Are you a musician?

[bellowbelle]

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.

 

That a great way to look at it!

[Peter Brook]

After a couple of years away it's nice to be back and I see concertina.net is still as enlightening and philosophical as ever.

 

I love being called a musician by others so I suppose it does fit easily with me. In one way or another I have been playing music since 1975. I was wondering the other day why and how it keeps me fascinated after all these years. I can't really explain it eloquently, but there is just so much innate joy in being able to produce a melody (and harmony with concertinas ;-)) and it is so different to the complexities and stresses of other bits of my life.

 

keep squeezing and carry on,

 

Peter

[Robert Booth]

If you have instruments and noisemakers in every room of the house so that you don't have to leave the room to play, you might be a musician.

 

If you drive down the road listening to a top 40's station whilst running the score to another tune in your head, you might be a musician.

 

If you daydream about alternate fingerings for a given tune while you are supposed to be working, you might be a musician.

 

If you lie awake at night tapping your foot to a sprightly tune, you might be a musician.

 

If you indulge in singing, whistling, or even grunting rythmically just walking down the hall, you might be a musician.

 

If you wake in the morning with the mental sountrack already running in your head, you might be a musician.

 

If you feel the need to elicit a rythmic, melodic sound out of just about any object you have in your hand, you might be a musician.

 

 

 

Or, you just might have ADHD.

 

DON'T TAKE THE MEDICINE!

 

cheers,

RB

[NoNaYet]

Played for the first time at a pub. The owners stood me a Bass Ale, and then one of the patrons got me a refill. I guess by the standards of this string I finally qualified as a musician. It was a lot of fun, but this wasn't a real hard core Irish music crowd despite the Irish Pub name, and I am not sure they really connected to my playing. Now if I could do the Beatles on concertina.....

[michael sam wild]

That's how so many great traditional players started on the road to ruin!

 

 

It ended up too early for Michael Coleman , Padraig O'Keefe etc.

 

 

Nice to be appreciated though but it will 'Sing the Wild Rover ' next cos he who pays the piper calls the tune. A Faustian bargainB)

[Ptarmigan]

Started getting Piano lessons 50 years ago & after a few weeks I also found myself composing a new little tune each week, but gave that up after a year .... so I could play more football!

 

However, I bought my first musical instrument about 40 years ago & now our house is just littered with the darn things. For the past 15 years I've been earning my living from music, teaching in local Primary Schools by day, + getting paid to play sessions & gigs, at this stage of my life, I'm probably fit for nothing else except playing music & certainly wouldn't be fit to be paid to do anything else other than play music, so yes, I would call myself a musician.

 

One online definition describes a Musician as:

"One who composes, conducts, or performs music, especially instrumental music."

The operative word there surely being 'OR'!

 

So, as far as I'm concerned, .... you play, therefore you are!

 

As far as being able to read & write music, I really don't see why you would have to be able to perform those tricks to qualify.

After all, think of Ireland's Blind Harpers, Carolan & his ilk, were they not musicians too?

 

Cheers

Dick

[Chris Drinkwater]

 

After all, think of Ireland's Blind Harpers, Carolan & his ilk, were they not musicians too?

 

Cheers

Dick

 

Ah, but then you would have the blind leading the blind .

 

Chris

[Ptarmigan]

Hey Chris, with the talent those Blind Harpers had, I for one would be quite happy to be led by them.

 

I think this musician title is a bit like that of Gardener.

Sure you have those gardening pros who are full time, write books, present TV shows, exhibit etc etc, but there are also hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions, of very keen amateur gardeners up & down the country, who spend every waking moment, when they're not working, mowing their perfect lawns, looking after hedges, shrubs, herbaceous borders, growing fruit & veg, and so on. Surely they can all be classed as Gardeners too, just in the same way as non-professional musicians are still musicians, too.

 

I really don't think we should get too hung up on the notion that the word musician is some kind of very grandiose title. In every walk of life you get folks who adopt airs & graces & think they are something special, when really we're a' Jock Tamson's Bairns!

The scary fact is, if you stand us all naked in a line, you can't actually tell the well educated from the poorly educated, nor the murderer from the priest or the pedophile from the charity worker.

 

First you are born & then you die, in between times, sure we just amuse ourselves the best way we can!

 

Cheers

Dick

Edited October 12, 2010 by Ptarmigan