Well, my friend, I remember that time very well..it was early on a sunny Sunday morning, actually, and of course, neither of us were in church.

Me and Diki were having one of them there "difference of opinion" spats, and you know what an able opponent he is, so I was about to use a "cheap shot" to, I thought, gain the upper hand.

It would have made me look pretty low.

I'm glad you were the voice of reason.

Anyways, thanks again...sincerely.

I can see your point of view about arrangers...I'm primarily a piano player, but, I like arrangers. I like 'em in the same way I like playing Gran Turismo4 on my Playstation2(with the Logitech G25 wheel and pedals...yeah..."big kiditus"...I have it bad (and that ain't good)...mmmm...I feel a song coming on...

The arranger was originally my escape from the formalness(?) of piano, and who would have thunk it would become a major source of income for me, both on my personal gigs, and of course, with Yamaha.

I was already using the Electone accompaniments and drum machine as part of my playing, so the arranger wasn't a big learning curve.

The hardest thing to learn was keeping my left hand still.

The clinic I did with Oscar Peterson on the PSR-9000 Pro had him saying, "How do you discipline yourself to play all the chords in one small area?"....no kidding.

This was after his stroke, and he wanted a lighter actioned instrument that he could record on...sort of a scratch pad (like you were saying)...he was at several of our acoustic piano and Clavinova seminars, but this was the first time I had actually met him.

He was great guy...very down to earth, and he made me feel very comfortable, and even though I was more than aware I was in the presence of greatness, I was able to stop my hands from shaking eventually.

But I digress.

Arrangers are tools...to me they are just another separate instrument, like the organ, piano, guitar...but while they probably will never reach the status of those instruments, there's no denying their usefulness...at least from my own experience.

I have a a terrific MasterCraft flat blade "Comfo-Grip" screwdriver circa 1970...a real quality piece, that has has been used for (besides a lot of screwing ), a pry-bar, a hole-puncher, a chisel...even a hammer, but it's best use is screwing.

I also have one of those all-in-one tools, that's everything from a nail file to a corkscrew, and, I must admit, it is some handy...I actually have two...one for the car.

Now, I can sure appreciate that MasterCraft screwdriver...it even looks cool and rugged, even after a lot of years of hard screwing, it still works great...simplicity, and pureness of design.

Like the piano...like the Hammond...like the Rhodes.

The arranger is like that multi-tool.

How's the hip doing, by the way?


[This message has been edited by ianmcnll (edited 11-03-2009).]