Hello From Washington DC Area

[Stingfan73]

I'm a musician most of my life, and in the last couple of years have added gigging keyboardist to the multi-instrumental pool. I've had a Korg N264 since they came out, and I also use Korg Module. That's my Korg gear.

I play keys sometimes in a Modern Country/Variety Band, and I've subbed-in here and there with a few bands as keyboardist or keyboard/guitarist/vocalist. I say "keys sometimes" because I'm the bassist in the band, who is the one person in the band who has the ability to play keys, so... I play electric bass on many songs, and I play keyboard bass with keys on other songs. My signal chain is... interesting.

It's a challenge. When there's keys, and if I play them, there's always more keyboard parts I can play when I also have to hold down the low end on keyboard bass. I have to be reductive and pick which parts I can play and which sound best for the band's arrangement, and occasionally I switch sounds mid-song.

I'd love for someone else to play bass so I can focus more on keys, but others have unanimously determined that's not going to happen, and we really can't add another person in either position on an already crowded stage, so this imperfect equilibrium remains. In the meantime, I do the best I can, and my skills have improved in playing bass parts on keyboard as a bass player would play, and adding at least some basic important piano, organ, Rhodes, strings and other sounds that open up a world of song selections that have critical and essential keyboard stuff which other bands can't as authentically perform with "only" guitars that don't have MIDI pickups and huge pedalboards.

That's a start, I guess.