I was in a 5 hour session this afternoon with my sax man, trying to finish the cuts for this album that I need to have out by Thanxgiving, and I got so pumped on the basics (piano, bass, drums and sax) that I never used the arranger ONCE tonight at work. I usually have it on about 30% of the night, but I played bass myself (like the old days)and had a ball.

It reminded me that I enjoy the night more when I PLAY more. The same rhythms take on new life with each new song and the tunes are always fresh and specific.

I really have to insist that some of you try this. Even if it's only on a simple ballad like "My way" or "Crazy". It'll open up a whole new world of opportunites to you.

I didn't miss the robots at all, and I got the same response from my crowd as I always do. So......who DID put the Bop in the Bop subop shubop?

You've going on about this "no robots" thing for a while Dave, but this is still an arranger forum. I had a good experience yesterday at my real estate auction (you were right, it was fun). The arranger came in quite handy. Not only did I do my usual SMF stuff but I programmed the 9k's MultiPads with all kinds of drum rolls/crashes and horn ta-da's. I had to do some improv also - like when the auctioneer said "play something Christmas-sy - at these prices you'd think Santa Claus was coming to town early" and I did the appropriate thing. Often they wanted me to play a minute or less of music while they closed deals immediately after bidding ended so the arranger was the daysaver.

Then my evening gig had a special attendee - the main writer for the local entertainment paper who'd been avoiding me for some time. A former musician, he had a thing for talking up "live music" and panning anyone who didn't live up to that, including me of late. He had never actually seen me play. I did my usual mix of SMF stuff and also did some improv things with the arranger. We had a good talk during my break about why I decided to become an instrumentalist in a sea of vocal performers. He also brought a jazz bassist friend, who remarked that when he listened to music at home, it was usually instrumental. We all talked about arranger technology and whether that qualified as live music - all agreed it did when used creatively.

It was good day for the "robots" all in all, and I didn't fare too badly either.

When I saw the topic, I though you stayed up all night reading a manual. That would have been more of a surprise than your playing without automated backup.

Dave, you have the ability to do that--play left hand bass and everything else on the right hand. I don't have a problem with the right hand, but the left hand "thinks" chords.
DonM

Very interesting topic.

On Friday evening, I sat in with a 4 piece band for a Birthday party for a friend of the band. We had musicians sitting in and out all night but I was the constant on the keys.

Each performer came up with their own song and style.

They called out a tune and we just played it.

So, unrehearsed, I played about 25 or more songs which I never played before without charts and in some case not even given the key of the song. It was close to an OPEN MIKE, but these guys were really, really, good. Just to give some idea of the type of stuff that was played, one of the songs we did was Minute by Minute by Michael McDonald, we also did Kid Charlemayne by Steely Dan on to Freebird back to the Shaker Song by Spyro Gyro for the Sax player. Whew!!

Talk about getting your adrenaline pumping, but man did I have a blast. This is where your training really pays off. Not that I'm a hard core keyboardist, but I have an outstanding ear and improvisational skills which allowed me to "wing it". My improv skills improving the result of finally studying with a Jazz teacher for the past year at the ripe ole' age of 48!

The moral of the story is: I couldn't agree more with UD. You have to really put yourself on the "edge" sometimes to grow as a musician no matter what your age or life station is in music.

Man I wish I could do this full-time and get handsomely paid for it!!!!

Al

My "robots" comment was not slanderous, Jim. I was simply pointing out the benifit of stretching the box to include more of yourself than the arranger. I appreciate having the gingerbread at work, but if I had a steady diet of generic patterns, my brain would freeze.
Some songs just don't need the extra fluff, and oftentimes it's perceived as cheezy at lower volumes. The horns and guitars sound so phony at low volumes ..... it's much more realistic to use a trio or quartet backing in intimate settings.

Don,
I envy you. Thinking in chords probably takes more skill than playing one note at a time. I wish my chording skills were better. I still hate having to finger everything on the Yamaha. The Roland/Korg design was so much easier. On finger =maj - 2=minor, and all the rest need 3 or more. Less agg for guys like me.

Key word in "The Pro"s comments - CREATIVELY

I'm like DonM except he is way more talented. My left hand does chords. My foot does bass. Our big band played friday night. We had 4 saxes, 2 bones, 3 trumpets, drums and me. I just plug the Roland PK-5 pedals into the X1 and the keyboard plays just like an organ. I don't even need an extra bass module. I can use the X1's bass voices. A couple of tunes even had bass solos which I did with my left foot. Playing in a band and doing my own solo and trio jobs with the arranger gives me a nice variety.

Tom

Uncle Dave,
You are so right.. It is so much fun to play everything manually I did it a lot. I'd record a really nice drum track, and then I'd put the fusion bass on the left hand and use R1 and R2 for combined electric paino voices... What a blast. I liked the control with the fusion bass. That's one great thing about Yamaha. Even on their lower models they'll use velocity switching on the voices..

Squeak