I'm sure Bill doesn't mind if I re-post this one that he did around 2014. To me, he has his finger right on the pulse! Comments?

"Interesting how the US works, over in the UK & Europe they don’t hire arranger players they just hire musicians to entertain, however if a keyboard player started using full styles they would be unlikely to get another gig, as the owners would just turn round and say what’s the point as I can just stick a tape on and get the same at a much lower price.

Another thing with the UK & Europe is that they are heavily into medleys so playing on the fly is a must, (Songbooks and full styles just get in the way) with most medleys needing to be created to what the crowd wants at the time. (They also like to see the player doing something not just pressing buttons unless he is been hired as a DJ).

If the musician wants to get something as original then they record either a Midi or Audio backing for the parts they cannot play live. (For this to work the Midi or Audio has to be played and recorded by the player, as if the backing is commercial it is easily picked up by the punters, and doesn’t go down well with them)

Finally home arranger players that use styles to sound good at home don’t what to hear pro players using full styles but prefer to hear what the musician can do with the board. (They will usually walk out or ignore the player if he uses the stuff they can play themselves at home by pressing a button)

Music also seems to be more focussed on certain styles in the US, whereas in the UK & Europe you will find both young and old enjoying styles from Big Band to Lady Ga Ga (In the same nights entertainment) as all they are interested in is being entertained by a musician who can actually play."

"Interesting how the US works, over in the UK & Europe they don’t hire arranger players they just hire musicians to entertain, however if a keyboard player started using full styles they would be unlikely to get another gig, as the owners would just turn round and say what’s the point as I can just stick a tape on and get the same at a much lower price. "

That's exactly how it is in the US. Arranger keyboards are not perceived as legit/serious instruments. Even most musicians wouldn't know what an arranger keyboard is. I'm a full time musician and 99.9% of my friends have something to do with music and yet, I'm probably the only one who actually owns an arranger keyboard.

None of the professional Pro Audio stores carry arranger keyboards. You almost NEVER see an arranger related pro audio event whereas there are tons of synth/workstation stores/events/groups and so on.

I'd say this is a good thing actually.

Here in Leicester UK we have a large club circuit,in fact it`s where Englebert Humperdink started singing.In those days each club had it`s resident organist and drummer.The singer would have to use the club`s own pa system and would have 15 minutes to go through his sheet music with the organist to explain how he wanted it played.This meant there was a huge variation in songs from different singers (male and female).That was then,what do we have now,singers with their own pa,original backing tracks for their songs, ALL of them doing the same songs more or less and it`s utterly boring.