I honestly don't think arranger keyboard awareness should be promoted. I think basic musicianship surpasses all technology lessons, and a skilled musician will find his/her niche with whatever tools are available at the time. The way digital gear goes in and out of style so quickly - I would never give someone dedicated lessons on button pushing, but I WOULD give them theory, harmony and phrasing advice.
Listen to the cartoons from the 50s and 60s - no sequencers, no loops, no arpeggiators ... 100% HUMAN-powered notes - TV themes like the Jetsons and Popeye would cripple most college level music students today. I embrace technology, but I encourage musicianship.
With THAT said - I do think there should be basic synth lessons available to those who buy newer keyboards. They can be quite confusing, and a little help can provide a lot of enjoyment. I hate to think that instruments are being sold to people with the label that "no music skills are required". It's all in the nomenclature, really ... arrangers, workstations, organs, synths, pianos, control pads ... they're all tools for the musician.
Music is what we should be pushing to the future generations, not beats, loops and samples. It'll be a real shame when all the musicianship atrophies, and the ones left to fill the "gigs" are glorified DJs. (sorry - TURNTABLISTS) heh, heh.
I do agree... i love my music tools, arrangers, arpeggiators, multipads...and modern day sequencers with clip luanching..
But at the end of the day, nothing beats playing a digital piano on top of a simple drumbeat... (sometimes adding a bassplayer and a guitar... or layering a sound or two and some effects with the piano...)
Where it comes to synth lessons for the youth... there are more lessons available on programming synths then that there are on actually playing them.. (the young learn their stuff on youtube). What they actually need are a real teacher that encourages them, and learns them how to improve their playing... we all know that repetition makes the master... and now thats where the youth in Holland goes wrong..they dont like repeating things unless they are fun and offer immediate rewards...
And while i agree young musicians should go back to the basics.. they also need something that makes, the little progress at the piano they will make at the early stages, fun. An arranger is one of the tools that can be really helpfull to make beginners sound good, and keep them going..
Back to the OP.... i dont see a future for the arrangers we know today... but there is a future for what we know as an arranger... that future is becomming one of the tools a keyboardist can use to make music...
The future of great sounding keyboards is a "dedicated" hardware interface for controlling sounds created in a computer,... to know what i mean, every keyboardist should have a chance to sit down with spectrasonics keyscape... it has the ultimate EP collection... giving you the realisme of playing the real things... and then some tools to create a backing... because most homeplayers dont have the option to play and jam in a band...
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