First of all, a great thread, Fran. I joined this forum five years ago because of your interaction with Gary on amps and speakers. Mainly, the BA330 and the Bose Compact. Oh, No. The FedEx guy just dropped my Code 61 at this very second !!! Well, I better hurry.

Though I have always had arranger keyboards and modules, I wasn't really big on them. I will have to admit that just because a person is a trained pianist, that doesn't mean he or she will thrive on an arranger keyboard "automatically" (pun intended). That was me. I will even say most trained solo pianists won't know what to do with an arranger.

I'm thinking of my former teacher Johnny. A superb Jazz organist/accordionist. I saw him putting life into the auto accompaniment part of his arranger Roland VA7 years ago. I heard him say, "Let the machine work for you." When a top notch musician says something like that, I know for sure that he is not saying to hide or bury yourself behind the backup. Rather, it means the player is to interact with what other "musicians" in the arranger are doing. From that perspective, I'd think that a person who has played quite a bit in a band has an advantage.

On the other hand, I have run into players like my friend who will candidly say he has to have an arranger/module to perform. Nothing against them. As long as it works for them, so why not? However, as an "observer" not as an authority on arranger I've noticed that variety is the key. If a person plays the whole program with any kind of backup, it can be tiring. I'd think that iff a person plays even a simple tune with both hands with no backup in between it can bring freshness to the whole program and maximize the arranger.

Gotta go to open the code 61 box.