Well, I have to fess up to having had a little of that arranger-snobbery myself a couple of months ago. I'm an accordionist and really used to have a hard time with keyboardists that picked up the instrument and would play only the right hand. Don't ask me why, but it drove me bonkers! I would start seeing prominent bands with "an Accordionist" who would rest their left hand in the bass strap - without even putting fingers on the bass keys!

I started looking into arrangers because, honestly, I can make a lot more money as a one-man-band than I ever could with a drummer and guitarist. I did that gig in high school and college and it was no fun. Hard to practice, almost never could all agree on what songs to play and at what tempo, etc. So an arranger looked like the perfect fit for me.

When I went to look at some of the Ketron arrangers about a year ago (I looked at the MS40 and X4 back then) I could tell the guy thought I was another in a long line of wannabe accordionists. He started going on and on about how the Foo Fighters just ordered five accordions from him and that they didn't have a clue how to play them, etc. He said that a lot of keyboardists were coming in to buy accordions just for the on-stage effect.

Well, I tried the arranger out with a really nice Bugari accordion he had and he just stopped me and said "Man, you can play!" I asked what he meant and he said that arrangers were for people that couldn't play.

Well, his comments, along with others I received on an accordion-only BBS started to form my opinion that arrangers are for people who can't really play. I never really paralleled my thoughts about the accordion with those that you are discussing here about keyboardists, but I see the similarity. The great PRO keyboardists probably think arrangers are for people that play a single note at a time on the right hand and let the arranger play all of the intros, chords, fills, and endings.

Well, this site opened my eyes to what can be done with an arranger. I have checked out every web page displayed in profiles here and am floored by the talent here. The stuff you guys are doing is very impressive and I'd pay to see it. I am still getting over that "they can't play" comment and hope to purchase an arranger in the next month.

I always end up thinking that even when I get my XD3 I'll still want to play Dizzy Fingers on my acoustic accordion just to "show them", so I obviously still have some growing to do.