Why wouldnt you want to discuss both?

Changing to a new keyboard has increases my overall knowledge of keyboards --- besides it’s fun. Does this make ME play better? Not necessarily; but it does give me incentive to play more. It also releases some of my boredom. If not careful arranger keyboards can become boring.

The criteria for judging are important. Is it to please an audience? Is it to supply a need that lies in my personality? (I get bored easily) Is it because I am reading with is in our forum daily? The forum does lean towards NEW. The most important feature for ME now is the weight; it’s the first Spec. that I look at.

My opinion: A keyword can affect your playing indirectly. My Korg keyboard offers so many options that I find I am learning and adjusting more than I am playing. People who change keyboards often never get to find the true value of the keyboard. Because I stayed with Technics for many years I performed netter, recorded many more songs – I played/performed with the Kn7000 with very little thought about the keyboard itself; my attention was on my performance. I loved my Kn7000 because it was so friendly that most of my focus was on me.

Soooo, Donny I feel you hit on great subject: Who am in my relationship with keyboards, or my talent, or my ability to please the people and get more jobs? It’s very possible that I am relying less on my talent and more on the keyboard.

One more opinion: I hate midi files they take away from me. Do I used them? Yes, but not because I like them, I use them because they are needed where a keyboard runs short.

John C.

I get a bit of each. People acknowledge my keyboard skills and are equally amazed at the technology. A lot of upscale retirement community folks have inquiring minds and a few come up to learn about the tool that I'm using. They are fast to point out that it takes command to put it all together.

I am proud to be an arranger player. My organ training was the perfect road for this type of playing. I can spend countless hours on one song and it is pure joy.

I admire any competent musician, whatever they play............

Zuki, I can only say nice, very nice --- good thinking.

John C,

That's a nice and convenient analogy for an arranger player. Playing an upper class arranger, you feel like a Jumbo jet pilot who has trained thousands of hours unlike the pilot of a sailplane. I hope you are aware of the limits of your "analogy" (just one example: the Jumbo jet pilot has to know details about how a wing is constructed or the individual components of an engine, whereas the arranger player usually does not have an insight in the inner sound architecture of a voice, as the user interface, display and manual don't even explain this to the user).

Arranger: We "arrange"... We are given a full band. Our part is to "arrange" them as best we could. We do that mostly with buttons, chords etc. If we want to impress others with i.e. our piano playing skills, we should play the piano instead. Same with the guitar and other solo instruments. A guitar, sax, flute, trumpet was not meant in the 1st instance to be played on keys. Nothing wrong with doing so, but to make a fuss about it...

Some add solo parts to their "arrangers", others vocal parts, others both. It really does not matter. I am no more than a conductor & very proud of it. My arranger does almost all the work for me. All I have to do is get the best out of it.

Wonder why Yamaha started to introduce the DJ loops & all associated fancy controls on their latest "arrangers"? So, there must be a need & market for it on an "arranger". Wonder if those using it also have to spend "thousand of hours" to learn how it functions & what it is made up of. Doubt if anything about it is included in GREAT detail in the manual.

Really, I think it's more about personal ego than anything else...

Depends on the users intellect.

Smart people - a couple of hours.

Dumb people - a couple of hundred hours.

Really stupid people - "thousand of hours"

Your (nautical) mileage may vary .

chas

Arrangers are meant to play any music style... So the fact that they did not have the tools to play the latest dance music warrants this change.. Personally i cant wayt till they add this feature to the next generation of Tyros..