I am an Auditory Response Initiator and also a Musical Spectrum Explorist.
I don't think the word "musician" is politically correct anymore.
I don't think the word "musician" is politically correct anymore.
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Musician or Bass Player?
- Thread starter Pumpkin
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- bass player musician player
... an entertainer
If I am not playing music, its stage productions, improv or something else to entertain an audience ...
If I am not playing music, its stage productions, improv or something else to entertain an audience ...
two bands:
1 = i'm the bass player who also happens to write and arrange.
2 = i'm the musician who happens to play bass.
i should have voted both: but i said "musician" i think, in part, because i'm on the piano (write/arrange) about as much as bass. but at the gig = i'm the bass guy!
Well, that's debatable.
- Sep 9, 2007
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I'm a musician that plays bass, not a bassist that plays music.
okcrum
in your chest
@Pumpkin's case is handled by a saying one of my bass teachers told me: Not all musicians are professionals, and not all professionals are musicians.
I'm pretty sure he said that 'cause I was bitching about one of my gigs (probably the drummer) after a lesson. The best part was that he'd done that gig too.
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For me, a bassist (guitarist, pianist, etc) is someone who plays in a limited variety of western music.
A musician is an instrumentalist who can play any style, and play it with conviction and accurately, whether it's classical, jazz, blues, rock, Cuban, country, bluegrass, etc.
He needs to be able to read charts, and notation, as well as you are reading this text. In order to do all that, the player needs an extremely high level of theoretical knowledge.
It's an EXTREMELY high bar to cross. Most of the players we admire can't cross it.
Of all the instrumentalists I know, there's only one musician.
I'm a bassist. I can play a handful of styles properly, I can read charts. I can read notation, but if the tempo is too fast, I'll screw it up.
I view being a musician the same as being a Doctor. At my level, I'm very well trained in First-Aid. I might even be a paramedic.
But, I'm not a Doctor.
BTW, the average drummer is trying to figure out how to get the batteries in an Operation board game...
A musician is an instrumentalist who can play any style, and play it with conviction and accurately, whether it's classical, jazz, blues, rock, Cuban, country, bluegrass, etc.
He needs to be able to read charts, and notation, as well as you are reading this text. In order to do all that, the player needs an extremely high level of theoretical knowledge.
It's an EXTREMELY high bar to cross. Most of the players we admire can't cross it.
Of all the instrumentalists I know, there's only one musician.
I'm a bassist. I can play a handful of styles properly, I can read charts. I can read notation, but if the tempo is too fast, I'll screw it up.
I view being a musician the same as being a Doctor. At my level, I'm very well trained in First-Aid. I might even be a paramedic.
But, I'm not a Doctor.
BTW, the average drummer is trying to figure out how to get the batteries in an Operation board game...
That's not been my experience. Just sayin' ...
Musician. I get paid to read written parts and play lots of styles convincingly, in time and in tune. Most bass players can't do that stuff.
Yeah, but it's the same semantic play as earlier. Knowing first aid vs being a doctor isn't really an analogy, though, because the word "doctor" DOES have a concrete, objective meaning - it means the person has been awarded a doctoral degree by an accredited institution.
A more precise analogy would be if you used the word "healer" instead of "doctor." Is a person who has good first aid training a "healer?" One person may say that such training doesn't put you on the same level as a brain surgeon, and they'd have a point. But if you staunched the bleeding on someone with an injury and bound it up well, they may well say you healed them, so you are... from that perspective.
I look at it as a matter of orientation/focus. Yngwie Malmsteen is a guitarist. Sure, he's a musician too (though some people might disagree with that), but it seems clear to me that his focus, goals, and approach to music are completely focused on the guitar as an instrument.
If I'm reading this right, this
If I'm reading this right, this
is a pithy way of making this disctinction.
I don't participate in identity politics. And I don't need a title. 
I'm pretty sure most people consider Roger Waters a musician and he fits that description.
(Beethoven was pretty musical also)
I understand what you are saying, but in order to acquire the level of knowledge that a person requires to cross my bar, formal education is probably required. The friend of mine that I mentioned has a Masters degree from North Texas University. As a result of that training, you could throw him into any situation that requires him to play guitar, and he will come out the other side unscathed.
Successfully completing first-aid training gets you a certificate. Depending on your jurisdiction, paramedic training gets you a diploma or degree. Becoming a Doctor gets you a PhD. All different levels of training and knowledge.
A person who is extremely self-motivated could acquire the knowledge that is the equivalent or a PhD, and there are probably people out there like that. You can be self-taught in nearly anything.
I'd say I'm both, music is my canvas and bass guitar is my favorite brush, I have several brushes to choose from (guitar, banjo, mandolin, piano, uke)
You dont choose the instrument, the instrument chooses you = musician
If music pours out of you = musician
If you lay in bed awake at night and figure out how to play songs or write a melody in your head = musician
If you can feel it, and not only hear it = musician
If music pours out of you = musician
If you lay in bed awake at night and figure out how to play songs or write a melody in your head = musician
If you can feel it, and not only hear it = musician
When I was a CNC machinist, I was self taught compared to a lot of guys who went to school and had a piece of paper. My different workplace experiences allowed me to pick up different tips and tricks that were not taught in school.
There were two types of people that I worked with: those who said what I was doing wasn't possible and those who laughed when I said I didn't know what I was doing right before making some off the wall programming change and made the tooling rapid feed up until .100 before the raw material instead of the 3 inches that the paper holder always did.
Up until the last few months of my career, I never felt like a CNC machinist because I was always learning something new everyday.
Agree with every single word you typed. There's lots of ways to gain knowledge, and experience is one of the best.
I don't believe a degree of any kind is the only way to prove that you know what you're doing. But that piece of paper has a tendency to open doors that are otherwise locked, no matter what your field of endeavour.
I've also noticed that the closer a person is to being a musician, the humbler he becomes. You realize how much you don't know, and that becomes your driving force.
