Originally posted by Diki:
Well, all valid points... IF....
..you don't want to grow musically. I am still, every day, trying to do new things. Without enough technique, your hands dictate to you what you can and can't play (actually, they do that if you HAVE got good technique, but you get a LOT more choice in it!)
..you think you are past learning, that you don't WANT to play well. I'm sorry, but put in some real practice time, and in a few years, you can do it. Just because it might take some time doesn't mean you can't spare it...
..you think that your music couldn't get any better than it already is. I certainly don't feel that way, and I don't think you do either. 
I have a really hard time dealing with the 'I'm too old to learn to play well' and 'the arranger does it better than I can right now, so I won't even TRY to get better' excuse... I'm sorry, but I can't see that as anything other than laziness. Put the time in, no matter HOW old and decrepit you think you are, and you WILL get better...
Do you WANT to get better? Again, I'm sorry, but if the answer to that is 'NO', long term enjoyment of music making will take an inevitable dive. Re-hashing the same old worn out licks (at any speed) will get stale eventually...
Most of us spend a fair bit of time just jacking around with our arrangers. Re-channel that time into productive study (your wife can probably point you towards a few exercises that will make quick improvements), and all of a sudden you will find yourself able to play those parts in realtime, and compose that way, and wonder why you took so long to get around to figuring this stuff out...
To a certain level, and no further will an arranger take you... (musically). There's a reason that songs on the radio are not made with them. REAL music, music strong enough to hold your attention after repeated listening, is NOT made up of tiny little repeated snippets, slavishly following a chord sequence around. It is an organic thing, with subtle variations all the way through (unless you are doing trance or hiphop!). The bass line leads the chords, not the other way around. There is nothing identical in the second verse from the first.
Arrangers do a very good FACSIMILE of real music. But it ISN'T real music. If it were, you'd hear it on the radio...
Sooner or later, if you want to take your music as far as it can go, you are going to have to deal with no machines, and simply play... the sooner you start, the easier it will be YEah I bought an arranger because I AM LAZY..I don't want to play scales for the next few years just to play anything in all keys. I never did. My employment was as a Tribute artist, a performer in front of real players, My real joy is writing.
http://www.box.net/shared/af42iryv8p I played every note in that song. No styles no arrangers. Just a workstation. That took a long time and I do this for fun not profit. I enjoy the process. The "puzzle" of writing with a theme rhyme, musical support etc. I have never sent a song to anyone but have sold CDs at the venues the Show was in.
The other acts sold CDs of them singing the songs of the Artists they were impersonating. I only sold my own songs. (IF they wanted to hear Neil, they could get the best Neil buying His CDs. LOL)
The arranger takes care of my weakest area and inspires the area I care about the most, The creation of an idea into a song that may or may not move another,
My wife earns her living as a player, She is in another world. I can gig with her, But I cannot gig alone, I never played in bars or clubs. Always theaters, Its different world for sure. I get upset and respect her (or anyone) so much because she sings her heart out to people's backs, some are listening, some are talking...Certainly not paying customers who came to see a show, all glued to the stage facing forward in seats or standing enjoying a show.
I'm retired from that after 12 years of travel and spending 3 months at a time in places like Branson and Shreveport, Atlantic City etc..... and occasionally will go out with her on a gig. But I would not want to make my living that way. She says I am spoiled. I could not agree with her more....
I would rather at this stage of life sell musical gear and dreams to those who still have them. I am thankful to have lived a part of mine for awhile.,,,even if it was in beaded shirts, Sequins and polyester,
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