Chas, nice. Jerry I need to put more clarity in what I have said. I went from “Are Arranger Keyboards losing popularity to, How to make our keyboards more exciting; more desirable.

The first thing to keep in mind is if you have only played an arranger keyboards what I am going to explain will be hard to understand. After playing with a live band for 40 years, and then playing with an arranger keyboard, and with an electric drum, the feel was not only different; but also annoying. It has the same effect a compressor does to a voice; it limits.

First thing I did was to check the tempo at the beginning of a recorded song; and then the end. The tempo increased depending on the type of song. Most Latin music does not vary. There are some classical orchestra that raise the pitch and in turn the tempo of the recording. In those days you could not do one without the other. The results brighter and more exciting. Keep in mind that you would not hear the change but you would feel it.

4/4 beat – guitar playing on all 4 beats. There are 3 ways for the guitar player to strum the 4 beats. On the beat – a little before the beat – and a little after. The change is slight, cannot be measured but can be felt. Let's called this feel. When playing an upbeat the guitar player plays just before the beat giving a feeling of anticipation. When he plays after the beat, like in a slow ballad a laid back fell is produced.

I told my drummer to hold us back no matter what – at the same time I played just before each beat. The result was a slight change in tempo – because we were in the last part of the song our volume increased also. Excitement, Excitement.

All that to say this: When the beat is ridged without variation you lose some of your music losing some of the ability to feel. The first time I used an electric drum machine I could not reach the crowd, but I knew I wanted to kill the drummer.

My point – there are things we can do to our arrangers that will help us take back some of what they take away from us. (Starting with the bass line) You can not measure the slight change, but you can feel them.

Again; if you have never been in both places; live band and arranger keyboard, this will not make much sense. AND this is not for everyone.

John C.
PS, I did not read his over when I wrote this, sorry if errors.