I think most keyboard players in bands nowadays, if they are looking for something ‘automatic’ to jam with are of the younger generation. And unfortunately, while the arranger is the go to backing tool for legacy music and us fossils, they are pretty awful at approximating today’s contemporary music.

Most of that is created using loops and clips and a workflow that doesn’t really follow played chords much. You’ll see a lot of modern keyboard players got a Maschine or an MPC type groovebox in their kit bag, and that is what has become the go to backing gear. Either that or laptops…

Again, there’s a big divide between young keyboard players playing in bands and us older types playing in bands. We tend to be in bands with our contemporaries, playing the music of our youth, and need sounds that the arranger is strong on. Young keyboard players aren’t as big into retro music, or when they are, it’s more of the jam band thing which doesn’t need the full range of the arranger.

The kids are big on retro gear at the moment… Wurli’s, Rhodes’, Clav’s, tons of old analog synths, some Hammond, stuff like that. It’s no coincidence that that’s what Nord (who you see a ton of kids playing) concentrate on. And very few arrangers can hold water against the Nord’s for stuff like Hammond, Wurli, Clav etc.. But they excel at brass, strings etc, which the basic Nord’s don’t really do well. Thing is, on the whole, modern pop music isn’t as big into string and brass and woodwinds as legacy music was. So, the young player doesn’t really feel arrangers are the right tool, I would think.

The other thing that probably works against young players digging arrangers is the huge amount of styles the kids wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole! It’s hard to get the girls going when front and center on the panel are banks labeled ’Ballroom’ and ‘50’s’ and ‘Oldies’, and nothing labeled ‘Trip hop’ or ‘Lounge’ or ‘Hardcore’!

The arranger has become the ‘home organ’ of the 21st century… pretty near irrelevant for contemporary music. The minute pop went synths in the 80’s, that was the death of the home organ. I think it’s Deja vu all over again…