
[This message has been edited by Kingfrog (edited 10-21-2008).]
Previous Topic
Index
