It never, ever bothered me that the arranger keyboard was alien to anyone...to me it was just another tool to make music with, and since there were lots of solo piano players and guitarists on the go, what I did was different, and that managed to get me some pretty nice gigs.

Of course, I worked hard at it, always keeping my repertoire fresh, while still remembering the favorites of repeat customers...I managed an 11 year run at a high end restaurant where the longest any other solo performer lasted there was two weekends, so I must have been doing something right.

More than once I explained how the arranger worked to patrons, and other performers, who dropped by, and I never really felt any alienation by either...in fact, some of the piano players I knew, eventually got an arranger. Being a demonstrator with Yamaha really helped force me to keep trying to improve my playing, and also prompted me to learn the arranger keyboard's inner most workings, so I was always coming up with newly edited styles, and different musical arrangements of mainstream tunes as well as the old standards.

To put it more bluntly, I never did give a shit what other players thought about the instrument I used, so the alleged stigma never bothered me in the slightest, and I was always working steady and making a pretty good living at doing what I love...playing music.

I never wanted to be a singer, and I'm not that interested in vocal tunes ( probably why I like fusion and jazz and classical so much) so watching/listening to someone sing mostly over SMF never had much attraction for me...that's not to say it isn't a viable way of entertaining...I just don't find it very interesting.

The business of entertaining is continually changing, and kudos to those who can adapt/modify to keep up with it and still make a living at it. I'm comfortable with being out of the loop, and, other than the occasional wedding supper gig, and, some recording, most of my playing will be for my own entertainment.

I thought I'd miss it more than I do, but I suppose I was ready for retirement...plus, I still play everyday, and that's how it all got started, so I guess it was full circle.

Ian