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#367722 - 06/16/13 10:27 PM Playing an arranger KB as it was meant to be
Songman55 Offline
Member

Registered: 06/24/05
Posts: 892
Loc: Baltimore, MD USA
Recently there have been some discussions here about how well certain people play an arranger. Also the discussions have gone to why even play one at all? Why not just play with great musicians especially in the jazz genre? Well I can only answer for myself, so here goes. I grew up playing B3 and grand piano. For years I was equally at home on both. In recent years, I have given up the organ in favor of arranger Keyboards. What I use them for are to provide good, clean orchestrations for my vocals. My singing has always been my drawing card and the arranger KB provides the best platform for offering great, easy to produce backgrounds for those vocals. I still do a series of piano concerts in which I play grand piano and sing. I do primarily Great American Songbook material as well as some new age and well known classics and some Broadway for a well balanced program. My point here is to remind everyone that this is an arranger forum, so if you are not a lover of arranger boards, perhaps you don't belong here. Just my opinion. Guys, it's all about the music. The music that gets to the audience because without them, most of us would be gone.

Joe singer keys
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PSR S950, PSR S900, Roland RD 700, Yamaha C3 6'Grand, Sennheiser E 935 mic, several recording mics including a Neuman U 87, Bose L1 Compact, Roland VS 2480 24 Track Recorder
Joe Ayala

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#367725 - 06/16/13 11:42 PM Re: Playing an arranger KB as it was meant to be [Re: Songman55]
Diki Offline


Registered: 04/25/05
Posts: 14182
Loc: NW Florida
That this is an arranger forum doesn't dictate that you HAVE to love them..!

Just use them.

Like most technology, they can delight and infuriate at the same time.

We all here can only answer for ourselves. It is unlikely any two people here use them in exactly the same way, for exactly the same purposes, which if we aren't careful, can easily lead to culture clashes and misunderstanding. You use your arranger in a supportive role for your singing. I happen to agree fully with this. They do an exceptional job of supporting good singers, and are far easier to run onstage and are more flexible than most WS's. Put me down as a fan of the type, as I have been playing live, solo and duo using one since the G800 (and used an RA90 as part of my MIDI rig prior to that!). So that's close to 20 years!

But... they have their strengths, and they have their weaknesses. It doesn't mean I hate them, just because I'm willing to call them out on their weaknesses..! But particularly with jazz, which is, at its best, supposed to be an improvisational, free form, spur of the moment art form, tying your performance to a repetitive, unlistening machine is compromising the music. While YOUR contribution can be as jazzy as you can play, that backing isn't going to vary a hair. There's only so much you can make an arranger do on the spur of the moment.

Should you decide to double time it, or half time it, unless you have styles already set up to do that (and have them placed where it is easy to select them) that arranger is going to plow on unheeding. And that's just ONE of the myriad things you might do improvising jazz...

Carefully tailor what you do to what the machine does, and yes, you can sound really good. But all the adjustment needs to be done in that direction. The arranger is never going to listen to YOU, and spontaneously adjust what it is doing to better suit you. But a live band, a GOOD live band will, every time!

Don't ever put me down as a hater. Just as a realistic user...!
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An arranger is just a tool. What matters is what you build with it..!

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#367735 - 06/17/13 05:55 AM Re: Playing an arranger KB as it was meant to be [Re: Songman55]
travlin'easy Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 12/08/02
Posts: 15556
Loc: Forest Hill, MD USA
What Joe said. smile smile smile
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K+E=W (Knowledge Plus Experience = Wisdom.)

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