# Amateur Musicians and Photographers



## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Which group do you think is more pretentious?


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## aphyrodite (Jan 9, 2012)

Amateur musicians, in my opinion.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Elgar and Schoenberg had very little formal training, by today's or even probably their own day's standards.

So they were obviously two very "pretentious" amateur musicians. 

Herzogenberg was better, he was more highly qualified, which is what matters always, of course.

Sorry being cynical and bitter due to base generalisations...


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Sid James said:


> Elgar and Schoenberg had very little formal training, by today's or even probably their own day's standards.
> 
> So they were obviously two very "pretentious" amateur musicians.
> 
> Herzogenberg was better, he was more highly qualified, which is what matters always, of course.


I'm not talking about people who demonstrate skill and actually make a name for themselves. I'm talking out of frustration about the thousands of photographers who post pseudo-moving pictures on the internet because the point-and-click simplicity of using a camera makes everyone think they're an artist.

"But everyone is an artist, surely!" Yeah, OK.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

I'm an amateur musician and I'm pretentious:devil::tiphat:


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## aphyrodite (Jan 9, 2012)

Polednice said:


> I'm not talking about people who demonstrate skill and actually make a name for themselves. I'm talking out of frustration about the thousands of photographers who post pseudo-moving pictures on the internet because the point-and-click simplicity of using a camera makes everyone think they're an artist.
> 
> "But everyone is an artist, surely!" Yeah, OK.


That's the problem with some photographers. Buying a Nikon DSLR doesn't make you immediately a photographer in a flash, there's lots more learning to do. But somehow I chose amateur musicians since they deal with audiences, while photographers just deal with free art, inspiration and nature in their surroundings. It depends, actually.


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## Meaghan (Jul 31, 2010)

The amateur photographers I know are, on average, more pretentious than the amateur musicians I know. The amateur photographers have no training but have websites and try to sell things. The amateur musicians have anywhere from a little to a lot of training, and many of them, when you ask them what they're going to do with it, shrug their shoulders bashfully and say, "I dunno, I just really love music." 

There are also, of course, the amateur musicians who talk a lot of crap about their fellows, but they are the minority. Even in youth orchestras (mine, at least).


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Meaghan's right, amateur musicians are mostly just people who love music. Some of us though, take liberties with our lack of professional obligation and learn really obscure repertoire. Is that pretentious? Who cares?


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Pretentious? Moi?

Yes, I am an amateur photographer.....


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## Meaghan (Jul 31, 2010)

Art Rock said:


> Pretentious? Moi?
> 
> Yes, I am an amateur photographer.....


I've seen your photographs and think they're quite good. Please pardon my overgeneralizations.  The amateur photographers I know are mostly high school- or college-aged Portlanders.


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## musicphotogAnimal (Jul 24, 2012)

I'm a freelance photographer...and yeah...you could say I'm pretentious. :devil:


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

I'm a professional musician so I guess that makes me a pretentious photographer...you see,...I even took that avatar of me all by myself,...and my Mac, of course.


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## Mesa (Mar 2, 2012)

I a humble musician and a terrible photographer, but an enormously pretentious loafer.


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