What is a "musician"?

[Doreen Peri]

There are a variety of definitions here
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/musician

What's YOUR definition?

Just curious.

[Doreen Peri]

OK. My definition of musician is someone who plays music.



that's it. Pretty simple.

I see that some of the definitions on dictionary.com say that you have to play music professionally to be a musician but I think that's over qualifying the term, myself.

What about all those musicians who play music and don't make any money doing it? "Professional" means you get paid.

But do we eliminate those who play music without making money and say they aren't musicians?

Not me. I respect those people.

[stilltrucking]

any person, whether professional or not, skilled in music.

Musicians:
cant live with them
cant live without them

one edit winkie added

[judih]

a musician is someone who uses music as a form of expression. This requires skill in manipulating musical tones to communicate effectively.

Someone who picks up an instrument and feels nothing cannot be a 'musician'.
But someone can be born with the innate ability to use an instrument to create musical sequences. Someone can have that wonderful innate intelligence to hear a piece and recreate it. Musicians have an ear for tone, pitch and rhythm.

Earning a salary from making music is not always part of the package. i live with a fine musician who can sing any piece in perfect solfedge - who can make music with a blade of grass, a piece of broken pipe or a 2 stringed banjo, as well as his flutes, recorders and saxes, but currently he's not earning a cent with music. He's a musician without a gig. But the man's a musician and in any teaching situation, he'll convey his knowledge of the art to the next generation through word and jam.

What's a musician? A wonderful human entity that can change a mood in a room in an instant - a talented being who thrown on Mars would make friends.

A musician plays a language that is available to all who'll listen.

[stilltrucking]

j wrote

What's a musician? A wonderful human entity that can change a mood in a room in an instant - a talented being who thrown on Mars would make friends.

A musician plays a language that is available to all who'll listen.

I never use enough winkies
The only reason I am standing here today is because of musicians.

Musicians can be physicians

There was a short lived sci fi tv show set in some near future where the the physicians carried tunning forks, they could heal anyone.

[WIREMAN]

could they tuna fish??????? ST.......

[stilltrucking]

they could rock and roll
carried a thing that look like guitar
big tuning fork shaped thing
handier than a elephant's trunk
tune a fish
open a can
and make toast too. shoot sonic laser beams, handy for pretection from alien invaders.

it could
stun the violent
and
sooth their troubled brains
better than serotonin up take inhibitors
kinder than electro convulsive therapy
they could attune vibrations
to one pure note.

kind of what musicians do for me
reviberate me
modulate

[e_dog]

musician, def.

See Jimi Hendrix.

See John Coltrane.

[Lightning Rod]

I don't have a clue what a musician is

I think I met a cricket once who would qualify

and I've long been a member of the mockingbird union

[Doreen Peri]

A cricket? No kidding? I thought your qualifying factors were much more stringent than that. Hmmm.

[hester_prynne]

Who needs a gig when you've always got a song?
Musicians always have a song going.
Always.
Hell, if I had a coinslot I'd be a billionaire!!!!!

H

[stilltrucking]

So now I know where all my money goes

cause

When you sing,
my heart sings too.

thanks for the music
amiga

[Lightning Rod]

if you play music, you are a musician
if you play scrabble, I suppose you are a scrabblician
musician is an active verb
not a passive verb of being
what you do or write or play
makes you a musician
it's a craft and an art, not a condition

my piano scoffs at me
a beast with teeth of black and white
pardon me, I must go slay the dragon

[Doreen Peri]

I play music every day.
Lately I've been playing Scrabble every day, too.

Soon I will be recording again.

When I play Scrabble, I often listen to music. Sometimes it's the music I created and recorded. *shrug*

It's something to do.
("to do" being a verb, an action word )

I've been playing music since I was a kid and now I'm getting old.

My craft gets better the more often I play and I get out of practice the less often I play. Just like with any craft.

I compose music also.

I didn't say any of it was any good. I'll never be Oscar Peterson or Theloneous Monk.

But I'm a musician.

Even if people want to pay me to shuddup, I'm still a musician.