So LH chords, and RH melody isn't "REAL playing"?

What is?

Would you say playing a mono synth line on a Minimoog over chords on Hammond isn't "real" playing?

Or a melody line on the upper manual of the latter and chords on the lower manual?

Seemed to be pretty "real" for Keith Emerson and many others, including me...not that I consider myself in their league.

I can't imagine you having an elitist attitude about this Diki, but I would be curious why you would make such a statement.

Ian the Inquisitive

Through various posts, it seems that your only a real player if your a pianist playing over midi files and if you use the arranger chord trigger functions (LH). You’re just a karaoke, lazy entertainer and does not care to practice and better themselves......

Did I miss anything?

Oops, I almost forgot, you can use the right hand to hold a drink since the left is doing everything for you.




[This message has been edited by mc (edited 10-30-2008).]

Forgot to mention the accordion player( which was one of my first instruments, as it was for many on SZ)...RH melody and single finger(well sometimes two)chords...not "REAL playing"?

Arranger players get enough of a bad rap without getting it here too...on an "arranger forum", no less.

Ian

Don Mason gave me some words of wisdom a few years ago. He said that when you cover a tune you don't need to sound like the original. You wouldn't expect Elvis to sound like the Beatles if he were singing "I Saw Her Standing There". However, you still need to perform the song musically well and in a professional manner.

Tom

I use full keyboard setting and basically do a blend of the following...

Primary (50%): RH chording, LH bass, vocal covers the melody...

Secondary (35%): LH Chords, RH fills under vocal...

Other (15%): LH chords, RH plays lead...

Given my playing style, what modifications would I likely need to do to the midi file (as simple as mute the piano part? or, to my actual playing?



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Bill in Dayton

Tom, you’re so right, as the song comes out pleasing to everyone ears, no matter how you play the keyboard.

Don's 100% right...

However, IMO, for me only...I am more comfortable with a fairly respectful, conservative version of a tune. I really can't think of a single song that I've taken from its original essence and turned into something utterly different. Of course some styles may be instrumentally different, but to my ears, at least-I've kept the essence of the tune in tact.

There's an imaginary line that I don't want to cross...



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Bill in Dayton

It is wisdom not to compare what is needed on the job with what I feel at home where I do what I like to do. (Musically that is, grin)

I do not play along with, or sing with SMF files when I am at home. Home and jobs are two different venues. When I become more important than the person who has hired me to do a job I feel I have crossed over the line of good ethics both as a musician and a person.

When I played a wedding or an anniversary I want those people to have a time they will not forget –and so goes my career and success in the business.
Think of the other person first and then we get blessed.

IMHO, John C.

AT TIMES, yes, even Emerson, Wakeman, whoever are your personal favorite keyboard players would sustain something in their LH, and solo like a madman over the top of it. AT TIMES.

At other times, they would play full keyboard parts, whether piano, synths, organs, you name it. At other times, they would play complex stuff on two (or more!) different keyboards at the same time. Contrapuntal stuff, complex rhythmical stuff, jazzy stuff, you name it.

And don't get me started on jazz keyboard players!

Look, don't get defensive... YOU were the ones slamming the use of SMF's. Just because apparently a large percentage of you think that doing so involves downloading a probably pirated commercial SMF off of some website, opening it on the sequencer in your arranger, and playing something over the top of it without the SLIGHTEST effort at editing it, or muting all the parts you want to play (or CAN play) other than MAYBE the melody track, doesn't mean that that is ALL it can do...

You see? Feel free to trivialize one form of making music with machines (it's what we are ALL doing, don't kid yourself), but get outraged when somebody (to make a point) trivializes another...

Yes OF COURSE you CAN do far more than play simple one finger chords with your LH and struggle to get even the melody played correctly in the RH on an arranger... But that doesn't mean an awful lot of people aren't doing it that way (I can't, for instance, remember the last demo anyone posted here where they actually strayed much away from the melody and blew a REAL solo - I know there have been some, but I can't for the life of me remember the last one).

But here you are, all outraged that this has been mentioned...

Well, as a user of completely customized SMF's (as well as arranger mode, and drums and LH bass, too), I guess I am equally outraged over the widespread assumption that playing over SMF's is Karaoke. It's only karaoke if you MAKE it karaoke, and arranger playing is only LH chords, RH melody note IF YOU MAKE IT THAT WAY!

So, while you get all worked up about what I said (I was surprised mc didn't QUITE get around to personally insulting me, what happened? ), try to understand that what some of YOU said about SMF usage is EQUALLY wrong (and right, in some cases!)...

Either mode is as capable of being misused as the other...

Thanks Diki...you're a man of few words.

I was not being defensive...I have no reason...calm down...just wanted a clarification.

Thanks again.

Ian