Well, one would imagine an "advanced" player/person as yourself would find it easy to edit the styles into something more manageable, or perhaps something more suitable to your style of play.

It's nice to know you find it easier to play over an SMF...I would, too..in fact, most players would.

What I have found, that even with "markers", the SMF is still too rigid for my liking...I'd like to be able to react more spontaneously, than have it all spelled out...having chord changes locked in, style already set; it's not for me...it's far more fun, to be able to do songs in many style arrangements, not just ones I have already recorded, or preplanned, but we all have our preferences, and if yours works for you, that's peachy.

I play a lot more freely at my gigs, and I usually don't do tunes exactly as written, but prefer to put my own "stamp" on them...it's not for everyone, but I'm not stuck for gigs, and have actually turned several down this month.

It's all in how you market yourself, I guess.

I would hardly call myself an advanced player on the arranger (I'm more of a piano player), but I'm rather the more basic type...you know, style and RH play...but, I'm accurate and I work hard on my styles (and arrangements) so that I have my own sound, rather than someone who picks a factory style and works from that.

Ian