[video:youtube]https://vimeo.com/51473409[/video]

Aside from dinner music...Watch the video & where does an arranger KB fit in with todays weddings...especially from 3:38 to end ?

From the very beginngin to the very end, Donny. It's all about the entertainer and what he or she is prepared to do and how well they perform. From watching this from end to end, it has very little to do with whether the person behind that table is a keyboard player or a DJ. And, I suspect with the aid of some foot pedals they could easily handle the light show as well. It would just be a matter of preparation.

Just my .02 cents worth,

Gary

Gary if that was possible I would really like to see somebody with an arranger keyboard handle a crowd like that all night

Ceremony, cocktail hour ( but those could be just done with just piano, no arranger needed ) and possibly during dinner although no one would care it the DJ just did backround music or there was someone actually playing a keyboard.
No matter how much preparation you put into a party like that no one going to accept someone behind a keyboard trying to sing every song. Not gonna happen. Even a good singer with tracks would be good for only certain spots here and there mixed with the DJ stuff. Its what people want and expect these days. Best I saw was a guy and girl who went out into the crowd with wireless mics and did some special "spotlight" songs. 95% of the night was DJ
Our venues as arranger players are very, very limited. I've worked in North Jersey, South Jersey and now South Carolina and I've never seen anyone else with an arranger. A few musicians I've met here don't even know what they are. Two keyboard players I've seen working here do the LH bass thing with drum machines and thats it.

You are right Bill, I'm just about the only one in 150 miles using an arranger on the job. A few years ago there were maybe a dozen, but now, I'm the only one-man arranger act going that I know of. DickieT, who many met at the jams, uses one, but he also has a guitar player and sax player with him. They work a couple times a month.

There are no arranger players in this area. Some horn players and singers using tracks, but that's about it.

I only use arrangers on 25% of my gigs.


Russ

Don
Here in SC thats an idea I'm working on. Two or three pieces with my arranger. Working on some solo venues too. Lots of bar work here with mixed crowds but its the string pickers that dominate like everywhere else. Trying to hook up with an Agency for parties. But as we've talked about int the past the age thing is now a factor whether wi like it or not.

Hey, I'll be the first to admit that arranger players are few and far between in most parts of the US, and that's a good thing. In my part of Maryland, I know of a half-dozen, and every one of them has more work than they can handle. The bands and DJs, well, they work a few jobs a month - THAT'S IT!

When I was doing weddings, most of the locations I worked had their own announcers and light show systems, and most of the light systems could be operated either remotely by an individual at the console, or interfaced with the music output and timed with it. I never had any trouble keeping a dancefloor packed to capacity and keeping the action going nonstop. There are lots of lounge players that I knew said they could never keep up that pace.

As for one person doing ALL the singing - well, if the singer's good, then it has never been a problem. However, if the singer is marginal at best, it's DJ time!

Sure glad I'm semi retired,

Gary

Bill, I often add players. It varies. I have three different horn players, 5 or 6 good guitar players, singers. thing is, when i use an arranger, all the bases are covered. A new player....one I don't have a lot of "woodshed" time with can just look at me and let me know he is not comfortable with playing a solo on the bridge, for instance. Tonight, for example, I have a flugel horn player and a percussionist, plus a singer join me for the last two hours of a corporate Christmas party held at a local country club.

By the end of the month, I'll have worked about 13 jobs on arranger, with other players.


I love to mix things up and add players as the budget allows. This adds variety and keeps your chops together.

I also love to work as a sideman with others, although that's becoming something that is needed less frequently.

Hang in there!


Russ

Gary ... Having been to a number of 'young couples' weddings the past few years, I am hard pressed to believe that arranger players are covering the same types of weddings in Baltimore ... From MY experience, the young people of today are looking for high powered bands or DJs that can sound JUST LIKE THE ORIGINAL RECORDING ... even with professional backing tracks, one person with a KB cannot replicate that ...



I don't know when you were doing weddings last, but again, in the last 20 years or so, I don't think a KB player, playing in a metropolitan area, could keep a dance floor going all night, playing what the 'young people' want to hear ...
And for today's weddings, I don't think one singer - no matter HOW good - can cut it because of the demands for variety - some standards; dance/disco; TOP 40; perhaps some hip-hop; etc., etc.; and of course, the need to MAKE IT SOUND LIKE THE ORIGINAL ...
I have said it before - I, and some others here, had bands during the 'best of times', when you could play the top 40 tunes in YOUR style, and people were happy because they hired you BECAUSE OF your style ...
I know that if I were young enough to have a 'wedding band' it would probably have 8 to 10 pieces: 2 male and 2 female vocalists who doubled on instruments, a couple of horns, and/or keyboards/synths, guitar, bass, and drums, and augmented with backing tracks... expensive?, yes, but in a metro area, when people are paying $200+ for a dinner and dropping $75,000+ on a wedding, the price of the band is just part of the whole package ...

Be happy you are semi-retired, and remember, "We did it during THE BEST OF TIMES' ...

It's not just weddings. I did an upscale house party this week. Guests were mostly 60-70 yrs of age. As guests arrived I played the S970 doing "Cocktail" music, easy for the guests to meet and greet. Thirty minutes in the host told me to "pick it up...this is a party". From that point forward it was all original hits by the original artists...a mix of 60's RnR to present. Steely Dan was about as mild as it got. They responded best to things like the Stones & Stevie Wonder for oldies to Blurred Lines, Uptown Funk, etc for contemporary hits.

This was an ritzy country club audience....no requests for ballroom music. I did sneak in Sway by Michael Bublé and that was about as Big Band as it got. So, there I sat, programming, pushing buttons and analyzing crowd response. No vocals. No playing the arranger. Just using the USB MP3 function. At the end of the night I was asked by several people for business cards. Even the caterer asked for a few cards. The host was happy and put a tip on top of my fee.

These kind of jobs are not the fun that I get from playing and really entertaining a responsive crowd....but its the way things are going, and it pays the bills. Tony said it best: "We did the best of times...."

Eddie

One more thing:
The Assisted Living jobs are altogether different. They want LIVE entertainment. I can't imagine DJing these folks.
Eddie

Don
I agree these days it's a large "show band" with DJ or a DJ with lights, video screens and "party motivators " working the crowd all night. I and friends of mine lived thru the changes and saw the demand for our small groups disappear. The midrange catering halls died too. It's either full blown extravagance $$$ or a small inexpensive thing at the local VFW or Elks hall. As you said we were lucky to have had our time.
Ed
I was in that position many times and wondered why I bothered to bring the keyboard at all. I'd start the night with some live stuff and maybe sprinkle in a few live ballads or whatever later on. My little DJ system got more use than my keyboard. Some of my most fun gigs were cocktail hours on piano. Really got to play! And people loved it.

Tony, I haven't done a wedding in more than 20 years, at least a young person's wedding. And, I would rather not do them at all. All of the keyboard players around here are working private parties, VFWs, American Legions, upscale Restaruants, animal clubs, and the senior circuit. A few do weddings, mostly for older folks, and at very high end halls. These players are much younger than we are, play the current top 40 and they keep the young people on the dance floor. They play music that I would never consider playing. But they ARE YOUNG! If someone were to ask they for Moonlight Seranade they would have to pull out their I-phone. As for having a single singer, most of the bands here only have a single singer - it's just the way things are.

Now, for the past two decades or more, DJs have garnered the wedding industry, and that's fine with me, and most of the other musicians in my area. IMO, wedding jobs tend to be a PITA. They're demanding at best, and I'm being complementary.

Yes, we played during the best of times,

Gary