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Are you a musician?


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I am a Dancer no doubt about that and I am now working on Step Dancing if my back will allow it.

Dirge "Your a Musician" !!

I have never thought of myself as a musician as I know very little about theory, chord progressions, chord construction etc. I do it all by ear ,if it sounds right then it is OK. I am also never happy with the way I play and I am always trying to improve it, so therefore never assume I have mastered the art and would never make the claim of being a musician, only an advanced student , still learning the art of musicianship.

I admire you Chris for almost getting there. A close relative and friends that have had a stroke , have made initial progress and for some reason, I have never worked out, lapse back to how they were after the stroke and then sadly give up altogether.

You have stuck with it Chris, fought it and overcome your difficulties. Congratulations and well done.A Musician with distinction.

Al

 

No shortage of posh people out there who reckon they're 'Musicians' ! I'm merely 'Musical' and that's good enough for me.

On military service I was labelled a 'Bandsman', but then I had no choice in the matter. Not a lot of scope for Dancers Al, nor Concertina players as I remember it, but one of our star turns was a Scottish Piano-Accordian wizard who had the enviable advantage of being allowed to avoid all that military ceremonial nonsense !

I once had an appointment to see the chief of staff at the Chelsea Barracks. I was early and decided to have a concertina practice in the car park near the Military Band practice area. After a couple of tunes, the Bandmaster leant out of the window and shouted " Get yer air cut and I could have a job for yer " . If I thought he was serious I would have taken him up on it, I just laughed.

Al

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I may meet some of the previously mentioned qualifications for being a 'musician'::

 

- a degree in Music,

- derive enjoyment from playing in the right public venue

- can generally figure out how to get noise out of many instruments

- have been referred to as a 'musician' by those who consider it a ne're-do-well's profession

 

It's probably best to say that I appreicate the fact that I enjoy making music, the study of it satisfys my curiosity and the, sometimes, difficult challenges do not make its pursuit any less enjyable.

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laugh.gif according to someone at a Folk Club several years back I'm definitely not a musician ........ I played in the club's 'House Band' at the time and one evening we were introduced with '' We couldn't get any musicians for the dance tonight so 'The Band' are going to play'' biggrin.gifbiggrin.gif
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I agree with the poster who feels the question is not a good one because the definition is so nebulous.

I think you must be referring to my post, though I didn't use the word "nebulous". (You're the first.)

 

While "nebulous" may reasonably characterize some concepts of the word "musician", what I meant was that the word has a number of explicitly quite different meanings, some of them even mutually contradictory.

 

I think the various posts in which different individuals explain why they think the term either does or doesn't apply to themselves nicely demonstrate my point.

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Jim, you have a point. I should have said the MEANING is nebulous. Given that change I'll stand by my previous comment. Seems to me that nebulous and mutually contradictory pretty much end up in the same place...YMMV.

Oooh. Can we have different meanings of "nebulous", too? :D

 

To me, "nebulous" means cloudy or uncertain. That's quite different from (I think Brits would say "different to") two or more precise but conflicting "certainties". E.g., "somewhere in the New York City area" would be nebulous. But "on top of the Pan Am Building" vs. "in the basement of the Chrysler Building" is (in most contexts) a contradiction.

 

Thinking about it, though, I think it's probably quite common for conflicts and contradictions to arise when persons with nebulous concepts feel constrained to describe them explicitly. In trying to turn the same nebulous concept into descriptions or definitions, two individuals might each focus on a different, more restricted portion of the nebulosity, thus generating a conflict where previously there was none.

 

All of which is probably irrelevant in this discussion, since nobody seems to be arguing over the definition of "musician". We have each just said whether we feel that our own personal concept applies to ourself (and in a few cases, all complimentary, to others). We've come a long way since the heated debates over the "definitions" of "concertina" and "tradition". :)

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But "on top of the Pan Am Building" vs. "in the basement of the Chrysler Building" is (in most contexts) a contradiction.

Jim, you've been away from New York City too long...

 

post-65-094838300 1284299417_thumb.jpg

 

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MetLife_Building:

On Thursday September 3, 1992, MetLife announced that it would remove Pan Am signage from the building. Robert G. Schwartz, the chairman, chief executive, and president of MetLife, said that the company decided to remove the Pan Am sign since Pan Am ceased operations.
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But "on top of the Pan Am Building" vs. "in the basement of the Chrysler Building" is (in most contexts) a contradiction.

Jim, you've been away from New York City too long...

 

post-65-094838300 1284299417_thumb.jpg

 

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MetLife_Building:

On Thursday September 3, 1992, MetLife announced that it would remove Pan Am signage from the building. Robert G. Schwartz, the chairman, chief executive, and president of MetLife, said that the company decided to remove the Pan Am sign since Pan Am ceased operations.

I
said
it was a
contradiction
.
;)

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Surely, the term musician is a broad term that refers to anyone who not only makes music but also writes, arranges and performs it. That definition, includes people who play instruments, sing, compose, write songs, arrange music and conduct it. People can be classified according to their roles in creating music; thus people who play a musical instrument, could call themselves instrumentalists, and singers, vocalists. People who lead musical ensembles are called conductors and may also be an instrumentalist in that ensemble, as well. Then you have the people who create musical compositions and songs; composers, songwriters and arrangers. They are all musicians, too. As a concertina player and occcasional composer of tunes, I would call myself a musician, particularly as, although I would consider myself to be an amateur, my music making occupies a large part of my life. I recently came across a lovely quote, though I can't remember the author of it.

 

All music should be made with passion, with love, with all your heart. :)

 

Chris

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That's quite different from (I think Brits would say "different to")

 

The Collins Cobuild Bank of English shows choice of preposition after "different" to be distributed as follows:

 

"from"

 

U.K. writing 87.6

U.K. speech 68.8

U.S. writing 92.7

U.S. speech 69.3

 

"to"

 

U.K. writing 10.8

U.K. speech 27.3

U.S. writing 0.3

U.S. speech 0.6

 

"than"

 

U.K. writing 1.5

U.K. speech 3.9

U.S. writing 7.0

U.S. speech 30.1

 

I looked this up because I rarely hear "different to" in the UK and never "different than".

 

(What a gloriously pedantic nit-pick, eh?)

 

Chris

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I think that you will find "different than" in the UK to be a phrase used in East Lancashire and perhaps West Yorkshire. I was quite startled to hear my wife, Anne, use it as I thought that it was a US invention, but several of the older members of her family use it as well. Did you consult with your other half before posting? :)

 

As for the definition of a musician, I think that those who use dots and have degrees are just a subset of the species.

 

 

Robin

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My 2 cents:

 

I've been hired for to play, - and paid for it!! -, got drunk for free, got stoned, played for fun ´til the cows went home, scored several times with beatiful - and not so beatiful - girls just because I was playing on a stage, busked, and learned tunes at flight past during a session & forgot them at the next morning.

 

I supose I'm a musician. Good or bad, is to the listeners to say.

 

Cheers,

 

Fer

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I play concertina since 2007; I play "Gaita y tamboril" (pipe and tabor) since 1996; I play "dulzaina", tin whistle, "Pandero cuadrado" (square drum),... I think that I am a musician, but I think I am a begginer because I can learn a new tune, a new song, a new thing everyday.

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My 2 cents:

 

I've been hired for to play, - and paid for it!! -, got drunk for free, got stoned, played for fun ´til the cows went home, scored several times with beatiful - and not so beatiful - girls just because I was playing on a stage, busked, and learned tunes at flight past during a session & forgot them at the next morning.

 

I supose I'm a musician. Good or bad, is to the listeners to say.

 

Cheers,

 

Fer

With that sort of response , being a musician is not a question you even need to contemplate.

Al B)

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