I think anyone who can play well enough to put out a decent arranger recording really has the chops to go join a band, even if just for fun and home playing. It’s an utterly different experience, learning the give and take of three or four other players with equally valid but often different musical viewpoints on a song or style.

It is anything BUT trying to completely duplicate a hit recording! The players are different, the instruments they use are different from the original in all likelihood (a Strat through a Fender isn’t going to duplicate a Firebird through a Marshall!), you likely have the one guitarist when the record had two making multiple overdubs using acoustics and electrics galore. You’ve got a drummer who can’t change from a jazz kit on one song to a rock kit on another. And you only have two hands to pull off not only the piano part, but also the horns and strings or synth parts..!

It is NEVER about duplicating the original. It is very similar to your approach with arrangers. You make up something new that works…

I think there’s a lot of assumptions from home players that rarely play with others about the whole ‘live band’ experience. But the best thing about it is, you are constantly surprised and delighted and challenged by other musicians doing something that, in its turn, pushes you to do something different, to be creative. In truth, I rarely get that from an arranger. They are designed to do the expected!

And, if you have a decent arranger, you have a keyboard quite perfectly designed to play with a group. It just takes a bit of courage, a bit of willingness to step outside our comfort zones, a bit of willingness to expose weaknesses in the effort to improve them.

Nobody’s talking going out and touring, or even trying to book your band in clubs and halls. Just getting four people together with a shared love of a type of music, and jamming a couple of hours a week. It will produce more growth and confidence than a year spent alone with an arranger and a computer! And perhaps clear up a few misunderstandings about what ‘pro’ musicians do.

There’s no deep mystery or mastery. Just the willingness to get together with others and push ourselves a bit outside of the comfort zone. There are others just like you out there in the thousands. Go find them, step away from the machines for a while. The skills you learn playing with others will pay huge dividends even when you return to the machines.

Playing live isn’t about ‘How do I duplicate the record as closely as possible?’. It’s ‘How do I get four guys to make something enjoyable?’. And there are so many ways to do it…