# Who constitutes as a musician?



## musicismight

Is it just anyone who knows how to play an instrument? Do they have to like it?

Can it be someone who can't hardly pick up their instrument but loves it like the world? Can it be someone who's skills rival that of any famous classical composer, but who loathes it more than anything? How do you define a musician?

I've played piano for eight years, though I'm not really up to par with an eight-year player, I don't think; my sight reading skills are somewhat lacking (it takes me a while to read through a piece) and I've yet to memorise the pattern of sharps or flats. Yet I've defined myself as a musician since I started taking piano classes eight years ago. 

How long have you played your instrument, and have you ever met someone who called themselves a musician, but you disagreed?


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## Krummhorn

I think people may have an inkling towards one instrument or another. In my own case, my mom had a piano at home, and I began to play notes from other music that I had heard ... aka, playing by ear ... and began private piano lessons at age 6, which also included theory lessons, too. I was also taught how to sight read, which has turned out to be one of my great attributes now later in life. 

During the six years of taking weekly piano lessons, I took a great interest in wanting to play the pipe organ, so after I had completed 6 years of piano study, I then went on to taking organ lessons for another six years and later own another additional two years while attending college. 

It was during my first year of organ instruction (1961) that I began playing in church, something that I have continued to do every week since then. 2011 will mark my 50th consecutive year as a professional church organist. It remains one of the highlights of my week !

I have a piano at home, and have 24/7 access to the church (where I'm employed) for organ practicing. Some of the pipes of this church organ are in my avatar at left. 

My son (now age 23) began with the clarinet, then on to alto sax, and in high school band picked up and learned, on his own, the trombone, euphonium, tuba, and bassoon. Presently, he mostly plays the radio ...  ... but we continue to play together (sax & piano or sax & organ) from time to time.

Kh


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## pianoman55

A true musician is someone who puts music in front of ego and all the other demons of the performing world.
You can still be a musician even if you aren't a Rubinstein or Van Cliburn at the piano- you just have to believe in the art above all else.


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## Huilunsoittaja

I consider anyone who is passionate about music as a musician. They don't have to play an instrument professionally: they could be teachers, critics, conductors, musicologists, or enthusiasts (dilettantes). However, not just any enthusiast, they would have be aware of things like theory. Personally, I think being able to play some instrument, and even just a little, is a major factor still.


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## mamascarlatti

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Personally, I think being able to play some instrument, and even just a little, is a major factor still.


I agree entirely.

I've always loved music, but it wasn't until I tried to learn piano as an adult that I became aware of the immense skill and hard work required to be a musician, and more importantly, the infinite number of choices and decisions required to turn the notes into music.


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## hemidemisemiquaver

musicismight said:


> Who constitutes as a musician? Is it just anyone who knows how to play an instrument? Do they have to like it?


It's up to them, but I personally like everything that I do in life. If you do stuff you don't like, you quickly become frustrated sorehead, not talking that no one would care about your music. Answering the first question, yesterday I had a discussion with a violinist who has a formal education (which means he definitely knows how to play an instrument) and he said he doesn't consider himself a musician. Well, it was honest at least, even though it was rather off-putting to hear.


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## Polednice

Personally, I wouldn't be too all-encompassing with the word 'musician'. If I were to say that "X is a musician" then I would always mean, no more and no less, that X makes his living, at least in part, from some form of music (performance/teaching whatever).

For example, while music means _everything_ to me, I would only say that I _hope_ to be a musician in the future; not that I am one now.


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## Meaghan

I have played piano for fifteen years (though when I first started studying, I was only "playing" it in the way that your average five- to six-year-old can) and clarinet for nine. I have had some paying chamber music gigs. I do call myself a musician, but I usually preface the word with "amateur" or "student." And I don't want to be stingy with it; I will call anyone a musician who calls him or herself a musician, unless they are being completely ridiculous and neither sing nor play an instrument at all. Calling someone a musician does not imply that they are a good one, so even novices can be musicians. And I don't think one needs to have studied formally or even learned to read music in order to be a musician. There are talented, passionate, and dedicated musicians who are self-taught and don't read music, though they are mostly in non-classical genres.


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## Meaghan

Krummhorn said:


> 2011 will mark my 50th consecutive year as a professional church organist. It remains one of the highlights of my week !


Wow, congrats! Krummhorn is a musician.


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## Stasou

–noun 
1. a person who makes music a profession, especially as a performer of music. 
2. any person, whether professional or not, skilled in music.

— n 
a person who plays or composes music, esp as a profession 

No opinion on these, just hoping they can possibly add to the discussion.


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## kv466

I like that you called yourself a musician even from the very start...some people take longer than others but it's your desire to play that is good here...the longest I've played an instrument is guitar and that's been for twenty three or more years and I felt like the first three or four were useless but as in anything, if you keep at it you're only gonna get better...sure, people play great that perhaps do not even want to and they are definitely musicians but the best sense of the definition is someone who truly loves playing music and etends a bit of their soul to the listener through their instrument and fully gives themself to the performance...ah, this one could go back and forth but if you love what you're doing no matter how slow you feel you may learn, you are a musician.


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