Sticking to my guns.

Someone who does not play a musical instrument that is capable of playing any piece of written music is not a musician.

That doesn't mean a guitarist that cannot read music is not a musician. He is still playing an instrument that is capable of playing any piece of music in the hands of another musician.

If I write a new melody, any player of guitar, saxophone, piano, violin, accordion etc. who can read music can play it. No DJ in the world can because it hasn't been recorded yet.

That's a major difference to me.

DJs are entertainers, some are extremely skilled, but not musicians.

We have differences in nouns to identify things. When we start calling things by other names to include them into some group, we corrode the language and impair communication.

If we start calling DJs musicians, do we then have to call musicians DJs as well? After all, you are implying the two are interchangeable.

Do you get the right picture in your head when in conversation someone says, "My brother is a musician" when he spins records and plays samples?

And if you ask, "Oh, what instrument does he play?" will a turntable and Ableton "live" button array come into your mind before the answer comes back to you?

There is a difference in terminology because we want to be clear in communication.

I don't say this for some 'superiority' issue (you know they aren't real musicians or anything like that), it's just to define what they are by what they are doing.

Call him a DJ and I see him up there with the tools of his trade in his hands. Call him a musician and I see him with the tools of our trade in his hands. It's about communication to me.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

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